Laser Cut 'Monster Box' Large

 

Laser Cut 'Monster' Storage Box.

This product is one from our senior students as part of our 2025 Market Day Event.    This box is a general storage box.   It has been laser cut in MDF and then spray painted by students.

The box was printed in five seperate pieces and then glued together with wood glue and was produced using 3mm MDF.   The design was located from an online source.    The time to laser cut was ten minutes.

The box measures 300mm across is 10mm deep and 10mm wide.    The looping at the end of the lid creates a hinge that the box uses to open and close.

This box is similar to a design that featured in our 2023 Market Day although this version has significantly larger dimensions.

October 2024 - Project Updates

 We are currently at the half way point for the school holidays between term three and our final school year in New Zealand (term four).   We have a number of design projects that are looking for completion this term, before the end of the school year including finally completing the Dolls House Project, which you can see the overview here.

Our biggest school event coming up is the 2025 School Market Day.   You can see the amazing video from Mr Bloor, our AV teacher above.   We have detailed the process for our students which has been featured on this blog through the year - you can use the search bar, top right and undertake searches using the tags 'market day 2025'.   You can also view the view from our 2019 here below:

Our School Market Day in 2025 will take place afterschool on Friday 31st October 2025 at Auroa School.   Preorders can be picked up on the day and there are going to be a selection of goods that are available for purchase.  If you want to make any additional orders you can email the admin for this blog.

We are going to make selected projects from this blog available during the Market Day, this includes projects shared here such as the 'cyclops' challenge 

This is one of the ideas which has been developed from a brief for the students, which based on the results of the project including how it progressed with the work of the students, has become a viable Market Day item.   At the same time we are going to attempt to look at producing unique earrings for the event developed and created by students in the design process for the classroom.  You can see a teacher directed version of this project and a slideshow describing the entire process by clicking here.

We are also going to complete the process of designing the labelled, authentic and detailed geometric shapes that tie in as part of our Mathematics program at school (specifically for Geometry).

While we started the process for these objects the complete set was not printed prior to the end of term and we require adaption for this prints to ensure that they are viable for long term use.     In the example shown left you can see for instances that '5 faces' has been put too close to the edge of the object meaning that the 5 will not be sustainable in the future.

You can click on the link here to look at details about the original project.

We are continuing to explore examples of ideas, concepts and physical examples for the students moving forward.  An example of this is shown left with the iPhone stand turtle that a student had located.   We realised the print time (completed on the Bambu) made the print more than viable (as it was just over one hour) and while the student concerned had no input into the creation of this as with the other major one off prints that we build the idea is to get the students thinking about ways that they can take an idea such as this and then apply it to other projects and designs.

Ongoing 3D Printed Dragons Project

 

There are a large range of dragons that are available online as 3D Prints.   They are extremely popular as commercial items and a number of students in our classroom have ordered and purchased them.

While the price has varied we have made it clear that the school would print these out, and we could make them available to students on a basis of the PLA required to print them.   We have had a number of students take us up on this offer but also have had a number of students who have taken the opportunity to purchase these from a variety of locations.   In the photograph shown the students used a variety of dragons and compared themselves with the others.   We used the measure app on the students iPads to compare the length, and based on the knowledge of the printing time of the school printing we applied the size of the dragons to each other to make some mathematical statements.

The dragon shown top was located at a market in Australia by a student who was on holiday, he purchased it and we have since located the .stl file allowing us to print this at our school (we had to purchase it online for a small fee).   The second and third dragons from the top were created for the school Market Day which took place in 2023.   These dragons were printed and are available online described as an 'ice dragon'.   You can click on the link to the business details from last year here.

The first three dragons have been purchased locally at various market days.  We have used these as the basis for various designs here in the classroom, including the student who is designing a completely original dragon from scratch using the Tinkercad website.

School Market Day 2023 - Official Video

 

We have an amazing person at our school who produces fantastic media related to the school and our events. This is the official video for our School Market Day 2023 which shows a range of the products that our students made.

Using the Vinyl Printer/Sticker Machine: School Market Day 2023

We have addressed the fact that our school has a number of significant items that we are able to use for our students and school events.

Two of these items were used significantly for our 2023 School Market Day, being the HP Latex 335 Printer and the Versa Studio Sign maker Machine.

