After jewelry, the most frequently 3D printed item of clothing seems to be shoes. Some of the designs we’ve seen up to now were totally fantastic but were perhaps more arty than you’d care to wear in “real life”. Now we’re seeing more practical 3D printed shoe designs by artist Hoon Chung of the University… Continue reading More 3D Printed Shoes
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Trademark vs. 3D Printing
Helen Sloan of World Trademark Review writes an interesting analysis of the effect of 3D printing on trademarks. This was prompted, of course, by the recent announcement by The Pirate Bay that they’re adding a category for 3D object files. The implication is that anyone would theoretically be able to download a 3D model of… Continue reading Trademark vs. 3D Printing
3D Printer in the Home of the Future
The UK’s Channel 4’s new show “Home of the Future” takes the idea of a futuristic home beyond just and idea; they’re building it for real! The imaginative home includes numerous 21st century features, some you’d expect to see, like an internet-equipped refrigerator in the kitchen and others you might not expect like the… Continue reading 3D Printer in the Home of the Future
3D Model Printed – Literally
3D models are printed on 3D printers every day, yes? This time engineers at Objet attempted to print an actual 3D model – an object that *looks* like a 3D model. And they succeeded. Just look at the image above (click for larger view) and you’ll see what we mean. This image is not computer… Continue reading 3D Model Printed – Literally
3D printing Down Under
Would you happen to be in the beautiful city of Adelaide, Australia on February 20th? You may be able to attend the “3D Printing Forum: The Next Industrial Revolution?”, which promises to be an interesting introduction to various 3D printing topics. According to the Australian Network for Art and Technology (ANAT), the event includes: … Continue reading 3D printing Down Under
The 10 Barriers to 3D Printing In Your Home
Slashgear predicts 3D printing will “explode at a rate incomparable to its 2D predecessor”. We all hope so, but will this actually come true? Things happen when they’re easy – and that might not be the case just yet in the world of personal 3D printing. We considered some of the major barriers to mass… Continue reading The 10 Barriers to 3D Printing In Your Home
It’s Valentine’s Day At BotMill
Normally a day for lovers, Valentine’s is apparently a day for shopping at BotMill, makers of some fine assembled personal 3D printers. BotMill is selling their assembled Glider personal 3D printer for USD$1320 and the DIY Axis Kit for only USD$990 – both are USD$75 off their normal price – and offered with free… Continue reading It’s Valentine’s Day At BotMill
DAZ Studio, Bryce and Hexagon Available for Free!
DAZ 3D has a spectacular offer on now for some 3D tools that readers may find of interest. These three software tools retail for over USD$800 and are apparently available at no charge through February. The tools include: DAZ Studio Pro 4 – A tool for designing and animating human shapes and related… Continue reading DAZ Studio, Bryce and Hexagon Available for Free!
Stackable 3D Print Design
Tom Modeen is at it again, developing weird but artistic techniques for producing 3D objects with 3D printers. This time he’s interrupting the 3D print operation before it completes, revealing the usually hidden inner support structure. By printing similarly sized objects, one can take these partial prints and manually assemble them in different combinations to… Continue reading Stackable 3D Print Design
3D Printing Stack Exchange?
You may have heard of StackOverflow? It’s a very popular question and answer website for computer programming topics. The makers of StackOverflow now permit the same software to be used for question-answer sites on other topics. But which topics get a site? At Area51.StackExhchange.com discussions are held to determine whether a topic warrants a Q/A… Continue reading 3D Printing Stack Exchange?
The New Tinkercad
Tinkercad, the amazing web-based solid 3D modeling tool has recently improved its capabilities. This tool permits creation of basic 3D printable objects without an expensive software and more importantly without a lot of training. Tinkercad uses WebGL, so be sure to use a reasonably modern web browser. What did we notice about Tinkercad? Gorgeously… Continue reading The New Tinkercad
Open3DP Goes Closed3DP?
The folks at the University of Washington who’ve been doing stellar work researching 3D printing in concrete, ceramics, glass and other unusual materials have gone dark, so to speak. It appears that the suits at their university have issued new rules regarding participation with outside groups. Specifically, they say: it has become increasingly… Continue reading Open3DP Goes Closed3DP?
