Santa's Sleigh Tape Dispenser

Overview:

This Santa's Sleigh was made as an office supply product used as a tape dispenser holder. It is easy to assemble but it depends on how involved you want your project to be, I and my partner James and I and I made a Christmas-themed office supply set that includes Santa's sleigh, an igloo, and a present box. Here's a link to my partner's page and other parts that we've made.

Lesson Plan and Activity:

• Problem Statement:

Recent analysis by the Staples finance department has concluded that sales for desktop organization products have declined in recent years.  The company would like to ramp up their profits in this area by enhancing the aesthetic nature of these products.  

Your group of two has been hired to design a set of theme-based organizational products.  Your team will design a set of office supplies that are tied together with a common theme. You must be able to justify the theme that connects the products together.  The idea is that the customer will not want to buy just one; they will want to buy the whole set.
 

• Brainstorming
  • Develop 3 theme ideas. You must have 4 possible pieces for each theme.
  • Create a google slides presentation for each theme.
    • One theme for each slide.
    • You can have pictures of hand-drawn sketches, google images, or a combination thereof
  • We will have a group meeting to determine which theme ties together the best, is most marketable, and contains pieces that are realistically achievable in our time frame.

Making the Body:

          Step-by-Step Instructions to Create the Sleigh in SOLIDWORKS

1. Create the Body of the Sleigh

• Use the Front Plane to create the main body shape.
• Sketch the outline of the sleigh and use the Extrude feature.
• Set the extrusion to the midplane for symmetry.

  2. Cut the Middle for the Tape Holder

• Use the Top Plane to create a cylindrical cut in the middle of the sleigh.
• Ensure the cut is large enough to fit a standard roll of Scotch tape.

3. Add Side Supports for the Tape Holder

• On the sides of the sleigh, make two cuts on each side using the Top Plane.
• These cuts should ensure the tape stays in place.

4. Mirror the Features

• Use a Plane to mirror the features you’ve created.
• Select the side of the sleigh and drag the arrow 4–5 mm for proper alignment.

5. Create Support Beams and Skis

• Use the Front Plane to sketch support beams.
• Use the Extrude feature to make the beams into more of a straight shape for a smoother look.
• Create flat skis, extruded slightly, and ensure they are properly mirrored to the opposite side.

Design Choices:

1. Smoother and more like a sleigh look, in the original plan we saw the sleigh like in the first image, but then we changed the look entirely making sure it looked more appealing without changing the dimensions.                                                                 

2. Added a contour, we wanted to make the sleigh contour gold to make it look like it's Santa's, which wasn't in our original plan. And to make it gold we had to make the contour a different piece in order to get the gold color.

3.  Holes for the tape dispenser, those little two holes were made to hold the scotch tape instead of having the tape holder by a stick. 

4. When we printed the sleigh, we had to print it in different pieces. So the body of the sleigh was a piece, the legs were a piece, and the contour was a piece too. To assemble the parts we used super glue, and the tape dispenser was inserted on the sleigh with the cutter being also super glue at the front.