For the last few years, @C and I have designed and made something fun to celebrate March 14th, Pi Day! We've made a custom pie cutter, an edge crimper, and a "3.14" cookie cutter-like tool for decorating the top crust of a pie. You can check out our previous Made in 3D posts here:
This year we thought we'd make a fun desktop organizer for our Post-it notes and Sharpie marker - two critical pieces of equipment in our brainstorming toolkit.
We started by taking key measurements of the Post-it notes (3" square), and the Sharpie marker (2" long cap, 0.51" max. diameter; 3.375" long marker "handle", 0.482" max. diameter), and constructed a few layout sketches in SOLIDWORKS for Makers. These would establish the framework off of which every other feature would be designed.
We modeled the pie pan first - A simple revolve with a recess cut into it for the Post-it notes (plus room for your thumb to reach in and grab one).
Then we modeled the pie... We knew we wanted the design to look like a piece was being removed, so we built a sketch of the pie's cross-section, then used sketch blocks to duplicate it and position it slightly raised out of the pie. We revolved one sketch block 315 degrees to build the bulk of the pie, and then revolved the other sketch block 45 degrees to build the slice that was being removed.
We added a bunch of detail to the pie crust, including a Pi symbol on the crust, recesses on the sides of the piece being removed, and scalloped details along the edge.
The shape of the scallop was in fact determined by the strategy we used to print the crust. As you may know, shallow dome shapes like this can end up with very obvious layer lines if printed flat on the bed, we cut an intentional flat spot on the side of the crust (the first scallop) and then modeled our own support gussets to print the crust at an angle. This produced an amazingly smooth surface across the whole crust.
We're big fans of pies of all types; apple, pecan, banana cream, coconut cream, strawberry rhubarb... my mouth is watering... but we went with a classic for this design... A cherry pie. We modeled small panels that we could print flat and glue in place afterwards. They feature a few different sized squashed hemispheres that are 'randomly' placed across the piece using the "Sketch Driven Pattern" command. Printed in red, they look just like cherry pie filling!
We added a scooper and handle to complete the illusion, and of course, we had to size it so that it would conceal a Sharpie marker!
...and, because we just couldn't help letting our inner geek shine, we added 65 decimal places of Pi to the bottom of the pie pan... Specifically 65 because that's the highest level of precision needed to calculate the circumference of the entire observable universe to the precision of a Planck length - the smallest measurable distance in physics. ... I told you we had an inner geek 😉
Check out this video to learn more about the project:
...and if you'd like to print a post-it note pie of your own, feel free to download this zip file with native SOLIDWORKS and neutral STEP and STL files.
