There are two plastics most commonly used in home 3D plastic extrusion printers: ABS and PLA. When you’re printing, you definitely notice them – or, your nose does. PLA, also known as Polylactic acid or polylactide, has a rather pleasant aroma when heated, sometimes described as “waffles” or “honey”. Along with its lack of… Continue reading Is ABS Killing You?
Ideas
3D Print Speed Advice From Stratasys
Stratasys has published a very informative white paper detailing their thoughts on the speed of 3D printing. This is sometimes a touchy subject, as 3D prints often take many hours to complete and some manufacturers may claim their printer is faster than another’s. But what’s the whole story? Stratasys says, correctly we believe,… Continue reading 3D Print Speed Advice From Stratasys
A 3D Printed Camera – Almost!
The folks at RepRapCentral have just printed what appears to be an entire DSLR system on their MakerBot Replicator. This startling print by Sergey includes the camera body and a permanently attached zoom lens. However, closer inspection shows that there is no optical lenses in the print, as one would expect. Nevertheless, as… Continue reading A 3D Printed Camera – Almost!
Answer Those 3D Printing Questions!
If you’re like us, you’ve often fielded many questions about 3D printing technology. And they’re the same questions almost every time. It would certainly be nice to simplify the questioning – and that’s exactly what Thingiverse user Shawn Grover of Calgary, Canada did. He produced a pre-made “brochure” that answers the most commonly observed 3D… Continue reading Answer Those 3D Printing Questions!
3D Photografting Introduced
Scientists at the Vienna Institute of Technology have developed a new technique they call “Photografting”, which promises to enable significant advances in bioprinting. The new technique involves starting with a hydrogel, a porous material in which other molecules can be placed. Lasers then focus on specific spots within the 3D hydrogel and break apart… Continue reading 3D Photografting Introduced
Legends of Kalidasia Pioneers A New Approach
Jason Rutherford of Kalidesia contacted us to talk about a new approach he’s taken in his gaming business. Rutherford makes the Legends of Kalidasia game, played with traditional resin and pewter figures. His company manufactures and markets these figures, but he’s concerned about the future. You know, the future where people print out their own… Continue reading Legends of Kalidasia Pioneers A New Approach
3D Systems Brings LAIKA’s ParaNorman to Life
3D Systems Corporation’s ZPrinter 650 is the first ever full-color 3D printer used in a stop-motion animated film, ParaNorman, produced by Portland, Oregon based animation studio LAIKA. Known for integrating innovation with the hand-created artistry of the stop motion technique, LAIKA utilized 3D printing to create over 31,000 individual, color facial parts for production. … Continue reading 3D Systems Brings LAIKA’s ParaNorman to Life
Additive Manufacturing File Format Allows for Volumetric Specifications
In a recent post on “The End of Polygons,” Aaron Trocola correctly points out that the STL file format is becoming a major barrier to production of objects with high volumetric complexity, such as internal lattices and graded materials – essentially reaching a point where STL files make certain advanced applications difficult or impossible. … Continue reading Additive Manufacturing File Format Allows for Volumetric Specifications
Four Reasons Why Stratasys Won’t Announce a Personal 3D Printer
There are two massive corporations that currently dominate the 3D printing market. One is 3D Systems, whom most have heard of, and the other similarly sized corporation is Stratasys, who recently merged with Objet. As of today Stratasys does not manufacture a personal 3D printer designed for consumer use, whereas 3D Systems offers several.… Continue reading Four Reasons Why Stratasys Won’t Announce a Personal 3D Printer
3D Printing Tops Gartner’s List
Every year Gartner, one of the leading technology analyst firms, produces what they call “The Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies”. It’s a chart plotting the position of various technologies on the Hype Cycle curve. The Hype Cycle is a theory proposing that technologies follow a series of stages in their lifecycle: Technology Trigger (the… Continue reading 3D Printing Tops Gartner’s List
3D Printers: How to Unlock Their Potential
With the explosive growth in affordable, office-oriented 3D printers, there is a flood of new users and a huge pool of prospective users. Being new to the technology, or perhaps distanced from it through service bureaus or centralized machines, the freshman class may not be tuned into all that 3D printers can do for them.… Continue reading 3D Printers: How to Unlock Their Potential
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
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
