Wanted to share this thing I designed and got printed:
It was initially for a 3D printing contest I didn’t win, but the idea of a children’s mold that makes sand sphynxes transfixed me, so I made a second version and sent it to local 3D printing service. It didn’t come out too well, but I still like the idea.
More photos and the story (in Russian only) can be found in my blog: part I, part II.
I second this idea. A sand mold of a pyramid would be cool, too, but a sphinx is even better!
Here’s the second generation molds, one is the update of the previous with more pronounced front legs, the second was finished in Sculptris:
Unfortunately, the prettier one had the inside shape that prevented the sand from easily coming out. And the other one worked like this:
Unfortunately, it was too thin, so the kids in the sandbox quickly broken it.
Noble efforts, to be sure, but 3D printing never struck me as “sturdy”. I’d be very afraid of any 3D printed objects presented to our toddler twins, or even our 4½ year old boy.
Well, the second one survived (and the blue one just got lost before it broke). And the one that got broken was visibly more flimsy.
Are you speaking from your personal experience or just have the general idea that 3D printing shouldn’t be sturdy?
Just the general idea based on the fact that 3D printing is “spun” from layers rather than one solid mass. I could be wrong!
edit: I do own some 3D printed NERF gun accessories, so that’s my point of reference:
Wondered how that was going to go. Very cool idea though.
As an aside, 3D printing interests me conceptually but the idea of actually doing it myself always ends up going like this, “I don’t have the money to buy it so I’d have to build it and if I had the energy to build it, I’d just make the things I wanted to make doing [xyz].” I don’t have the right mindset for 3D printing. 
But I admire everyone who does.
My thought wasn’t “I don’t have the money”, it was “I want to make a thing that doesn’t exist yet”.
Tried to do a paper mold, prison chess-style.
If anyone is interested, previous two molds and new version below were done with Up Plus. (No information on the blue one.)
New version, customized with a “tramp stamp”, which serves as both an outside ornament and part of the sand-pressing form:
How it worked:
This one was pretty okay, considering the sand quality.
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