Art Project #53: 3-D Printing

November 28, 2016

Well, I finally got around to blogging about the day we learned how our library's 3-D printer works.

As part of our 100 Days of Art Challenge I have been trying to introduce my boys to new genres and areas of art. I was thrilled when I realized we could use our library's 3-D printer for a lesson in combining art and technology.

We had such a great time taking this private "class" and learning all about 3-D printing. The boys had a few questions but mostly they enjoyed watching the machine at work and looking up their own printing ideas.

The printer we have access to

Checking out the wheel of plastic "thread" and how it feeds into the machine

Looking at some of the projects they've made we found BB8!

The colors of plastic we have to choose from

Watching it print a Pokeball

Looking with the librarian at some of the projects other have designed

The machine started mis-printing while we were there. We were bummed not to have a
Pokeball to go home with but it allowed us to see how the machine really works.

To clear the machine when it malfunctions the material is threaded back out and back in then it
starts streaming some plastic for a bit before it once again starts printing.

The machine automatically prints a waffle design inside to use less plastic and make the items
more light weight. It also helps them print out faster.

My boys each filled out a paper to have their own items printed. Since it is a 3-D printer that is available for the whole town to use we had a few restrictions. They can only print one item a week and print jobs can not take more than three hours.

The boys were thrilled to find such a huge variety of projects on-line that are readily available to choose from. People from all over the world are sharing 3-d printing ideas on sharing sites.