The larger vinyl prints were made on the HP an example is shown left where the students documented the innovation process and took photographs at each stage of their learning.  They were able to print this poster off and display their learning as part of the market day experience.  This helped shared the learning and creative process with members of the community who came to view the market day.   These prints were extremely large.

The Versa machine was able to produce much smaller prints in a vinyl sticker format that the students used for the packaging of their products.  When combined with the Laser Cutter designing MDF cuts to back the work onto it produced a ready made stand for the display of the work.

The students were able to independently produce the prints using Pic Collage and then convert them for printing using their individual iPads.

Each of the students from the classroom was able to create a unique presentation (as shown left) another bonus was that as it was vinyl the dye used to stain the MDF could be applied after the sticker had been put in place.  This just required the sticker to be wiped down if any dye had moved onto the design.

Another use of the HP Printer was to work in conjunction with some of the Gala games that were run by out senior students at school.   These traditional games had an ideal opportunity to use technology to aide in their creation and advertising and explain the rules of the games.    We had previously contacted some local real estate agents to ask for signs that they did not use and also had sourced some corrugated cardboard for the purpose.  This turned out to be extremely important as it allowed us to have signs that could survive if the weather was slightly inclement - which is was on the night.

It also meant the signs were robust enough to survive some significant wind gusts (which again occurred on the night).   This allowed us to display the events and provide some eye catching graphics.

We were also able to produce the material for specific games that was more durable than would have been possible otherwise.   An example is the golf map shown with this photograph.   This was the target for a game involving throwing ping pong balls at each of the holes with a small prize for being successful.  As it was printed on vinyl it allowed the game to be played numerous times without concern that the game board would be damaged by the competition.

The HP Latex Printer allowed us to print the game board as a single sheet - although it had significant dimensions.

School Market Day 2023 - Laser Cut Projects

 

Our 2023 School Market Day was held on Friday evening where our school had a Gala Night and in addition to this our students were running businesses with the theme of 'innovation' and the expectation that our students were using some of the technology that is available to our students in a creative way.

We have detailed a number of these projects and groups on this blog from our own classroom (in the junior school with students who are seven and eight years old).  Our school of two hundred students includes students who are Year Seven and Year Eight, who are up to twelve and thirteen years old.   An example is the group shown left.   They developed a series of boxes that were based around the use of the school laser cutter (we have an industrial sized one in a room at the back of the school).   The boxes shown in the photo were all produced by the students and the large sign at the front detailed the production process - this in itself was printed on our vinyl poster machine - A1 size.

Our junior students - who are five and six years old while too young to use the laser cutter independently used it to create the dream catchers shown left.  The laser cutter cut out the shapes for the bases and the students then individually decorated them by painting them and applying a range of materials to the dream catcher to aide their presentation.

The production process was shown in the photographs of the students making the designs and the finished product so that parents could see the creations.  We also applied sold stickers in order to allow the display to remain intact for the community to view the dream catchers rather then have them removed when they were sold.

Our senior students were able to use their DPE projects as a potential business.   Our students once a week complete their own Technology Classes as part of this program there is a DPE (Design Production Engineering) in this series of workshops students build their own speakers, as featured on this blog.  This group shown left designed boxes as shown but further developed their businesses by producing inserts (shelves and storage) on the inside for the boxes.  The two sizes shown cost the public eight dollars (for the smaller one on the left) and twelve dollars for the one on the right.   This wood used was a MDF composite which was used with the laser cutter cutting on the design and the different pieces and the students were responsible for assembling all of the parts and putting it together.   Further details about this product including the instructions will be posted later on this blog.

We had several groups of students have aspects of their business involved the production of coasters.  We have previously shown examples on this blog about one of the groups, a group of middle school students (Y5/6) who had a particular interest in NBA Basketball teams and logos created a themed series of coasters relating to popular teams.   They were able to have discussions about the Logo and using the insignia of a playing team and what they could and couldn't do related to then selling them.   They were able to work with a group of senior mentors who helped them using GIMP to complete the creation process.

We also used the laser cutter to develop a series of Gala Games that the student could be involved in running.  We used the laser cutter to precision cut the designs for the games such as Cornhole shown left.   The tables for this were laser cut which allowed there to be variation of the size of the hole (the junior one in addition to allowing the students to throw from a closer distance also had a larger target area.

