3d Print project for Donation to elementary school

3D Fabrication
#1

Hey guys, been away for a while. My sis-in-law is an elementary school teacher. she got some dividers provided by the district for her desks for the students…however they didn’t provide anyway to secure them of course.

i 3d printed a solution at home for her, she needs 19 sets. i will have them complete for her for next week opening.

of course other teachers now want to buy them, i would never sell them to teachers and would gladly print a set for each teacher but a set takes about 3.5 hours to print on my printer so i don’t have the capacity to supply more than 1 or 2 other teachers in any reasonable time frame.

i would glady pay for the filament at the space if we could set up a factory set to produce them it would be amazing.

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thoughts?

#2

Seems like the solution is pretty obvious there. Charge the Teachers what it would cost for a few printers and the filament to print the dividers. If you feel bad about taking the teacher’s money then donate the printers (maybe even to the teachers!) once the project is done.

#3

that is a definite solution. however these are teachers even a creality cr-3 is still 200.00 right now. would need 4 or 5 chugging them out and the maker spaces printers are better. however this is something to think about.

1 Like
#4

Are you looking for people to print them at home?

#5

If anybody wants to participate that would be awesome

#6

What plastic? Is the plastic going to be strong enough last around kids?

#7

im printing out of PLA, its more durable than the foam board that the dividers are made out of.

#8

We have an Ender3 and can print a few of these. Not sure how many we can get done but happy to help if you still need more. Shoot me an email with the files if you want! [email protected]

#9

thank you so much alyssa

#10

Odd thought here … could this be molded from something, since you could 3D print a “master” to create the mold?

#11

that is a definite possibility. material would need to be similar stiffness to PLA but just enough flex that its not extremely brittle. a silicone mold and then an epoxy resin.

does anyone have a brand of resin that would be appropriate?

#12

This part doesn’t look 1-part moldable to me. But I also only have 1 view so I could be wrong.

2-part mold ups the difficulty quite a bit.

Is the purpose here just holding pieces of foamboard perpendicular or parallel to each other or the desk?
I think something like a cube with corresponding slices out of it could be done in large batches out of plywood with a table saw?
I don’t have a clue though since I don’t know how it’s supposed to work.

Maybe a redesign for manufacturing at scale is in order?

#13

@jacob for sure molding might be difficult as there is an angle to the design.

  1. the design can’t be permanent to either the divider or the table.
  2. the divider is not sized correctly for the table. hence the angle.
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#14

my concept was to angle the divider so that the student had the most arm room as possible.

#15

That makes a bunch of sense.

If you slope the outside edge of the part that clamps to the table, at the same angle as the part that holds the foamboard, it should slide right out of the mold. The inside edge doesn’t have to be sloped. This does mean desks can’t go right up against each other unless the part is sanded or cut afterwards.

There are some castable materials that are soft enough to get out of molds with a little bit of a negative angle on them. To get a feel for what you are looking for just youtube a shore hardness

https://www.smooth-on.com/page/durometer-shore-hardness-scale/

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#16

How many do you need and when?
I have 4 printers and can set them going on these.
I can also present to our robotics team (Woodrow Wilson Robocats) as a community support project. We have a number of printers available that the students have been printing face shields with but are now free.

2 Likes
#17

We need a total of 400. School starts on Tuesday, but the teachers understand that we’ll get them over there as they become available.

#18

Send me the STL and I can start at least printing SOME over the weekend. I can also call in the troops and should have a bunch ready Monday for you.
Do you care about the color?

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#19

We’ve got 5 sets printed!

3 Likes
#20

Send me the STL, too. I’ll get some going at home this weekend.

1 Like