Ice Cube Tray

thingiverse

The inspiration for this design stems from a desire to link 123D Design's Rectangular Pattern tool to an actual-world project that my students may find useful. A comprehensive lesson outlining how to break down this design into a series of lessons is forthcoming, and will provide a detailed guide on how to make the most of this tool. For now, feel free to print - the wall thickness of this particular design has been optimized for 0.4mm extruder nozzles, which is standard for Makerbot printers. Update (3/21): Revision one proves too thick for PLA and lacks flexibility to twist out ice cubes, making it unsuitable for printing at present. I recommend waiting for the latest revision before proceeding with a print job. Check back soon for updates! Update (3/23): Revised version four is now live - this model prints reliably on the Makerbot Replicator 2 and comes off the build platform flexible. The next step involves putting the cubes through their paces in the freezer to see if they break away cleanly. From here, it's a matter of tweaking advanced settings (supports) and/or experimenting with print orientation or finishing techniques to get the best possible results. Two possible orientations are being considered - right-side-up vs up-side-down - but so far only the former has been tested. The top surface looks great, while the bottom surface, despite using supports, comes out looking stringy. If anyone has any suggestions or recommendations, I'm all ears!