3D Printed Pencil Toppers: Prototype

 

One of the best things about the students designs and creations and the 'making' process for the students is the ability to adapt and 'break' certain designs.   In a recent classroom challenge we asked students to create a 'pencil topper' that was an item that could sit on top of a students pencil so that the students could identify easily whose pencil each was using.

We also identified this as a suitable practical design task because its scale meant the classroom could have a print produced each in a relatively short space of time (the average time beforehand we were estimating to be in the region of thirty minutes for each print).

Students follow a familiar process of design, testing (using AR/VR and the virtual designs created in Tinkercad) measuring and checking.   Only then when this has been completed do the students mark their 

In the case of the print left, some of these criteria were not met, however the print had a certain charm to it so the teacher made the decision to print the design.   The design in essence is too big.   The design measures 100mm across by 45mm and is then 10mm wide.   Realistically the length makes it too unwieldy to balance on the top of a pencil.  Finally the insert for the pencil while it appears to be suitable is not - more accuracy is required at this location.   When the design was shared with the student in virtual form it appeared suitable - however when printed it out it was obvious that considerable adjustment was required.

The print as it stands used 30g of PLA to complete and this had a price point of $0.75c.   The print took one hour to complete.

The revision would require a reduction in size and adjustment of the insert location.   The student have also started a discussion about completely 'flipping' the design by making it a storage location by changing the entrance point and having the storage run landscape.

In the second example shown left this design is considerably smaller.   The student took advantage of the detail that is possible with the Bambu H2D and of note is the students name on the top of the design which is only 2mm high and 5mm across.

Again there are issues with the design that need to be address the clear issue is again the insert for a pencil - while it again appears to be suitable for a regular pencil when the actual print was applied to a pencil there was clear difficulty to match the two together.

The centre of the design is off with the circle insert.  The print used 10g of PLA filament to complete.   The print cost was determined to be $0.24.   The print took thirty two minutes to complete.

The entire class have used this two physical examples and applied the logic and design for the entire class to apply to their own designs.

As mentioned previously there are numerous other potential examples which you can view by searching for them using the 'Search this Blog' box.

3D Printed Pencil Topper - Exemplar

 

Challenge: To produce an original, unique and functional pencil topper for use with a students stationary.  

Equipment Use: iPad, Tinkercad, Bambu H2D, Bambu PLA

Background: This task was given to students during an afternoon session with an extremely short timeframe to complete.  The students had to independently use their knowledge of Tinkercad and their developed design skills to create something that was functional.   Due to this functionality the size of the print and any potential details with the design were limited but also going to show what could be capable to add detail using the Bambu H2D.

The student in this task was an eight year old student who is in cohort two in that she has had two years of using Tinkercad with her iPad to design.    

We had previously completed designs like this in the past such as 2016 which you can click on the link here to.

In this design the student wanted to put their initials into the print so they sunk them into the design at the top.   The length of the dent was 2mm by 1mm across - the printer was able to replicate the detail and avoid having any filament or PLA on it.

The spiral of the design, which can be seen in the photograph to the left was also another feature.   The printer printed an insert, rafting into the gap which was removed when the print was complete.   

One of the very obvious benefits of this project and challenge is that the finished project is quite small and could be completed with a minimal print time and price point.

Level of Difficulty: Medium - this task is deceptively simple however the students had a range of ideas from the practical to the not so practical and the size of the print was determined by the purpose.

Size: The print was 70mm from top to bottom.  The main body of the design was 30mm high by 40mm by 20mm.   The spiral at the base of the design was 30mm high.   This was designed to work with a regular pencil/pen although the hole that was the insert for the pen worked better with a vivid as it was probably a few millimetres too wide.  The student has stated that this will require an adjustment to work with pencil.

Cost/Price: One of the key elements of this print and others in the series is that the price point, as determined by the Bambu Lab software is using 10g of PLA to complete the print with a corresponding price point of $0.25.

Timeframe: With the dimensions of the print at present the print time to complete the project was fifty minutes from start to finish.

What we would do differently/Next Steps for the student: This student was able to create a comic facial expression by using the basic elements as shown and included their initials.  They could have provided additional features on the other side of the design.  As noted the insert is slightly loose and the student needs to reduce the width of the insert hole in the base of the main body.

There are a range of potential prints coming from the classroom from this project, this is simply the first.   The students will be contributing to a slideshow featuring a range of designs in this format.   In addition to that and the prints noted in this post there is a wealth of material that can be accessed by using the 'search' bar in the top right hand corner of this blog.

A final word of caution we are extremely lucky to have a Bambu H2D and are using it to complete every print this year.  If you have an older machine the time to print and the detail in some smaller objects such as this might be somewhat limited.

