Members of Kansas City’s Cowtown Computer Congress had an unusual event: 3D Printer Calibration Night. That’s right, members brought in their MakerBot 3D printers in an effort to properly calibrate their heater barrels, which are notoriously tricky to set right. Half a dozen MakerBots and a couple of RepRaps appear to be present in… Continue reading MakerBot Calibration Hoedown
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Ponoko Hubs the UK
Distributed manufacturing platform Ponoko has announced they’ve got a new manufacturing hub: London, UK-based RazorLAB. This adds to their already established empire of hubs including New Zealand, San Francisco, Milan and Berlin. What does it mean? Greatly decreased shipping costs for makers using Ponoko’s services. In fact, Ponoko has actually been subsidizing shipments to the… Continue reading Ponoko Hubs the UK
Win a 3D Printer!
Sure, you’d love to win a 3D printer of your own (in this case the basic MakerBot Cupcake CNC kit), but you’ll have to do some work if you’re considering entering the 2010 (Un)Limited Design Contest. But the work is a little different from what you’d expect in a design contest. From Ponoko: … Continue reading Win a 3D Printer!
RapidToday For Sale
We were contacted by fellow 3D print blogger Barnaby Wickham, owner/writer of the popular RapidToday blog. Barnaby says: I am selling www.rapidtoday.com, the rapid prototyping and 3D printing site I own and have edited for the past 2.5 years. I thought one of your readers might be interested in it. RapidToday has developed good… Continue reading RapidToday For Sale
Objet Patents a New Print Material
We’ve just been going through a rather lengthy patent application submitted by Eduardo Napandensky and Diana Ravich – and the patent is assigned to Objet Geometries, one of the top line commercial 3D printer manufacturers. The patent describes a mysterious new print material that has new color and strength properties. Specifically, this is the… Continue reading Objet Patents a New Print Material
How Are Open Design Projects Organized?
Marvelous Onwukamike of TUHH, Hamburg University of Technology, is conducting a survey on the organization of open design projects. We felt that many Fabbaloo readers might be appropriate respondents to this exercise. The 36-question survey is available for interested parties, and takes approximately 8-10 minutes to complete. The survey may be found right here. … Continue reading How Are Open Design Projects Organized?
Materialise Replicates King Tut!
The Discovery Times Square Exposition in New York City has a unique addition to its display of Tutankhamen artifacts: King Tutankhamen himself! Or at least a very precise replica of his mummy. Artist Gary Staab was commissioned to prepare the replica, and he turned to 3D service Materialise for assistance. Using their sophisticated Mimics… Continue reading Materialise Replicates King Tut!
Shapeways Summer Colors
Who thought 3D printing would have seasons? Turns out that Shapeways does – they’ve just announced a special set of what they call “Summer Colors”, available for inclusion in your Shapeways 3D prints until September. The set of colors was chosen by popular vote, and include: Summer Blue Summer Green Summer Magenta … Continue reading Shapeways Summer Colors
Materialise Shapes F3 Euro Series Cars
3D service Materialise has been working with the Signature F3 Euro Series team to fine tune their racing cars, apparently quite successfully. The approach is to duplicate the aerodynamic scenario by testing a scale model of the proposed car design in a wind tunnel. By tweaking the shape of critical parts, the airflow can… Continue reading Materialise Shapes F3 Euro Series Cars
In Need of Spools
A question on Hack A Day asks, “Im looking for someone with a 3d printer to help me manafacture 620 spools for old cameras. Anybody?” We suspect there just might be some Fabbaloo readers out there that could definitely get this done. Try the link below to get in contact with the questioner if… Continue reading In Need of Spools
Trade Up to ProJet?
Commercial 3D Printer manufacturer 3D Systems has a special offer underway: trade in your existing Stratasys, Dimension, Objet, Z-Corp, Envisiontec or older 3D Systems printers and they’ll credit you “up to US$15,000” toward the purchase of a new 3D Systems ProJet 3000 or 5000 model. If you’re interested, you’d better get started as the… Continue reading Trade Up to ProJet?
