Start With a Simple Raft

Rafts, Boats, Ships OH My!

In this lesson you will design a raft and a boat that can be easily 3D printed using Tinkercad. Both of these models have a flat bottom design which helps displace water to make them float. The more water the boat can displace, the more it can float or the more buoyant it is. Additionally, there is a investigation that you can do with the help of your teacher.

In this lesson you will create a raft that can be easily 3D printed. Once you've completed your raft, see how much weight it can hold without sinking.

Instructions

1. Continue to the next step.

Step 1: It's a Log!

In this step you will create the logs that our raft is made out of. We will make the log by using a cylinder and a box as a hole.

Instructions

1. Drag a cylinder on to the workplane.
2. Add a box to the workplane.
3. While having the box selected, click the hole option in the top right hand corner.
4. Drag the box so that it intersects the diameter of the cylinder.
5. While having both shapes selected press the 'Group' option in the top right hand corner.
6. Rotate the newly created shape by 90 degrees as shown.
7. Scale the half cylinder to have a footprint of 20mm x 100mm.
8. Continue to the next step.

Step 2: Make It Float

In this step we will use our cut log shape to make our raft. In order to do this we will need to copy paste.

Instructions

1. Start by copy and pasting 4 additional log pieces.

2. Drag the cut log pieces so they slightly overlap each other. If you are having trouble aligning your pieces you can use the align tool in the top right corner.

   HINT:

   To copy and paste press 'Ctrl + C' or 'Command + C' to copy and 'Ctrl + V' or 'Command + V' to paste.


3. Select all of the shapes on the workplane and press 'Group';

4. Continue to the next lesson.