Finally we used our Vinyl Printer to produce A1 sized posters with the rules and details of the games and activities.   Creating them on this machine meant that they were waterproof and could be displayed easily to not only show the students learning process but also display in this case the rules of the game.  We are going to feature this project in a seperate post on this blog.

We have a considerable amount of material related to this major school event and we will start the process of posting the activities and the creations during the remainder of the school year.

Market Day - Packaging Examples

Challenge: To produce packaging to be used in relation to the 3D Prints for School Market Day.

Background: As the students are currently in the process of finishing their final designs for the 3D Printed aspects of their Market Day Projects some of the students who have created and designed their projects already are now focussing on producing the packaging of their projects.   

The mock up of the prints has to include a few compulsory aspects.  One is the print needs to be displayed.  We have a commercial grade laser cutter on site (which will be featured in a post shortly).   As a consequence of this we have a number of 'off cuts' that is prints that haven't worked as intended which are available to the students as scrap.   The students from our class have located a number of these and are using them for the base to hold their designs.    While the MDF is currently an off white we have discussed the students painting the base or using dye to change the colour.

Problem solving with juniors has involved working out ways to secure the prints to the wood.   In the case of use the Roland Sticker Machine it produces an adhesive label that is shiny but also very smooth - the and the prints when sitting on them tend to slide off.  While they can be held in place by ribbon or string this is not fool-proof and tends to require careful management.   One of the potential solutions and one we are using in our classroom is to apply a small amount of blue tack under key parts of the prints, which are not typically visible to the potentially purchaser but make it much more secure to the base.

Prior to using the Roland Sticker Machine the students are experimenting with composition and also looking at practical examples of how the items that they are selling might look.

In the example of the Fennec Fox shown left the student needs to consider that the lettering or design font maybe obscured by the placement of a print on top of the labelling.   In this case the student has used  Brandcrowd to create their design although other students in the classroom have also used logomaker for the same purpose.

The students working on all of these projects are Y3 and Y4 students in New Zealand, so students who are eight and nine working on 3D Printing for the first time in most cases in the classroom.

Again with the rabbit which has previously featured on this blog the student is looking at ways to enhance the presentation - when the object is placed on the MDF and the composition looked at and the student then needs to consider the backing.

One of the other aspects of the print is the QR code designed by the students linking to additional information and work.  For students who have already completed and designed the print this allows them to continue working on the project while other students are looking at completing their designs and testing them.

3D Printed Earrings: Evolving Print

Challenge: To produce a market day item for sale unique and innovative.

Background: This print had featured earlier in this blog in a slightly different form.  In this example the student concerned had designed the print as a key ring.  The student found the design (shape of the cow) available as a free online shape.     She then spent a short time adding the star to the design and then inserted a hole through the design.  More time was spent on the choices of the spray painting colours.  When this was completed the student thought that they were completed and was working on packaging and the stickers for the final product.

Then the student from playing with the keyring and made a decision to alter the design to change and develop earrings instead.   Obviously the original design with its dimensions was not suitable for earrings - so there was some redesigning and thinking about process - the goal of which was to ensure that the design could be converted into a suitable earring.

The first stage was a simple reshaping of the design to suit the dimensions.  In the original design (in blue in the photograph top left) the shape was 70mm across and 60mm high.    The first resizing was a full third of this size, with the entire design reshaped to reflect a more realistic size.  In the original although not visible the width of the print was halved so that the earrings would not be too heavy.   This reduced the print time to forty five minutes, while the length of the prints were halved.   We have previously detailed on this blog the creation of a six minute print - Pac Man Earrings from 2021.

In the first 'pair' variation shown left the student then experimented with printing a potential pair of earrings, but wanted to use an earring hook to ensure that the earrings would hang correctly and check their weight.  It allowed the student to identify subtle changes that needed to be made.   The heart shape hole inside the print had two issues - one which was of course its location (which meant the prints did not hang correctly) and the second was when the hook connector was attached the loop affected the hang.

The student spent some time experimenting with this before being able to refine the print further.  The student completing this process is a Y3 student so that is someone who is seven years old (although this is a student who is very hard working and generally capable with design ideas that are positive.  It should be also pointed out that this is there very first 3D Print original design and process involvement.

