3D Printing 2026: Lore Revision (Part Two)

 

This is the part two of our revision posts about the concepts the idea was to have 'discussion points' or thinking points about what is potential with 3D Printing and design tech - it was originally conceived as a couple of potential challenges as sometimes there are barriers either real or imagined that form the basis of 3D Printing.  These are only ideas or observations rather than hard opinions!

#5 The Teacher is aware of 3D Printing, but doesn't need to be an expert. (originally published in January).  This idea was based around the concept of the students being the best individuals to design and push the technology.   Evaluation: Successful - to date and its only been over ten years but there has yet to be a post from this teacher on this site.

#6 You don't need every PLA to complete your designs.   (originally published in February 2026).   This idea was based around the concept of keeping things simple with the printing and then doing things like spray painting or adding additional aspects to your print (like combing printing with laser cutting or adding LED).  It again revisits the idea or concept of potentially not using a 3D Printer as the end point for a project and instead considering adding additional aspects or details from a variety of technology.   Evaluation: Successful.

#7 Engage as much as possible with your local community - we try as much as possible to push examples out into the community either with other schools or other businesses and want to try and get as many people as possible aware of and using our technology.    There are examples of this all over our blog based around other schools we have produced work and projects for the community or other schools.

Evaluation: Successful.

#8 You don't need to be an engineer to 3D Print.    This was based on the technology that exists and not having to constantly repair the 3D Printers.    As a note its not something that has been achieved.  We run our three printers on a nearly daily basis, and why they are much more reliable than the past (its been over ten years, in the "old days" some of the printers needed to be rebuilt!) there are still issues from time to time.  We are very lucky to have a staff member who has an engineering background who loves to repair machines (which is not me) and I am aware of various schools having parents who undertake this role, if this wasn't the case it would be a potential issue as if a machine needed repair then that could be a barrier.  Our Bambu machines have require two part replacements in the last year.   Both of these were able to be completed on site by staff.    Evaluation: Not successful and something to be careful of.