A 3D Printed Jaw
This was bound to happen: a person receives a transplant of a major body part made specifically for them by 3D printing technology. In this case the body part was the lower jaw of an 83 year old woman from Europe, which had become infected and required removal. 3D scanning techniques captured the precise… Continue reading A 3D Printed Jaw
We Built About 8,000 Mouths
Did you catch the movie Coraline? If you did you might have noticed that much of the movie was not made using conventional computer graphics. Instead the producers 3D printed billions (well maybe not quite that much, but a Whole Bunch) of character parts that were then used in Stop-Motion filming. The movie was a… Continue reading We Built About 8,000 Mouths
The $300 Desktop 3D Printer?
Another 3D printer startup has emerged: the Makibox A6, billed as: “The $300 Desktop 3D Printer”. The project is led by Jon Buford, who hopes to raise USD$40,000 by the end of February through the funding site Makible. Buford says: “we’ve set out to build the most affordable, compact, and easy to use 3D printer… Continue reading The $300 Desktop 3D Printer?
3D Printed Ceramic Design
Artist Jonathan Keep provided an update on his experiments using ceramic 3D printing to create very unusual works. Using a modified RapMan personal 3D printer that has its usual plastic extruders replaced with syringes, Keep can successfully 3D print ceramic models. The syringes contain a fixed-capacity cartridge full of ceramic material, meaning Keep’s prints have… Continue reading 3D Printed Ceramic Design
3D Print Meat With Your Imagine 3D Printer
We spoke with Essential Dynamics Sales Manager, Stevie Green regarding their new personal 3D printer, the Imagine 3D Printer. As we reported earlier, this printer is unique among ready-to-go assembled personal 3D printers as it uses syringes instead of the more common hot plastic extruders. This means it is capable of printing room-temperature gooey substances,… Continue reading 3D Print Meat With Your Imagine 3D Printer
Pirate Baying 3D Printing
The other week infamous BitTorrent site The Pirate Bay announced a new category for contraband digital media: Other/Physibles. The idea is that this category would hold 3D model files representing physical objects. Horrors! Not only will movies and music will be pirated, but now Everything Else! Listen, it’s just a category. And it’s not… Continue reading Pirate Baying 3D Printing
3D Printing To Disappear?
Christopher Mims writes his opinion of 3D printing futures on the MIT Technology Review blog, where he suggests that 3D printing will never become a “mature technology that can reproduce all the goods on which we rely”. He goes on to suggest that to believe so is a “complete denial of the complexities of modern… Continue reading 3D Printing To Disappear?
BotMill Improves Service
BotMill is one of many companies producing RepRap-based 3D printers, and perhaps it’s one of the largest. In the past our posts on BotMill have sometimes been met with negative comments regarding their service and this negativity appeared in other forums as well. We’re not certain whether the negative comments are true or false,… Continue reading BotMill Improves Service
The Imagine 3D Food Printer
There’s not a lot of information about this intriguing device, but New York-based Essential Dynamics has released their “Imagine 3D Printer”. Now we know you’ve seen a plethora of personal 3D printers explode onto the market in recent months, but this one is different. Very different. It doesn’t print plastic. The Imagine uses… Continue reading The Imagine 3D Food Printer
On The Road With 3D Printing
The Pocket Factory Project seems a little crazy at first, but then it starts to make more sense in this rapidly evolving 21st century. It’s two creative guys stuffed into a Prius, driving around the United States seeking inspiration for creative 3D printing. Bilal Ghalib and Alex Hornstein are those guys and they’re traveling… Continue reading On The Road With 3D Printing
North America’s Largest 3D Print?
Everyone asks how big can you print, but we have a group trying to print something truly massive. JF Brandon of Vancouver, Canada wants your help to print a gigantic version of famed 3D designer Bathsheba Grossman’s “Rygo” for outdoor installation at Gropp’s Gallery of Vancouver. The Rygo is an algorithmic design – generated… Continue reading North America’s Largest 3D Print?
