Schools: It’s time to start 3D Printing again
Why now in 2024?
If you were buying a TV and you were anything like me you would probably do about 30 minutes of research and then go out to Bing Lee, JB-HiFi or Harvey Norman and make a purchase. You would pick it up from the warehouse, go home and plug it in, spend 10 minutes figuring out the remote and menu system and then spend the next few years blissfully streaming Netflix or Binge - generally without any issues. What if, though every month you had some issue with your TV and had to reconfigure the menu, re-install apps, take the TV apart and replace bits of it, do some maintenance every few months....etc. This would be an untenable situation for most people (no, all people) and kind of ridiculous to even imagine, but this has been the world of 3D printing up until 12 months ago and it is no wonder that this amazingly creative manufacturing process has been largely ignored and has totally failed in most (I would hazard a guess at over 99%) schools up to this point in its 35 year history.
Yes, 3D printers have been around for a long time, but it was only last year in 2023 when they became conveniently reliable. More 3D printers have been purchased in 2023 by people who have no experience or skills in the area than ever before - in other words people who just want to print something. One of Sydney's most expert 3D printing Youtubers - Angus from Makers Muse, talks about this in one of his latest episodes (https://youtu.be/81yhh5szFAs?si=6VP2s73_Kv5SpY1Z). In other words, in 2023, printer manufacturers innovated like never before. Printing speeds doubled but more importantly machines have become reliable to the point that they just work out of the box and go on working like the bunnys on the old Duracell advert! For schools just getting into 3D printing this is a compelling reason to do so. For schools that have tried it before without much success, it could be the time to look at resurrecting it.
A Brief History of what it ‘has’ been like
The historical issues with 3D printing were knowledge & maintenance. Often only a single teacher in a school of 1000 students would understand how to use the printer. Why? Who knows - makes no sense to me. Sure, perhaps one teacher is in charge of TAS and the obvious candidate but it is an absolutely terrible strategy and a bottle neck. You’ve just spent $x thousand on a state of the art FDM printer and you have shown one teacher how to use it! I can think of better ways forward such as training a group of senior students and having the teacher act in a management function perhaps. The maintenance issue was truly a nightmare though - let’s say that schools started buying 3D printers about 7 years ago. In the time that has ensued, they would have encountered a multitude of maintenance issues, some easy to fix, some not. Teachers just can’t be doing with that! They don’t have the time. Rolling forward in time to 2024 - maintenance issues are by and large moot. A number of printers now work out of the box flawlessly and just go on working. You can setup a maintenance contract with a third party who only needs to come in once a year to service your printers - a job that shouldn’t take them more than 1 hour per printer. If you pick the right manufacturer, you will get a tonne of support and help in your 3D printing journey.
3D Modelling tools today
So what about 3D modelling. Well there are a plethora of 3D modelling tools. The one that I would personally recommend for younger students (stage 3 and stage 4) is Tinkercad ((https://www.tinkercad.com). Tinkercad is very easy to use and quite powerful. It also has a community, tonnes of resources on youtube and classrooms where you can setup your students and monitor/regulate them after a fashion. One of the weird things about 3D modelling is that there has never really been an intermediate tool. It is either Tinkercad for beginners or something like Fusion 360 or OnShape that does everything in the world. These are great for senior/engineering students as you can design and animate whole assemblies with these tools. Tinkercad can be learned in 1 hour - then it is just about practice.
Which printer should you get?
There are a number of manufacturers that are worth looking at in 2024 for reliable, fast and uncomplicated printers. I am going to mention two but I can only recommend one and only because of my experience with this company and their printers over the last 5 years. In no way am I connected with them or receive anything from them for doing this.
5 years ago I bought my first 3D printer - a Prusa MK/3. I have since upgraded it to an MK/3S+ and have added a second one. I have been using the first one for an average of 4 hours a day for the last 5 years and it is printing perfectly still. I have carried out maintenance on it a number of times and have had to fix it a number of times also. My second printer came in a kit (as did the first) and was built by my daughter who was 15 at the time. She also upgraded the old one and recently serviced both of them - they function as new. Now, I should point out that my daughter has zero interest in tech, computers, 3D modelling or printing. What I’m trying to say is that none of this stuff is difficult - it just requires a little bit of time and effort - like most things. You might be wondering why she did all this - my company paid her :). If a 15 year old girl with no interest in tech or STEM can do this easily and confidently I’m pretty sure this can be done successfully in schools.
Onto my recommendation. I would check out Bamboo and Prusa. Both have out of the box printers that will go on and on and on. I would personally recommend because I believe that their printers are high quality and their support ecosystem is fantastic. They are innovative and have a clear vision of who they are and where they are going. They are also for education and schools. I couldn’t really recommend them more. The new Prusa MK/4 is a cut above the MK/3S+ and prints at twice the speed (whilst not the fastest it is fast!). It is also a great printer to learn on, easy to maintain (not that you will have to do much of that), is networkable and so on. Not only that but Prusa have catapulted past all of the other 3D model repositories with their site https://www.printables.com. It used to be Thingiverse but this site has stagnated. Take a look and judge for yourself.
So let’s kickstart the revolution
So what’s it going to be? I’ve heard all the arguments - school budgets are stretched, teachers have no time..etc but this is one of the most creative, immediate and inspirational things that you could ever do with your students (it has been for me). You can’t afford to not do it. You could easily integrate it into Maths, Science, Music, History, Geography…etc and at the same time make them way more fun to learn for the sake of a few $k and a few hours work. Surely that is worth it?
If you don’t know where to start, give Nexgen a call for free. We can point you in the right direction.
Happy printing!
