My 12 year old son’s computer teacher is going to show him how to work their MakerBot Replicator 2 printer and will let him design something himself on TinkerCad Software. Is there a good resource I can look at with him so he gets some idea of what he might design?
Hi there!
check out thingiverse.com 1 , this website has thousands of 3d models, that are ready to get printed, maybe your son likes do design something similar to start easy.
Most models that go beyond their bare techincal purpose (=> models that look very good) are designed in professional programms and/or many hours were invested in the design. What is your son interested in ? Starting at sports hobbies like soccer or basketball, over to movies like starwars or his favourite comic hero. For example thors hammer shouldn’t be that difficult to design. If your son can invest more time, he can add more detail, like engravings on the edges of the hammer. Also a joint to connect the rod to the head is something, that is fairly easy to design.
He could even attempt to create livehacks, like a custom holder for a drinking bottle, that gets mounted on his bike. I’d recommend to find a project, that can be printed as a single model. Objects that need to get assembled are, generally speaking, difficult to design and most likely the edges won’t align properly, due to tolerances.
Also precise parts like custom lego connectors will likely not be printable, and too difficult to design. On the other hand some simple geometries, like a lego minifigure in a large scale (15cm height or so) would be printable. Your son could ask the teacher to print the figure hollow with a relatively thin wall, this can be used to place a light bulb in the figure, to end up with a dimmed lamp.
I’ve not yet used TinkerCad, but am familiar with professional CAD software and all CAD programms have a fairly large amount of functions etc. in common. If you or your son have special questions on how to create a certain shape feel free to ask me for advice. You can contact me via my hub, here’s the link:
www.3dhubs.com/siegen/hubs/marius
Best of luck to you and your son with the project !
Cheers,
Marius Breuer
All down with @bgreenslade, indeed thingiverse.com is the biggest, other options:
Hi
We’re also developing modeling software for non-designers 3D Slash 1: if you go to our website, you can have a look at our Gallery for inspiration and you can use also curriculums we did for kids (in Education section 1 ; 1h30 workshop, funny toys). Have a look and don’t hesitate to contact us for feedback & help.
Maggie
Indeed, you get really nice results with 3D Slash, plus it’s quite easy to use. Warmly recommended: Talk Manufacturing | Hubs 1
Why not try out TinkerPlay as well. Building some cute robots would be fun!
Hi,
I’m 14 and currently are running a hub on here. I started at a similar age and found that just browsing through sites got me the inspiration to get into it. The main two sites I would recommend are MyMiniFactory and Thingiverse. Although thingiverse does have thousands of models, many of them are unrealistic to print on a desktop 3D Printer. On the other hand MyMiniFactory tests all their models to ensure they are printable. This helps to understand what is and isn’t possible on these machines.
As for CAD modelling I would recommend definitely starting with TinkerCad as it is by far the most simplest to use but still has many important functionalities that even the most expensive software packages do. I would also recommend he tries to model a simple design first, whether made up or inspired by another model.
Some ideas include:
Phone Cases
A simple headphone stand
A game stand (if he’s a gamer)
A pen pot
Then trying to engrave his name or something into them
Just some ideas. If you need any help, etc be sure to message me and I will try my best to help.
George
Hi, I wrote a book about 3D printing.
It might be suited for your son’s teacher.
It has 20 design projects from a simple post it holder to a chess set.
Every project has a 2D drawing with dimensions and a simplified walk trough.
Have a look at http://projectsfor3dprinting.com 1 for a sample chapter (the macbook stand)
You can buy the book on Amazon, or if you are London based at the Maker’s cafee or the London fablab.
Title: 3D printing projects 20 design projects for your 3D printer. By Kevin Koekkoek.
Happy to send your teacher a complementary copy, please send me an PM.
Kevin.
Hi,
I am doing an important project about the design an educational 3D printer.
Could you help me to do the questionnaire?
It just has 9 questions that will take you few minutes. In addition, can you let your friend who has similar age with you to fill in the questionnaire, too? Because I need different users’ responses.
Your feedback is very important.
Thank you for participating in my survey.
Rina
Hi carmb,
I am doing an important project about the design an educational 3D printer.
Could you help me to do the questionnaire?
It just has 9 questions that will take you few minutes. In addition, can you let your son to fill in the questionnaire, too? Because I need different users’ responses.
Your feedback is very important.
Thank you for participating in my survey.
Rina
