3D Printed Christmas Tree - Phase Two

 

Challenge: For a student to design, create and then print their own original festive tree.

Background: We've detailed this process and a number of these prints and explained how our students have designed and shared their ideas.  We are not intending to print and showcase every print in this series as each student is producing a tree there are twenty five that need to be printed prior to the end of the school year.

Each of the design is based upon some of the basic generic shapes that are from the main design page.  The individualised presents that are at the base of the tree have been personalised for the members of the students family who designed it.   Each of these elements have been selected from the search bar from the Tinkercad main design page.

This print was completed independently by a nine year old student who is using Tinkercad and the Tinkercad App for the first time this calendar year.

Resources used to complete this print: iPad, Tinkercad App, Bambu P1S Printer, Bambu Cotton Candy PLA, Tinkercad design page.

Size:  The base of the design is 60mm wide and 70mm long.   The print has a height of 90mm high.   The start at the top of the tree is 50mm long and 10mm wide.   As a decoration that is designed to sit flush on a base or a table.

Cost/Price: The print uses 51g of PLA to complete the print.   On this basis the print has a price point of $1.01.  This was based on the infill percentage of the print being the default 15%.   We are also using a standard large 20mm nozzle on the printer instead of a finer 4mm nozzle.

Timeframe: To complete this print the printer was running for two hours and seventeen minutes.   There is some adaptions to this print to be made, as noted below.

What we would do differently/Next Steps for the students:  Each of the ledges created by the shape of the trees has support/rafting underneath.   The Bambu rafting being in the shape of trees when removed with this PLA left some residue on the edge of the print which can be seen in the photograph.

The angle of the tree can be seen here on the left, which is slightly off but this makes the tree look more realistic.   The baubles that are on the tree look a little oversized and could be refined - there is a balance between putting too much detail on a print like this and making the design too busy.

The unique aspect of this tree and one that we wanted to highlight was this students ideas to create the personalised nature of the presents at the base.  The star that tops the tree is somewhat oversized and could be further adjusted - although having 'Merry Christmas' on the top would be a challenge if it was reduced in size any smaller, although it has been suggested that the lettering is changed to include the calendar year or that the names of the family members be included in the base of the tree.

There is scope here for further detail and also of note features such as the keys on the piano on the base of the tree.

As a reminder for further ideas that are related to this topic you can use the search box in the top right hand corner of the blog.   Everything that is Christmas related has been tagged, there are pages and pages of example which date back a number of years.