FAQ
The project is to build the world’s largest crowdsourced 3D printed duck. We want to include people around the world who want to participate in a technology and public art project.
Mark Mathias is the founder and co-chair of Maker Faire Westport, Connecticut’s largest creativity and innovation event. He’s also a member of the Westport Sunrise Rotary club which has an annual event called The Great Duck Race. The Great Duck Race is a fundraiser for the club where 3,000 small rubber ducks are released into the Saugatuck River. The first 10 ducks to cross the finish line win a prize. Whitney Kreuger presented an idea to the Westport Sunrise Rotary Club about a public art project using ducks. That inspired Mark to come up with a way Maker Faire Westport and The Great Duck Race could work together in a big way. The idea was to create the world’s largest globally crowdsourced 3D printed duck. Mark met Jesse Robinson and Nicholas Iacobelli of Greens Farms Academy in Westport, Connecticut. Jesse and Nicholas offered to handle the logistics of creating the duck and so a partnership was formed.
When you sign up to “Be a Part of the Duck,” you will receive via email a .stl that can be used for 3D printing. If you don’t have a 3D printer, ask at your local library, public school or MakerSpace if they can print it for you. Many companies also have 3D printers. They’re generally easy to find. When you have one, give the file that you received and they can print the duck part.
All duck parts have to be received in Westport, Connecticut NO LATER THAN April 1, 2019. This is to ensure each piece is checked for quality and we may need to print any missing, damaged or incorrect parts. The duck parts need to be sent to; Nicholas Iacobelli, Greens Farms Academy, 35 Beachside Ave, Westport, CT 06838 USA
We can accept any sturdy 3D printed material, such as PLA, ABS or PETG. The material needs to be strong enough to support the weight of the duck, which we estimate to be about 200 Kg.
No. Once you mail the duck part to us, you relinquish all rights to the duck part. Besides, once the duck is glued together, it would be nearly impossible to take it apart and return the pieces to everyone.
Contact Mark Mathias at mark@remarkablesteam.org.
All parts should print without supports or rafts. We recommend printing at 0.2mm layer heights or larger. To ensure strength for each piece, we also recommend at least 5 percent infill.
No. There is no fee to participate. We do ask that you cover the costs of 3D printing and shipping the duck part to us.
Send them to this Web site, our Facebook page or download, print, post and distribute our poster. The press release announcing The Great Duck Project is available here.
The digital model of the Duck was scaled, hollowed out and split into 476 individual pieces by LuBan 3D software. You can find more information about LuBan by navigating to LuBan3D