For the individual 3D printing project, we had a couple options. I had debated a lot between a spare change holder and a tooth brush holder, but in the end I decided on the toothbrush holder. This was mainly because I felt that I would get much more use out of the toothbrush holder than a spare change holder. I started the design process by looking at a few other innovative tooth brush holders, and sketching a few ideas in my notebook.
After looking at a few different holders, I was able to decide on a single design that combined some elements from all of them, plus a lot of my own ideas. My design had to be a lot bigger then many of the ones I had seen, mainly because my family uses electric toothbrushes. That also made me think about a design that incorporated the charger.
I started my design with the sketch tool, and created a 4.75" by 3" rectangle. Then with the line tool and the trim tool, I worked the rectangle into the shape of my design. I then extruded the base and continued to sketch the base of three of the holders and extrude them as well. I set up five different spots to put cylinders to hold tooth brushes. Two of them were for normal brushes, but I made sure to include three spots to hold electric tooth brushes. From that point on, all I had to do was sketch the cylinders and extrude them to the correct height.
I started my design with the sketch tool, and created a 4.75" by 3" rectangle. Then with the line tool and the trim tool, I worked the rectangle into the shape of my design. I then extruded the base and continued to sketch the base of three of the holders and extrude them as well. I set up five different spots to put cylinders to hold tooth brushes. Two of them were for normal brushes, but I made sure to include three spots to hold electric tooth brushes. From that point on, all I had to do was sketch the cylinders and extrude them to the correct height.
Most of the other additions to my design were solely for looks, and a lot of it was a result of experimentation with some of the tools in the program that I hadn't used before. The two I used the most were the loft and the filet tool, because I felt that they could add to my design and make it look better.
After completing my design, the only thing left to do was print it. Before I could print it, I had to export my project from Inventor to the Makerbot software. In the software, I just had to re scale the image and the save it to my flash drive to go down and print. The printing was also very simple. I just plugged in my flash drive, and followed the on screen directions to sett up my print, and then prepared myself to wait for the six hour print to finish.
The 3D printing project went very well for me. Since I had used the Inventor software in other classes, I was able to create my project in one day after a day of brainstorming ideas. That made the rest of my project go a lot quicker. It would only take one class day in order to print out the design, and that left me with one full day in order to work on my website, journal, and anything else in the class that I had to finish up. I didn't run into many problems while doing this project, but I did learn how to work the 3D printer and how to change filament. It ended up being a lot easier than expected, mainly because the screen on the printer had pretty straight forward directions. In the end, my project worked pretty well. I didn't make the two small cylinders very deep, so they had trouble holding regular tooth brushes, but I found other uses for them.