The Sullivan Center For Innovation and Learning

This is for all those people I have met at the NAIS Convention in Boston...check out the Sullivan Center for Innovation and Leadership. Go to The Sullivan Center to see what is going on in our Upper School.

More Medieval Faire Makers

Our 6th graders are becoming makers as they get ready for the Medieval Faire. Below are some more pictures of things our students are making in the Lab. Our students are making signs, tools, game boards, weapons, medical instruments, and other items that will be used for their booth at the faire.

Filament Test...Glow-in-the-dark PLA vs Regular PLA vs NinjaFlex

I got the settings for these 3 filaments (Glow-in-the-dark PLA, Regular PLA & NinjaFlex) pretty much figured out, so I wanted to do a side by side by side test. Here's what I did: I used the Printrbot Simple Metal 3D printer along side a Apple MacBook Air running the latest Slic3r software. Room temperature was about about 80 degrees (no AC, just ceiling fans, a few windows open and the roof ventilation fan running).

I printed a paper clip that I downloaded from Thingiverse. It has a hole on the top to put a stick pin through and attach it to a cork board. There is also a small "nub" inside the "clip" part that holds your papers when they are slid in.

Glow-in-the-dark PLA

Regular PLA

NinjaFlex

The GITD PLA did not print a hole...you can see where it's suppose to be but I think the filament didn't set up quickly enough to form the hole. The regular PLA has a clear hole that can be seen in all the pictures. The NinjaFlex was a little better then the GITD. The whole is clearly visible from the backside, but the front side is almost covered.  

When you looked at the sideview, you can see that the GITD left a lot of random lines of filament. In order for it to be useable, you would have to clean it up with an x-acto knife. Also, when I tried to put the pin through the "hole", the clip split almost totally in half. The other two clips are usable as is.

I will continue to play around with these filaments and try some different settings. The settings for the NinjaFlex and the Glow-in-the-dark filament are also on this blog. If anyone has any suggestions, please feel free to drop me a note. 

3D Printing with Printrbot's Glow-in-the-dark PLA Filament

Our 3rd graders have a "Space Night" each spring and so I thought we might be able to use Printrbot's Glow-in-the-dark PLA filament. I got a spool and got to printing. The first thing I noticed is that this filament is very brittle...both on the spool and after you print. Finding the right settings has been process. I have gotten OK results but I want to try to make it more consistent.

If you take a look at my post of a filament test between GITD PLA, Regular PLA and NinjaFlex, you can see how they compare. Also, if you check out the post "3rd Grade Space Night and Glow-in-the-dark Filament"...this is a nose cone that we printed for one of the students water rockets.

What I want to do here is show you some of the other things I have tried to print and give you my settings.

The first thing I noticed is that until the filament starts to flow consistently, it leave "hairs" as it goes. I clean them off the printer bed as quickly as I can. Once a solid bead of filament is extruded, I let it go. The second thing was that I needed to support the filament from the spool to the extruder because it is brittle...so I got a long straw and slide the filament through it.

Next I printed a snowflake. First with a large brim then with no brim. The one with out the brim was much more fragile and one of the sections of the snowflake cracked when I took it off the bed. Both had lots of "hair" but I kind of like it for the snowflake.

That's it so far. Like I said, decent results but I am sure I can clean it up a bit. Maybe change the travel time or play with the temperature.

Below are my settings. If you try something different that gets better results, please let me know.

FabLab Door

I thought I would show you what we have been doing with the entrance door to our lab. The schedule and signs were cut on the laser cutter. The hooks were printed with the 3D printers. The quotes were made with the silhouette vinyl cutter. All the quotes are from famous inventors.

3rd Grade Space Night and Glow in the Dark Filament

Our 3rd graders have a "Space Night" every spring. I decided that it might be cool to have some glow in the dark PLA filament incase our kids wanted to print anything. One of our young men wanted to make a nose cone for his water rocket. I told him about the engineering design process we use in the Lab and he began designing his nose cone. Once he came up with a sketch, he began creating it on the computer using 123D Design. With some improving things here and there, he finally came up with a design he was happy with.

So off to the 3D printer we go...but not without a lot of "improving" on my part. Getting the right settings for this filament took a few test prints, but in the end we got things working. I'll put my settings in a separate post.

He printed his nose cone in 3 pieces and glued them together. He created his own top, he hollowed out a cone from 123D Design, and he used a screw-on water spout that he downloaded from Thingiverse. Now he can screw the nose cone to the top of his 2 litter water rocket.

On Space Night, it will be off to the wild "dark" blue yonder.

A 2nd Grader goes 3D

One of our 2nd graders wanted to try his hand at making something with the 3D printer. He used 123D Design to create his sculpture and printed it out. Not bad for a first time creation.

He's a happy 3D maker.

The 6th Grade Medieval Faire

Every year, our 6th graders put on a medieval faire. This year, some of them are making use of the FabLab to create items for the roll they are playing.

This young man is going to be a blacksmith. 

He needed the laser cutter to create part of his bellows

We found a 3D Ballista to print.

One of the surgeons needed instruments. So she traced them, scanned them...

Copied over them in Inkscape...

And laser cut them out of wood.

Students also make games, shields, swords and signs.

Here's a shield right out of the laser cutter...

...and after some work at home...it even has handles on the back.