We’re always looking for new sources of 3D models to print, and we found another potential source: microscopic imaging. Scientists at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Janelia Farm Research Campus are using a special microscopic high-speed imaging (e.g. video) system to capture moving images of teeny things in action, like a single cell dividing, for… Continue reading Microscopic 3D Models
Ideas
The Anything Factory
During our recent visit to 3D Systems HQ we were able to walk through one of their production facilities. This is a room containing many large-scale 3D printers, each of which was going about its business printing parts for requestors. The facility was part of 3D Systems’ parts-on-demand business. But we had an interesting… Continue reading The Anything Factory
3D Printers Will Destroy Wages?
An interesting discussion on the Open Manufacturing group asks the question: in the future when personal manufacturing equipment is widespread, what happens to the traditional consumer-manufacturer-wage earner cycle? In other words, if everyone can easily build things, what happens? Will good salaries disappear because there will be fewer buyers for traditionally manufactured items? Patrick Anderson… Continue reading 3D Printers Will Destroy Wages?
Clonedel Review
What’s a Clonedel? It’s the latest craze sweeping the RepRap hobbyist market. The folks at Open3DP figured a way to print molds of the parts required to build a RepRap Prusa 3D printer, and there are many who are trying this approach. Why? Because if you’ve got a mold, you can cast the same parts… Continue reading Clonedel Review
Who Needs 3D Printing Rules?
After reading Shapeways’ recent post discussing their new design rules for stainless steel prints, we thought we should weigh in. Shapeways has gone as far as developing a dedicated “Design Rule Repository. What’s in it? According to their post: This is a subsection of the website dedicated to design rules. Going forward, the blog… Continue reading Who Needs 3D Printing Rules?
3D Printed Curvilinear Antennae
Researchers at the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory at Illinois have achieved something never before accomplished: printing an electronic antenna onto a curved surface. Why would you want to do this? According to electrical and computer engineering professor Jennifer T. Bernhard: These antennas are electrically small relative to a wavelength (typically a twelfth of… Continue reading 3D Printed Curvilinear Antennae
BetaSolution Hints At MakerBot’s Next Move?
MakerBot recently wrote on the availability of iFeelbeta’s “BetaSolution”, a chemical solution capable of dissolving PLA plastic. Why would you want to do this? You’d be able to freely use PLA as a support material in your 3D prints and very easily remove that support from your final object with this fluid. This would enable… Continue reading BetaSolution Hints At MakerBot’s Next Move?
AdderFab!
We’ve been following the folks at Open3DP for a while now as they proceed through experiments in 3D Printing. Lately they’ve been working on perfecting printing molds that have revolutionized the production of RepRap Prusa Mendel 3D printer parts. However, we now see they’re working on an entirely new project: an inexpensive, presumably open-source powder-based… Continue reading AdderFab!
Interview With An Organ Printer
We’ve written about Dr. Gabor Forgacs of the University of Missouri before because his work in developing techniques for 3D printing human organs is making great progress. His company, Organovo, has developed a bioprinter, which could be the only such device available for purchase today. Recently he was interviewed by PopTech. You can read… Continue reading Interview With An Organ Printer
Wanted: Micro-Robotic Fabrication Swarms
No kidding – the US Navy has put out a small business technology transfer solicitation (or STTR as they acronymize it) for proposals to “Develop a swarm of micro-robotic fabrication machines that will enable the manufacture of new materials and components”. Astonishing! More details: This topic focuses on a particular approach of using… Continue reading Wanted: Micro-Robotic Fabrication Swarms
Tissue Engineered
While there have been several experiments attempting to achieve the almost unbelievable feat of printing actual human organs, there has been a breakthrough development by researchers at Cornell. The title of their paper tells it all: “Direct Freeform Fabrication of Seeded Hydrogels in Arbitrary Geometries”. Ok, maybe that’s not entirely clear. Here’s how we’d interpret… Continue reading Tissue Engineered
BfB Prints Clay!
