Introduction to 3D printing

This activity will give you an introduction to the process of 3D printing, show you how to use a free online tool and guide you through designing your first object.

You can make almost anything! For example, you could design a small charm, or a personalised keyring. It's ideal for students aged between 9 and 16.

Here's how it works:

• Buy the activity
• Watch the tutorial
• Log in to Tinkercad
• Create some 3D designs
• Choose one favourite design and show it's finished by adding "PRINT THIS" to its name
• We will check the design and leave comments if needed
• Adjust your chosen design if required
• We will 3D print the design and post it to you!

Please choose the colour in which you would like the object to be printed before clicking "Buy".

Want to arrange this for a group of students? Please contact us

Buy now!

  First choose a colour for the final printed object

Buy 1   Buy one small object: £20 (including UK postage & packing)

Clicking 'Buy 1' will open a new PayPal window, where payments are processed securely. UK customers only. Please ensure your email and delivery addresses are correct in your PayPal account. You can add a note in the PayPal payment page if you want to pass on more information.

Objects will be printed in one colour. Please select your chosen colour above.

Tutorial

What will you make?

Here are some ideas to get you going. If we like your design, we'll add an image of it here!

HINTS: Note how some of the designs work best lying down (like the robot) or even upside-down (like the guitar). This helps to avoid overhanging parts (the bits that stick out with nothing holding them up) as much as possible, and also gives the object a good, wide base.

A very small amount of overhang may be OK (for example, the headlights on the car) but usually any part that sticks out too far will look rough or stringy when printed.

What will you get?

We will print one object - its size will be similar to the examples shown here.

You can see the colours to choose from above. Here, a robot design is also shown next to a pound coin, for scale. We will adjust your design to make it a similar volume to this. Please note, we will print one object - the multiple examples above are to illustrate the available colours.

Here are some guides with more information:

Guide for parents
Guide for kids