Personal 3D Printing Projects

Starting fall 2019, my sophomore year, I joined the 3D printing club. The meetings would sometimes have prompts to inspire the students to create something specific, but some days they would just host a “work” day where there was free reign. Since starting college, I have been collecting a lot of spare change with no place to put it which led me to the idea of creating a piggy bank. The design in SolidWorks took less than 30 minutes to create, but since it is over 5x4x7 inches in size, it took quite some time to print. The “cork” on the bottom was printed separately and twists into the bottom of the piggy bank to lock.

In early 2020, the club held a competition for a small derby race with some size restrictions and wheel axis dimensions. Although the rules were not finalized, it was implied that there would be winners based on speed, visual appeal, and innovative design. My design was meant for the visual appeal category, representing a childhood chapter book series and TV show – the Magic School Bus. Even though the competition was cancelled due to the pandemic, I was still able to have it printed in Figure 4.

To continue my involvement in the club, I was elected to serve as the Vice President of the 3D printing club for this fall 2021 where I hope to bring new ideas and inspire students to think outside the box and produce individual creations.

Figure 1. Piggy Bank SolidWorks Model

Figure 2. Printed Model of Piggy Bank

Figure 3. Magic School Bus Derby Car SolidWorks Model

Figure 4. Printed Model of Magic School Bus

Here is also a rendered image of my PRS S2 Custom 24 Whale Blue guitar I designed in SolidWorks my first year of college (Figure 5):

Figure 5. PRS S2 Custom 24 Guitar Rendered Model