Following up on last week’s amazing feat of printing mashed potatoes, the scientists at Bits From Bytes in Bristol have modified a RapMan 3D printer to use porcelain clay. In the brief experiment, they successfully printed a model head. While clay seems like an obvious choice for an unusual 3D printing material, we’re wondering… Continue reading BfB Prints Clay!
Flexible PLA?
There’s a lot to like about 3D Printing in PLA plastic: it’s recyclable, made from totally organic material, prints with a very elegant sheen, it doesn’t warp when printing, sticks well to properly prepared print beds and even has a fantastic sweet aroma too. And did we mention it doesn’t warp? It doesn’t warp!! … Continue reading Flexible PLA?
Early Retirement With A 3D Printing Investment?
Winning in the stock market is conceptually easy: buy low, sell high. But the secret is all in the timing. When do you buy? The answer is straightforward: when the stock is when you think it hits bottom. During the stock market crash of 2008 many stocks were in extremely distressed states, and were… Continue reading Early Retirement With A 3D Printing Investment?
3D Printing Potatoes With The RapMan
The folks at Bits From Bytes are experimenting with Food Printing, which seems to be a growing area of interest for hungry 3D print operators. BfB have evidently been trying to print mashed potatoes, something we haven’t seen before. They seem to have been successful, judging from the images and video. BfB is collaborating with… Continue reading 3D Printing Potatoes With The RapMan
Molding a 3D Printer
The RepRap project attempts to design a printer that is capable of printing all the parts required to build another copy of itself. While they are quite successful in doing so, work continues – and much of that work is focused on optimizing the replication process. For some, this means simplifying the design so fewer… Continue reading Molding a 3D Printer
3D Printer Resellers, Or Not?
In the battle for personal 3D printer supremacy, the leading manufacturers seem to have chosen different approaches to sales. MakerBot, 3D Systems, PP3DP, BotMill and others MakerBot, BotMill and many of the smaller participants tend to sell directly to clients from their websites. Perhaps this makes sense as these smaller companies don’t yet have… Continue reading 3D Printer Resellers, Or Not?
The Economist on 3D Printing
Is this the big time for 3D Printing? If it’s the cover story on The Economist, perhaps so. The article describes the history and concept of 3D printing, but then goes on to suggest that 3D printing is now being used for finished parts rather than simply prototypes. This could lead, they say, to… Continue reading The Economist on 3D Printing
Lexus Invents New Form of 3D Printing
New Scientist reports on an innovative parts-making process invented by Lexus. It’s a kind of futuristic 3D Loom that essentially “weaves” parts together. The circular device pulls a series of carbon fibres into a desired shape and is capable of “weaving” highly complex parts much faster than traditional techniques. Curves, varying thicknesses and dimensions are… Continue reading Lexus Invents New Form of 3D Printing
More On Copy Protecting Objects
Last week we wrote on how a Thingiverse user had submitted a set of pieces suitable for playing The Settlers of Catan game, and contemplated the legality of this move. Another view comes from website Public Knowledge, who have taken the time to analyze this a bit deeper. Their approach was to examine each of… Continue reading More On Copy Protecting Objects
The Different Flavors of Home 3D Printers
We’ve been reading a long thread on the MakerBot Operator’s Google Group initiated by Shawn M, who is considering purchasing a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D printer. He asks about the level of effort required to produce high-quality parts with this particular device. As is often the case, a simple question led to some insights. A… Continue reading The Different Flavors of Home 3D Printers
An Ode To Digital Fabrication
It’s not every day you’re contacted by a Finnish professor working for an American university in Doha, Qatar who explains that he’s written a poem about Digital Fabrication. But it happened today. Dr. Thomas Modeen, whom we’ve written about previously and normally focuses on physical matters such as architecture and design, has indeed written… Continue reading An Ode To Digital Fabrication
Copy Protecting Objects?
A piece by i.Materialise got us thinking about object copy protection. In their post, Joris Peels tells the tale of how a Thingiverse user posted a set of game pieces suitable for printing. The catch was that these pieces were, for all intents, a replacement set for the popular Settlers of Catan board game! It’s… Continue reading Copy Protecting Objects?
