Physical Trophy Repair: Junior 3D Print

 

Challenge: To repair a thirty year old school trophy. 

Background: This print project was detailed on this blog last week - you can click on the link to the post about the planning and the virtual creation of variations here.  

As we stated we were making it possible for all of the students to have input into the design but the printing of physical trophy tops was going to be limited to prints that would be extremely close as we needed essentially just one.

The first print to meet this criteria is detailed in this post here.  The student used the Netball that they were able to find online as a key element as well a generic star and hoop.   The final part was the 'Netball' heading although this is going to be refined.

Resources used to complete this print: The student used their iPad, the Tinkercad App, the Bambu H2D and regular Blue PLA.

Level of Difficulty: Medium - this in some ways is one of those simple projects that needs to be done really, really well which increases its difficulty.  Its about a thirty year old trophy and it needs to be fitting with the style, purpose and quality of the original.   No easy feat.

Size: This print is currently coming in with dimensions of  60mm across the font a width of 60mm and a height of 80mm.  This will need adjustment for the final print (see the photograph below) the mounting is currently two big for the base that it needs to be mounted on.

Cost/Price: The print at the moment has a usage of 28g of PLA and this has a price point of $0.57c.   This print is being reimagined (see below) so this is going to be adjusted.

Timeframe: The print as it stands took one hour and thirty five minutes to complete.  (see below).

What we would do differently/Next steps for the students: When the 3D Print is applied to the existing trophy it is clear that adjustments need to be made.   The base of the print needs to be adjusted so that it meets the contours of the existing trophy (instead of overlapping).   

The print itself is currently using a default infill (of twenty percent) for the final version of the print this is going to be increased to give the print more weight but also crucially make it more robust.   

The inscription at the moment is currently too generic.  It needs to be specific for the trophy.

The colour of the print needs to be located as a spray paint.   The pieces that are broken despite the appearance is plastic.

Finally the entire process needs to be checked and approved by the senior management of the school as this is something that we are intending to last for as long as possible.