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
Design of the Week: The Teeth Tea Cup
Artist Lily Su has produced a rather unusual tea cup. What makes it unusual? Two things. First, and most prominently, is the teethy edge along the rim of the cup. We’re certain you’ll agree that the teeth produce feelings when you see them. Would you drink from this cup? Su says: Why is… Continue reading Design of the Week: The Teeth Tea Cup
Ubiquitous 3D Printing On Campus
The University of Nevada, Reno has done something we haven’t seen before: place advanced 3D equipment in their academic library providing access to all. Before the days of color inkjet printers at home and Kinko’s, some used to go to the local library to run off copies of documents. Now the DeLaMare Science and… Continue reading Ubiquitous 3D Printing On Campus
The Pirate Bay’s Physibles Phizzles
Some time ago the big news was the provocative announcement by the nefarious Pirate Bay torrent sharing site that they’d created a new category specifically for sharing (presumably copyrighted) 3D models. Months later we thought we’d check it out and see what kind of objects were available. We were underwhelmed by the rather short… Continue reading The Pirate Bay’s Physibles Phizzles
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
Crack Open Those Handcuffs With Your 3D Printer
A report on Forbes describes the feat of a “German hacker and security consultant who goes by the name ‘Ray’”, who was able to reproduce master keys for a couple of models of handcuffs. In fact, the keys were produced both on an inexpensive 3D printer as well as on a laser cutter, which,… Continue reading Crack Open Those Handcuffs With Your 3D Printer
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?
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
The 3D Printing Survey Comes Alive
Readers may recall a widespread survey of the 3D printing industry was undertaken a short time ago. While we have already published our highlights of the survey, we’d like you to have another look at them. In a very different way. Stephen Murphy has transformed the static numbers into highly animated charts and… Continue reading The 3D Printing Survey Comes Alive
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!
Getting a 3D Model For Printing
You have an accessible 3D printer nearby or you have an account at a 3D print service. Filled with the strong feeling that you can make anything, you then realize you must have a 3D model to print. That’s where the problem shows up: models are not always easy to acquire. But here are… Continue reading Getting a 3D Model For Printing
Zheng3’s Seej Gamifies 3D Design
We’ve heard how many industries try to incorporate gamification into their process to make things run better. It seems that people are typically competitive and when faced with a game situation, they feel personally challenged to win. But how can you engage 3D designers in ramification? One way is to use Zheng3’s Seej game.… Continue reading Zheng3’s Seej Gamifies 3D Design
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
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 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?
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
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
3D Printing 2012 – Top Prints So Far
Editor’s note: This guest post comes from 3D printing aficionado Chris Waldo, who’s anxious to tell us his thoughts on some very cool 3D prints in 2012. Since the late 1970’s, 3D printing has come a long way. Build sizes, detail levels, material science, and speed have all improved significantly in comparison to the… Continue reading 3D Printing 2012 – Top Prints So Far
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
How to Crowdfund Your 3D Printer Project
We’ve actually lost track of how many 3D printer startups have launched this year. It seems that every week another one shows up on a crowd funding service looking to raise money for their idea, which often takes the state of the industry one step further ahead. Don’t get us wrong; this is the… Continue reading How to Crowdfund Your 3D Printer Project
FujiFilm to Operate 3D Printer Kiosks?
A report from GizMag describes how Fujifilm is considering operating a chain of kiosks capable of printing 3D models. Yes, we thought this was strange, too. The idea is that an inexpensive 3D printer “kiosk” would be located in trafficked areas where customers could peruse a catalog of objects and select one for… Continue reading FujiFilm to Operate 3D Printer Kiosks?
HP To Make 3DP Acquisition?
Once in a while we hear mysterious rumors about 2D printing giant Hewlett Packard buying out Stratasys. Now we’re reading about such a possibility in Seeking Alpha. Seeking Alpha proposes that HP may be “missing out” on the new wave of printing: 3D printing. While they’re experts at 2D printing, they have yet to… Continue reading HP To Make 3DP Acquisition?
