Whale Themed Tape Dispenser

prusaprinters

BackgroundFor this print I was given the assignment of creating an animal themed office supply set with 2 of my classmates. This is one of 3 products that we made. My Partners Prints which are a hedgehog pencil holder and a dog paper clip holder can be found below:Hedgehog:Dog: Product Dimensions (cm)Whale (10.5 x 6.5 x 6.5)Center part (2.5 x 2.3)Required Materials:- An Extra tape dispenser you are willing to cannibalize- A heat gun- Wire Cutters- A Phillips head screwdriverDesign ProcessThe Design process for this print was pretty simple, once I had the outline it was just a simple of extruding, then carving some features into it. I did have a few hiccups however. At first I was going to connect the 2 parts of the whale tail and set the cutter ontop of that, but then I realized that would mean the cutter would sit to high up. To combat this we just cut out the connected tail and had the cutter sit lower. There were some other issues when it came to printing however. First off, I got the scaling completely wrong so the scale was significantly smaller than the other 2 items in the set. In the Original design there were also some design features, but when we printed they didn't come out well, so I had to remove them. Once I had the center part, I realized that I had made the center part to big for the tape roll, so I had to re-scale and re-print it. AssemblyFor the Center Part1.) Remove center part from build plate2.) Clear out support material covering  the peg hole in the center part 3.) Insert pegs into the center part4.) Measure roughly where you would need to make a cut in order to give enough space for the center part to rotate5.) Make a mark where you want to cut using a pen, pencil or marker6.) Remove pegs from the center part and make a cut along your mark7.) Re-insert the pegs into the holes in the center part, then insert the center part into the cut out in the whaleFor the Cutter1.) Cannibalize a tape dispenser for it’s metal cutter part2.) Using a heat gun heat up the area around the cutter slot on the whale3.) Using a mini Phillips head screwdriver, widen cutter slot by working it left and right, then forwards and backwards, then up and down4.) One the cutter slot is wide enough, heat the the slot up, and insert the cutter part5.) (Optional) Reheat the area around the cutter slot and squeeze  the surrounding plastic so the cutter sits snug in it’s slot