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unplugged-ipad-stand-rwFamicmBbmgafvoJbbn.zip (3.29 MB)

Over the last week I have been introducing students to some iPad apps for 3D printing and laser cutting. To do this effectively I have been using our digital projector and a VGA to Apple dock connector cable (unfortunately I don't have access to apple tv) ... But it became more and more frustrating when the iPad moved on the table and the dock connector kept falling out... Note to self, I must get a longer VGA cable! But in the meantime I need another solution. So that's why I've 3D printed a stand for my iPad. Maybe that will give me a more stable platform to work from and help prevent the cable from being pulled out... I'll give it a try next week!

Being in a bit of a rush to get things done I didn't have time to design the stand myself so after a browse on Thingiverse I found this one ... So thanks to "Hobie" whose design can be found at http://www.thingiverse.com/thing23225

Some time ago Autodesk released 123D Catch, a free (beta), online service for creating 3D objects using just an ordinary digital camera. I couldn't resist giving it a go! But I didn't have great success, probably due to my impatience... I just didn't take enough photos... You need to upload about 50 to 70 pictures!

Well it looks like the guys at Bits from Bytes (3D Systems) have been doing a bit of experimenting and judging by the above photo they have been more successful than me!

The BfB guys have also been looking at using a kinect camera to produce 3D objects using the free ReconstructMe software.. Wish I had one of those kinects to play with.

Anyway, if you are interested to give it a go yourself just have a look on the BfB website (just click the "support" button at the top of the homepage and select "technical resources", scroll down to the bottom of the page for the links to the information).

Of course being "free" this is ideal for experimenting with in schools, I really must give it a go again. If you try it yourself or with your students why not let us know how you get on.

A few weeks ago a film crew from UWE (University of the West of England) came into school to make a "Breakfast TV" style program about 3D printing... Of course, where better to go than Clevedon School to interview Mr White and one of the GCSE Product Design students.

The program not only shows 3D Printing at Clevedon School but also some of the research taking place at UWE.... Can you believe that they are actually printing 3D objects with ice cream!

Anyway, here is the video clip... Watch out for Tyler and Mr White about half way through the video.... Enjoy!

And thanks to the guys at UWE for letting me use this clip.

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3d-printing-and-scalextric-for-schools-jdIdnGwlydfelhBsaglB.zip (1.9 MB)

Quite some time ago with the help from the guys at Bits from Bytes (3D Systems) we did some experimenting with PTC for the Scalextric in Schools competition (there is a post about this earlier in this blog).

We printed body shells and vacuum forming moulds for Scalextric cars. This proved to be very successful and Tim Brotherhood from PTC displayed the parts at the D&T show... Anyway, not having a laser cutter at the time I couldn't make the chassis, so the body shells went into storage. Tidying up my study the other day I came across the moulds again and decided to have a go at assembling a car.

I took the files into school and cut out the parts for the chassis and spent an hour or so assembling it. It's a lovely bit of designing as it is all held together with a single bolt! I also vacuum formed a new body shell and cut off the excess material and wheel arches... Hey presto, a fully working Scalextric car! Maybe I'll get round to adding windows, decals and "go faster stripes" someday.

I have also used our 3D Touch printer to print out a new body shell... Being a bit over excited I broke the last one when I ham fisted tried to remove the support material from inside... Oops! So this time I'll see if I can get the guys at Bits from Bytes to dissolve away the support materials with one of their fantastic new ultrasonic tanks, but perhaps that's for another day.

Now I'm wondering... How can I get hold of some track? Maybe then I will try to get a team of students together in school to enter the competition!

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led-lights-and-3d-printing-HsjmBFmJbeGxstfqqBdt.zip (2.55 MB)

The other day I came across some inexpensive LED panels that are really intended for replacing conventional bulbs in cars. This got me thinking about how these can be used in school. We have some display cases in the D&T department that are used to display work done by our students and there isn't any lighting... Hardly the way to showcase outstanding work... So something needs to be done!

I needed to try out these LED lights and then it struck me, an application that would try out the lights and help keep Mrs W happy with all the 3D printing I have been doing. Mrs W always complains that our kitchen is too dark, so what about using these light for under cupboard lighting?

The LED panels come with a sticky pad on the back and after trying these out for a couple of days I found that the heat and steam in the kitchen made them fall off... So this is where the 3D printing comes in!

I quickly designed a bezel or surround that would contain the LED panel and had screw fixings to attach it to the cupboard... You can see the designs, 3D prints, and the final solution in place in the attached pictures.

Mrs W is very happy with the results and now I'm wondering about how students can incorporate these in their D&T project work... And of course do the lighting for the display cases in school.

I keep hearing that a new revolution is taking place... A 3D printing revolution. But what does this mean in an educational context?
This document explores some of my thoughts on this issue.

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Developing_3D_printing.pdf (225 KB)

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Developing_3D_printing.pdf (225 KB)

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3d-printed-pencil-sharpener-the-final-part-saJxgiCxGvzwicozAtfq.zip (1.62 MB)

If you browse back through this blog you will be able to see how one of my students has attempted to design an improved pencil sharpener.

