3D Printing

3D Printing (also called additive manufacturing) is a three dimensional model made from a digital file. Basically you are making something ! Why.

New Learning Possibilities – 3D printing provides students visual learning opportunities to experiment with ideas and creativity and create projects that you can touch and see. Learn from failures to create new a different ideas.

Promotes problem-solving skills – Learn how 3D printers work, how to use them, and how to troubleshoot and solve problems. By learning how to troubleshoot and solve 3D printer problems, students learn to practice persistence and endurance in overcoming difficulties while growing their imagination to innovate. This can translate to helping students solve their own problems in life as well.

We are using the Dremel Digilab 3d45 printer which uses the Cartesian Coordinate Plain (same that we study in middle school) and if I explore 3D printing I get the opportunity to reverse engineer some of the products I make because of the slicing process used to create objects.

Before using the 3D printer follow these steps:

First, Learn about digital manufacturing

Understand innovation disruption!. Zach Kaplan. Digital Manufacturing Revolution by Khan Academy

Second, Learn about the 3D Printing Industry

The 3D Printing Revolution (25.55 min)
Implementation of 3d Design in Housing (3.27 min)
Careers in 3D. What I Do And How Much I Make by Khan Academy

Third, Learn about the Dremel 3D45 Printer

Set-up and use the 3D45 Dremel printer (3.17 min)
How to unclog printer filaments (3.16 min)
Understand how to use the Tinkercad software (9 min)
- If you have not used Tinkercad before you must complete the Tinkercad Preliminary Challenge first.
  - Go to Tinkercad.com
  - Click the Join button in the upper right corner and enter as a student. Certify the terms and sign in with either your Google or own account.
  - Work on the Preliminary Challenge. This is a tutorial that pops up immediately as soon as you first sign in. It will take about 45 minutes to complete. There is also more info on Tinkercad Shapes

Want more:

Variety of 3D Printing Courses by Linked In Learning
Learn about 3D printing at 3D printing and use Tinkercad software by Autocad

Prerequisite. Assumes basic experience with Tinkercad 3D Modeling software.

Small Print Job Sample

Here are a few examples of some jobs that were printed by various students

Watch Out For These Mistakes!

Glue

Before you print anything use a glue stick in one direction to lightly cover the build plate . If you don't do this it may be difficult to take off whatever you are printing!

Put too much glue and your model will get distorted.

Printer Filament

If you change the printer filament make certain the filament is within the spool and do not cross the filaments otherwise the filament could break while printing

Correct Modeling

When creating a model think about what happens when you place objects upon other objects. Do the math. Create a bad design and the print job will fail where your design fails.

Common printer fails video

How To Determine Stability. Why? So your design does not tip over!

Calculate the center of mass of the overall assembly including all external loads.
Draw a cone (or the equivalent triangle, if working in 2D) with a) a half-angle of 18 degrees, and b) a tip placed at the overall center of mass.
Draw a circle (or line) where this cone or triangle intersects with the surface on which the assembly rests (usually the ground/floor).
Evaluate whether every one of the assembly’s points of contact is outside the circle or line above. If yes, the assembly is stable for static applications.

There are several ways you can use the 3D printers

Making connections to math I am studying
- Probability
  - Loaded Dice (7th Grade)
- Pythagorean Theorem
  - Pythagorean Proof kit (8th Grade)
- Volume
  - Create challenging irregular figures for the class to solve. Create these figures first in Tinkercad and then use the 3D printer to help figure out the volume.
Create something. Could be an existing product or a brand new creation.
- Engineering design
  - Boat propeller (7th Grade)
Open ended projects. Create something that helps solve a real world problem. Here are a few project examples:
- Create a Water Filter

Dremel 3D Lesson Plan - Grade 7 Boat Propeller.pdf