One of my recent projects turned into a small job opportunity and I thought I’d share. It’s not really a functional or creative project, but it seems like it could help future students.

It all started with a basic diagram in my university statics class. While the drawing was intended for discussion and calculations, not functionality, I saw an opportunity. Using Fusion 360, I created a mockup of the pool lift and all of the parts from the diagram: seat, hydraulic cylinder, and a four-bar linkage. It’s a simiplified version of a real pool lift we used to analyze throughout the semester. This also wasn’t at all necessary for the class, but I did find myself daydreaming of designing and 3D printing a model of it every time I saw the diagram in class.

For the first prototype, printed on my Bambu Lab X1-Carbon, I tried something kinda clever to make the hydraulic cylinder. I used a rubber band!

I showed the model to my professor, who actually suggested I should make more of them, so that it could be easier for other students to understand how the pool lift worked. This led to me doing a small batch production of 20 pool lifts, commissioned by the Department of Engineering Education through the university’s research foundation.

After slicing the parts for all 20, Bambu Studio estimated that I would need approximately 3.72 kg of PLA+ filament. The run ended up using 3 spools of black, and 1 spool each of grey and blue filament. At some point I also swapped out the M3 nuts and bolts for larger M5 hardware.

I’m not entirely sure how well the construction will hold up after a few semesters of students being hands-on with them, but for now at least, they seem pretty durable. Hopefully I can check in after a while and see if the models make it out unscathed.

The administrative part of this project was equally challenging as running a one-printer print farm out of my closet. Getting hired, logging my working hours to report to payroll, and even getting approved for the job since I also went to the school was a lot of work. Paperwork, that is.

The final design, while maybe not functional in a traditional sense, seems like a decent interactive model for educational purposes. I hope it gives future students a tangible way to understand the mechanics of a pool lift, something that a diagram couldn’t. Well, it did, because I understood it from the diagram enough to build this, but you get the point.

While the Digital Manufacturing Lab was available and free for student projects like this, I chose to use my own printer, just because I was more comfortable with it. It’s faster per print and more convenient since I’d probably end up living in the DML at that point waiting for each print.

For those interested, the 3D printable model files are available on Printables.com. Hopefully future students can even improve upon my design.