All

The zSpace System

  There’s something inherently difficult trying to do 3D modeling on a 2D display. We usually have the ability to spin models around and your mind has to do the “3Ding” of the subject, depending on the software you’re using. But is there a better way to do this?    Apparently so, according to JF… Continue reading The zSpace System

Emma’s Story… And More

A wonderful story emerged last week when Stratasys published the story of Emma, a young girl with congenital biomechanical problems. She was unable to raise food to her mouth, among other issues.   The story told how Emma’s doctors used 3D printing technology (from Stratasys) to produce a custom-fit armature that fits around Emma’s upper… Continue reading Emma’s Story… And More

A 3D Printing Matrix

We’ve received a very cool chart from Tuan Tranpham containing most of the current 3D printing ecosystem, including all the related functions (Scanning, Printing, Software, etc) mapped into different categories of consumer and various levels of industrial.    Yes, the chart is a bit hard to read here, but click on the image to see… Continue reading A 3D Printing Matrix

A 3D Printing Infographic

Sharing site Hightable offers a new infographic showing many details of the current state of 3D printing, including process overview, growth and industry usage. Here you see only a small extract; click the link below for the full version.    Via Hightable

Cubify’s Robots

3D Systems now has robots! Well, not actual robots, but instead a system of 3D models that can be assembled into a huge variety of robot shapes. The robot pieces include arms, legs, torsos, etc., but also accessories such as ray guns and backpacks.   The pieces are intended to be assembled and fit together… Continue reading Cubify’s Robots

How to Pick a 3D Printer Material

I’ve written two blog posts about the importance of materials to the future of 3D printing. The bottom line is that without a material that performs as needed, speed, cost and quality are irrelevant. Read More at Engineering.com

Hot Pop Factory

Two Toronto architects have used 3D printing technology to start a new business in their own home: designing and manufacturing jewelry. Matthew Compeau and Biying Miao have launched Hot Pop Factory, producer of striking 3D printed jewelry designs. Hot Pop Factory offers inexpensive necklace, earrings and rings based on a consistent design theme.   But… Continue reading Hot Pop Factory

The Stone Spray 3D Printer

This is interesting: a sand-powered 3D printer called The Stone Spray Project. Created by Anna Kulik, Inder Shergill and Petr Novikov of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia, this robotic-arm device mixes plain old sand with a liquid binder to gradually create arbitrary shapes out of sand, like the sand stool pictured above.   … Continue reading The Stone Spray 3D Printer

Master’s Degree in Direct Manufacturing Offered

We’ve learned that the Pompeu Fabra University (UPF) and ELISAVA School of Design and Engineering of Barcelona now offer a Master’s Degree in Direct Manufacturing and New Materials for product design.    The new spanish-language program begins this October, when study in “New Materials” begins. This is followed by study in “New Production Processes” in… Continue reading Master’s Degree in Direct Manufacturing Offered

Automated Mesh Articulation

When we write “Automated Mesh Articulation” you might be wondering what we’re on about. It’s an advanced technique developed by Harvard’s Moritz Baecher that inspects a 3D model to automatically identifies where “joints” should appear and outputs a new model with said joints.    This means one could take any 3D model of a figurine… Continue reading Automated Mesh Articulation

Introducing Mak3D

Opening in “late August 2012”, Mak3D is billed as the “World’s first 3D printing co-working environment”. Located on London’s Brick Lane across from the notable Brick Lane Bakery, Mak3D will provide workspace and access to 3D equipment for makers.    For £200 per month (USD$312), you’ll have access to the following:  A 1000 sq ft.… Continue reading Introducing Mak3D

Pwdr: An Open Source Powder-Based 3D Printer

While the first open source personal 3D printers were plastic extrusion-based and recently we’ve seen several resin-based open source 3D printers emerge, we now see yet another 3D printing process appear in open source form: powder-based 3D printing.    The open source Pwdr project includes design for hardware and software to build and operate a… Continue reading Pwdr: An Open Source Powder-Based 3D Printer

Saving The Past With The Future

Peter at RepRap Central tells a story some of us have lived through, although not nearly as dramatic. The story involves Malcolm Messiter, whose decades-old Robert Goble Harpsichord required some maintenance. Specifically, the string-plucking jacks, made of Delrin, were cracking and needed to be replaced. Worse, there were some 183 such jacks in the harpsichord. … Continue reading Saving The Past With The Future

3D Printed Weapons: The Aftermath

Inevitably, controversy erupted upon the revelation that 3D printing weapons is actually feasible. Let’s have a look at the implications.    First, what changes with this discovery? It proves that 3D printer owners in their own homes (and we’d guess there must be at least 20,000 of you out there, with many, many more arriving… Continue reading 3D Printed Weapons: The Aftermath

Published
Categorized as Ideas Tagged

What’s Down With Organovo?

