3D Printed Money Box - 2025 Edition

 

Challenge: For student to produce an original money box using Tinkercad to complete the process.  Student was an eight year old designing independently.

Background: This was the last week of school where the students had time to explore the possibility of what they might be able to create.   We had the students construct, build and develop a range of prints and during the end of year break (which is occurring now) we selected a number of prints that have value moving forward.  In this instance while the design is simple and straightforward we believe that it will encourage other students to develop their creation skills - and for students who will require more of a challenge there is the issue of the student designing a way to lock the box and have a underside base panel for access for what is put into the box.

As can be viewed by the photographs showing this design the print was completed using glow-in-the-dark filament this was done just to give the project a novelty factor, it was not required for the print in general.

Level of Difficulty - Low at present, but the potential is clearly there for an upgrade based around how this print might be refined and reworked.  The student in this case was an eight year old who had been using Tinkercad for the year so was confident to work independently to complete the visible access of the task.  The face design is relatively basic and the details could have been developed further.  The hat has featured a number of times in various prints this year and is available as an item search on Tinkercad.

Size: The print measures 100mm wide, was 75mm deep and 60mm high.   The hat extended a further 40mm from the corner of the box upwards.

Cost: Using the software that is present with Bambu studio the print is determined to use 130g of PLA to complete the project and the cost of these PLA was identified as being $3.27.   Of note as this was completed with the Bambu H2D and there was a minimal amount of waste PLA with the print.

Timeframe: From the dimension of the print and the details of the print it was a significant print - it took four hours and forty five minutes to complete, which makes it using the Bambu H2D one of the larger prints that we completed during the school year.

What we would do differently/next steps for the student: As can clearly be shown left the student has yet to complete the underside base panel to secure items to go into the money box.   This is not as simple as it seems as the student needs to develop a locking mechanism to work within the dimensions that have already been printed.   This would be a task that a number of students could complete.    As noted previously the details on the top of the box, such as a the face could have further additions made to it.   The balance between adding details and not overpowering the print is also an issue that would need to worked out.

This was a 2025 design that was a reworked 2024 money box - view it by clicking on the link here.

3D Printed Extension - Reworking a 2024 Money Box Design

 

Previously this design was created and originated by a student who is now in another classroom.   In the example shown left the student was looking to create a money box. 

The student had wanted to improve the design and had thought about adding a way to remove the coins put into the bank.   This year we are having a school Market Day one of the students from the class this year wanted to create a money box as a potential item for sale.  They looked at previous examples from our class blog and located one of the examples.   We spoke to the student concerned who had now moved to another classroom but we had retained the classroom page and student pages with their designs.

The key issue to improve the design was some kind of opening or way to ensure the removal of coins placed inside.   The students idea was to produce a door as shown.   The student who is currently ten years old found an online tutorial for the process and then completed the design addition.

There are issues with the design as it stands - the student has created the base, but the balance at the bottom will be something that they need to refine.  They have proven however to be one of the strongest designers in our school in recent years, and this is something that they should master in very short order.   

This student has shown since the start of her time in the junior classroom (as a seven year old) to be capable of designing a series of projects that I would consider as good as our senior students.

Update: Upon printing the revised version of the print, including the opening at the bottom the student was able to determine that the mechanism for opening was not working as she had hoped.  There was no issue with the placing of the base, and the balance was retained by the two aspects of the design.

The student was not happy with the 'pin' aspect of the design that was she wanted it to work and lock in place, however it didn't work as intended.  She has asked to take home the prototype to be able to redesign the pin in a way that it will work successfully as intended.
   

Junior Coin Box - Exemplar

Challenge: To produce a functional detailed purposeful 3D Print.

Background: While we have students who are working on what we would generally consider to be beginner or starter projects we also have students who are at the other scale of things - students who are creating independently innovative and interesting projects and pushing the boundaries of CAD and 3D Design as Y3 (seven) and Y4 (eight year olds).   One student who has consistently done so has recently started to revisit projects that she worked on in the previous year.   She has previously work on designing a money box, and we featured this design in 2023.   She recently began a process of revisiting her previous designs and looking to improve and think critically about what she had been working on.

In this version of the money box she focussed on redesigning her name, which now dominates the print more significantly than the previous version, has hollowed out the inside of the box (which allows for much greater storage, the original was merely a slot on the inside).  She also included another subtle difference by placing her initials on the top of the design.   

In reworking this design she has improve its functionality and appearance considerably.  There has been no teacher input into the project.  The student has created, tested and worked on this design and then presented it to the teacher to print in its finished state.

Size: The print measures 50mm across and is 45mm high.  This has made it rather compact however the student wanted to create this revised version to see what it would look like.

Timeframe: Eight hours to complete - a version with a larger storage area or greater capacity would of course have to have an additional print project time.

Level of Difficulty: Medium - this is a complex print that has a number of elements with it that need to work, in conjunction with each other so that the print works as a project.   As noted this has been worked on by an eight year old student however this is one of the top creative designers in the classroom.

What we would do differently next steps for the students:

The student has been given a task, a challenge based around this design.  While the design is functional and works the student has been asked to come up with a locking mechanism for the base of the design so that the student can open the design from the base and use this as a means to empty the storage.  At present the entry and exit point remains the (significant) slot at the top of the container.   The student is going to use technology to research.