The final design (with the earring hook and loop attached) is shown left.   As is visible the hole has been re-centred and the heart replaced with a simple circle - this meant that the cow now hung correctly, was balanced and even.

In terms of the PLA required to make this print we gave the students the details of the cost of the roll of filament which they then (with a little teacher help) was able to calculate that each print is costing $.40c NZD to produce (for a pair).   The irony is that the hooks while being smaller (but an integral part of the print none-the-less) are actually more expensive than the PLA required to complete the 3D Prints.  In terms of a price point the student is (still) currently struggling - having made the print, created it and designed it the raw cost for materials is obviously under $1.00 NZD for the entire product and the student has attempted to price compare to original earrings that are online to set a realistic price point.

The purpose of next months School Market Day is not to make as much profit as possible per item - it is to show and give the students opportunities to showcase innovation.   This design and process meets that criteria.

What we would do differently/Next steps for students: This design has reached to the point that the student is expanding into different designs following the same format, looking at realistic packaging options and ways to market the product.   All in all the process is considered extremely successful and while the initial key ring is also a product for sale the earrings will now be the focus.

Y3 Market Day Items: Beginners Prints

Challenge: For students who have never produced a 3D Print to create an original project for School Market Day.

Background: We have the School Market Day approaching (which is summarised in a tab on this blog with exemplars and examples).  A number of students for the first time are trying to produce something original which they can then in term promote or sell on our community day.   

With our junior classroom our students in some cases have not had an opportunity before to design a print and it can be an engaging and rewarding experience.  

Two current examples are the jumping dog shown above in the left hand corner.  This student is a Y3 student and a recent transfer to our school - this is his very first 3D Print.  He located a freely available print of a leaping dog.   He wanted to change it into a key ring and as a result took the image imported it into Tinkercad.   From there it was a simple matter of adding hole into the design for the purpose of transforming it into a key ring - and then the student (under supervision of other older students) spray painted the design.   

The print took three and a half hours to complete on the regular default settings (which is a twenty percent infill).  There was no rafting on the print.  The print measured 70mm across and was 90mm high (at the back leg).   The print was 20mm thick/deep - potentially this could have been reduced to maintain the robust nature of the print but to reduce the print time.  

As we detailed in this situation the students part of the process needs to create something original as the student has to claim ownership of the design process.  Examples from last year included using a design like this but creating original accessories and also focussing on the packaging with the product.   It goes without saying that the student has enjoyed the process and is thrilled with the result.  The student is now going to test the keyring and consider the placement of the whole.

Axolotl Keyring followed a similar process.  The student was looking at designing something that would be unique and have a purpose but also wanted to be something that she would be able to produce and create herself.

Again a basic shape was located as there is a variety available online.  Once this was selected the hole was inserted into the tail.    The dimensions of the print were smaller than usual - it measured 60mm across and was 40mm high, in addition the print was 10mm thick.  This was less robust than the dog but it meant that the print could be completed in a much reduced timeframe - this was only one hour to complete.  Once it was completed again the student then completed the presentation with supervised spray painting by seniors in our school.   This will complete the brief of the project with the addition of packaging and information related to the animal.

3D Printed Student Business - November 24th

We have a confirmed date for our 2023 School Market Day.  This is taking place at Auroa Primary School, South Taranaki on Friday 24th November 2023.   We will be selling a number of innovation items at this event, which have been featured on this blog by students (Y3 and Y4) of our class.  Our classrooms throughout the school including the Y7/8 students who are selling items related to the use of our school Laser Cutter, Poster Making Machine and Sticker Making Machine.

We are also looking at refining this site a little bit in terms of presentation and sharing.   

Traditionally since 2015 when we first started posting to this blog with the sharing being limited to Twitter/X.  Initially the teacher responsible for this blog had a significant following (over 9k teachers). 

  

Due to circumstances outside of my control the main account associated with this (@NZWaikato) was deleted and I was unable to recover my account (despite repeatedly trying for several months).   Since then I have continued to share to Twitter/X however my account has not had the same sharing since then and the platform as itself has been struggling as of late.   As a consequence of this we are looking at sharing the material from this site to some different locations such as Instagram and Pinterest.   