A few short weeks ago we wrote a piece entitled, “What’s With Organovo?”, in which we pondered why the stock price of this bioprinting startup soared beyond belief. It seemed at the time there was no reasonable explanation for the stock price’s stratospheric behavior.    This week the answer has appeared: there really was no… Continue reading What’s Down With Organovo?

One More Designer: Dizingof

After publishing Chris Waldo’s terrific “Showcase of Influential 3D Print Artists” the other week, we received a suggestion of another artist who might have been missed: Dizingof. Under his real name, Tel Aviv-based Asher Nahmias, specializes in mathematically-generated 3D models, or “math art”.    Dizingof’s creations are typically complex, flowing and invariably beautiful. Browsing through… Continue reading One More Designer: Dizingof

Published
Categorized as Design Tagged

Leapfrog’s 3D Printers

Leapfrog offers not one, but two different low-cost 3D printers: the Creatr and the Xeed.    First, let’s check out the Creatr. It’s a USD$1500 entry level personal 3D printer that is fully assembled out of beautiful laser-cut aluminum panels. It comes with a single extruder, but an alternate dual-extruder version is available for USD$1850.… Continue reading Leapfrog’s 3D Printers

Global 3D Printing Market to Reach $2.99 Billion by 2018

According to a new report by Global Industry Analysts, Inc. (GIA), the global market for 3D printing is projected to reach US$2.99 billion by the year 2018, driven by the advent of newer technologies, approaches and applications. Expanding use of the technology in manufacturing final products, declining cost of printers and increasing use of 3D… Continue reading Global 3D Printing Market to Reach $2.99 Billion by 2018

The Afinia H-Series 3D Printer

Yet another low-cost 3D printer has suddenly appeared on the market: the Afinia H-Series 3D Printer, produced by Afina, which appears to be a division of Minnesota-based Microboards LLC, who specialize in printing solutions of various kinds.    Located in Chanhassen, Minnesota, they are only a few short miles from Stratasys headquarters. Coincidence?    The relevant… Continue reading The Afinia H-Series 3D Printer

Published
Categorized as printer Tagged

HP and Stratasys Divorce

Somehow this wasn’t a complete surprise, as we’d been hearing rumors of difficulties in the relationship between IT Giant HP and 3D Printing leader Stratasys. Now it’s come to a close, with Stratasys announcing that the two companies have “have agreed to discontinue their manufacturing and distribution agreement for 3D printers, effective at the end… Continue reading HP and Stratasys Divorce

The Monolith 3D Printer

With a name like “Monolith”, you’d expect this 3D printer to be big – and you won’t be disappointed. The Monolith, developed by Acme Design Co., is one of the largest low-cost 3D printers we’ve seen. It also seems to be one of the shiniest.    How big is it? What material does it consume?… Continue reading The Monolith 3D Printer

Published
Categorized as printer Tagged

Sculpteo’s iPhone Case Design Challenge

We’re reviewing the winning entries to Sculpteo’s iPhone Case Design Challenge and we like what we see.    There are some very interesting designs, including the winner above: The String Case by FCPRS. It’s quite startling to see how inventive designers can be given the constraints of an iPhone case.    Strangely, the winning entry… Continue reading Sculpteo’s iPhone Case Design Challenge

NASA Testing 3D Printers For Space Use

NASA is taking their Electron Beam Freeform Fabrication (EBF3) technology to the next level, according to a report in The Daily Mail.    EBF3 is a type of 3D printing that uses a high-power electron beam to instantaneously melt metallic wire. The fluid metal is then positioned incrementally to build up arbitrary solid metal objects.… Continue reading NASA Testing 3D Printers For Space Use

A Counterpoint to the Pragmatist

We’ve been reading Todd Grimm’s provocative post, Standing up to Hype: A Pragmatist’s View, in which he describes his position on the capability of 3D printing. Todd is frustrated with mainstream media who all-too-often wildly extrapolate the idea of 3D printing into an unrealistic science fiction future of Star Trek replicators in every kitchen. He frequently plays… Continue reading A Counterpoint to the Pragmatist

