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.

3D Printer - Expanding thinking about Student Projects

 

3D Printing Lore #7 - Don't Underestimate the Technology Involved in 3D Printing

Since last year we've made a series of posts about talking or discussion points for 3D Printing, under the heading #3DPrinting Lore - talking points for educators or in some cases challenges based around the work that we are doing here on this site and out our school.

In the previous series of posts about this topic - all of which are posted on this blog, which you can click on the links below here to access:

#1 You don't need more than a single printer to print in the school environment.   As explained in this post in December of last year we are intending to print the entire volume of our school projects and class projects off one single machine this year and will be notifying when not possible.  As we speak, in May, we have managed to achieve this so far.

#2 You don't need to print all of your 3D Printing Projects.   We've been increasing using the AR/VR Function of the Tinkercad App to project images in a variety of sizes and locations.

#3 Consider using glow-in-the-dark and other speciality filament which typically are an eye catching alternative which can be printed just like regular PLA.

#4 Juniors can print, design and create just as effectively as our senior students - a post from January 2025 highlighting some of our amazing junior school student designs.

#5 Teachers can be aware but don't need to be an expert.   We detail about how resourcing is available to help teachers tip their toes including tutorials and information.

#6 Don't Underestimate the Students - another year another classroom of students and another range of brilliant designs coming from the cohort one group of students who have only to this point being using Tinkercad to design for a few months.

The prints that are shown in this post represent a series of print completed on a single print run.   Over the many years that we have been impressed with how the technology has improved in both the reliability and quality (details of the printing).

In this example the five pieces of work printed were completed in a single print run.   There was absolutely minimal print rafting - the prints varied in size however the larger ones measured 180mm long.  

The printer ran non-stop for fourteen and a half hours - and used 730g of filament (as the PLA is typically purchased in 1kg lots).   This was approximately $22.00 worth of filament. 

This is something that we would have shied away from in the past - the printers are producing much more quality work (and for example our Bambu H2D is working at twice the speed of previous prints).

The project is of course part of the amazing work from our very own Mr Bloor and his DPE technology group.   You can see the project details here by clicking on this link.

Lore #8 - You don't need to be an engineer to 3D Print

There's a new poster coming to create a series of 'talking points' based around 3D Printing in the Classroom and while its from the perspective of our small rural school in South Taranaki New Zealand - we've already posted a series of talking points about this - which you can click on the link below about each topic for further information or details about how it applies to us.

#1 You don't need more than one printer at your school to print your student projects.

#2 All of your 3D Printing projects don't need to be 3D Printed - there are other options!

#3 There's a range of non-standard filaments that are available to enhance your prints

#4 Juniors can create, design and develop a range of 3D Projects 

#5 The teacher doesn't need to be an expert in 3D Printing

#6 You have options to enhance your printing projects with options

#7 Engage with the wider community with your projects and resources

#8 - You don't need to be an engineer to troubleshoot 3D Printing projects.

We've been tracking our 3D Printing over a number of years with the first printer at our school operating in 2014.   The early machines that we had were complex and 'relatively' reliable.   When we had problems with the printing with the machines (when they would print incorrectly) it could at times require significant teacher input to correct the machines.

Following our early machines we went to a series of other branded machines that were significantly more reliable Ultimakers (2015-2022) in various version and updates.  We went to Snapmakers in 2022 and then last year 2025 we switched to (primarily) Bambu.

It has never been our intention to endorse any particular products or processes via this site - however we would like to point out that everything here is created by students and staff (where noted) and the intention is simply to share what we do so that other people can get inspired and have a think about how that might apply to themselves or their school.

With that in mind the Bambu H2D that we are using has taken things to another level.   Since August last year essentially everything on this blog has been printed off the one machine.   The machine itself has had to be greased (the axel) however this was relatively simple.   The inbuilt protection against a miss print has stopped it a handful of times.   The changing of the filament etc is extremely simple.  We have yet after seven months to have any significant issues with the use of the machine with prints ranging from 30 minutes to forty hours.

The print shown with this post took forty minutes but crucially the print itself is how it came off the machine - the sunk in lettering that is visible was completed without any support or material needed to be removed.  If you note the smallest name, Penelope, this has been completed and is currently 3mm in height.   This is something that we have seen with this machine.   It is also noticeable that the amount of rafting or support plastic with this machine for general prints (such as the cow) this has been greatly reduced.

As the technology has evolved with the 3D Printing the scope, accuracy, reliability and potential has continued to improve the outcome for students using the tools available.

Lore #7 - Engage with Your Printing with the Community

This is another in the series of 'challenges' or 'ideas to consider' related to 3D Printing.   They are just opinions and suggestions and would be quite happy to be proven wrong about some of them.  In the previous posts about this topic on this blog we have said:

#1 You don't have to have more than one printer at your school to successfully print

#2 You don't need to ultimately print all of your 3D Printing projects

#3 Printing using non-standard filaments, like glow-in-the-dark is simple

#4 Juniors can design, create and build prints just as well as seniors

#5 The teacher should probably be aware but doesn't need to be an expert

#6 You don't need every kind of PLA to use

We try and take every opportunity to engage with the community with the technology that we have at our school.

In the past we went and printed complementary key rings (oversized) for local businesses in the community) and gave them to local shops - and yes there are still in use years later! 

We are also from a strong rural community with significant farming and engineering works in the area.  We personally went to the local engineering workshop and dropped off a couple of samples of some of the work that was capable of producing using the 3D printer.  The intention in this case was to give the engineers something physical that they could examine but also hopefully plant a seed that in the future if they needed a specific part then they could look to the school to potentially produce it.

The post above shows something one of our amazing staff have been working on.  The example in black is a piece of equipment that connects to the tubing and is screwed into place.   The yellow PLA print is the copy of the original which is able to reproduce perfectly the size of the original and once the thread has been mastered the original will be replicated.   We will continue look for opportunities for our students to be involved in hands on problem solving approaches that they can use the technology to resolve.