Accessible Abacus

thingiverse

A single piece 3d printed version of a Cranmer abacus. This abacus can be fitted with pipe cleaners as the rods and 8 mm inexpensive wooden beads with an outer diameter of 8.0 mm and inner diameter of 2.4 mm. The print takes 4.5 hours at .24 layer height, 30% infill, and 75 mm/sec print speed. There are no supports or bed adhesion necessary. Thank you to Kanay for inspiring the original tiny abacus I created for Mountain Lakes Math Day. Thank you Monique Coleman for explaining the practical needs of a student's abacus. I look forward to you and your student's feedback. Please share design and print feedback! Version #2 Highlights 1 - Abacus counters are now rounded cubes (instead of semi-spheres) 2 - There is an abacus backing, allowing you to paste on contrasting color paper or felt backgrounds. 3 - A one piece 3d print! Pipe cleaners act as rods, which is inexpensive, color customizable, and provides a way to naturally keep counter beads in place 4 - Wooden counter beads can be purchased inexpensively from Amazon 5 - A bar to wrap pipe cleaners around, providing rod tension and a way to hide the pipe cleaner edge. 6 - Text name and Braille customization - Using Tinkercad you can easily add a text name. - Using openscad Braille file you can create a Braille label, import into Tinkercad, and add to your abacus. Thank you Leona Holloway at Monash University for the Braille label STL generator. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4167866 7 - Smooth, rounded corners