Cubify Invent 3D Modeling Software Available

3D Systems has announced a new software tool to accompany their consumer-oriented Cube 3D printer: Cubify Invent.    One of the major issues with a 3D printer is getting great content to print. While 3D Systems has Cubify.com to provide pre-made models, there is also the possibility of Cube owners making their own models. However,… Continue reading Cubify Invent 3D Modeling Software Available

3D Printed Weaponry Now Functional

Another first for 3D printing: A pistol constructed from 3D printed parts has been successfully fired.    The gun design was an AR-15, a “a lightweight, 5.56 mm, air-cooled, gas-operated, magazine-fed, semi-automatic rifle”, according to Wikipedia. Gun enthusiast HaveBlue selected this configuration due to its small caliber and the uncertainty of whether the 3D printed parts would withstand… Continue reading 3D Printed Weaponry Now Functional

Solidscape Launches Next Generation 3D Printing System

Solidscape, Inc. announced the launch of the 3ZPRO 3D printer for direct manufacturing of wax patterns. With one-touch simplicity, the fully automated 3ZPRO printer brings the power of high-precision 3D printing to the office desktop and retail environments.   Read More at Engineering.com

Published
Categorized as printer Tagged

HeadBobble!

Yet another use for 3D printing: Printing Your Head. Yes, this has been done before quite a few times, but HeadBobble seems to have simplified the process and produces great 3D prints in full color. And you get a Bobblehead!   How does it work? At their website you go through a selection process, where… Continue reading HeadBobble!

WOOF’s 3D Printed Boat

The University of Washington’s WOOF group (Washington Open Object Fabricators) did something we haven’t seen yet: they produced a 3D printed boat that didn’t sink. In fact, it worked well enough to be entered into “Denny’s Seafair Milk Carton Derby”, a boat race.    Hold on, how do milk cartons fit into this scenario? It… Continue reading WOOF’s 3D Printed Boat

Water Cooled Extruder?

RepRap researchers have been experimenting with a unique water cooled extruder design. Cooling your extruder is important to ensure that the heat from the hot end that melts the plastic printing material doesn’t creep up into the rest of the mechanism, where you risk frozen plastic in the wrong places that gum up the works. … Continue reading Water Cooled Extruder?

A Pair of 3D Print Fashion Designers

Mashable interviews a pair of fashion designers with a twist: they use 21st century techniques to create their items, including web-based fitting, embedded electronics, computational design generation and of course 3D printing.    Mary Huang and Jenna Fizel own Continuum Fashion where they explore the possibilities of applying new technology and techniques to the fashion… Continue reading A Pair of 3D Print Fashion Designers

AirBus Envisions Gigantic 3D Printer?

The designers at Airbus propose creating a giant 80m x 80m 3D printer to produce entire aircraft. Whoa, that’s a near-outrageous statement, but it appears in an article published in Forbes, where Airbus seems to have a rationalization for such a project: their future visions cannot be easily made with conventional manufacturing approaches, as you… Continue reading AirBus Envisions Gigantic 3D Printer?

Design Of The Week: Turk’s Head Knot

Thingiverse maker jtbowden created the beautiful “Turk’s Head Knot”. This design caught our eye not only because it’s visually attractive, but also for two other reasons.    First, this design should be very easy to 3D print even on the most basic 3D printers. Some designs can be quite aggressive and require particular resolutions or… Continue reading Design Of The Week: Turk’s Head Knot

Ponoko’s Color Ceramics

Ponoko has announced the availability of seven different colors for their glazed ceramic 3D printing material.    They previously offered four colors, but now add Yellow, Green and Pale Blue. Even better, they’re offering a discount of 10% off any orders using glazed ceramic until July 29th.    Now you can make that coffee cup… Continue reading Ponoko’s Color Ceramics

3D Printing in the USA

It’s interesting to read about 3D printing, but sometimes it’s just a whole lot better to visualize things. That’s precisely what 3DP blogger Nadra Angerman did when she produced this fascinating infographic that attempts to show many of the 3D printing establishments across the USA. Check out the full infographic at the link below.   … Continue reading 3D Printing in the USA

Are 3D Printing Materials a Weakness?