ReconstructMe Makes 3D Capture Easy
A new project by PROFACTOR GmbH attempts to vastly simplify 3D scanning. ReconstructMe is software that uses a Microsoft Kinect 3D sensor to capture highly detailed 3D models of nearby objects. But wait, you say, that’s been done before. Well, kinda. All of the Kinect 3D capture software we’ve seen so far simply takes… Continue reading ReconstructMe Makes 3D Capture Easy
Send To Print/ Print To Send
We previously mentioned the exhibition at London’s Aram Gallery entitled “Send To Print/ Print To Send”, in which artists explore the possibilities using 3D printing technology. We just found a bit more information about this event. ArtsThread discusses the opportunity and as in other industries, the Arts can use 3D printing for custom, one-of-a-kind… Continue reading Send To Print/ Print To Send
3D Printing In Antarctica?
Hundreds of thousands of readers from an amazing 185 countries and territories have visited Fabbaloo since our inception in 2007, but only two visits have ever originated from Antarctica. We’re wondering whether 3D printing could play a significant role at the bottom of the world in the research stations, which are often cut off… Continue reading 3D Printing In Antarctica?
Astronomical Themed Prints
Sister site Mallyable has released a couple of interesting printable 3D models that have an astronomical theme. The Big Dipper Pendant and Constellation Pegasus Pendant both have pinholes in the same configuration as the actual stellar patterns. Adding simple string or chain of your choice makes the pendant wearable. These are not the… Continue reading Astronomical Themed Prints
The Two Titans of Personal 3D Printing
After CES it now seems we have a two-horse race for the lead in personal 3D printing: MakerBot and 3D Systems. Both announced new printers (the MakerBot Replicator and the Cube), while 3D Systems added a comprehensive 3D community/store/service to compete with MakerBot’s Thingiverse. But that’s about where the similarities end. MakerBot’s philosophy revolves… Continue reading The Two Titans of Personal 3D Printing
Awesome Possibilities with 3D Printed Concrete
A provocative article on Construction Digital discusses the idea of matching 3D printing with modern construction. As anyone who wanders through big cities these days knows, the design of buildings is increasingly radical and complex. These amazing designs are wonderful to look at and work within, but they are becoming more difficult for engineers and… Continue reading Awesome Possibilities with 3D Printed Concrete
3D Printed Exhibition at The Aram Gallery
If you happen to be in London before February 25th, you might want to drop by The Aram Gallery in Covent Garden to see their “Send to Print / Print to Send” exhibition. The exhibition features works by designers exploring the medium of 3D printing, including some folks whom we’ve written about such as Freedom… Continue reading 3D Printed Exhibition at The Aram Gallery
Want To Attend A 3D Printing Conference?
Having unfortunately missed this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, we’ve been wondering what other conferences and trade shows exist that might include 3D printing content. Searches reveal what we think might be a fairly comprehensive list of major events involving 3D printing. We’ve not included numerous local events such as local Maker Faires. CES, January… Continue reading Want To Attend A 3D Printing Conference?
The Galileo 3D Printer
There is no shortage of 3D printer kits recently, as it seems everyone is now jumping on the RepRap model to develop improvements of one kind or another. We noticed yet another one today: The Galileo 3D Printer, featured on Instructables and designed by the KentStrapper team. While the Galileo is essentially a RepRap… Continue reading The Galileo 3D Printer
Time to Enter The Extreme Redesign Contest
Stratasys’ annual Extreme Redesign Contest for students is open – but only until the deadline of February 2. If you’ve been thinking about entering, think no longer because you’d better fill out the forms straight away. The contest enables students in grade school as well as university to enter a design (product, enhancement, art… Continue reading Time to Enter The Extreme Redesign Contest
3D Print Animated Beings!
It’s fun printing 3D objects with a 3D printer, but typically the problem is they are fixed, unmoving static objects that sit patiently on your desk. What if you could print objects that literally come alive and move around? What if you printed tiny beings that could walk? Sounds ridiculous, we know. But it’s… Continue reading 3D Print Animated Beings!
