The reason that I decided to make a toothbrush holder to hold all four of my toothbrushes is that I didn't want to make a coin holder and sorter. Nearly everyone else in my group was making a coin holder. I also didn't do a phone holder because I don't find it very practical and I wouldn't use it. I brush my teeth a lot so I would use the toothbrush holder a lot. I designed it in inventor as an "R". I designed the holder as an R because my first name is Ryan. I made holes in the left side to hold the four toothbrushes and made a larger hole on the right for toothpaste. After I designed it I transferred the design to the MakerBot software and resized the object. I then printed it on one of the MakerBot machines.
This is the design that I created in my notebook. I was debating between two different designs. One design is the holes in the front and the other is the holes on top.
This is the toothbrush holder that I created in Inventor which also holds toothpaste. I made the R and then put the holes for the toothbrushes in and for the toothpaste. It was a very simple design because after that all I had to do was extrude the figure.
This is my project in the Maker-bot software. In Maker-bot all I had to do was scale it to inches instead of millimeters and lay it flat. Then I had to move it to my flash drive and I was good to print.
This is the screen on the 3D printer that you go through in order to print an object. You have to go to the USB file from the drive that you plugged into the computer. Once you choose what you print then the machine heats up and moves the filament to position. Then it reheats and starts to print.
This is my project actually printing on the machine. This is the last step of creating the toothbrush holder and will complete after 8 and a half hours of printing.
This is my final project completed after the long process from designing to printing. My project can hold four toothbrushes and a small thing of toothpaste.
What I learned throughout the process of making a toothbrush holder with a 3D printer is the fact that the 3D printers take a lot less skill and are very easy to use than I thought. I thought that I needed a huge understanding of computers but that's not the case. I designed the whole project in one class period and did the rest the next. It took me two class periods to complete the project.