For as long as I can remember, users, and potential users, have been clamoring for more and better materials for their 3D printers. It is reasonable to state the to do more with 3D printing, industry wants more in terms of material properties. Read More at Engineering.com

Controlling Microorganisms to Fabricate Products

Designers and scientists in California are exploring the idea of using microorganisms to create consumer products. This can be thought of as a natural way of 3D printing. E. coli bacteria are being studied to ‘re-program’ them and build the product. This idea has tons of potential and in my opinion should have been looked into much… Continue reading Controlling Microorganisms to Fabricate Products

A Showcase of Influential 3D Print Artists

Editor’s note: This guest post comes from 3D printing aficionado Chris Waldo, who has compiled a very impressive list of some very impressive folks pushing the envelope on 3D printing every week.    [Update: All images below are thumbnails; please click on them to see larger views]   Throughout all emerging markets & technologies, there… Continue reading A Showcase of Influential 3D Print Artists

Published
Categorized as Design Tagged

3D Printing A Canadian Cabinet Minister

During an official visit to the AssentWorks Makerspace in Winnipeg, Canadian Federal Cabinet Minister Tony Clement had his picture taken numerous times, as typically happens on such public events – but one of those images was a 3D scan.    Readers all know what happens when someone is 3D scanned: a 3D print emerges shortly… Continue reading 3D Printing A Canadian Cabinet Minister

3D Printed Design Awards In Barcelona

Barcelona’s Association of Industrial Design has selected several student projects for Student Industrial Design Awards at the Barcelona School of Design and Engineering and we had to show them to you because, well they’re amazing!    The winning entry was designed by student Marion Frei, who came up with a unique “Vinculum” system for identifying… Continue reading 3D Printed Design Awards In Barcelona

The Folding 3D Printer

There was once a time when your 3D printer arrived as bags of teeny parts that you had to carefully assemble over a weekend. Then there came a time when your 3D printer would arrive fully assembled. Now is the time when your 3D printer can arrive folded.    Folded?    Yes, folded. Maker Emmanuel… Continue reading The Folding 3D Printer

The Phenix vs. EOS Patent War Heats Up

We’ve been advised that Phenix Systems has filed a lawsuit against 3D printer manufacturer EOS. This is more than likely in response to EOS’s filing of a lawsuit against Phenix Systems for alleged patent violation.    The new lawsuit from Phenix alleges that EOS has violated United States patent number 6,767,499 (Fast Prototyping Method by… Continue reading The Phenix vs. EOS Patent War Heats Up

Bre Speaks!

We recently contacted MakerBot chief Bre Pettis and asked him a few questions for this exclusive interview below. We have suspicions he and his crew at MakerBot are working on something really interesting, but as you’ll see he’s not telling. But he is excited.  Fabbaloo: MakerBot has been expanding very rapidly over the past year. What’s… Continue reading Bre Speaks!

The RA 3D Printer Controller

It’s not a 3D printer, but you could make one with it. It’s the RA 3D printer controller, now showing on Kickstarter.    The project involves creation of a “cutting edge” 3D printer controller board. This is the electronics portion of your 3D printer, typically used in RepRap-style kit assemblies.    What makes this board… Continue reading The RA 3D Printer Controller

3D Printer Releases at RAPID 2012

At the SME’s RAPID 2012 conference and exposition, four new 3D printers were announced by Objet, Mcor, envisionTEC and 3D Systems. These systems cover the whole gamut: tiny 3D printers to big parts and parts in full color to parts with advanced materials. View the Video at Engineering.com

An Interview With The DreamVendor

Actually we’re not interviewing the DreamVendor itself; instead we’re interviewing Dr. Chris Williams, the Director of the DREAMS Lab at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University, the organization that produced the DreamVendor. (Wait, what’s a “DreamVendor”??? Read on and you’ll find out.)    Fabbaloo: We’re wondering what the DREAMS lab is all about? Can… Continue reading An Interview With The DreamVendor

Dinosaur Printing in Detail

There’s a terrific article on The Verge describing all the details of actual Dinosaur printing. That’s the science of 3D scanning dinosaur fossils and using 3D printing technology to produce accurate replicas of the bones.    Why do this? Why not just use the original bones? It turns out there are a number of benefits.… Continue reading Dinosaur Printing in Detail

Further Evidence of 3D Print Mainstreaming

As 3D printing gains popularity it was inevitable. 3D printing has made it into the famous Cheezburger network. We noticed an animated GIF of a Yoda coming off of a MakerBot 3D printer on Cheezburger’s Señor Gif site.    Via SenorGif