MakerBot’s Hiring
“We are looking for a highly talented electrical engineer to head up our new electronics engineering department” is the opening line of a job description from an employment listing by MakerBot, producers of one of the most popular hobbyist 3D printers. They’re looking to expand their Brooklyn NY based operations by having someone focus on… Continue reading MakerBot’s Hiring
3D Printed Clip Carries Cyclists Up a Mountain
Design firm Freedom of Creation supported the fight against cancer by helping a popular fundraising event in France on 3 June this year. FOC manufactured a special clip for riders in the annual Alpe d’HuZes. The Alpe d’HuZes is a gruelling cycling event in which participants ride not once, but six times up a mountain… Continue reading 3D Printed Clip Carries Cyclists Up a Mountain
MCOR Paper Printers In The Wild
MCOR’s Matrix 300 paper-based 3D printer is now in use at various industrial and educational institutions in the UK. The Matrix 300 has been installed at Ravensbourne campus in Greenwich Peninsula; Pera, The Innovation Network in Leicestershire; the Royal College of Art in London. No doubt more installations are coming. These MCOR clients… Continue reading MCOR Paper Printers In The Wild
The Quirky Case of Objet Technologies
In an unusual example of Web2.0 colliding head-on with 3D Printing, Objet announced they’ve sold a Connex 350 3D printer to social product developer Quirky. Wait a moment, you ask, what exactly is a “social product developer”? The Quirky answer is a startup company that accepts ideas from the public and produces new products.… Continue reading The Quirky Case of Objet Technologies
A Distributed Manufacturing Experiment – Get Involved Now!
We received a note from Vernon Effalo of Effalo.com, who’s performing a very interesting experiment. He’s designed a unique geodesic dome connector (you know, the five-way joint for the arms of the dome) and wants you to build them for him. And it’s not begging – he’s willing to pay USD$2 per connector! So… Continue reading A Distributed Manufacturing Experiment – Get Involved Now!
FabLab Ignites Fab@School
The Fab@Home guys at Cornell have won a major contest in the education sector, as they were recently named one of eight winners in the third annual Digital Media and Learning competition. The competition attempts to dramatically change how education works in the 21st century: President Obama has called for a renewed focus on… Continue reading FabLab Ignites Fab@School
HP 3D Printers Rolling Out
NeBusiness reports on the new HP 3D printer that’s now in the hands of another UK reseller: Standing Stone. They’ve been selling it since the first of May. The firm’s national sales director, Simon Buckton, says of the £16,500 3D printer + cleaner combo: We’ve shown some architects, who are very excited about it,… Continue reading HP 3D Printers Rolling Out
World of Houses Contest
iMaterialise is running another contest for 3D modellers: the “World of Houses SketchUp Design Challenge”. You’ll have to use Google SketchUp with the iMaterialise plugin to create your house design, but otherwise it’s all up to you and your imagination. To submit your entry, you’ll need to prepare a 845 x 300 pixel rendering,… Continue reading World of Houses Contest
Stratasys is Savoring
That’s according to their CEO, Scott Crump, who in a recent blog post described the moment when HP announced it entered the 3D printer market – using machines made by Stratasys. Crump: It’s a sweet feeling to see Stratasys reach this point. I’ve envisioned an event like this for more than 20 years. … Continue reading Stratasys is Savoring
Enter The Shapeways Student Contest
Shapeways 3D print service announced a brand new contest, this one for students only. Named the “2010 Shapeways Full Color 3D Print Student Contest”, it would appear this is an annual affair. It’s called a “Color” contest because the idea is to print your model with Shapeways new color material, “Full Color Sandstone”. One major… Continue reading Enter The Shapeways Student Contest
Win $20,000 in a Design Contest
We know you like to design things, so why not try to win a large prize with your best ideas? Consider entering the “Create the Future” Design contest. Your entry can compete in any of several design categories: Consumer Products – Products that increase quality of life in the workplace, at home, during… Continue reading Win $20,000 in a Design Contest
Open Hardware: Defined?
The results of a March 17th workshop on open hardware have been released. The event, termed “A workshop on legal tools for open source hardware”, started discussing ideas for open hardware licenses beyond the software-heritage open licenses commonly reused today. These software licenses (such as Creative Commons, GPL, etc.) do not necessarily account for the… Continue reading Open Hardware: Defined?