Self-Made Biodegradable Plastic?
We’re reading a post on LifeHacker talking about making your own biodegradable plastic. Evidently the recipe is straightforward: Grab some milk or cream, and some lemon juice or vinegar. Put the cream in a saucepan and heat it, using the lowest setting on the stove and stirring constantly to keep it from burning. When… Continue reading Self-Made Biodegradable Plastic?
getitmade!
You’ve designed something ultracool for your 3D printer and want to sell it. But how? One way you might consider is getitmade, a site kicking off new ideas: getitmade is a new kind of marketplace where anyone with a product idea can test the market and use social networking to generate pre-sales and get… Continue reading getitmade!
Color 3D Printing At Home
It’s possible to buy a color 3D printer, but they’re currently very expensive, such as those from ZCorp. Meanwhile, typical home 3D printers are monochrome, at least until you change the input plastic filament. The good news is that the selection of filament colors continues to increase and now includes quite a variety beyond simple… Continue reading Color 3D Printing At Home
3D Printing Board Games
3D modeller Jeff Timothy is exploring the possibility of creating a new service focused on 3D printing board game pieces and equipment. This makes a lot of sense to us, as 3D printing would be a great way to create unique game pieces. And board game designers obviously need new pieces for their projects, don’t… Continue reading 3D Printing Board Games
3D Food Printing on CNN
We’ve just been informed that CNN has a piece focused on 3D food printing. Reporter Laurie Segall interviews French Culinary Institute Chef David Arnold, who’s been experimenting with a Fab@Home printer, specially modified for printing food items. Not yet any food ingredients, but “any form of paste” as Arnold explains. Arnold says they’ve experimented with cake… Continue reading 3D Food Printing on CNN
3D Modelling Contract Work
You’re an experienced 3D modeller and have some time on your hands? Why not try doing some contract work for extra cash? One way to do this is at Projects For Freelancers, a site where the needy can post a job and the skilled can bid on a job. The site works as an… Continue reading 3D Modelling Contract Work
2011: The Year of 3D Printing?
Richard of Capolight Electronics Projects examines the popularity of 3D printing over time and asks the question, “How popular will it be this time next year?” His investigation involved use of Google Insight, a free service that shows the popularity of terms over time. By searching for typical 3D printing terminology, like “Extruder”, “RepRap”,… Continue reading 2011: The Year of 3D Printing?
Fab-Enabled Fiction: Books That Print
Guest writer Andrew Monti proposes a unique way to use 3D printing in the publishing industry: Fabbed items from books. The idea is to include a QR code somewhere in a book that corresponds to a URL holding a 3D design. The design can then be printed. But how would it work in a book?… Continue reading Fab-Enabled Fiction: Books That Print
Crossing the 3D Printer Chasm
Following up on this post speculating on 10,000 MakerBots in 2011, we’re thinking of what steps MakerBot (or any other 3D Printer company) might consider to “Cross the Chasm”. The “Chasm” refers to a social scenario that often occurs as a business grows. At first their clients are enthusiastic early adopters, capable of accepting… Continue reading Crossing the 3D Printer Chasm
10,000 MakerBots?
Joris Peels of i.Materialise guest-posted 11 provocative predictions for 3D printing on TechCrunch this week, and one of them caused us to ponder whether it could really happen. No, it’s not the “Bre Pettis will appear on the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek magazine in 2011” – that’s entirely unpredictable. We’re more interested in the “Makerbot… Continue reading 10,000 MakerBots?
Carbon Credits Required For 3D Makers?
We’re reading a piece on GearFuse that reviews a short video of folks designing and printing some very cool salt and pepper shakers – but they say some things we disagree with: But should we be at least slightly concerned about the way 3D printing seems to make plastic crap safe for hipsters? A… Continue reading Carbon Credits Required For 3D Makers?
Print A 3D Printer Today!
