We settled on Lego (or the Lego dimensions and stud concept) as the basis for our own STEM system, and I've named the pieces 'Frankenblocks'. A sensible name, as we're building a kind of Frankenstein solution.
Modular
So... flexible and modular... How would that work?
5. Create the modules in such a way that they can either be screwed to a (wood) surface, or organized within a frame. This effectively means that (some) modules need holes on their corners for (wood) screws.
Mister X (we'll call him Fred) had the idea to use left-over bits of 18mm plywood. Plates could be directly screwed on top of them, or we would mount a framework and be able to place the modules inside that framework (like toy blocks).
Using a stand-alone wooden square with a surrounding edge would allow students to build their projects, and store those away in a controllable manner. We've dubbed these 'trays'.
The units that are intended to be mounted directly onto a wooden plate we've dubbed 'baseplates' (the ones with mounting holes).
6. I've created 'edge' pieces to mount onto the trays, so it would be easy to carry 8 baseplates around (and they wouldn't fall off).
Fred drilled a number of those wooden pieces, and he complained about the amount of work going into that, so I've created a thinner version as well. It isn't that suitable for 'bolted / screwed' modules, but is faster and easier to produce.
We're looking into alternatives, but to be fair we might need a printer with a larger bed.
Examples
We're getting a little ahead of the game, but here are the two trays types we've tried thus far:
Drill templates
And to create these, I had to print some 'drill templates'. (All holes were defined by the baseplates that would have to be mounted inside these templates, more about that next time.) These drill templates work for both the 'thick' tray (corner pieces on 18 mm plywood) as well as the 'thin' (flat sections glued on 5 mm plywood) one.
Glue
A note on the thin tray: roughen up the bottom of the four pieces with course sandpaper, then use regular contact glue to bind it to the 6 mm plywood. Put the glue on both surfaces (wood and PETG) and wait half a minute or so before pressing them together. (Check the instructions.)
Don't use any special glue to bind PETG with other plastic. Contact glue is good enough.
More
- Concept
- Frankenblocks - all posts
- 3D Printing
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