Waiting for Printing to End

Michele and I are in semester four of 3D printing overall, semester two of printing for adults.  We are getting better with design, we know how to troubleshoot and anticipate needs, the kids and adults are getting very creative with things they want to print. We even got another printer, the XYZprinting machine. So we have doubled the amount of printing, but the seminal problem still remains.

The problem?

Waiting for the printing to end.

Then printing something else.

Waiting for the printing to end.

Then printing something else.

Waiting for the printing to end.

The trouble with teaching 3D printing as a subject is filling the lag time that students have for printing.  Designing simple pieces that students can use to put together will not take long once students have learned how to use the software.  Waiting for printing is the slow process.

Size Matters

Small designs are killing us.  It is very hard to get students to print things that will come out into 3 inch bubbles. Also, one team is designing items that are by nature quite small.  It presents a problem because the designs don't always print out so small.  The upside is that the printing gets done quickly.

Teaching Adults

So we are just about to wrap up our first ever semester of teaching adults how to use the 3d printer.  I have learned a lot about the process from doing it.

First off, adults and children alike are equally as amazed when they print out their first object.

Second, people who post to Thingiverse don't really print out their designs often because the resulting objects come out pretty awful.  I can tell you the exact number of times we've had to reprint because people's Thingiverse designs came out wrong: 4.

Third, adults and children alike are equally into painting their finished designs. Makerbot has put out a Replicator that can print in two colors.  Eventually, 3D printing will evolve into a multi-color process, which will eliminate the entire post-printing paint process. I think that will be a loss to 3D printing, because people will lose out on the experience of artistic rendering. 

Teaching 3D Printing in the Content Area

So today was my first day teaching adults in the Board of Education.  There were a lot of parallels to teaching children and some marked differences. The similarities were that both adults and students were excited when their 3D models printed out.  The major difference was that everyone wanted to keep learning new things immediately and children usually tune out after awhile.