His designs started out as a desktop model and by looking back at his specification for the design decided that something more portable and easier to use for small hands would be a better route to follow.

His next design was really quite innovative and involved fold out cross pieces that formed a handle for better leverage. It also incorporated a standard metal pencil sharpener to do the main job of sharpening... However he was still not entirely satisfied. It was now close to becoming a marketable product but having to rely on another manufacturers sharpener wasn't really a good idea, and the pointy ends of the fold out handles wasn't very aesthetically pleasing... So...

The final iteration of his design addressed these issues... And matches the specification beautifully as you can see in the photos.

I firmly believe that without being able to do 3D printing for his prototypes and adopting an iterative design process this student would still be looking at a chunky desktop product and would never have developed his design in such detail.

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new-3d-year-9-printed-projects-FhsFqmgGpIgkxCdCfkhq.zip (2.05 MB)

This term I have been working pretty hard with year 8 and year 9 students doing some CAD/CAM projects. We mainly concentrate on 2D CAD in year 8 and 3D in year 9 with students doing some 3D printing of their projects using our 3D Systems Bits from Bytes machines.

One of the favourite projects with the year 9 students is to follow a teaching and learning resource I have made freely available on the BfB wiki called "Mobile Mate" ... Designing and making mobile phone stands. You can of course download it here. http://wiki.bitsfrombytes.com/index.php/Mobile_Mate

Just thought you might like to see one of the first prints from the current batch of students,

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making-metal-castings-from-3d-prints-muAbndbygnhyqgvevFuk.zip (1.1 MB)

Why do I listen to my students? It only causes me to have crazy ideas.

So here is the full story.

The student who designed the barman's bottle opener (see a previous post) was looking at how his design would be manufactured "for real" and decided that it would probably need to be die cast... Of course we couldn't contemplate doing that but we do have some casting facilities in school... And we have heard of "lost wax casting", but what about "lost plastic casting" in a traditional sand mould? Errrrr?? This got me thinking, surely at the temperature that aluminium melts the plastic print from our 3D printer would just burn away to nothing. Time for a bit of testing!

With the fume extraction going full blast we placed a sample of ABS in our brazing hearth and played a flame over it... Result a black blob and lots of black smoke. But what about PLA? Tried this too... Result it completely disappeared just leaving a small stain on the fire bricks. Maybe there was some mileage in this, so time for a full test.

We unearthed all the casting boxes, crucibles, leather aprons, face masks, gaiters and other other paraphernalia, made a sand mould with petrobond (oil bound) sand with suitable runners and risers and then fired up the furnace. All very exciting stuff as we don't get to do this sort of thing very often in school these days.

After a bit of a wait we degassed the molten aluminium and the moment of truth had arrived... Time to pour it into the mould! Everything went smoothly, we now only had to wait for the aluminium to solidify and cool down... The excitement was mounting! And the smell of scorched sand was pervading the whole department much to the disgust of my colleagues.

But now the time had come to break open the mould... Bated breath as the sand was crumbled out of the casting box..... And..... FAILURE!!!.... It hadn't worked! The 3D printed PLA object was only slightly melted on one side, surely it couldn't have resisted that sort of heat, but it had.

So, back to the drawing board and a bit more thinking is needed... I'm convinced that it should work but we just have to find out exactly how to do it.

On the other hand, perhaps I shouldn't keep listening to my students.

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axon-2-full-version-released-CnhxGGwubpJkuipzFqlE.zip (1.04 MB)

5th March saw the release of the full (non beta) version of Axon 2 ... The 3DS BfB software for converting .stl files into the gcode that drives RapMan, 3DTouch and BfB 3000 3D printers.

The interface will look very familiar to users of the previous versions but Andrew at BfB has done a lot of tweaks and tidying up.

There are loads of changes... Far to many to list them all here... Some of the nice ones are.

Drag and drop files into the program.

Objects that are moved too far on the print bed show up as "out of bounds" and lines are displayed on the bed to show the limits of the extruders (this matches the number of extruders installed on the machine.

Tidy materials editor including materials cost... An estimate of the printed object cost is shown after generating the gcode.

Warning if trying to exit without saving the gcode.

Bug fixes ..many of these.. Such as the object now moves in the correct direction when moved on the print bed. And changing a material profile no longer needs a restart of the program.... And more.

"thin wall" settings removed as skeinforge (the engine that drives Axon in the background) handles these better.

A revert to default button... Fantastic when after tinkering with the settings has gone horribly wrong... Must have happened to us all at some time or other.

And one of my favourites ... Right click switches from 3D view to a 2D top view (great for moving the object around on the print bed and checking layers of the gcode.

A huge thank you to Andrew at 3DS BfB as many of these improvements have come about because of constructive feedback from users... And I'm really pleased to see that a few of my suggestions have been implemented.

So all in all Axon 2 is looking and working very well and as always produces excellent results straight out of the box... Great for students and teachers alike.

Oh and watch out for the new icon... It took me ages to find it on the far too cluttered desktop on my battered old laptop!