Market Day 2025: Mini Music Box

 

We have a number of projects for our 2025 Market Day, when our school will be holding a huge event for our local community.

As we have demonstrated and mentioned every student is part of a business group and each group has a product produced by the students using some of the technology and design available to our students.

We cannot showcase all of the individual businesses (although we will of course be producing significant media from the event that we will be posting here).

In this example shown in the photograph the students

have a wind up musical box, which has been housed inside a laser cut box.   Following the construction of the box it has been stained with a wood stain.   As with most of the boxes once they have been flat printed on the laser cutter they are then glued together using wood glue.

Of note with this design there is a handle which actions as a mini crank to work the music box and this can be clearly seen in the photo on the right hand side.

This box took fifteen minutes to print.

3D Printing Development - Beads to Learning Resources

 

We've spoken at length about various 2025 Market Day Projects as we move and develop ideas for our school event.

One of the best things about the event is the development of the skills in the process and also the accidental developments that have occurred as a result of the process.   One example is the group who have developed a business around having a se of individualised letter beads.

One of the staff member at the school has seen this progress and identified that they would show potential as a resource to help with the school junior spelling program.   The design is being held but the cube will be converted into a tile, removing the hole, and significantly reducing the height of the print, however balancing this is the extending of the print to increase its size and its usability.

The challenge for the students is to meet the brief that has been suggested by he staff member.   The print run (shown left) includes all of the letters of the alphabet as well as a number of picture beads.

At this stage the plan is to use the multi nozzle function of the Bambu H2D to include two different colours, one for the base of the tile and the second for the lettering.   This will produce a clear affect and also allow students to develop their design skills in using multi-colours printing.

Junior Design Challenge: Dolphin Theme

 

Challenge: For (junior School) students to produce a unique design that had a 'Dolphin' theme.

Background: The challenge came from our week task that was linked around Dolphins.    Some students as detailed previously opted to design and link in via Minecraft in a post that you can read here.

In this instance the student wanted to create a storage option for themselves.    They chose to create a draw on the opposite side of the design from the name, which was on this side.

The print was completed in two intended stages.  The first was completed on the Snapmaker.   With this print the student produced a design that they were happy with, however they wanted to reshape the design, and then opted to print it with the Bambu printer, which the student felt would provide a better finish.

The area of particular that was the most noticeable in this regard was the letter.   In the Snapmaker version there was waste PLA that needed to be removed and this compromised the lettering, in the case of the Bambu no adjustments were made and the lettering had minimal adjustments were required. 

The next stage of the process is to develop a working draw into the side of the design.   The student is going to work on a draw and then investigate the engineering required to have a working draw.

Level of Difficulty: Medium.  The students is wanting to engineer a working draw into this design, this is going to prove to be a interesting project for an eight year old.   The Dolphin design as shown was original and created by the student using the main interface.

Size: There are two distinct prints here.   The first was 100mm long 50mm wide and 40mm high.   When the student adjusted the print for the Bambu printer the new design was 120mm long, 80mm wide and was 50mm high.   This was reflected in the desire to create a bigger design.   The student is still working on the dimensions for the draw which they have adjusted as a result of the project upgrade.

Cost: The software to print this design is suggesting that it was be in the five dollar range.

Timeframe: The original print (Snapmaker) was eight hours on the Bambu it was reduced to under four.   This was printed with regular settings which in this case is an infill of twenty percent.

What we would do different/Next Steps for the students:   This project is going to involve a detailed engineering challenge which is the drawer that will operate as the storage for this.

We have also looked at using other 'wow' additions to a significant print such as this, we would like the student to consider LED lights for instance or another range of shapes or details that could be added to this project.

Dolls House - 2025 Project nearing completion.

 

In March of this year we started a school based project, in conjunction with a senior classroom (Year 7/8) where we attempted to rebuild a Dolls House as a special gift for our junior school.

We have written extensively about the project including the role that our students played, which was creating the furniture which will ultimately go into it for the students to play with - this is detailed in the slideshow at the end of this post.

Since August the Dolls House has undergone the final layering of details.   There are now two balconies on one side of the house above the two doors.   The upper layer has been created with windows and additional strength has been provided by a beam that is running the length of the design.

An internal staircase has also been introduced.   The entire design is now awaiting roofing with hinges that can provide easy access and some finishing touches.   A clear coat will be applied to the final design to seal and protect it.

We are also going to use the Versa Sign Maker to produce a protective coat for the wood.

While this has been a significant long term project it will end up producing something that will receive considerable use in the junior school.

The slideshow below details the entire project and our students involvement in the furniture making.

3D Printed Flexi-Animals Update

 

Challenge: To create a range of original flexi-animals

Background: During the year this challenge has been given to several students to use their design skills and create original flexi-animals or flexible 'fidget' like designs.   While these are available online and the Bambu online portal now has a click and drag tutorial to create these we have used it as an advanced design technique for students to work through to master the process.

