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.

3D Printed Personalised Storage Stand (Advanced)

Above: Design with secondary PLA prior to super gluing

Challenge: For student to produce a personalized stand, the included storage component - in an advanced format (in this case a draw in its base) and use a mixture of PLA and print component parts.
Background: While the student involved in the creation of this project is nine years old and has only been working with the 3D Printers in a classroom context for a relatively short time frame this student has demonstrated creative flair and understanding of what is required.  As such when discussing this brief with her we were looking to challenge her specifically to include storage in her design, which she did by considerably hollowing out the base of the design, designing a separate draw to be inserted into the design, complete with a handle.   The student worked on a number of concept models with this project before she was happy to run the design. 

Above: Storage with drawer side by side

The intention with this design was for the storage to be the focal point of the design, with the additional features (in this case the horses) there for decoration.   She also made the decision to produce a backing side for the display, which was to allow her to print a phrase or sentence that was personal to her which is being super glued on the back.  This was produced in a separate print on a separate printer, hence the different colour (she had also investigated which colours when compared to each other would produce the best results.
Level of Difficulty: High.   This is about as challenging as it gets for a nine year old with regards to 3D Printing.   The storage base shown in the photography needs to work in conjunction with a drawer that has to be a perfect fit to allow storage to be used.    The student has to ensure the draw takes into account the perfect size to work in conjunction with the base.  The student has not completed this design to date, as she has had to revise the design, shape and design of the drawer.  In the original shown above the entire base of the draw was hollowed out, on revision three quarters would have been more suitable.  In addition to the above challenges, the last aspect of the design would be to mount a horse on the base of the design immediately above the base.
Time frame: There was essentially four prints working in conjunction here.   The first was the base, the draw insert was then developed on the basis of the size of the base.  The third was the blue PLA/ design featuring the name and the horseshoe.   The fourth part of the design was the animal (which in this case is going to be a horse) which is going to be the featured animal/main design for the storage.   The times for the various component pieces are twelve hours for the base, six hours for the draw, one hour for the lettering and the horseshoe and it would anticipate five to six hours with a total time in the range of twenty five hours.
Size: The base of the design measured 100mm across, was 20mm high, and was 130mm long.   The block at the back was 110mm high, 10mm wide and deep and 100mm across.   The draw that was designed to fit inside was 120mm long and 90mm wide.  It was between 10mm-20mm thick in places.  While the horse has yet to be designed and printed, it will fit within the dimensions of the base of the storage item.
What we would do differently: The design has proven to be challenging for the student.  As an entire project, to get everything right (which the student has yet to do) there are some notable parts that need to work in conjunction.   This has proven to be a design that has taken several days for the student to work on (please note the student is creating this design in their own time in the majority of the cases, they are not creating and designing as such in class time).  This print when finished will feature inter-connected parts, a variety of prints, personalised with the students name and storage that is not apparent when the design is first viewed. 
Next steps for student: The student needs to redesign the draw so that it fits in conjunction with the base.        It has been discussed with the student for the introduction of a hidden storage component or a second draw in the base of the design.  This print will be updated when it is in its final state.

3D Printed Box - Additional Features

Above: Box shown from above

Challenge: To produce a personalised box as a gift that is able to be used as a storage box.
Background: Student had produced a series of basic prints, and was looking at producing a gift for a family member.  She wanted to personalise the box with the name of the person it was intended for. 
Level of Difficulty: Medium.  Tinkercad interface was used to produce the box shape.   Student added additional features to the box to divide it into different areas and experimented with adding the hexagonal featured storage shape shown in the photograph.   The personalisation of the box took the form of lettering that was sunk into two sides of the base of the box - which was not successful. (see below). 
Timeframe: Eight hours.    The width of the sides (see below) should have been increased to provide more strength and depth to the sides of the box.  The student ultimately decided not to produce a lid for this box as they wanted the box to be a stand alone design. 
Size:  8cm long by 9cm high.  The box was 5cm high.  The external wall of the box was 5mm.   The internal walls (shown in illustrations) were thinned to 1-2mm.

Reverse side of the box with filament visible

Above: Front of box was deep lettering

What we would do differently: The internal walls were too thin.  At 2mm they were not strong enough.  While they have not yet broken the strength is clearly not there in basic testing.  In addition at two points the internal wall stops short of touching the main external wall.  This was created by student Tinkering.  The lettering on the external side of the box was not successful.   The name of the gift for the student ('Simone') was sunk deep into the base, when it was removed not all the materail could be successfully taken out, and the lettering itself was damaged.   With the 'Love Georgia' inscription as shown clearly in the photograph above most of the filament rafting was removed easily, however there was filament that could not be removed as requires an additional tool to do so.  The reverse side, shown below, when the rafting was carefully removed by the student resulted in damage to the font and the lettering.   The lettering in this case was sunk too deep into the base of the box and lacked enough robust support for it to be shaped successfully.
Next steps for the student: As mentioned in previous prints the design/ideas and format for boxes has been nearly exhausted by the students/classrooms efforts.   Students (in this case a ten year old) have produced a variety of boxes and details of which have been increasingly detailed and complicated.