A surprising item showed up in Thingiverse the other day: an entire 3D printer! Thingiverse is one of the most widely used open source repositories for 3D models suitable for 3D printing, and you’ll see all kinds of interesting items appear. But today’s item was worth a post: user wacko posted a 3D model of… Continue reading Print A 3D Printer Today!
3D Print Wishes for 2011
We did it last year, so we must do it again this year. What would we wish to happen in 2011? A capable and assembled 3D printer for under USD$1500. The Up! 3D printer was initially priced at USD$1500, but that was an introductory price and it’s now well over USD$2600, far out of… Continue reading 3D Print Wishes for 2011
3D Printed Food Futures
We’ve been thinking some more about 3D printed food after yesterday’s post, and wondered what the future might look like if reasonably capable food printers really existed. Here’s some thoughts: If they were low cost, we’d find them in most kitchens and restaurants. Why not? People pay huge sums for fancy ovens and other… Continue reading 3D Printed Food Futures
BBC Investigates 3D Printed Food
We’re reading a big report from BBC news where they investigated the incredible notion of 3D printing food. We’ve covered this before, and sure, it’s obviously at an experimental stage right now – but readers will all know where this is heading. We want food printers! The Beeb article primarily focused on Jeffrey Lipton’s… Continue reading BBC Investigates 3D Printed Food
Idea: What Can I Model For You?
We re-read last week’s post on the new “What Can I Make For You?” service and had an idea. If you recall, the WCIMFY service was quite simple: type what you want (in natural language) into a box and hit submit. The service then figures out how to match your desired “thing” with someone who… Continue reading Idea: What Can I Model For You?
3D Printing For Girls: An Idea
If you read yesterday’s post, you’ll know about the controversy regarding BfB’s attempt to address the younger female market. We pondered this situation: how to get more children (including female) to learn about, experience, desire and grow into 3D makers as they get older? Discussing this with a friend who has both a 3D… Continue reading 3D Printing For Girls: An Idea
A Pink Controversy in 3D Printing
There are those of us who know about 3D printing, and those who don’t. We’ve all seen the looks of awe from those transitioning to “those who know”, and we want more people to come over and realize what can be done with this technology. Last week BfB made an attempt to bring 3D… Continue reading A Pink Controversy in 3D Printing
A 3D Print Giving Experience
We decided to give the gift of 3D printing. That is, we were too lazy to head out and shop, and instead decided to create a gift using a 3D printer. In this case we designed and printed a simple multi-denomination coin holder. As you can see in the image, it’s really crude, yet amusingly… Continue reading A 3D Print Giving Experience
Lowering Barriers To 3D Printing
We’re reading an interesting piece by Kevin Carson on OpenManufacturing who discusses the challenges of switching manufacturing from today’s highly centralized, mass produced, container shipped model to a more distributed, local and “home” based manufacturing world. Obviously there are challenges to providing appropriately capable equipment and software for such ventures, but in the piece… Continue reading Lowering Barriers To 3D Printing
Things Growing Out Of Your Head
Inspired by our previous post detailing MeshMixer, a fabulous 3D modelling tool that easily allows arbitrary 3D models to be pasted together, tipster Ken has found further examples of making things grow out of your head. And these have been printed! (Click for larger images) What causes people to want things protruding from their… Continue reading Things Growing Out Of Your Head
Human Thermostat Used in 3D Printer
YouTube user Moonyjube posts a video in which they use a manual temperature control (a human with a switch) to moderate the warmth on their heated print bed. Why on earth would someone use manual feedback? Haven’t they installed the appropriate and commonly available hardware to do this automatically? The answer is found on the… Continue reading Human Thermostat Used in 3D Printer
Bits From Bytes Gets New Website and a RapChick!
We’ve been waiting to see what 3D Systems will do with their latest corporate acquisition, Bits From Bytes. BfB’s market is quite a diversion from 3D System’s normal industrial/commercial clientele. How will they take on this marketplace. This week we see two elements of their new strategy. First, 3D Systems has completely replaced the… Continue reading Bits From Bytes Gets New Website and a RapChick!