3D Printing Sugary Blood Vessels

A new breakthrough in medical 3D printing: researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have developed a method of creating living tissue using 3D printing technology.    The researchers were concerned with the limitations of current bioprinting techniques, which are able to print layers of living tissue, but are less able to create the necessary  vasculature… Continue reading 3D Printing Sugary Blood Vessels

3D System’s Smarter 3D Printing

Industry giant 3D Systems intends on teaching you a lot more about 3D printing with their new seminar series entitled, “Smarter 3D Printing”. These seminars are planned for approximately 80 events in multiple locations across the United States, four locations in Canada and one (Sao Paulo) in Brazil.    The no-charge seminars will provide:   … Continue reading 3D System’s Smarter 3D Printing

Foundation Offers Help and Hope to Victims of Orthopedic Trauma

The Foundation for Orthopedic Reconstruction (FOR) is the culmination of two years of planning that heralds an exciting undertaking for the orthopedic and additive manufacturing communities. FOR was developed with a dual mission: To provide patient-specific medical implants at no cost to those in need and to encourage and fund innovative research within the orthopedic… Continue reading Foundation Offers Help and Hope to Victims of Orthopedic Trauma

3D Printing Electrical Circuit Discovery?

We’re reading about a group of researchers at Stanford who have concocted new gel-like substance that has some very interesting properties. We think the electrically conductive hydrogel created by Stanford Associate Professors Zhenan Bao and Yi Cui could potentially be used in 3D printers, or perhaps a modification of it. At least it’s worth an… Continue reading 3D Printing Electrical Circuit Discovery?

A Few Cubify Developments

3D Systems’ Cube personal 3D printer has only been available for a few weeks now, but this week we noticed a few interesting developments.    First, there’s a new video out showing a bit more of how the device works. We specifically were interested in the portion where they showed how to change the filament.… Continue reading A Few Cubify Developments

3D Worms Infect The Net!

Do you use AutoCAD? If so you might be a victim of one of the most unusual cases of 3D theft we’ve seen yet.    It seems that certain AutoCAD templates have been infected with malware that does something blatantly nefarious: it sends your AutoCAD drawings to email addresses in China! What a highly efficient… Continue reading 3D Worms Infect The Net!

The 3DPrintShow In London

In London this October is the 3DPrintShow, three days of exhibitions and shows all about 3D printing.    Taking place from October 19th through the 21st, this event includes exhibits from all the major 3D print vendors and services, including MakerBot, 3D Systems, EOS, Objet, Shapeways, i.Materialise, Tinkercad, Anarkik3D, Uformia and many others. They’ll be… Continue reading The 3DPrintShow In London

Entrepreneuring With A MakerBot

There’s a terrific story on Solidsmack of how an entrepreneur turned a MakerBot personal 3D printer into a viable business.    The folks at I Heart Engineering wondered whether they could treat a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic as a kind of miniature factory for a startup business. They designed a specific adaptor for hooking Microsoft Kinect sensors… Continue reading Entrepreneuring With A MakerBot

Bioprinting Advances

Bioprinting is something you’ll be hearing a lot more about in the future. It’s the application of 3D printing for medical purposes.    The idea is to produce human tissue for replacement of damaged portions, but it’s much more complicated than 3D printing simple plastic objects. Not only are you dealing with microscopic bits, but… Continue reading Bioprinting Advances

Pondering Highly Detailed 3D Models

Today’s personal 3D printers can produce many types of objects, but the fine details are often obscured due to resolution limitations on the printers. A typical home 3D printer today slices models into 0.2-0.5 mm layers, meaning you’ll not only see layering, but also not see any fine details. Eventually we’ll see the capabilities of… Continue reading Pondering Highly Detailed 3D Models

The Met’s 3-D Scanning and Printing Hackathon

An interesting experiment took place at New York City’s Metropolitan Museum of Art recently, in which the Met tag-teamed with MakerBot to produce 3D art models.    A team of folks from MakerBot were invited by the Met to journey through several collections to perform 3D scans of famous artwork. The scans were then converted… Continue reading The Met’s 3-D Scanning and Printing Hackathon

Bronzed by i.Materialise

i.Materialise, one of the popular online 3D print services, now offers an experimental Bronze 3D printing capability.    This isn’t bronze plating – it seems to be solid bronze. However, during this experimental phase they limit the size of your bronze prints to 5 x 5 x 5 cm. We think that’s quite appropriate as… Continue reading Bronzed by i.Materialise

