With our components on the way, there was little that we could do at this particular stage. However, we managed to find the dimensions of our beakers and pipette tips, thus allowing us to start the process of designing our base.

However, several monkey wrenches were thrown into the works. Firstly, we ran into an issue with our 10ml pipette. We failed to consider the length of the pipette plus its tip. The overall length was nearing 30cm, which well exceeded the height limit of our 23.5cm x 23.5cm x 23.5cm Ender-3 frame. With some Google searches, we found that even a 5ml pipette would result in the same issue. As a result, we reverted to using the next best possible pipette: the P1000. In the same vein, we realised that our base would be far too thick if we used 50ml beakers, and decided to switch to 25ml beakers instead.

Then, we realised that if we wanted to maximise the 23.5cm x 23.5cm printer bed of our Ender-3 frame, and design a base that covered this entire space, the 3D printers in our lab could not actually execute a print that large. We thus had to either make a smaller base, or outsource the 3D printing of our base.

After some research, we thought of a possible plan to circumvent this issue: a lock and key mechanism. The idea was that we would print our base in sections, extrude part on one half of the base, and an indent on the other half, and subsequently connect them. We tested this out on smaller blocks, where several of our initial designs proved too brittle and bulky, and would potentially leave insufficient space for essential components like the holes for the beaker and pipette tips. We aim to finalise our lock and key mechanism by next week.

In the meantime, we designed a smaller version of our base to test out the fit of our beakers and pipette tips once they arrive.

Alongside this, we focused on completing the first design on our pipette holder, which was designed to mount to the Ender 3 frame. We wanted a design that would allow for the pipette to be well-supported, yet still could be removed easily. We started with a generic design found online, but it quickly became apparent that it wouldn’t meet our specific needs. So, we decided to use the design as a starting point, and have been adjusting it to suit the dimensions of our pipette.