The purpose of doing that is the same reason that the site was established for.   We always intended to share examples of works and ideas relating to the use of 3D Printer in the classrooms.  We since the establishment of the site not only have 3D Printers been used in the classroom but also additional resources as well (Printers, Sticker Machines, Laser Cutter) however while we intend sharing examples of these items on the site we are not intending to change the name of the site!   

3D Printed Fennec Fox - Market Day 2023

Challenge: To make an original Fennec Fox model.

Background: With the school Market Day approaching later this school term one of the students wanted to use their interests in Fox to create an original 3D Print.   This example was fennec fox - which is somewhat famous for the size of its ears.  The student involved had researched the animal and used this as a basis for the design shown left.

This version of this fox was designed using the main interface of Tinkercad.   The entire design for the fox was made by selecting the different shapes and manipulating them to the desired size.   The overall affect allowed the student to create a 'cartoon' fox.   This is the first independent design for this student who is a Y4 from our school in New Zealand making them eight years old.

Level of Difficulty: Medium - This is not a completely free design because the student is basing their entire design on the recognition between the fox and the design that they have made.  It was discussed afterwards to use this process to create a fantastical creature.

Size: This is the prototype to see if the process will work and a design can be made.  This design dimensions are reflected in this.   The design measured 25mm across and was 35mm high with a height of 40mm.    A successful print at this stage would lead to potentially a bigger print in the future.

Timeframe: This print came in, including minimum rafting at ninety minutes.   There is minimum rafting (waste printing) to go with the print, some minor adjustments which is potentially 

What we would do differently/next steps for the students: Given the usual factors this has been extremely successful.   The student is thrilled with the result - however questions have arisen given the use of the design.  We have some Chess fanatics in the classroom they have realised already that the piece here is potentially able to be used.   

The other option potentially is to look at other games - either a small ring toss or a game of noughts and crosses (also referred to as Tic-Tac-Toe in some locations).    These options potentially need another animal to act as the counter - the student is researching what might be created or used to do this.

School Holidays NZ - Update: September 2023

It is currently the break between Term Three and Term Four School terms in New Zealand - our students are one week into a two week holiday. We have a major event coming up in November - that is our 2023 Market Day.   This will feature a number of items sold to the local community many of which have been created using some of the specific technology available to our students.  You can see the addition of 'Market Day' tab on our main page.

Our laser cutter is being used in addition to our 3D Printers.   One of the businesses shown left features the MDF Laser Cut planes which have then been spray painted.   

We have also a group of students who during the holidays have been further developing and designing their own 3D Printed animal businesses.   They are roughly divided into two main groups - the first is those who are just exploring their 3D Printing.  These students are using open sourced prints that can then either be modified or 'value added' so that the students can input an aspect of their design.  A number of these businesses and designs have already been featured on this page.

An example of this is the rabbit shown left - the original design is a freely available one from Thingiverse.   The student concerned who is an avid rabbit owner has spray painted the designs (under the appropriate supervision) and then came up with the idea of adding glitter to the designs when the paint had yet dried.   This allowed the glitter to stick to the designs allowing them to sparkle.

This idea came from the students who are working on creating the 'Dragon'.    We have detailed this previously.  We have students who have the eighteen hour printed dragon (online it is described as an 'Ice Dragon' who have worked out how to layer it with the spray painting - who then decided to add glitter to the dragon to give it a dramatic effect when it is tilted slightly.

Again this came from the result of having the students print a design that they wanted to try and use aspects of it to copy another design.    Two students have the two prototypes which they have taken home for the holidays with instructions to play with, manipulate the prints and attempt to think about ways to enhance its presentation.  When the holidays are completed it will be interesting to see how these ideas have developed and what will follow as a result.   The second group of designs are the designs that are created 'from scratch' where the students have followed a process of creating a flexi-animal.   Again examples of this print can be found on this blog.

Market Day 2023: 3D Printed 'Spiders Web' Accessory

Challenge: To produce an accessory for a Market Day item.

Background: Our 2023 Market Day is approaching and with the direction of the students been given to use innovation to create something unique and original.   One of the students had decided to use plasticine to create a small range of novelty animals.    