We have previously posted about the start of the process in May with previous medium that was created by former students (that is students who were current at the time, but have now left the school)

This was when students went through the process of following ball and hinge creation tutorials to work flexibility into the designs.   The students continue to work on designs and continued to refine what they had made.   By the end of June the first original linking animals had been created and tested, although the linking was requiring further development.   You can view the June update by clicking on the link to the post here.   Recently the students identified for the School 2025 Market Day that a viable business could be run by making original designs and creations for this.    

The version in blue shown left, and above left is the final Snapmaker version of the print.   The finish shown left (on the right) is the latest Bambu version (as we have detailed regularly there is a difference in quality and time from the two printers such as demonstrated here).    As we are looking at flexibility of the print we have determined the Bambu as the most suitable for this project.

The student is now going to apply the flexible linking to the silhouette of an animal as was the intention in the first place.   By using the linking which has shown to be robust and working the student can apply this to a multitude of designs and shapes by following the same format.   This was how we produced a range of original flexi-animals in 2022.

Level of Difficulty: Hard - this has been a long term project and while there are potential short cuts the student has developed the skill to do it, which has taken several months to get to the final design.  The student is eight years old and has been working independently, aided only by previous videos created by a twelve year old student of our school.

Size: As it stands now the design is currently measuring 120mm long 100mm wide at the base of the tree and is 10mm thick.

Cost: According to estimates now available for printing that are clearly there this print cost for regular filament is 80c and 90c for glow-in-the-dark filament.

Timeframe: Two hours and ten minutes (Snapmaker) - as noted the preference is for using the Bambu H2D to produce the final version due to finish and the completion time.

What we would do differently/next steps for the students:  As noted there is develop coming from this linking this project to others and a range of designs, which the student can now easily master.    The finish for the fidget toy is also to be determined.

3D Printed 'Cyclops' Print - Completed Design

This project was started by the use of 'eyes' for as a provocation for the students, where they were challenged to design an original and unique creation on the basis of this.

This was detailed in a previous post on this blog.

The sheet of eyes that is shown left had a variety of sizes and also had a variety of details.  It was purchased from a local craft store for $5.00 although there are online versions listed significantly cheaper.

The design was completed in Tinkercad.  It was designed by a seven year old student.

We will be producing a teaching directed and targeted video explaining the process and the details of this project.

The final print, when printed with rainbow filament is show left.   The eye as detailed has been held in place by the space that was designed to house it, it did not need to be glued as it was forced in, and it expanded and then locked in place.

The print was successful and has got us thinking what else might we be able to present to the students to provide them a provocation to design and create?

We can print one of these designs on the Bambu in just over an hour for a single print, although we have put four of them on a plate and successfully printed all of them with an adjusted timeframe.

Special Event: DDR Dance Machine K-Pop Special

 

Having just held another school event - our DDR/Step Master Machine Livestream of K-Pop Demon Hunters we wanted to share the details and explain how the tech that we have at our school is used for this event.

The livestream and the videos are located at Mr Bloors Youtube Channel, this has everything including his amazing video that details the building of the Step Master Machine.

This video is located here and his Youtube page is located here.     The school laser cutter and Roland Versa sign maker were both used extensively in the creation of this machine.    For the purposes of the broadcast you can also see the filming rig.

As explained in a previous post on this blog we used the school laser cutter to create these MDF blocks which were 130mm square.

The blocks then had applied to them a sticker from the Versa studio sign maker.   This was made up of the poster that had been produced for the event which then in turn created a puzzle for the students to solve which became one of the challenges in the video.

You can click on this link to see the portion of the video that first used the blocks in the form of the puzzle.   The second challenge involving the blocks was the tower stacking challenge that can be viewed by clicking on the link here.

To produce something special for the students who won the competition these clickers were produced.   The clickers were sourced from a commercial location and are equivalent of a fidget toy.

The unique aspect of the design was the fact that the Bambu H2D Printer was used to produce the top that made something unique to celebrate the event for the students.

The template for this was provided online and was personalised for this event.

Student who won the competition were rewarded by receiving the clicker as shown above and also given a sheet of stickers from the event that were themed around the 'K-Pop Demon Hunters Show/Movie.

These designs were located online and were made available for the students.

The stickers were printed on the Roland Studios Versa Signmaker.

The paddles that were given to each of competitors to wave and support their team.   These were produced by using the school laser cutter and the labels for each of the paddle was produced by using the Roland Versa sign maker.

Credit for the design and work on this post needs to be given for the amazing Mr Jason Bloor (Sonic Vision Studios).   You can click on the link to his amazing Youtube page here.