Scan The World With MatterPort
3D Printing Buzz Increases
With the close of the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show it seems like a good time to check the buzz level of 3D printing, which we suspect is higher than its ever been. By using Google Trends, a free tool that shows the frequency of search terms used on the omnipresent search engine, we can see… Continue reading 3D Printing Buzz Increases
Sculpteo’s Cloud Engine
3D print service Sculpteo announced their “3D Printing Cloud Engine” that provides a way for websites to create online stores for 3D printed items. The service apparently permits customization of 3D models to some degree. The customized models are then automatically submitted to Sculpteo’s print service for production and shipping. Sculpteo also says they… Continue reading Sculpteo’s Cloud Engine
CNET Names MakerBot’s Replicator Best of CES
CES has now closed and the media now reports on their observations. CNET produced a list of their “best 10 of CES”. On the list was the MakerBot Replicator personal 3D printer, winner of the “Best emerging tech product” category. Why the MakerBot instead of its competitor the 3D Systems Cube? According to CNET: … Continue reading CNET Names MakerBot’s Replicator Best of CES
The Society for Printable Geography
There have been many attempts to print landscapes with 3D printers, but here’s a whole service dedicated to that pursuit: The Society for Printable Geography. While it’s called a “society” it’s actually a specialized 3D print service. The Society uses the Shapeways 3D print service to produce its attractive items. They have a huge… Continue reading The Society for Printable Geography
True 3D Scanners for Phones?
Developments at MIT by professor Vivek Goyal may lead to very inexpensive and ubiquitous 3D scanning equipment, perhaps even embedded in your mobile phone. A dream for many 3D printer owners is the ability to capture 3D shapes efficiently. Today one must use very expensive 3D scanners or be satisfied with rudimentary solutions such as… Continue reading True 3D Scanners for Phones?
Mineways!
The popularity of Minecraft has blossomed into several 3D print-related services. One of the new ones is Mineways. Minecraft users spend hours designing complex and amazing 3D environments and it’s only natural they’d want to see them in real life if at all possible. It is possible with Mineways, but with some effort. Mineways… Continue reading Mineways!
Unboxing A Stratasys
Brad Rigdon, the owner of PrintTo3D, a small 3D print service just received a brand new Stratasys Fortus 250mc commercial 3D printer. While we often see unboxing scenes of much smaller personal 3D printers, here’s an opportunity to see the unboxing of a much larger – and much more expensive – commercial 3D printer. Check… Continue reading Unboxing A Stratasys
Another 3D Printed Proposal
Earlier we wrote of how an Objet employee created a special engagement ring using 3D printing and successfully proposed marriage with it. Now we’re pointed to another similar scenario, this time involving 3D print service MyRobotNation. MyRobotNation is one of several small 3D print services that specialize in a particular genre. Of course, theirs… Continue reading Another 3D Printed Proposal
Sculpteo’s New App
3D print service Sculpteo just released a new iOS app that hooks directly into their service. With the app you can select a variety of 3D models that are tweaked with your personal data. You can take a side view image of your face (or your dog’s, we suppose) and it automatically creates a… Continue reading Sculpteo’s New App
3D Print Time, Size and Accuracy
With the announcement of MakerBot’s giant Replicator 3D printer, we’re now entering a stage where most personal 3D printers have a significantly large build envelope, typically around 200mm wide by 200mm deep by 150+mm tall. This means we can print big things! But should we? Sure you can print something “twice as large”, but… Continue reading 3D Print Time, Size and Accuracy
More on Cubify
As we mentioned the other day, 3D Systems was set to announce something big at CES and they did: plenty of details on the new Cubify system are now available. Cubify is a very comprehensive 3D printing “system” involving a new personal printer, 3D print services, an online community, a model repository, an API and… Continue reading More on Cubify
Thingiverse Updated
MakerBot’s source for freely available 3D models has been updated. Thingiverse, the repository for thousands of 3D models had a makeover yesterday and now sports a much cleaner look. The site still focuses on the key categories of objects: Who’s Making What? Newest Derivatives, Most Popular Things and the Newest Things, making it pretty… Continue reading Thingiverse Updated
Slic3r Instead of Skeinforge?
You own a RepRap 3D printer and you’re preparing a 3D model for printing with Skeinforge, the time-tested, defacto standard for slicing 3D models into printable GCode. All you need to do is wait for the slicing operation to complete. And you’re still waiting. That’s the problem with Skeinforge – while it has… Continue reading Slic3r Instead of Skeinforge?
