3d Printed Straw Rocket

What do you do when you have 3d modeling software, a 3d printer, and a dream? You build a straw rocket of course! In this tutorial I will show you how to model and print a straw rocket!

Refer to steps 1-3 for the modeling process and step 4 for getting it printed.

My tinkercad straw rocket: https://www.tinkercad.com/things/isFNJR77fSM

You will need:

• Boba straws
• Tinkercad (https://www.tinkercad.com)
• Some experience in Tinkercad

For 3d printing you will need:

• A slicing software (I prefer cura: https://ultimaker.com/software/ultimaker-cura)
• Any working 3d printer compatible with slicing software

The most important part of a rocket is a fuselage, or body. To begin with, click on the "tube" and place it in the center of the workplane (doesn't have to be exact). Then change the wall thickness to 1 (I think 1 works best for this sort of thing). After that, increase the height to 60 (mm) and change the width and length to 15 (mm). Congratulations, you have your fuselage!

The nose cone is what helps a straw rocket actually fly by giving a place for the air you are blowing to deflect, causing thrust. Without the nose cone, air would just pass through! Adding a nose cone is simple with Tinkercad, just click on the "paraboloid" and place it in the workplane. Then resize it to 15 mm by 15 mm (length and width). Finally move it on top of the fuselage, do this by first moving it to the same location as the tube, then lifting it up with the black cone above the nose cone. Now your rocket should be able to fly! Maybe not stably though...

The final step in this straw rocket is adding some fins. Fins help add surface area to the back of a rocket, moving back the center of pressure, making the rocket fly more stably (yes, rocket science is that simple, kind of). For starting the fins, take the "wedge" and place it on the workplane. Then, lower the width to 1.5 mm. Then play around with different sizes, be creative! You can even experiment with different shapes! Once you have finished your fin, move them to the center of the rocket (look at the 3rd image). Then copy it, rotate it 90 degrees then center it on the rocket again (3rd image). Repeat the process 2 more times. Now you are finished with your model!

For the next step, press the "export" button in Tinkercad, then click on ".stl". This will download your model as an stl file which you can then convert to a file suitable for 3d printing with a slicer. To do this, open up your slicer, then import your stl file, (find the button, for cura, the button is in the top left), once you open up your file you can slice it! Find the slice button, (in cura the slice button is on the bottom right), then click on it to slice it, this converts your stl file into a gcode file which your 3d printer will read and print. It should give you some information about time and amount of material or something like that after you slice, but it depends on your slicer. You can then save to a removable drive or however you connect your printer, and start the printing process!

To launch your rocket, insert the boba straw into the rocket , it should be a relatively loose fit. Then blow into the straw and watch it soar!

Enjoy your new straw rocket!