3D Printing Is Now Popular, It’s True!
How do we know this? Has 3D printing really and truly made it to the Big Show? The answer is easy and was found in our inbox last week. A gentleman kindly explained that he had obtained well over 200 domain names related to 3D printing and would gratefully part with them for a… Continue reading 3D Printing Is Now Popular, It’s True!
Hot Glue Gun Extruder 3DP Experiment
Another 3D printing experiment appeared on Hack A Day, in which a common workshop hot glue gun was persuaded to act as an extruder for a hobby 3D printer. At first this might make sense, as the hot glue gun does extrude material that solidifies. However, after watching the video and thinking about it,… Continue reading Hot Glue Gun Extruder 3DP Experiment
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?
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???
3D Scanning by UAVs
What’s that buzzing noise? It’s the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) hovering over your home, and now it could be taking a 3D scan of your house! According to a report in PhysOrg, that scenario is now a possibility as researchers from the University of Granada in Spain have developed a way to combine 3D… Continue reading 3D Scanning by UAVs
The Importance of Clear
We’ve been fortunate to be able to examine some 3D printed objects from Objet in their Vero Clear material first hand. While we’ve seen clear (and clear-ish) items printed before, there seems to be advantages when used in a multi-material 3D printer. A multi-material 3D printer can build objects in more than one material… Continue reading The Importance of Clear
That Sticky Cube
We managed to examine 3D Systems’ latest personal 3D printer, the Cube, in person at Rapid 2012. The colorful unit was much as we expected, but there was a surprise. The print bed appeared glossy for some unknown reason. We wondered if the surface was made that way and investigated with a finger. We… Continue reading That Sticky Cube
Sculpteo OpenSCADs
A very interesting development appeared at the Sculpteo 3D print service: parameterized OpenSCAD. Whoa, you say, what’s that? Let’s start at the beginning: OpenSCAD is a utility that can produce 3D models by using typed commands to create and bend shapes. Gradually a complex model is created by combining and bending enough shapes together.… Continue reading Sculpteo OpenSCADs
Put A Sweater On Your 3D Model
Many 3D models are produced by combining and contorting basic shapes, such as cubes, spheres and cylinders, or by distorting a mesh by pushing and pulling vertices. Highly complex objects are quite possible, but laborious to produce. In other words, they’re rarely attempted by most 3D printer operators. But now there may be a… Continue reading Put A Sweater On Your 3D Model
Printing Craters
Printing landscapes is something that’s been done before on 3D printers, but how about this? Print a 3D replica of an actual lunar crater. Where does the 3D model come from? It all starts with LROC, the camera on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. This satellite, launched in 2009, orbits our moon pole to pole… Continue reading Printing Craters
A 3D Printer, Lying Around The Office…
There is an increasing number of 3D printers found across the world today, as they spread from factories to offices and workshops. But that’s the thing – they are found in designer studios, hobbyist labs, architectural offices, etc. But you don’t find them in a typical random office setting. Or do you? … Continue reading A 3D Printer, Lying Around The Office…
A Very Smooth Idea, Indeed
During our visit to Stratasys’ RedEye On Demand facility the other day, we observed a fascinating finishing process that might be applicable to personal 3D prints, given the appropriate equipment. This process solves one of the flaws in objects produced by personal (and some commercial) 3D printers: layer visibility. If you look closely, it’s… Continue reading A Very Smooth Idea, Indeed
3D Infographics
Admit it, you’re in love with those beautiful infographics we so often see in newspapers, magazines and online. They convey an idea, concept or statistic in a visual way that is frequently easier to understand that plowing through text. It’s lazy, but oh, so true. Now a Shapeways designer has produced a kind of… Continue reading 3D Infographics
The Secret Color Process
As much as we’d like to have attended Neri Oxman’s talk at Centre Pompidou in Paris the other day, we were simply unable to get there. However, we were able to view videos and images from the exhibition, sponsored by 3D printer manufacturer Objet. Ms. Oxman produced fantastic and beautiful 3D printed objects inspired… Continue reading The Secret Color Process
The Economist on 3D Printing, Again
Once again the venerable The Economist has published a series of articles on the topic of 3D printing and digital manufacturing. This publication has gone quite far to promote the technology, more than others. We’ll bring three of their articles to your attention. First, they explain the fundamentals of 3D printing, which is still… Continue reading The Economist on 3D Printing, Again
Fujitsu Invents 3D CAD Search
Fujitsu has discovered a very interesting technique that we think will be critical to the growth of 3D printing in the future: it’s a method of searching libraries of 3D models for similar shapes. Currently anyone who’s visited a current 3D model repository is faced with a difficult challenge: finding the right 3D model.… Continue reading Fujitsu Invents 3D CAD Search
I’m Printing On A Jet Plane
Almost. MakerBot posts an incredible story of Japanese designer Yoshishiro Shibata, who desperately required a shield for the robot he was taking to Robogames. Why didn’t he just make one? Because he was out of time and actually enroute to the US, flying over the Pacific Ocean. The solution? A quick sketch design and… Continue reading I’m Printing On A Jet Plane
Are We Ready for 3D Printing?