Gift Giving? How About Gift Making!
It seems that some of the popular media are starting to catch on to 3D Printing, with the notion that gifts can be made rather than purchased. Perhaps this is a reaction against the fear of oppressive crowds at the shops, but we think it’s a natural conclusion to 3D printing capability, which can produce… Continue reading Gift Giving? How About Gift Making!
Aluminum Bronze Casting Succeeds
Open3DP’s experimentation with metalcasting molds has paid off: one of their experimental hydroperm molds was used in traditional metalcasting (in this case poured aluminum bronze) at the Port Townsend Foundry and the successful results are apparent in the image above. According to Laura West and Dave Feathers: The mold was placed in a greensand… Continue reading Aluminum Bronze Casting Succeeds
Lunar Spin-Offs for 3D Printing?
We’ve been reading a discussion on OpenManufacturing about the discovery of various elements on the lunar surface by NASA’s LCROSS project. LCROSS was a pretty daring expedition to determine if water is present in ice form within permanently shaded polar craters: Place a spacecraft into Lunar orbit Separate into two spacecraft, orbiting on similar… Continue reading Lunar Spin-Offs for 3D Printing?
Printing A Car? Really?
After last week’s news that an entire car body was being produced on a 3D printer, we had an offline discussion with Joris Peels of i.Materialise on what this really meant. Obviously, the mass media would have everyone believe an Entire Car was printed, when in fact it was only the body – and then… Continue reading Printing A Car? Really?
Do 3D Printers Bypass Customs?
There could be several interesting effects on business and society when 3D printers become widespread, and we’ve discussed a few of them in the past, including possible crime, for example. But here’s another one to think about: Customs Control. Most countries have some level of customs controls, in which imported goods are inspected for… Continue reading Do 3D Printers Bypass Customs?
3D Printing Made In Space
We wrote about NASA’s interest in 3D space printing here and here, but now there is interest from an independent space printing company: Made In Space, recently founded by students from The Singularity University. At last week’s SSI Space Manufacturing Conference, several folks from Made in Space presented “3D Metal Printing in Space: Enabling… Continue reading 3D Printing Made In Space
Metalcasting Breakthrough
Those inventive folks at the University of Washington are at it again. This time they’ve been working on a simple formula for cementenous metalcasting. In other words, material with which you can make an effective mold for molten metal casts. At one point, they were using this recipe: 1000 parts VersaBond 250 parts Maltodextrin 250… Continue reading Metalcasting Breakthrough
Make $80,000 With Just an Idea
Personal manufacturing doesn’t have to take place on your premises using your own equipment. It can be outsourced to Ponoko, the personal manufacturing company. Ponoko posted a very interesting story of one of their users who managed to bootstrap his way to a cool USD$80,000 – starting from nothing! It started with an idea,… Continue reading Make $80,000 With Just an Idea
The Marble Challenge
Talk about difficult things to print: Scott Elliot of My SD300 3D Printer has been working on designs for marbles. Sure, one could easily print a sphere and call it a marble, but that’s just too easy. Scott is designing a two-piece snap-together model with embedded colors and a twisty design. As you might… Continue reading The Marble Challenge
Capture That Onion!
Last year artist David Bowen produced a fantastic kinetic artwork entitled “growth modeling device” in which a live onion plant is 3D scanned once every 24 hours, and then that scan is 3D printed. Amazingly, the 3D prints are then shuffled along a conveyor belt so you can see (and touch) the various stages of… Continue reading Capture That Onion!