MakerBot Announces The Replicator
We anticipated some announcement action this week coinciding with the annual Consumer Electronics show and we were definitely not disappointed. Today we find 3D printer manufacturer MakerBot has announced a brand-new personal 3D printer: The Replicator! The replicator appears to be much more capable but also strongly based upon its predecessor the venerable Thing-O-Matic.… Continue reading MakerBot Announces The Replicator
A 3D Marriage Proposal
Sometimes it’s what you do after work that counts. Objet sales engineer Idan Eshel had access to some amazing 3D printer gear and decided to prepare a unique marriage proposal to his girlfriend, Tamar. He 3D printed a very unusual ring with which he proposed. Evidently the strategy worked, as the couple were married… Continue reading A 3D Marriage Proposal
The Materials Project
We’re not sure how useful this is to most Fabbaloo readers, but it is very cool. The Materials Project is an online database of, well, materials. Once you register for free you can access the service by entering a chemical formula and the service returns you a wealth of information about the selected material. You… Continue reading The Materials Project
3D Printed Bike
Serious cyclists need their bike to precisely match their body for optimum performance, but how can you do so when bikes are pre-made to someone else’s specifications? The answer is to 3D print a bike to your exact specs. That’s what was done recently by German bike maker Vorwaertz, who use 3D design to prepare… Continue reading 3D Printed Bike
A Robot at Mallyable
Our sister site and 3D model shop Mallyable just announced a very cool new 3D model: the Sitting Robot. It’s an exclusive digital 3D model of a particularly lazy robot that is conveniently sitting to permit easy 3D printing. If you haven’t yet heard of Mallyable, it’s our very own source for 3D models –… Continue reading A Robot at Mallyable
KraftWurx’s Patent Available
The legalities behind the KraftWurx 3D print service/software are now available for public viewing, courtesy of the US Government’s Patent and Trade office. Patent application number 20110313878, entitled “Made-to-order direct digital manufacturing enterprise” includes this abstract: Methods and systems for designing and producing a three-dimensional object selection of a base three-dimensional object from a… Continue reading KraftWurx’s Patent Available
Secret Cubify Project To Be Unveiled
A fascinating press release from 3D Systems describes what appears to be a whole new product line: Cubify. Is it a 3D printer? Yes. Is it 3D modeling software? Yes. Is it an online service? Yes. Whew! Several announcements bundled into one! 3D Systems is to formally announce this product in a few days… Continue reading Secret Cubify Project To Be Unveiled
The Prusa Air
The standard RepRap 3D printer designs are made to be changed and many inventors have developed modifications to improve them in various ways. One such design is Mecano’s Prusa Air, a modification of the standard Mendel design. The otherwise unrelated Prusa design provided the inspiration for the new Prusa Air through its radical efficiencies, hence… Continue reading The Prusa Air
Did Our 3D Print Wishes Come True in 2011?
In January 2011 we posted a short list of three “wishes” for 3D printing in 2011. Now that 2011 has officially been placed on the expired list, we thought we check in on our wishes to see if any of them actually happened. Here’s the results: We wished for “A capable and assembled 3D… Continue reading Did Our 3D Print Wishes Come True in 2011?