An unusual post by Rod Roddenberry in Huffington Post ponders whether society is sufficiently “evolved” to handle 3D printers. The proposition is that if 3D printing tech becomes widespread, then your shopping will be done online – the selected 3D models will be printed at home. The implication, according to Roddenberry, is that the changes… Continue reading Are We Ready for 3D Printing?
3D Balloon Printing
Normally one makes solid objects with a 3D printer, but how about making balloons? Yes, real, floaty inflatable balloons. That’s now possible, according to New Scientist, who reported on developments at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology. The trick is that they don’t 3D print the actual balloons. Instead, they design and 3D print… Continue reading 3D Balloon Printing
On Demand 3D Printed Robots?
MIT has organized a US$10M grant to fund a new project that will attempt to “reinvent how robots are designed and produced“. They feel this could have a “profound impact on society”, when one could “order” a special purpose robot on demand and very quickly receive it. They’re trying to bypass the current methods… Continue reading On Demand 3D Printed Robots?
How To Screw Your 3D Print
We don’t mean ruining it! We mean being able to successfully insert screws into your 3D printed model for attaching other components. Let’s be clear: you can make much more interesting objects when you use multiple components. But how do you fit them together? One could resort to designing matching slots in each piece… Continue reading How To Screw Your 3D Print
MIT Plans To Replace 3D Printers
There are quite a few different approaches to producing 3D objects using additive manufacturing (as opposed to subtractive manufacturing; you know, carving and chopping), but MIT’s latest idea is perhaps the most advanced we’ve yet seen. While most 3D printers either deposit or fuse in-place material into solid objects, MIT’s experiment involves a massive… Continue reading MIT Plans To Replace 3D Printers
A Call For A 3D Printing X-Prize
After re-reading our post on entrepreneur Peter Diamandis’ new book, Abundance, we were reminded that Diamandis was the original proposer of the X Prize. The X Prize is now a foundation that pays for the development of amazing technological achievements. The most famous X Prize was the first one, which spurred the development of a… Continue reading A Call For A 3D Printing X-Prize
Inspired by Biomimetics
We’ve previously written on research into the application of 3D printing in building construction. The idea is that rather than having a completely uniform interior geometry for building materials, we create variably shaped interiors. In other words, instead of bricks with solid or uniformly latticed interiors, more material occurs in places where more physical stress… Continue reading Inspired by Biomimetics
An Introduction to Dental 3D Printing
Many of our readers are operate or are keenly interested in personal 3D printers, but they are also aware that 3D printing was originally used for industrial uses. One of those uses is in dentistry, where “personalized fit” is essential. Creating one-time unique dental shapes is the business of dentists and 3D printing technology is… Continue reading An Introduction to Dental 3D Printing
Should You Protect Your 3D Design?
You’ve spent hours to create the perfect 3D model in your favorite 3D tool. Do you own this digital property? Probably, but can you prove it? Exactly. That’s the problem that’s solved by third party intellectual property registration services, such as ProtectRite. They’ll accept (for a fee) your digital file and timestamp it within… Continue reading Should You Protect Your 3D Design?