The Ultimate Home 3D Printing Setup: Tools
Yesterday we described the foundation hardware you’d need for the ultimate home 3D printing setup, including printer, scanner and computer. But of course, you’ll need a variety of other minor items to actually make your ultimate printing life comfortable. Here’s our list, in no particular order: Block of Wood: You’ll be working on cutting… Continue reading The Ultimate Home 3D Printing Setup: Tools
The Ultimate Home 3D Printing Setup: Hardware
So you want to get into 3D Printing at home? What do you need? How do you get started? A printer, obviously, but what else might be useful in your ultimate configuration? Here are our ideas: A Low Cost 3D Printer: Lots of ultra-low cost (~USD$1000) options here, including kit-based RapMan or MakerBot, or… Continue reading The Ultimate Home 3D Printing Setup: Hardware
Hot Ice For Support Material?
What’s “Hot Ice”, you ask? It’s not exactly water, as you might suspect. Instead it’s a totally bizarre liquid-to-solid material that just might be useful for 3D printing as support material. This mysterious substance is very simply produced: mix sodium acetate crystals with water, and cool. The result is a clear liquid that appears to… Continue reading Hot Ice For Support Material?
Simplifying Mendel
The purpose of the RepRap project is to produce a 3D printer that can effectively reproduce itself. Fears of robot domination aside, this is a truly momentous project. However, it’s a difficult task to conceive of the most efficient machine design – the fewer and simpler parts required by the design means it’s easier to… Continue reading Simplifying Mendel
The Dome is Complete!
Some months ago we posted a request from maker Vernon Effalo who had commenced a project to crowdsource parts for his exterior dome project. Basically, he was paying USD$2 per icosahedron vertex connector, and he required 26 of them. We’re happy to announce that the project has now completed, and you can see Vernon… Continue reading The Dome is Complete!
Junior Veleso’s Homemade High Resolution 3D Printer
Junior’s making his own hi-res 3D printer, and he has the experience to do it, having previously converted an inkjet printer into a 3D powder-based version. He’s been blogging this journey since July 2010 and is providing all the information and discoveries to the public, “you agree to not make use of it for commercial… Continue reading Junior Veleso’s Homemade High Resolution 3D Printer
Cool Stuff Collective Covers 3D Printing
The Cool Stuff Collective is a new UK-based kids show, where, well, “cool stuff” is demonstrated to children by well-known presenter Sy Thomas. In their first episode of September 13th of this year, they demonstrated 3D printing, but in a followup on September 20th they showed a related technology: haptic design. We’ve covered haptics previously,… Continue reading Cool Stuff Collective Covers 3D Printing
The Opposite of a 3D Printer?
The opposite of a 3D printer would be a recycling machine. In other words, there should be a way to collect leftover material (or even leftover objects) and convert them back into a medium suitable for feedstock back into a personal manufacturing device for creation of new objects. No such universal device exists today… Continue reading The Opposite of a 3D Printer?
Has 3D Printing Hit The Knee Of The Curve?
We’re pondering a couple of recent developments in the low-end 3D printing space that may indicate a change of state in the low-end 3D printing world. First, Shapeways received a massive investment from top-ranked venture capital firms: USD$5M from Union Square Ventures and Index Ventures. We wrote, and still believe that this means Union… Continue reading Has 3D Printing Hit The Knee Of The Curve?
