Science City's Ultimakers (http://www.ultimaker.com/)
We talked about the process and anatomy of 3D printing. The 3D printer has a spool of plastic on the back called filiment, this is fed from the back through the tube up top into the extruder. The extruder heats the plastic up to roughly 180 degrees and higher. There are different kinds of plastic that are used in 3D printers, which are heated at different temperatures. The extruder or the bed (the platform which is printed upon) or both move along the x,y and z axes (in three dimensions). The print is made by layering horizontal layers so that a three dimensional object is made.
We first looked at images different types of printers, then at sample prints to see the horizontal layers/structure. Then we looked at photos of innovative prints. We discussed 3D printing techniques for things other fun plastics: plastic prosthetics, biological matter, food, etc.
Each student got a 3D printed object (a bracelet or a coin) to take home, which were printed on one printer during class while another (more complex/time consuming) print was being made on the second printer. The students were welcome to both watch the printers and look at 3D printed objects during work time.
We did two sets of projects related to the 3D printers. The first set of projects were made based on the fact that 3D printers reconfigure their materials (plastic, biological, etc.) into new forms through horizontal layers. The kids layered yarn (wrapped around other objects with glue), paper (glued in layers) and paper straws (also glued):
dries, leaving only yarn glued into form.
Paper Layers
For the second set of projects we focused on the change in the state of the plastic, the fact that it must be melted in order to become reconfigured in the first place. We melted wax (crayons) and plastics (beads and spoons) to make new creations out of the materials:
Melted Bead Projects:
1. Glue bead design to aluminum foil with glue stick (liquid glue browns when heated).
The glue is to hold the beads to the foil as you transport everything to the toaster oven to heat it.
2. Heat until melted (time and temp. vary with type of beads, just keep and eye on it).
3. After melting, peel the beads from the foil and have a newly formed plastic object.
Melted Spoon projects:
1. Decorate spoons (or other plastic cutlery) with permanent markers.
2. Melt spoons in toaster oven/oven, again just watch them. They take a while to heat up but once they do they shirnk and get very pliable fast. Different spoons/plastics will heat up at different speeds/temps.
3. WITH GLOVES!, bend spoons into position desired and hold (~10-20 seconds) until it stays in that shape. Let cool down another 10+ minutes and you have crazy new spoon-based creations.
Suncatchers:
1. Peel and grate crayons. Your cheese grater is useless for food after this.
2. Sandwich grated wax in between two sheets of wax paper.
3. Melt wax and wax paper sandwich with an iron.
We sandwiched the sandwich in between aluminum foil sheets so as not to ruin the table and iron.
4. We cut out shapes from our melted wax squares afterwards.
Custom Crayons:
1. Melt crayon wax (peeled crayons) in a crock pot. You can never use the crock pot for food again.
2. Scoop wax into mold. 3. When it cools you have a custom crayon.
Full tutorial here: http://3-giraffes.blogspot.com/2012/06/custom-crayons.html.
Further resources and information:
Ultimaker 3D printer: http://www.ultimaker.com/
Biological 3D printing: http://www.gizmag.com/3d-printed-biological-tissues/24155/
3D printed prosthetics: http://robohand.net/
3D printed Food: http://www.nasa.gov/directorates/spacetech/home/feature_3d_food.html
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