3D Printed Junior 'Cyclops' Challenge

Challenge: To use a large single eye in conjunction with a print design (aka the cyclops challenge).

Background: We are nearly three quarters of the year through the school year in New Zealand and the students have been using Tinkercad as a design tool for nearly all of this time (as we started projects in the first week) there is also a number of students who were in the classroom last year with nearly two years design experience.   As a teacher I tend to be looking for examples and ideas that I can present to the students, the classroom and challenge them to come up with ideas and creations with a loose direction.

This project idea came from something that developed with a previous print project on this blog.    We were using a 'cat' theme for our literacy tasks and so a natural fit was 3D design - the students finished several of these designs with stick on eyes - as can be seen in these posts on this blog.    While we now have the potential to use the Bambu H2D to change filaments mid print and produce a eyeball we also wanted to look at a physical 'eye' as a starting point for a design.

By purchasing a packet of large oversized eyes from a local craft shop, for a nominal fee, it was presented to the students with the challenge of producing something based on the design however the students could only have one eye and the print had to have a purpose to it.    The students brainstormed ideas and looked into projects that had worked previously from storage to pencil toppers.    The limit to the eyes created a 'cyclops' aspect to the challenge and students worked in monster designs as part of it.   As shown left and above the student used the Tinkercad main interface to design oversized teeth and gums, ears and a socket for the eye.

The students were collectively creating as so were able to bounce ideas off each other they also used AR/VR to project their designs into different locations to look at their suitability for design and to consider aspects of their creations.   In the example shown below the student duplicated his original design.

This allowed him to develop two seperate prints for his project, a pencil holder on the left, which he then inverted and turned into a pencil topper, reduced the size and put a hole in the bottom so essentially turned one project into two.   

Level of Difficulty: Low - this is essentially a task where the open aspect of it allows students to create something with an open scale and design features (for instance it would have been more challenging to produce a realistic cat.

Size: This print was initially created to be 70mm across and was 60mm high.   The print was designed originally as a prototype and to realistically store pencils would need to be of a larger scale, with greater ability to hold stationary.   The pencil topper needed to the other direction as it couldn't be too big as it would upset the ability to write realistically with a pencil.

Timeframe: Just over two hours.  This was completed on the Snapmaker printer - if it had been completed on the Bambu we would have expected this to be half the time, something in the region of one hour.

What we would do differently/next steps for the students: As noted there is some redesign that is required when the student decides on the direction that they want to go on, either increasing the storage or reducing the storage depending on the purpose.   The design is robust, comical and the student has the balance right between the task and producing something that has appeal.   The other thing to keep in mind is that the student who is responsible for this design is seven years old, although they have shown an aptitude for creation and design.

3D Printed Pencil Topper - Junior School Printing Challenge.

 

The concept for this idea came from a student bringing an object into the classroom and into school that we were able to use as a model or inspiration and apply some of our design and creation techniques too.

A student brought a comedy monster figure, that was wrapped around a pencil and was light enough not to affect the writing for the student.

We felt that our students given the opportunity would be able to replicate this design but put their own spin on it.    As a project the print time for each of the prints that the students develop would be minimal which would allow the project to be completed with the students being able to produce a print each (remembering of course that there are 27 students who are present in our class).

The PLA as evidence by our first prints has held up quite well.   One of the issues that has been coming up already is the balance between having the prints snug and allowing them to clasp onto the pencils.   We want the design to be able to used across multiple pencils depending on the students wish.    

As we have been doing when its appropriate as our students use iPads they have the option of using Tinkercad to AR/VR their designs into place how they could potentially look, which allows them to check their viability prior to printing.   In the example shown left the student was able to create a design and then test how it might look by placing it on a pencil as an example.

One of our tasks at present is the preparation for Market Day 2025, we discussed this design with students but discussion at present showed a limit to thinking that this could potentially be a business.   While there is some variation in the amount of PLA and print time it is amongst some of the shortest or smallest designs that we have featured for a while - with early examples taking twenty minutes or so.

In the coming days we are going to look to the students to refine their designs.  We have the example, we have the ideas but we would be looking for expression, details, characters and exaggerated features.   In addition to the regular PLA we also have some special PLA like rubber, which would perhaps be ideally suited for something like this.

Students also need to consider features of the pencils like erasers or how the tops can sometimes differ.  The key to this task is precision measuring to ensure that everything fits.    

Some designs like the one shown left have a spiral that fits perfectly but the star that is going to be at the top of the design certainly needs to be more robust or have strength to survive repeated use and changing of positions, which the student has already completed.