3D Print School

 

Challenge: For a nine year old student to develop and create an original festive themed Christmas Tree.

Background: We created festive tree that were originally virtual digital creations and following this we selected several trees that we thought had potential to move from the virtual format into a physical print.

This tree shown left was one of the first trees in the sequence that we made the decision to print.   The student had designed it to be placed on a mantlepiece.

Size: The tree measures 90mm across at the front and is 60mm wide.   The tree measured 120mm from the base of the trunk to the top of the star.  There was a degree of imbalance with the design with the size of the star in particular looks a bit lop sided compared to the rest of the design.

Cost/Price:   To print this design the print uses 71g of PLA.   This gave the project a price point of $1.43c.   

Timeframe: To print this design the printer was running for two hours and forty five minutes.   The print had a degree of rafting/support plastic under the base of the tree and around the trunk of the tree.

What we would do differently/next steps for the students:

The design itself is quite basic the baubles that the students has used to create the vast majority of the decorations needs refinement so there is variation and creativity.   The star as noted is currently very oversized.   The tree is a basic triangle shape.

The student was going to be further adapted and then consider the idea of decoration or spray painting.