Fifteen 3D Printed Cows: Lore #6 You Don't Need Every PLA

This is a follow up from a previous print listed on this blog detailing the preparation for a community event associated with our school and the way that we are producing a point of interest.

It also ties in very well with another 'Lore' to think about when considering 3D Printing int the classroom or educational setting.  These are are all ideas and we don't expect you to agree with everything and this very. much applies to our own mindset - it is very much acknowledged that every school and environment is different.

To recap on what we've looked at previously:

#1 - You don't beed more than a single printer to print in a school environment.

#2 - You don't need to 3D Print all of your students 3D Printing projects.

#3 - 3D Printing using glow-in-the-dark filament is easy

#4 - Juniors can 3D Print just as well as seniors

#5 - The teacher needs to be aware (but not an expert). 

The point of this post is to show the group of five of the distinct cows that are going to act as the centre piece for each of the tables for the community dinner.   Rather than have 'regular' cows we decided to go for novelty cows that are designed to stand out because of their decoration.   Once we had decided to look at the base set of PLA available we talked to the students about other options.    One of the students knew that we had used spray paint in the past to change the colour of prints that had been made so we started the discussion about this.   The students started looking at options for how they might alter the colour when the prints were spray painted.   In the group that is shown above the cow that is located at the front right is a regular PLA print that has been sprayed florescent pink.   This has also led to discussions about using masking tape to create stripes etc.   which we still doing shortly and greatly expand the opportunity for the production of 'individual' cows and more 'unique' prints.

3D Devotional Item - Church Reunion Item

 

A local Church has an upcoming event - which in this case is a reunion associated with it.  As it is not a significant church, in terms of numbers of finances the church were looking into ways of using the 3D Printing to create something unique for this occasion, which was a project that was driven by one of the staff and students.  

The solution in this case potentially is to use the 3D Printer to create a devotional item, the cross shown, and then to laser cut a small plate for the front of the design (to mention the name and location of the church and the date for the event) and then use them as items for the event.

The 3D Print in this case here was originally produced in a blue filament but wanting to give the presentation piece a rustic look was then spray painted with a metallic bronze finish.   The cross was sourced from freely available material and printed with standard settings resulting in a six hour print.

This was an item that was made to support a small local community event.