Finalists Announced in 3D Printing Contest
The annual Dimension 3D Extreme Redesign Contest has announced nine finalists in three categories. High School Category Finalists: Robby Ridzy, Medina County Career Center, Brunswick, Ohio: Gutter Guide Maxwell Krist, Eckstein Middle School, Seattle, Wash.: Electricity Usage Meter Korrina Reed, Milford H.S., Milford, Ohio: Fragrance Bracelet University Category Finalists: Donald Nicholson, Columbus State… Continue reading Finalists Announced in 3D Printing Contest
Affordable 3D Printing?
We’re examining a news release from Bits From Bytes, who apparently will be unveiling what they say is the “first fully assembled 3D printer to be put on the market for less than £2,000” at the RAPID 2010 Conference and Expo on May 18th. The new BFB 3000 has a couple of interesting features,… Continue reading Affordable 3D Printing?
3D Print and Design Workshop in Seattle
Wulf Design owner and 3D print blogger Larry James is offering a “3D Print & Design Workshop” on April the 24th, for any readers in the Seattle vicinity. The session is being offered through the Seattle Free School. In the four-hour session, Larry will provide an introduction to 3D printing using a MakerBot printer (perhaps his… Continue reading 3D Print and Design Workshop in Seattle
A MakerBot For Free?
MakerBot has teamed with Make magazine in a contest to award one lucky designer with a brand new MakerBot CupCake printer. All you have to do is submit an amazing, awesome and original design to 3D model repository Thingiverse. Bre Prettis explains it all in the video link below. But you’d better do it… Continue reading A MakerBot For Free?
Glass Objects from Shapeways
The big news this week was clearly Shapeways surprise announcement: they now provide glass as print material! Glass printing has been the subject of much investigation and experimentation this year, and now it appears that Shapeways has made enough progress to offer commercial 3D printing using it. Even better, the glass used is recycled… Continue reading Glass Objects from Shapeways
Printing The Iron Man, And More
Blockbuster film Iron Man 2 has a direct 3D printing connection: Iron Man’s suit, as well as that of arch-nemesis Whiplash, were produced on a 3D printer. And they didn’t just print a mould for the suit parts, they printed the actual suit components. After a bit of paint, they were ready to be worn!… Continue reading Printing The Iron Man, And More
Make Anything!
That’s the tagline for the new Fab@Home website, just unveiled in the past few days: Fab@Home will change the way we live. It is a platform of printers and programs which can produce functional 3D objects. It is designed to fit on your desktop and within your budget. Fab@Home is supported by a global,… Continue reading Make Anything!
Stratasys Reduces Support Material by 40%
Stratasys, makers of the Dimension series of commercial 3D printers has announced a breakthrough in support technology. For those who don’t know, support material is frequently used in 3D printing to overcome the problem of printing overhangs. If there’s no support material to hold it up, the printer can’t properly deposit the build material. Support… Continue reading Stratasys Reduces Support Material by 40%
The 3D Printer Virus, Really?
Detectives at 3D print service Shapeways have uncovered a first: an actual 3D “virus”! The so-called virus turned out to be insertion of alien 3D model information in front of the desired model code within the .STL file, such that when sent to a 3D printer, the alien object (in this case a very… Continue reading The 3D Printer Virus, Really?
RepRap – MakerBot Controversy!
Controversy erupted over the past few weeks where someone was providing an assembled electronics kit for RepRap based on the MakerBot electronics board. The controversy stemmed from the maker’s (kymberlyaandrus) alleged lack of posting the required files with the electronics kit. The way it’s supposed to work, according to basic open source concepts, is… Continue reading RepRap – MakerBot Controversy!
Put Your 3D Printer To Work Today!
3D Printing “connecter” CloudFab has come out of private beta and is now accepted registrations from the general public. We wrote of CloudFab earlier when they were in the testing phase. What’s CloudFab? We term it a “connecter” because that’s precisely what it does: those who require 3D printing are connected to those who… Continue reading Put Your 3D Printer To Work Today!
Will 3D Printing Win an Academy Award?
It’s entirely possible! Two 2009 films nominated made extensive use of 3D printing in their productions: Avatar, nominated for Best Picture of the Year among others, and Coraline, nominated for Best Animated Feature Film. James Cameron, the man behind Avatar used 3D printing to produce figurines with which lighting tests were performed for “every… Continue reading Will 3D Printing Win an Academy Award?