Heated Chamber For Personal 3D Printers
This idea is hot – literally. Instructables member UglyBuddha created and posted a design for a Heated Build Chamber for his RapMan personal 3D printer. No, he doesn’t install a heated chamber into his RapMan. Instead he builds a heated chamber around the 3D printer! Wait a moment. Why would one require a heated… Continue reading Heated Chamber For Personal 3D Printers
The Ultimate 3D Print
What is the “Ultimate 3D Print”? We’ve all seen fantastic designs made by incredible artists. Some of them are generated using complex mathematical algorithms, while others are carefully crafted by hand. They’re amazing. But are they the ultimate 3D print? Does the single item you should print exist among them? We think not. … Continue reading The Ultimate 3D Print
Printing a Buckliball?
We’re always fascinated by those gift cards that pop up into ingenious 3D structures when you open them up, but could something like this be done in 3D? It turns out you can with a new design called the “Buckliball”. The Buckliball is a sphere that can grow or shrink by twisting its form… Continue reading Printing a Buckliball?
3D Printing Can Be Green
Eco-blog GreenProphet recognizes the potential green value of 3D printing in a recent post. They were inspired by Objet’s recent experiment in 3D printing an entire car dashboard (which, by the way, has been done before by 3D Systems as you can see an entire Mercedes dashboard in their lobby). Objet’s automobile experiment attempted… Continue reading 3D Printing Can Be Green
No Future For FDM 3D Printers?
Sometimes the ideas in several Fabbaloo posts add up to another idea. In this case it has to do with our thoughts about resin-based 3D Printing. First we saw a microscopic 3D printer offering fantastic print speeds and then we see several developments in open source resin-based 3D printing. We also see challenges with… Continue reading No Future For FDM 3D Printers?
Intellectual Property Rights vs 3D Printing
In a post on Tech.pinions, reporter Steve Wildstrom writes his thoughts on the collision of 3D printing and intellectual property rights, which we’ve discussed previously on several occasions. All agree this will be a messy business, at least until we figure out the answers. Wildstrom thinks that it may be possible for 3D printer… Continue reading Intellectual Property Rights vs 3D Printing
Are FabLabs Enough?
We’re reading a fascinating and provocative article by entrepreneur Nick Pelling detailing his thoughts around the uses of 3D printing, manufacturing processes and creativity. Pelling feels that the simple Fablabs sprouting up all over are insufficient for inventors and entrepreneurs to truly prototype for mass production. Prototypes “for looks”, just aren’t good enough. … Continue reading Are FabLabs Enough?
Microscopic 3D Printer
Numerous readers pointed us to a post by the Vienna University of Technology who recently made a very significant breakthrough in microscopic 3D printing. What is this breakthrough? They were able to successfully perform actual 3D printing operations at a microscopic scale, building the racing car you see in the image here. How “microscopic”… Continue reading Microscopic 3D Printer
Resin-Based 3D Printer Developments
We’ve observed a few developments in resin-based 3D printing recently. While most personal 3D printers today use the fused deposition modeling approach (melted plastic squirted in a precise path, layer by layer), the resin approach is very different and in many ways offers advantages. The resin approach involves light-curable liquid resin. Simply illuminate the… Continue reading Resin-Based 3D Printer Developments
Scream A 3D Print, Literally
A truly amazing installation of what’s called “Production Art” is now open for viewing – and screaming – at Rabobank HQ in Utrecht, Netherlands. Screaming, you ask? That’s exactly what visitors must do when the visit Alicia Framis’ “Screaming Room” exhibition. You scream, the waveform is recorded and translated instantly into a 3D model (a… Continue reading Scream A 3D Print, Literally
3D Printing Seeps Into The Arts
When you envision the opening of a new school for the Creative and Performing Arts, sponsored by filmmaker Sir Richard Taylor, head of WETA, you’d think you’d see typical film and acting facilities and equipment. Cameras, stages, studios and the like. The new Creative and Performing Arts Centre at Scots College in Strathmore,… Continue reading 3D Printing Seeps Into The Arts
3D Printing For Graphic Artists