The Tribulations of Printing 3D Models
You’ve read yesterday’s post about where you might find amazing 3D models for printing, but you’re wondering what to do next. Is it as simple as downloading the model and printing it? Not exactly. Here’s some considerations: Are you legally permitted to print this model? What license was it distributed under? Best to check… Continue reading The Tribulations of Printing 3D Models
Free 3D Repositories
Your personal 3D printer sits idle while you ponder what to print. Should you go back to Thingiverse and print out another coat hook? Perhaps some spare MakerBot parts? Maybe you should fire up SketchUp or Blender and create a new 3D model of your own design. Nope, not tonight. You’re feeling lazy and… Continue reading Free 3D Repositories
Mom’s 3D Printer
Open3DP reacted to our reaction to MAKE’s post regarding the future of 3D printer manufacturers. MAKE suggested the hobbyist manufacturers would ultimately be eaten by cheap Asian factories, while we commented on the differences between the hobbyist and commercial 3D printer markets. Open3DP adds an analysis of material costs in the equation, suggesting that the… Continue reading Mom’s 3D Printer
Bespoke Makes Legs – Beautiful Legs
We’ve been waiting for something just like this: a startup company that takes full advantage of 3D printing technology to mass personalize an item for everyone. In the case of Bespoke Innovations, they supply one-of-a-kind prosthetics for individuals by leveraging 3D print technology from 3D Systems with an artistic flair: The Bespoke process is… Continue reading Bespoke Makes Legs – Beautiful Legs
The Manufacturing Revolution Visualized
There’s a great animation made specifically for the FULL PRINT3D exhibition by DHUB http://www.dhub-bcn.cat/ that visualizes what we think might happen in the future when 3D printing becomes widespread. Two images in the animation resonate strongly with us: The scene of billions of mass-manufactured cups representing what must be behind virtually every object we… Continue reading The Manufacturing Revolution Visualized
MakerBot’s Global Brain
Some companies still operate in 20th-century mode, but not MakerBot Industries. First they crowdsourced their manufacturing ops back to their own customers (which we still get a giggle about) and now they’re crowdsourcing their strategy by using true 21st century innovation management technology. What the heck does that mean? They’ve opened up a website… Continue reading MakerBot’s Global Brain
The Future Collision of 3D Printer Manufacturers
We read a provocative piece by Make that contrasted the approach by different 3D printer manufacturers. On one hand, we have MakerBot industries leveraging the power of community and open source techniques to improve their product; on the other we have PP2P’s (strongly) closed source Up! 3D printer. And on yet another hand, if we… Continue reading The Future Collision of 3D Printer Manufacturers
Tweaking the Bot
Adam Mayer describes a fascinating experiment with the MakerBot Cupcake CNC. As readers may recall, the ‘Bot extrudes hot plastic (ABS or PLA) in a consistent manner. By moving the build platform along the X, Y and Z axes appropriately, the desired object is formed. However, not everything can be built in this manner. Overhangs… Continue reading Tweaking the Bot
The Zaggo Box
MakerBot operator extraordinary Zaggo has been designing a new filament box for his *second* MakerBot. As usual, Zaggo has taken this task as an opportunity to enhance the design he’s already made for the senior MakerBot. The filament box neatly stores your input filament, be it ABS or PLA hidden underneath your MakerBot. Essential… Continue reading The Zaggo Box
The Freedom to Print
John of hackable:news complains that whenever they show off their 3D printer, viewers inevitably ask: “Could you print me this, could you print me that”. They just don’t realize how difficult it can be to produce a 3D object. Unless the exact object model is readily available (and findable) within a repository like Thingiverse or… Continue reading The Freedom to Print
Blurring the Distinction Between the Physical and the Virtual
An interesting essay by Portland-based Thomas Schreiber poses a variety of thoughts on the coming digital fabrication revolution. The highlights: The distance between idea (digital) and real (objects) is becoming very close, and soon will be almost zero as digital fabrication becomes widespread. Marxism’s definition of power, the means of production, was always relegated… Continue reading Blurring the Distinction Between the Physical and the Virtual
Wujec on 3D Printing
Tom Wujec, Fellow at AutoDesk, spoke at the Thinking Digital event earlier this year. In a video of his fascinating talk, Tom speaks of the nature of emerging technologies, specifically tech evolution and tech possibilities. He describes a special moment in the evolution of technology where the previously “impossible”, suddenly becomes possible. This is… Continue reading Wujec on 3D Printing
Calibration Mojo?
Quebec MakerBot operator Nicolas Gravel ponders better ways to calibrate his personal 3D printer. While he’s overcome all of the mechanical and technical difficulties in constructing his MakerBot kit, he’s stuck getting the calibration just right to permit great printouts. His idea: Why not having a couple of test pattern related to some important… Continue reading Calibration Mojo?