Fashion and Jewelry 3D Printing Workshop

Interested in fashion or jewelry design? Want to do it with 3D printing technology? If so, you may want to attend one of the workshops taking place at ELISAVA, School of Design and Engineering of Barcelona.   There are two five-day workshops scheduled, one from 23-27 July and a second edition from 10-14 September of… Continue reading Fashion and Jewelry 3D Printing Workshop

Ice That 3D Cake

The folks at CNCDudez have been experimenting with cakes. Frosting cakes, actually. With a 3D printer. Spokesman Sean says:    We have seen videos showing chocolate being extruded out of a syringe and also cake dough being extruded to make cookies. But we wanted to see if we could Ice a cakes, buns etc etc.… Continue reading Ice That 3D Cake

Objet Hits 107!

3D printer manufacturer Objet is well known for their extensive list of different materials that you can use in their line of 3D printers. But this week they announced something perhaps significant: they now offer over 100 different materials (107 to be precise). With their recent announcement of a set of 39 new materials, they’ve… Continue reading Objet Hits 107!

A Real Robot 3D Printer

The folks at Hackaday found a 190 pound experimental 3D printer made from a scrap industrial robot arm – and it actually works. Made by Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute undergrad and maker extraordinary Dane Kouttron, this project required an enormous amount of effort to convert the surplus robot arm into a working 3D printer.    The… Continue reading A Real Robot 3D Printer

Another Open Source Resin 3D Printer: Sedgwick

We’ve uncovered another resin-based 3D printer project. The “Sedgwick Open Source 3D DLP Printer” by Ron Light is now crowd funding on Kickstarter with the very precise goal of USD$24,750 by July 14th.    So far the project has had limited success raising funds, but there is plenty of time left to achieve their goal. … Continue reading Another Open Source Resin 3D Printer: Sedgwick

Matt Underwood’s 3D Vision

Manufacturing engineer Matt Underwood’s Kickstarter project is the Vision 3D printer. Yes, it’s another RepRap variant, but with quite a few interesting improvements.    Underwood observed that while many inexpensive 3D printer kits are available they are typically difficult and time consuming to build, making them beyond the reach of non-technical mortals. He set out… Continue reading Matt Underwood’s 3D Vision

What’s With Organovo?

You may recall Organovo? They’re a bioprinting startup that is attempting to 3D print a variety of biological tissues, including Actual Human Organs! They say:    Organovo’s powerful NovoGen Bioprinting platform creates human tissues starting with any cell source. From disease models to tissue creation, bioprinting solves urged needs in biological research.   Their goal… Continue reading What’s With Organovo?

The BurritoB0t

This is a real 3D printer specifically designed to print delicious burritos – we’re not kidding! The BurritoB0t, a thesis project by maker Marko Manriquez, extrudes combinations of burrito components to dynamically construct, well, a custom-designed burrito.    Technically, the BurritoB0t is a straightforward modification and combination of RepRap-derived technologies. It’s based on the Hadron Bot, which… Continue reading The BurritoB0t

EOS Teams Up For Metal 3D Printing

3D printer manufacturer EOS has signed an agreement with Cookson Precious Metals to jointly develop a variety of applications related to metal 3D printing. According to the press release, “Under this agreement, both companies will introduce and further develop precious metal-based applications to the jewelry and watch industry”.    But what does this mean, exactly?… Continue reading EOS Teams Up For Metal 3D Printing

How Will 3DP Affect Your City?

An interesting piece in the Houston Business Journal written by Molly Ryan contemplates the effect of 3D printing on the city of Houston’s manufacturing sector.    Her investigation showed what most non-technical folks soon discover about 3D printing: you can make almost anything, but it will be more expensive than traditional manufacturing techniques. In other… Continue reading How Will 3DP Affect Your City?

A $34 Extruder?

Remember buying third-party parts for your car? They might have been less expensive, or better in some way and were fun to install and brag about. Now you can do the same on your 3D printer with QU-BD, who are launching a fundraising campaign for their new product: a replacement extruder that costs only USD$34. … Continue reading A $34 Extruder?

DIY Pioneer Dislikes 3D Printing???

A provocative headline at LiveScience proclaims: “Why a DIY Pioneer Dislikes 3D Printing”. The pioneer in this case is Neil Gershenfeld, director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms, someone who should know the space very well indeed.    It seems that Gershenfeld views the current state of “DIY” manufacturing as an extension of 1950’s… Continue reading DIY Pioneer Dislikes 3D Printing???