Graphics.com, a publication dedicated to the 3D arts recently posted “Fundamentals: 3D Printing of Digital Models”. In this piece they take the reader through a basic explanation of 3D printing concepts and a walk through the lifecycle of a print: design, print and finishing of a trophy award (see image). No big surprises, but… Continue reading 3D Printing For Graphic Artists
SparkLab: BuildMobile
Of all the Kickstarter-style 3DP projects we’ve seen lately, the SparkLab concept may be the most valuable to society. No, you won’t get a fancy sculpture but you will get the satisfaction of supporting the spread of 3D printing and DIY making knowledge. What is the SparkLab concept? It’s quite simple. They proponents realized… Continue reading SparkLab: BuildMobile
Insects Au Gratin
What might you expect to find at an exhibition entitled, “Insects Au Gratin”. Why yes, you guess correctly. This exhibition details 3D food printing, but with a twist: the print material is a flour made from “dried insects combined with soft cheese.” Why would anyone do this? Because: “Insects Au Gratin looks… Continue reading Insects Au Gratin
Adafruit Offers 3D Printing Badge
Do you remember those Boy Scout badges you’d get when you were a lot younger? We don’t as no one here was a Scout, but the point is that the scout badges represented the achievement of a particular skill, like swimming or handicrafts. Now we see electronics site Adafruit establishing skill badges for several DIY-style… Continue reading Adafruit Offers 3D Printing Badge
Shapeways’ Peek Into Imagination: Finds Apple’s Siri
Popular 3D print service Shapeways often runs contests to stimulate creativity – and increase their print volume. This past week saw the conclusion of a rather interesting competition to answer the abstract question, “What Does Siri Look Like?” Siri, of course, is Apple’s voice-powered omnipotent assistant. There were multiple entries to the contest, each… Continue reading Shapeways’ Peek Into Imagination: Finds Apple’s Siri
A Conversation On 3D Printer Piracy
We were reading an interesting article in The Guardian interviewing Steve Purdham, founder of successful internet jukebox service We7. Purdham spoke of how he believes the Jukebox idea is the ultimate destination of what we know today as “radio”. Then suddenly the article says: In conversation, Purdham veers from the pragmatic to the preposterous.… Continue reading A Conversation On 3D Printer Piracy
Create Your Own Museum With 3D Printing
There was quite a bit of media buzz the other week when it was revealed that the venerable Smithsonian of Washington DC has been digitizing and 3D printing some of their famous works. Imaged is the famous statue of second US president Thomas Jefferson that was scanned & modeled by Studio EIS and 3D printed… Continue reading Create Your Own Museum With 3D Printing
Will China Be Harmed By 3D Printing?
Last summer we contemplated the idea that China could be harmed by 3D printing, based on a post in Forbes. The idea was that legions of inexpensive Asian workers who’ve been displacing expensive North American workers would have the tables turned when 3D printing takes hold in North America, permitting consumers to simply print their… Continue reading Will China Be Harmed By 3D Printing?
The Case for Finer 3D Printer Resolution
CNET published an interesting article on Quirky, the New York based startup that crowdsources inventions. Reporter Rich Brown visited the company in hopes of seeing how they make use of 3D printing technology in a design firm. He describes his thoughts on the collision design firms such as Quirky vs. up and coming 3D model… Continue reading The Case for Finer 3D Printer Resolution
3D Printing Produces Abundance?
Peter H. Diamandis is well known as the originator of the recent series of X-Prizes that have launched a couple of new 21st century industries. He also founded the Singularity University, too, which led to a unique extra-terrestrial 3D printing initiative, Made In Space. Diamandis and partner Steven Kotler have just come out with… Continue reading 3D Printing Produces Abundance?
3D Printed Dino Robots
We know folks have 3D printed dinosaur bones before. What could possibly be better than that? We know one thing: 3D Printed Dinosaur Robots! The project to produce these entertaining items has in fact a very serious scholarly purpose. Researchers at Drexel University are 3D printing scaled down dino bones and attaching artificial muscles… Continue reading 3D Printed Dino Robots
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
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
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
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?
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
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?
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