3D Printed Accessories for Plants

 

Challenge: To produce an accessory capable of watering a plant.

Background: This is a follow up task from one of the Market Day Tasks from last year.   This business was created by a student who located a plan online for an .stl copy/design of the giraffe shown left.   Last year the student worked on adding additional features that worked in conjunction with the design - this resulted in the creation of the spade matching with the giraffe.

The students idea was to have a small succulent growing inside the base of the giraffe, and the spade was used to work the soil as required.   The second part of the design was the creation of a watering can

that could be potentially used to water a succulent.   The size of the watering can needed to be small as the amount of water delivered is small.

The PLA used for the watering can is a perfect use as it is waterproof.   The student needed to consider a number of factors including the nozzle which caused the design to be redesigned several times.

Level of Difficulty: Medium.  The student thought that this would be a simple task however the funnel or nozzle and having it look correct and also making sure that it was functional.

Size: The current dimensions for the print are based on the original ideas as shown and the design needs refinement - in you look at the handle for instance it is chunky and blocky.   The nozzle is likewise needing to be reduced in size.   The design currently sits at 40mm across, 30mm high and 5mm thick.

Timeframe: This currently took just over one hour to print.   This should be reduced slightly when the improvements mentioned have been addressed.

Next steps for students/What we would do differently: As noted above the design needs some refinement to address aesthetics, however the concept is solid.

3D Prints: Ongoing Classroom Projects Term Four 2023

Accessories for the Fox: While the Fox detailed previously on this blog has been completed and is a completely original print, the student also wanted to look at providing accessories.   This student had viewed some of the ideas from last years market day project accessories and wanted to create something unique to go with the fox.

The students idea was to create something simple that would match with the fox - hence the creation of a plate/bowl to be combined with it.   The student is now moving onto creating packaging to go with the print.

Accessories for the Dragon.   We have also detailed on this blog about a group of students who are focussing on 'Dragon Prints'.   This process started when the students (who are Y3 eight years old) located and tired to buy 3D Printed Dragons online for $60.00.   As noted reverse engineering of the project determined they could be printed relatively easily - however this was not original work (although the students did work on the decorations including for the first time using glitter in combination with spray painting, which as the paint dried then stuck to the print.    The students have experimented with creating additional items to go with the dragons - as shown in the photograph you can see early version of 'swords' and a dragon egg.   Both students are working independently for the first time on creating these projects.

Another student has a particular interest in a specific creature, an Amazon River Dolphin.  The student found some examples of models of these online but wanted to use the scribble design part of the main Tinkercad interface to create something original.   He also wanted to create an accessory - and having researched the animal he saw that crabs are one of the food sources.  As a fan of a particular TV show he then created the crab to represent it.   Finally he used Pixton to create a unique cartoon with information about the animal which is going to be used as a key part of the packaging for the product.  He is intending to refine the design of both to increase the accuracy of the design.

We have a wide range of students in the classroom ranging from experienced designers who are confident, creative and independent designers.

We also have some students who for the first time are experimenting with designs.  Some of these designs are starting as basic shapes - in this instance the horse (shown left) has been located online and the students have modified it by the process of introducing a simple shape into it to convert it from a relatively larger shape into a bag tag shape.  This design is shown in the testing prior to the decoration with the spray painting.    They will do this under supervision.