Anil Dash on 3D Printing Futures
Entrepreneur Anil Dash recently posted his thoughts on the world of 3D printing as we find it at the end of year 2011. We agree with most of his propositions, which basically boil down to the fact that personal 3D printing is at the most early stages of development. Here are his positions and our… Continue reading Anil Dash on 3D Printing Futures
Top Tweeted Posts of 2011
Many Fabbaloo readers use Twitter to keep their friends informed of important 3D printing news by retweeting links to our posts. The most frequently retweeted posts are possibly the most interesting, as least according to our readers. But which posts were most frequently retweeted? These were the top ten in 2011: Sneakey Captures Your… Continue reading Top Tweeted Posts of 2011
3D Printed Kite
Boing Boing reports on an amazing 3D printed kite. Well, the kite wasn’t completely 3D printed – instead just the numerous connectors were. They were used to connect carbon fiber rods to form the strange looking craft. While the kite looks incredible, it didn’t fly very well, at least as far as we can tell… Continue reading 3D Printed Kite
Microsoft’s Secret 3D Printing Lab
Joshua Topolsky toured Microsoft’s product design lab on video. The lab uses a triplet of Objet 3D printers to produce prototypes of Microsoft products, most notably Mice. In the video Topolsky interviews Karsten Aagaard, User Experience Designer in Microsoft’s Hardware Group, who explains how the 3D printers can produce prototypes that can be… Continue reading Microsoft’s Secret 3D Printing Lab
MCOR’s 3D Christmas Cards
MCOR’s 3D paper printer created a rather unique design for a Christmas card: a 3D object emerges from the (thick) card when you open it. As you can see in the image, the sheet-built Christmas tree is surrounded by the excess material, which is normally removed and disposed of. However, in this case the “excess”… Continue reading MCOR’s 3D Christmas Cards
3D Prints Hit The Apple Store
If it’s in the Apple Store it’s got to be good, right? That might be debated, but regardless Freshfiber has landed their custom-printed iPhone covers in US and Canadian Apple Stores. At this point only two models are offered (the “Weave” and the digital-like “Double Mesh”), but you can check out large quantities of… Continue reading 3D Prints Hit The Apple Store
MakerBot Reaches Retail
New York City-based retailer AC Gears now sells MakerBot’s Thing-O-Matic personal 3D printer, in another step by growing Brooklyn-based manufacturer MakerBot’s strategy to get more MakerBots in the hands of more people. AC Gears is “New York’s Gadget Emporium”, selling a quite amazing selection of cool stuff such as a Breath Tester, LED lantern… Continue reading MakerBot Reaches Retail
The SUMPOD 3D Printer And Router
Time to look at another inexpensive 3D printer kit seeking funding. This one is called the SUMPOD and it’s not just a 3D printer – it’s a router as well. Designed by Richard Sum of the United Kingdom, the project now appears on IndieGoGo looking for USD$5,000 from sponsors until the close date of… Continue reading The SUMPOD 3D Printer And Router
The RepRap Food
Among the numerous successful and unsuccessful 3D printer kits seeking funding on IndieGoGo and Kickstarter is a rather unusual project: The RepRap Food Printer. The project goals are to develop a rudimentary food printer based on the trusted RepRap platform. While many food printing experiments have taken place on previous RepRaps and you can… Continue reading The RepRap Food
T-Splines Eaten by Autodesk
If you use Rhino3D or Solidworks for preparing your 3D models you might have heard of T-Splines. It’s a special plug-in that permits easy creation of organic shapes and thus greatly extends the usefulness of Rhino3D and Solidworks, at least for some designers. But that may change abruptly. The other week 3D software giant Autodesk… Continue reading T-Splines Eaten by Autodesk
Unfold Imagines Streetside 3D Printing
Several design firms specialize in doing amazing things with 3D printing and one of them is Belgium-based Unfold. Their new concept is streetside 3D printing. What? Yeah, it’s exactly that – a street vendor that prints arbitrary stuff on demand. Not hot dogs, but objects. Possible? Technically yes, but we suspect the clientele… Continue reading Unfold Imagines Streetside 3D Printing
3D Printing Hot Stuff
We’ve been reading a post from BFB in which they’ve offered another christmas 3D model free for download as part of their Advent Calendar program. It’s a tea light holder. The item holds one of those standard-sized metal candle holders, which of course, you ignite and enjoy. But this got us thinking. Should 3D… Continue reading 3D Printing Hot Stuff
Dozens of MakerBot Jobs!
Popular 3D printer manufacturer MakerBot is hiring. And boy, are they ever! A recent check of their jobs list revealed a startling number of required positions in wildly different roles. It’s almost as if MakerBot suddenly gained a ton of money and started recruiting for every job they felt they needed. But then, that’s exactly… Continue reading Dozens of MakerBot Jobs!
