Cathedral - a two-player board game
Quarto - a two-player board game
Brandubh - A Viking / Celtic board game
Brandubh is the Irish variation of a Viking board game called hnefatafl (often referred to as Viking chess). The word 'brandubh' means 'black raven' in gaelic. The figure pieces were made entirely in Tinkercad. The cylindrical pieces were made in Tinkercad, with the top surface designs imported into Tinkercad from 'thenounproject' (as SVG files) and extruded as required. The boards were designed in Google Slides using icons from 'thenounproject' and word art from 'fontspace.com'. This project was undertaken with Year 4, 5 and 6 pupils.
Rulers
You can find the ruler tutorial in Tinkercad by clicking 'Learn' on your Tinkercad dashboard, then 'lessons', 'projects', 'see all projects' and scroll down until you get to the ruler tutorial.
My variation involves inverting the 5mm marker so this can be seen on the finished print. I also the challenged some children to make a longer ruler than the 6cm ruler of the tutorial. Several of them figured out how to do this without my help. |
Thumb Book Holder
This handy little gadget will enable you to hold open a book with just one hand.
Step 1: Import a cylinder and stretch it into an oval shape (Fig.1). I made mine 80mm wide by 35mm tall, but you can try different dimensions. You can also experiment with different thicknesses; anything between 5mm and 15mm will work. Step 2: Select the ‘Extruded Curve’ shape from the shape generators section (Fig.2). Rotate and resize this so it looks similar to the picture (Fig.3). Make sure the longer curve ends at the middle of your oval. Step 3: Duplicate the curve shape (shortcut = Ctrl + D). Then type ‘M’ to bring up the ‘mirroring’ arrows. Click the ‘X’ axis arrow to mirror your duplicated curve. Then move it across so that it's symmetrical with your first curve (Fig.4). Step 4: Group everything (Fig.5) to make it one shape. Step 5: Place the workplane on the top surface of your shape. Add a cylindrical hole (20mm diameter) to the middle of the shape (Fig.6) and push it down so it goes all the way through. Step 6: Add you name or initials to the top surface of the dice. Turn them into holes and push them down 1 or 2mm into the face of the shape. You could also add a small cylindrical hole if you want to attach your thumb book holder to a piece of string (Fig.7). Step 7: Group everything together (Fig.8) and export your finished thumb book holder as an .stl file. Step 8: Import your .stl file to Cura. 20% infill is adequate. If you’d like a smoother finish to your thumb book holder, select the ‘Enable Ironing’ option in the settings tab; you made need to search for this option in the ‘Print settings’ box (Fig.9). Step 9: Print your thumb book holder! |
3D printed boats - capacity challenge
After completing the 'Exploring Buoyancy' project in Tinkercad, children were given the challenge of designing a boat that could carry more weight than the Tinkercad design.
The winning design was essentially a box, which although was not the most streamlined boat, echoed the cross-section profile of ocean-going cargo ships and oil tankers. This project involved some experimentation with infill percentages. When using 5% infill on two boats, there were weakness and small holes that appeared during printing. We found that a minimum of 15% infill was needed to produce satisfactory results. On one boat, the outriggers did not attach to the main body of the boat. On closer inspection of the Tinkercad file it was found that this component had not been 'grouped' to the rest of the model. Always check that your components are grouped together before exporting the .stl file! |
Viking Pendants
This project was undertaken with two Year 5/6 classes. The first time (in 2020), pupils used Google Drawings for the outline. The second time (in 2022) they used Vectr.com. Vectr was easier to use. In both projects, pupils imported their vector drawings (as SVGs) into Tinkercad and added extra features.
Micro:bit cases
A mixed year 3 & 4 class created their own stands for Micro:bit microcontrollers. The process was as follows:
1) Design the stand on paper.
2) Make a full-size polystrene mockup.
3) Draw the outline of the stand using Vectr (an online vector drawing program).
4) Export this drawing as an SVG file.
5) Import the SVG file into Tinkercad.
6) Extrude the drawing to 1mm thickness.
7) Add holes for the LED matrix and buttons.
8) 3D print the stand.
1) Design the stand on paper.
2) Make a full-size polystrene mockup.
3) Draw the outline of the stand using Vectr (an online vector drawing program).
4) Export this drawing as an SVG file.
5) Import the SVG file into Tinkercad.
6) Extrude the drawing to 1mm thickness.
7) Add holes for the LED matrix and buttons.
8) 3D print the stand.