The use of technology was to create a compliment to the design.  The student using Tinkercad for the first time decided to use it to develop a spiders web to be placed with the designs.   The web was designed as a first time print using the main Tinkercad interface.

The student was able to produce a print that they were extremely happy with at the first attempt.  The dimensions of the print were determined by the size of the design.

The print measured 70mm across and was 60mm high.  The print was 10mm thick.   Given the dimensions of the print and the size of the plasticine the dimensions worked extremely well.   

Level of Difficulty: Low - this is the students first attempt at using the 3D Printer to create something using Tinkercad and it is there first attempt.   The issue of whether the web should be symmetrical or not was irrelevant given the placing of the spider in the middle of the web which is intended to be the focal point for the business item.

Size: 70mm across and 60mm high with a width of 10mm.

Timeframe: Three hours - this print works in conjunction with its intended.   Given the size of everything this is a print that complements the design perfectly, any smaller and the spider would dwarf it and it would look too unrealistic.    

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

Although this is a simplistic idea and process it is once again one of those prints that ticks a lot of boxes.  The design is the first for a student and will hopefully lead to further creations.  The process shows a level of innovation and use of the technology to improve the presentation of a traditional craft item.

There are no intentions to make changes to this design.   

Laser Cut Projects - Ongoing 3D Print Projects 2023

As mentioned previously students at our school have a variety of technology to use with the creation of projects and work.  We have an industrial sized laser cutter available for students to use.   We previously posted about the 2023 Speaker Project, where students were creating a box to house a USB/Blue Tooth Speaker.   Previously we had versions of these, which did include significant 3D Printing dating back to our first use of 3D Printers in 2015.

The student who saw the example of the Laser Cut AT-AT Imperial Star Wars Walker wanted to include an original design for his speaker and decided to use a 'plane' theme and design to house his speaker.

The control panel is just to the left of the cockpit - the speakers themselves site at the back of the plane above the back wheel - with one on each side.   The student has worked independently to produce the shape and the next step is to think about how he might refine or improve his design - can he use the sticker printer machine to produce decals for the wings/plane? Can he use the 3D Printer to create a working propeller for the front of the plane and wheels that work for the base of the plane? The students work on these projects as part of our DPE (Design Production Engineering) in a five week block once a week from 9am to 1pm.    

We have also had students begin the prototyping of next years projects.   The night light shown on the left is the early version of what the students may be looking at.    The frame for the night light is made by using the laser cutter to design it.   A scene is created for the inside of the design - while it is currently the African scene shown students could potentially modify this in a number of ways - by including different scenes or ones that are of particular significance to themselves.    The LED light that is shown to be green is a multi coloured light with a controller and is able to cycle through a range of colours by manually clicking a controller.

The base of the stand features the coiled rope for decoration and a further balanced stand which offers the opportunity to have additional decorations etc.   Again we would be potentially wanting our students to look to develop these projects further to add value, depth and designs to them to ensure that they are pushing themselves with their creation and making.

We are continuing to work on projects and complete work for the upcoming School Market Day.  While we have a classroom of Y3/4 students (who are seven and eight years old) they have all been tasked with creating one original 3D Print that could potentially be marketed and sold to our local community on this evening/day.   

For some of our younger students with their first attempts at 3D Printing while it initially can appear to be challenging once they have made an attempt the results for the students can be fantastic.  In this design on the left the student wanted to make a cow themed key ring or tag and was able to produce the following result on their first attempt.   We are working on a number of these projects in the background and will be posting them closer to the completion time.

3D Printed Themed Ongoing Projects

As our class of students who are Y3/4 continue to prepare for the upcoming School Market Day we are continuing to produce original, from scratch flexible made animals. 

As it our students first attempts at printing these some are taking some more refinements than others - this sea turtle shown left requires refinement in its linking to ensure that they are even and the joints move when manipulated - the design looks 'fine' but is not at a stage where it would meet the 'sale' criteria for the Market Day.

We are continuing to look at existing prints that have been produced by others to act as inspiration for the students in the classroom.

In the design left, we were able to source it from Thingiverse as a free design download.   The Giraffe theme is a plant holder.   The current print has a two hour print time - but the concept is something that this group of students has yet to encounter hence we see value in printing out some examples and sharing them with the classroom to inspire students to consider creating their own version of this - and also consider what plants potentially could be placed inside this.

