3D Printed Mathematical Objects - 'Rubiks cube'

Rubix cube final print

This is the third in the series of students created 3D Printed objects that were entered by students as part of a local Mathematical competition.   Traditionally in the 3D Design section of the competition the students have created objects from traditional material, to our knowledge our school is the first to 3D Print objects specifically for the competition - although of the four objects entered only the previous 'Lemon Squeezer' object achieved a 'merit' placing.

The student responsible for this 3D Print wrote a post about it on her student blog.  You can view the link by clicking here.

Original design in Tinkercad

How long did it take to print? Twenty hours approximately - the student was unsure about the settings and passed it onto the classroom teacher once it was designed in Tinkercad.  Judging by the weight and the quality of the finish it was printed on a 'fast print' setting like most of our prints.
Problems/Issues: The rafting is visible on the base of the print, this wasn't sufficient to be easily removed and as a result was still visible on the finished print.   A further design issue was that the entire print was one colour and the student would have preferred to create one based on different colours, although not those necessarily from a traditional Rubix cube.
What would you do differently: The student had considered the combination of colours and somehow printing a combination of colours to have different squares.  However there would have been issues, the design of a Rubix cube has shapes on the sides of each square and they could be individually rotated - the other question was the gap between the blocks, this was created but cutting a regular box shape and inserting a gap, this was simple to do with a basic design but combining colours which would have to be rejoined together which would have been much more challenging.

3D Mathematical Printed Competition Entry 2

Print showing the rafting affect

How long did it take to print? four hours - the print was set on a fast print (see below).

Original design as created in Tinkercad

Problems Issues: Rafting of the print wasn't successful.  By making the print a 'fast print' setting the rafting attached to it, the removal of the rafting caused damage to the intended structure.   As a consequence the rafting needed to remain in places on the print, giving it the appearance of being 'rough'.  The student said that with hindsight they should have made the print on a detailed or higher print setting, this would have considerably increased the print time, however it would have greatly increased the strength of the print allowing the rafting to be removed.
What would you do differently? Obviously as a result of the print
and the strength of the print would be changed considerably.   The shape of the design would possibly need to have wider bars as part of it to strengthen it.  As a positive despite the issues with this print, the shape was maintained in the printing and the filament did set with the intended shape.

3D Designed Mathematical Objects:

Note: rafting yet to be removed from the plate

How long did it take to print?
This was designed and printed using the quality settings, instead of the regular fast print.  It was designed this way so the quality of the print would be a good as possible.   As a consequence of this the print time was fifty hours.  However the quality of the print reflected that.
Size: 25 centimetres across.  Depth of 10cm.
Problems or Issues?
None - the students deliberately increased the quality of the print, minimal rafting and clean up once completed was required.
What would you do differently?
Nothing the design worked as the student intended and the overall affect was pleasing (although student is aware that it resembles a lemon squeezer which was not intention!)
Details:
the student was inspired to see the base design online created by other work and this was the first part of the design.  Following that the inner lines and shapes were created.  The competition was for the students to design a Mathematical 3D shape and this achieved a merit award at the local competition.   The traditional entries from the other schools and students were objects that were designed and build using physical objects we were the only school that was 3D Printing ours. The student used Tinkercad and was as Y8 student (12 year old).

3D Printed Art for Mathematics Competition

This series of prints was completed for a specific competition.   The local students have a regional competition that they can enter into.   The competition is Mathematically based and as part of Methanex Mathematics promotion, details of which you can find by clicking on the link here.

Traditionally the students in the competition have created 3D models using materials such as sticks, straws, blue tack etc to produce a model that was three dimensional.

This year the students from our school used Tinkercad to create three dimensional designs, and then printed them using the Ultimaker2.  The concepts a relatively new one for the competition, having visited the displays in the past 3D Printed objects are not the norm, so it will be interesting to see how this will be reflected in the judging.  The students themselves will complete the printing details for each of the objects shortly and we will post the details online.