Bodyworks Human Models
Want to 3D print a person? Need a 3D body model to put your head on? Go no further than Bodyworks – an online store specializing in sales of 3D models of people. All of their products are SolidWorks models, suitable for modification for your own purposes. Prices range from USD$99-149 for body models… Continue reading Bodyworks Human Models
A Tour of Buildatron
PC Magazine took a tour of a Brooklyn, NY-based 3D printer manufacturer, and it wasn’t MakerBot. It was Buildatron, an up and coming personal 3D printer operation whose signature feature is a stunning metal case. What did they find? They found a tiny manufacturing space, likely very similar to most other personal 3D printer… Continue reading A Tour of Buildatron
Printrbot Hits The Jackpot
Projects appearing on the Kickstarter public venture funding service sometimes surprise everyone with their success, but Printrbot’s results seem to make all others look bad. Their concept for a personal 3D printer was presented on Kickstarter in hopes of raising enough cash to produce a number of units and launch their business. But get this… Continue reading Printrbot Hits The Jackpot
Stratasys Drifting Away from HP?
In early 2010 big-time 3D printer manufacturer Stratasys signed an agreement with even-bigger-time 2D printer manufacturer HP to market 3D printers. The deal involved Stratasys producing HP-labeled printers that would be marketed through HP’s massive reseller networks. They started sales in Europe later that year. Now we see this arrangement may not be proceeding as… Continue reading Stratasys Drifting Away from HP?
The List of Personal 3D Printers, 2011
There’s been a rash of low-cost 3D printers emerge recently, so many that it prompted us to write on what we called the “Cambrian Explosion of 3D printers“. But what are these printers? We took the time to zip through our previous posts and came up with what we think might be the definitive list… Continue reading The List of Personal 3D Printers, 2011
BotMill Holiday Discounts
BotMill announced some serious discounts on their personal 3D printers just in time for holiday shopping. The discounts apply to both their Axis kit and assembled Glider 3D printer. The kit is discounted USD$100 to USD$990 and the Glider is discounted USD$175 to only USD$1,320. Not only that, but they’ve also now include a… Continue reading BotMill Holiday Discounts
3D Systems For Investors
We managed to get a peek at a 3D Systems investors presentation. This is a rather large slide deck with plenty of investor-related data as most investor presentations tend to be, but there were also lots of very interesting statistics and information. We read through the entire piece and found the interesting tidbits for Fabbaloo… Continue reading 3D Systems For Investors
Another 3D Printed ATM Skimmer
This isn’t the first time a crime was committed with 3D printing technology, and it won’t be the last. Curiously, it’s exactly the same kind of crime: ATM skimming! Krebs on Security details the plot, in which perps carefully replaced the “card reader” portion of a California Chase Bank ATM with their own compromised… Continue reading Another 3D Printed ATM Skimmer
The New Buildatron
Buildatron has released a new version of their attractive personal 3D printer, the Buildatron Series 2. Like its predecessor, the Series 2 includes that very cool wedge-shaped metal case we believe is unique among personal 3D printers. But what’s different about this version as compared to the Series 1? Here’s what we found: Series… Continue reading The New Buildatron
3D Printed Fractal Cube Originated in Second Life
In December 2007 Henry Segerman, a.k.a. Second Life avatar Seifert Surface, designed a “Hilbert Cube” using Second Life’s then simplistic 3D model creation tools and some tricky Python software. While this interesting object was for years used only within Second Life’s virtual world, there’s been a recent change: you can now 3D print this item… Continue reading 3D Printed Fractal Cube Originated in Second Life
Think You Have A Big 3D Printer?
We were contacted by Kalispell, Montana-based The Future Is 3-D after our recent post on build sizes. The post discussed the ultimately not useful statistic of cost per build size. Nevertheless, this small company has been making RepRap Mendel-based 3D printers for over a year and specializes in large build sizes. They’re not kidding, either,… Continue reading Think You Have A Big 3D Printer?
