Design and research
For the 3-D project, I had four options to choose from. I chose the coin holder project. To start, I had to figure out the dimension of each standard U.S. coin so I could make my project large enough. My design consisted of a plate attached to two legs to hold it up. The coin slots went through the plate, connecting the entire project. I had to decide how large each part of the project had to be. I had to resize the project multiple times so everything would be large enough.
Building the coin holder
To start my project, I first had to create the connector plate. To do this, I created a 4.75 x .25 rectangle which I extruded by 1.3 inches.
I then had to create the side supports to hold the plate above the ground. I made them 3.5 inches tall, and the plate sat above the halfway mark.
Next, I had to begin designing the outer walls of where the coins would be. I began by creating cylinders on the bottom of the plate so I could cut them out later.
Then, I had to cut out the front holes so I could have easy access to the coins.
After that, I had to cut out the holes so I could put the coins in the holder.
I had to fill in part of the holes to keep the plate connected and looking good.
Next, I had to create the top part of the holder. I had to use the plane feature to get my sketches on the right level. I created a sketch and extruded it to make cylinders on top of the plate.
Finally, I had to cut the holes out of the cylinders.
Makerbot and printing
Once I had finished designing my project, I had to upload it to Makerbot so I could 3-D print it. Once I saved the project as and .stl file, I was able to open it in Makerbot. I then re-scaled and reoriented the project so it was big enough and would print correctly. I had to turn supports on to be able to fully print the project. The print preview can be seen on the right.
Once I finished this, I was ready to print. I saved the file to my flash-drive, and plugged it into the 3-D printer. I then stared it up and began printing.
Finished project.
Conclusion
One thing I learned from this project is that I should double check my measurements to make sure everything is large enough. I also learned that I need to make things large enough so the 3-D printer can print correctly. Finally, I learned how to use supports on Makerbot and how I can orient projects to reduce the number of supports.