3D Printed: Custom Made Pieces for Pinball Table

At Auroa Primary School each year the students of the school compete in a virtual pinball competition.  The competition is created by staff at school and the students competed for the first three years, had their heats recorded and then AV staff at our school produced the final product.  You can view the footage of these finals at the Sonic Vision Studios Youtube page here.   For the past three years the competitions have been lives streamed on Youtube with the finals taking place during the course of a day, with live commentary at school.

The tables have all been custom made for the school - videos of the process can be located here.

The table for 2023 has just been released and includes elements of the table that have been 3D Printed.  The various hard material items for the school are involved in the entire process.  The cabinet has laser cut elements to it, while the decals for the outside of the machine have been printed on the school sticker printing machine (please note the laser cutter is an industrial sized one and the sticker machine is commercial).   

In the picture on the left showing the new table you can see that the white corners of the table have had custom built 3D Printed corners for the machine.  A full tutorial for the table will be released shortly.

This linked video is the first grand final from 2018, the 2022 grand final (which was streamed live) can be accessed here.   We have a connection to the staff member who has produced the material for this project and are able to connect you with them if you email us (myles.webb@gmail.com).

Advanced Teacher Led Projects Using 3D Printers

 

This project is a significant project which students have been working on for the past six months.   A small group has designed a marble maze, which will work in conjunction with a laser cut board.   The theme of the marble maze is Star Wars based.   The 3D Printer has been used to make the stormtrooper heads shown in purple on the design.  They have been printed translucent with an LED light mounted into each of them.   The centre of the Death Star in the middle of the maze was printed by using a 3D printer to create the model.    This is a significant school project (previous projects have included a working Pinball Machine, video located here - competition finals are live streamed each year you can view the 2022 finals here).  These designs were sourced from Thingiverse and are freely available public domain.

Turbine for Hydro Project - This was designed by a teacher as a prototype for the students to use.   We are engaging in a project related to hydro flow and water flow - so this instance was a working model to encourage the students.

A twenty eight hour print the turbine was to use with an axel with the idea it could be used with additional software or material (such as Arduino Kit) to measure the rate of water flow at a particular location.  By 3D printing the model the size of the turbine can be customised for a number of locations.   In this instance the turbine has proven to be surplus to requirements.   Because of this it is going to be used in conjunction with Sphero Robots to provide an opportunity to turn the robots into the motor to run a boat.   We are going to use technical lego to connect the turbine to a boat that is powered by the robot.  We will post further about both projects as they develop.

3D Printed Tilt Table - The Springfield Town from the Simpsons

 Every year at our school the students are involved in a major project that incorporates some of the technology that is available for them to use.  In 2021/2 the students built from scratch a Pinball Machine, which then had a digitised game featuring our staff and students as the bonus and the playing field.

You can view the video recording  of the Live streamed 2022 finals for the Pinball competition here.

This year, wanting to try something different for the students we are looking at creating a marble maze, or a tilt table when the students are going to manipulate a ball through a maze, with the obstacles and the details of the maze created using our Lazer Cutter and 3D Printers.

As a test print one of our staff has worked in their independent time to create a model of the town of Springfield from the Simpsons, with 3D Printing of the major elements, landmarks and buildings that are located in the town.    These have been all produced using our schools Snapmaker machines with the individual buildings and landmarks varying slightly in print time.   We will of course, it goes without saying update you with the progress of the table as the year and work progresses.

Advanced Marble Run: Engineered Parts

Challenge: To create unique pieces for a marble run.

As part of our school we are always looking for extension activities for our students, sometimes created by our staff.   

One example is that in recent years our students have produce a pinball machine.  This machine has been full scale and is digital.  The parts of the machine have been made and engineered by students and each year the school has a Pinball Competition featuring the students, which is streamed on Youtube.    This is a major undertaking for our school 

The project which is the teacher is now involved in, which is estimated to take a year is a marble run.  As part of it there are are number of unique and individual parts that are being engineered.    The first of which is shown above.

The print is designed as a corner to allow a large ball bearing to drop down into another section of the marble run - this is a design from an adult which took eleven hours to print.   It will allow for a permanent part of the machine to be built, to potentially be modified using screws and tools.

The eleven hour time from is considerable however this part is unique to the design. The video below features the Pinball Machine - you can see the broadcast from 2022, which starts at the eight minute mark.  The competition proper starts at the twenty two minute mark.