Recently one of our students attended a commercial show in New Zealand.   At this event there was a booth/temporary shop selling '3D Printed Dragons'.   The student wanted to purchase one, although they did recognise that that was something that had been produced in the classroom.   The dragon shown left w was priced at the event at $30.00 NZD.  

We have been able to produce a dragon that is three times the size which has been also made available online for free - which is currently taking eighteen hours to produce.   

The paint colour is proving to be slightly more challenging to overcome however the students concerned are looking into various media and suggestions so they can identify and then complete their own version (three times the size) with a similar paint scheme.

2023 - School Market Day: Y4 Business.

Y4 Students Market Day Project: Articulated Toy Dogs

Previously as noted on this blog we have a school market day upcoming where we are inviting members of the community to come to our school and purchase innovative products made by our students using the technology that they have available.

We shared a number of prints and the process last year which were featured on this blog (and have the label 'market day'.   For this year we have a junior classroom that is the focus - so the products that are created have been made by a nine year old.

Challenge: To create an innovative Market Day Business.

Background: As detailed above.  Articulated animals have proven to be extremely popular as the size can be controlled and the student can potentially have an interest in them.   While there are a number of freely available downloads of a range of animals the innovative part of the process has moved onto the students being able to design, create and manufacture these animals themselves rather then relying on available designs of others.

The student in this case was able to receive guidance from a Y8 student at our school who has created media including a full presentation showing the entire process from a flipped perspective (including video creations and a step by step guide how to produce any animal by following the process.

This Y4 student wanted to create a unique flexible animal for her business.  She used Tinkercad as a design CAD software and used her iPad for the manipulation.   She was able to source a SVG file for the silhouette - and the linking for the animal came via a ball and socket join that she had created on Tinkercad.

The learning process was not initially successful - the first designs didn't feature linking to the entire shape, as shown left, when the parts of the animal were removed from the printing plate and they fell apart.  This briefly had the student contemplating creating a jigsaw puzzle based on the parts that she was making, however she was redirected as she had set herself a goal.

She also researched her favourite dog and learnt how to QR Code for her packaging.   This dog was then redesigned to ensure that the linking was correct.   The student then started to produce a variety of them and investigated the spray painting of them to complete the presentation.  We also were able to identify the animal as being able to be produced in a reasonable timeframe - which allowed the student to start testing the design in terms of manipulating and playing with it.

The dogs (completed, as shown left) consist of the four main linked parts.   They are currently measuring 70mm long and 50mm tall.   They are 10mm thick which allows for a reasonable strength to them.

Currently on the Snapmaker default settings we have the print coming in at just over two hours (each, although we can of course load multiple dogs onto a print run) and the student has set a price of $2.00 per dog to cover the cost and make a small profit.   (This money is being raised for the school and is reflective of the cost and the student not looking to make a huge profit with the process and item).

The student is being extended by developing and refining their CAD design skills (using Tinkercad) and the Snapmaker 3D Printer.  They are using Pic Collage to design packaging and QRstuff.com to manufacture the QR Code.   Given how successful this process and project has been there is no more refining it or creation of it as it has been extremely successful.

Market Day 2023

This year again we are holding a school market/innovation event at our school when our students are running businesses to sell a product that is developed for sale for the community.   This was previously held at our school where the 3D Printers were used extensively - to first produce material that was located online via Thingiverse - although the students were required to have an original component or part of their design.   The original Market Day Animal Stalls from 2022 had to include additional information about their animal, accessories that were custom made for the animals (such as a food bowl or toy depending on the nature of the animal).   

The led directly to the unpacking of the design ideas and code for the animals - a student used tutorial videos on Youtube to 'unpack' the process and has been able to manufacture a range of animals as a result.    This is culminating with the student running her own market stall selling the products that she has specifically designed to the local community.   

The designs for the start of this cycle have centred around having casing or packaging - in this new example shown left.  The group are investigating making and marketing lip balm.   The balm case that is shown left.   It measures 80mm across and was 40mm high in places.  The inside of the container was hollowed out on one side (the student didn't want the container to hold too much lip balm.

This print took eight hours to print and would require some modification at present there is no hinge that is developed to hold the two sides of the containers together.   There are further examples of market day printing using the 3D Printer here.