One of the special ed teachers in the district heard that we had a 3-D printer and wondered if we could make some replacement pieces for a game that her students play. Since we're not a manufacturing facility, I gave it some thought and figured that it would be a learning process. I also "charged" her two rolls of duct tape.
When the sample pieces arrived, I realized that I would have to learn how to use our calipers to measure the various dimensions.
Then I had to transform those measurements into a 3-D design in Tinkercad, where even the simplest shape can be composed of scores of negative space components.
Then there's the speed issue. Our Makerbot Mini 3-D printer took nearly an hour to print the two 38.5mm pieces in the screenshot above. Not exactly mass-production speed.
It's important to remember that consumer 3-D printers are really about prototyping or one-off pieces.
Only I saw the imperfections in the final pieces. Teacher Clare pronounced them "perfect." I learned a lot, not only about the mechanics of reproducing something in 3-D, but also about the mental approach to design. More about that in my follow-up to the rice funnel fight to the death.
Thanks for sharing. Still trying to find out if you accept new students in your classes. I'll be honored to submit my application
ReplyDeleteCookielover, I work for a public school. We'd be happy to have you if you live near the Cupertino, California school district.
ReplyDelete