Stratasys Results for 2009
We like to follow Stratasys’s financial press releases, because they tell us a little bit about the current state of the commercial 3D printer market. In the past we’ve seen a slight downturn in activity at Stratasys, mainly due to the rather significant economic collapse in the US and elsewhere. In spite of those bad… Continue reading Stratasys Results for 2009
BlenderArtists Competition
i.Materialise has launched a design challenge on Blender designers at the BlenderArtists site: “BlenderArtists.org is the most popular community site dedicated to the free, open-source 3D animation program Blender. On the site, users of the program can discuss their artwork, ask questions and find resources such as textures and tutorials.” The competition closes on February… Continue reading BlenderArtists Competition
RapMan Wins BETT Award
A1 Technologies, the makers of The RapMan, an inexpensive 3D printer kit targeted at the educational market, recently won the BETT award in the Digital Devices category for their Bits From Bytes kit. The BETT Awards recognize “the best in educational technology solutions”. The Bits From Bytes “complete” kit is priced at £750.00 and… Continue reading RapMan Wins BETT Award
MCOR Prints A Car
MCOR’s Matrix 300, the 3D printer that prints in plain paper, was recently used by design students from London’s Royal College of Art to produce a vehicle design, shown above. The MCOR Matrix is unique among 3D printers due to its use of paper as a print material, resulting in extremely inexpensive (and recyclable) media.… Continue reading MCOR Prints A Car
The Parallellipipeda Exhibition
The Singularity Hub reports on an exhibition taking place at the M Museum in Leuven, Belgium, where the Parallellipipeda Project attempts to leverage the Parallelepiped geometric shape. Amazing sculptures, plates, light fixtures and even furniture are being shown until 25 April. They’ve even included a 3D scanning booth, courtesy of EyeTronics, in which you… Continue reading The Parallellipipeda Exhibition
RepRap Grandchild Produced
Maker Erik de Bruijn has already persuaded his RepRap 3D printer to produce parts for a “child” printer, as have others using the RepRap design. That’s one of the main objectives for the RepRap project: a self-replicating machine. This was first accomplished in mid-2008, as we reported then. On Friday Erik announced on Twitter… Continue reading RepRap Grandchild Produced
EuroPonoko!
As we suspected a short while ago, Ponoko has announced a new build location in Europe. The new hub will be located in Berlin, and joins the existing build hubs in San Francisco and New Zealand. This development means European makers or consumers will have significantly less shipping costs when using Ponoko: For example the… Continue reading EuroPonoko!
$100K For a Better 3D Printer!
The Foresight institute has announced their version of the X-Prize, the Kartik M. Gada Humanitarian Innovation Prize. The idea is to award a hardworking team who can develop a drastically improved RepRap 3D printer design. There will be an interim award of USD$20,000 on December 31st, 2012 and a grand prize of USD$80,000 on December… Continue reading $100K For a Better 3D Printer!
Wallpaper Magazine Awards “R-O-B” Best Builder Award
Normally we who follow the 3D printing world expect to see a (probably) beige printer-like box containing a steamy build chamber from which excellent 3D objects are extracted. But the R-O-B is a very different kind of additive “printer”. It’s actually a full-scale industrial robot that’s mounted inside a standard shipping container. The shipping container… Continue reading Wallpaper Magazine Awards “R-O-B” Best Builder Award
Opinions on HP’s 3D Printer
Following up on last week’s massive news that HP has linked up with Stratasys to produce an exclusive line of 3D printers, we scanned the 3D blogosphere and found a great many comments and opinions. Here’s the highlights: Shapeways thinks this will raise the profile of 3D printing, but says everyone can easily print in… Continue reading Opinions on HP’s 3D Printer
3D Printer “Gym” Opens in Philly
NextFab Studio opens a new workshop for innovators today in Philadelphia at the University City Science Center. The workshop comprises some 3,600 square feet of space filled with various modern manufacturing tools, including laser cutters and of course 3D printers. Use of the facility, which operates much like a neighbourhood gym, is by membership, which… Continue reading 3D Printer “Gym” Opens in Philly
NextFab Conference Brewing
We received a message from folks organizing a new conference tentatively titled the “First International Conference on Accessible Digital Manufacturing Technology and Design” to be held in Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2010. While the conference’s title is not yet written in stone, their objectives are: NextFab Organization and the Brazilian government’s Renato Archer… Continue reading NextFab Conference Brewing