The Economist Discovers 3D Printing’s Killer App
There is perhaps no bigger promoter of 3D printing within the mainstream media than The Economist magazine. Recently they visited the gigantic Euromold conference where many 3D printer manufacturers exhibit their wares – and applications of their tech. What impressed The Economist was the link between 3D print design and the biological. We’ve written… Continue reading The Economist Discovers 3D Printing’s Killer App
MAKE Makes a MakerGear
There are two kinds of personal 3D printer owners these days: those who like to build the printer from a kit and those who’d rather pay more for an assembled version. If you’re one of the former, you’ll be interested to know that MAKE Magazine is running a series of detailed posts describing… Continue reading MAKE Makes a MakerGear
Christmas at Bits From Bytes
The folks at Bits From Bytes have an interesting giveaway taking place this holiday season: their Advent Calendar 2011. According to Wikipedia, an Advent Calendar is “a special calendar which is used to count or celebrate the days of Advent in anticipation of Christmas”. Typically it involves a surprise each day, and BFB is doing… Continue reading Christmas at Bits From Bytes
The New Teardrop
Maker Zaggo has discovered a truly useful design tip for 3D models. The new design helps overcome a deficiency in many low-cost 3D printers: no support material. Support material is typically extruded from a second print head during the print to add support for overhangs and difficult object geometries. The support material is then removed… Continue reading The New Teardrop
MineToys!
If it’s in 3D, it will be printed. That is the theme we see everywhere now. The latest venture in the theme is MineToys, a service that can 3D print your MineCraft characters. Like those who went before printing World of Warcraft, Mii or Second Life avatars, we now have a service that can… Continue reading MineToys!
Up! 3D Printers On Sale
Want an Up! personal 3D printer? This just might be the right time to buy if you are located in the USA as they’re on sale. Up3DUSA / X-Object has a special holiday deal underway. The first 100 buyers get an astonishing ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS OFF their purchase. This takes the price from USD$3,250… Continue reading Up! 3D Printers On Sale
Haptic Printing Experiment
Not sure about 3D printing and want to experience it? Really experience it? Now there’s a way to do so in which you (personally) become the 3D printer! You manipulate a hand-held extruder and move it about to gradually build up a 3D model just as a real 3D printer might do. Designer Joong… Continue reading Haptic Printing Experiment
MakerGear Hits Forbes
As interest in 3D printing grows we see increasingly frequent appearances in mass media. Now we see popular 3D printer supplier MakerGear featured in business publication Forbes. MakerGear is a well-stocked supply shop for 3D printer owners and would-be owners. In addition to supplying materials (ABS and PLA filament), MakerGear also offers well-regarded upgraded… Continue reading MakerGear Hits Forbes
SimCity or RealCity?
Yet another surprise source for 3D models has emerged: the game SimCity. SimCity, for those of you who have somehow never encountered it, is a simulation of a city. By tweaking various civic parameters, your city may thrive and grow – or die. It’s a great tool for learning some of the basics of city… Continue reading SimCity or RealCity?
FOC Concept Store
Our friends at Freedom of Creation have long been experimenting with the idea of selling beautiful 3D printed objects, some of which we’ve featured in the past. Now they’ve gone one step beyond that by actually printing the store itself! Or at least part of it. They’ve produced a kind of wall unit composed… Continue reading FOC Concept Store
The Cambrian Explosion of 3D Printers
Another new and innovative 3D printer kit available on KickStarter. Venture funding starts up another 3D printer factory. And then we read Rachel Park’s blog post. She reported on her experience at Euromold, where even more low-cost personal 3D printers emerged. That got us thinking about explosions. Cambrian explosions. But, you ask, what is/was… Continue reading The Cambrian Explosion of 3D Printers
The FELIX 1.0 3D Printer
We simply can’t keep up with all the new low-cost 3D printer kits coming out these days, but we’ll tell you what we know about another: The FELIX 1.0, made by (of course) FELIX Printers. As this is a brand new 3D printer we don’t know a lot about it. However, scanning through their material… Continue reading The FELIX 1.0 3D Printer
MakerBot’s Christmas Strategy
Retailers must plan around the holiday season. In fact, for some retailers that season is the “make or break” portion of the year’s revenue. Like any good retailer, MakerBot is doing the same by offering their 3D printers at a number of New York City shops, including AC Gears, Wired, GizModo Gallery and the New… Continue reading MakerBot’s Christmas Strategy
Announcing Mallyable!
Fabbaloo is very pleased to announce our new venture: Mallyable! Mallyable is a new online store providing easy-to-use, beautiful and low cost 3D models specifically designed for printing on personal 3D printers. We take the time to carefully design models ready to print on most personal 3D printers: they’ve been sized, oriented and… Continue reading Announcing Mallyable!