3D Printing in Multiple Materials – at Home
There are many differences between commercial 3D printers and hobbyist equivalents, including build quality, size, ability to print in color, etc., but now there’s one item that might be crossed off the list: the ability to print in more than one material. The RepRap team are working on a “head changer” that would enable… Continue reading 3D Printing in Multiple Materials – at Home
Hydrocolloid Printed Food
Researchers from Cornell University have been exploring a new angle on food printing: the use of hydrocolloids. What the heck is that? From their paper: Using a novel combination of hydrocolloids (xanthium gum and gelatin) and flavor agents, texture and flavor can be independently tuned to produce printing materials that simulate a broad range… Continue reading Hydrocolloid Printed Food
3D Printing Standards and Jailbroken Materials
A couple of interesting articles provoked some thinking about 3D printing standards. First, we have a post by the Open3DP folks, who complain that they’d like to use different types of print material in their 3D printers. They are, of course, known for experimenting with all kinds of unusual print materials. They suggest standards for… Continue reading 3D Printing Standards and Jailbroken Materials
ZCorp Questions Open Source Printers
A post from Olimpio DeMarco, VP of Research and Development at ZCorp questioned the possibility of using open source 3D printers for business use. He says: Who then is buying open source FDM printers? It isn’t clear to me that there is an industrial, true business application for open source 3DP. He’s probably… Continue reading ZCorp Questions Open Source Printers
3D Print an ATM Skimmer!
Attention Criminals: you’d better buy your own 3D printer; DO NOT use a 3D printing service to build parts for your bank job, or you’ll be apprehended. That’s exactly what happened at 3D printing service i.Materialise, whose sharp-eyed operators managed to catch what appeared to be the card slot of an ATM being printed!… Continue reading 3D Print an ATM Skimmer!
Materialise Touts 3D Printing Services Over Hobby 3D Printers
Ok, that might be totally predictable: a big 3D print services vendor promotes the use of services instead of using your own low-cost 3D printer (such as a RepRap, RapMan or MakerBot). Here’s their take: If you happen to be a ‘maker’, and love the creative experience like we do, then you definitely welcome… Continue reading Materialise Touts 3D Printing Services Over Hobby 3D Printers
Creaform Gets Certified
Handheld 3D laser scanner manufacturer Creaform has just achieved an interesting milestone: they’ve been certified by the Chinese National Institute of Metrology after extensive testing at NIM’s Beijing facility. What? You’ve never heard of NIM? Here’s what they are about: Founded in 1955, the National Institute of Metrology (NIM) is China’s national metrological institute… Continue reading Creaform Gets Certified
Hive45 On 3D Printing
Beer drinking Australian futurists Tristan Grace and Nathan Waters speculate about the future of 3D printing on their podcast, episode 24. They feel that the ultimate goal of 3D printing is in fact very small: nanotechnology. In other words, that’s printing individual atoms and molecules in the right arrangements to achieve virtually any conceivable object. … Continue reading Hive45 On 3D Printing
Fractal Tree Table
If the size of your 3D printer’s build chamber is too small, the answer is obvious: break your object into a series of smaller parts, print and assemble them. That or buying a bigger printer. But let’s turn this around: what if you don’t know how big your object is, and you just print… Continue reading Fractal Tree Table
Printing Sound
Contrasting opinions are a main feature of today’s communications. We read opposing viewpoints on and endless series topics, words versus words. But what if you could actually *see* the words colliding? That’s the question Canadian artist Eva Schindling set out to discover when she produced her work, “Liquid Sound Collisions”. The artist took two… Continue reading Printing Sound
Sintering the Moon
We just finished reading a paper describing the viability of using microwaves to fuse lunar soil (regoilith) into solid shapes, in the hopes of creating an effective way of building lunar structures for future astronauts and their bases. The chemistry and process are fascinating. It seems that most of the lunar regolith was formed… Continue reading Sintering the Moon
Printing the Disney Concert Hall – And Other Buildings
While watching a video of Sweet Onion Creations making a printout of the beautiful Disney Theater in Los Angeles, it became clear that one could find ready-made 3D models of many famous buildings. Sweet Onion Creations recommends using Google Earth to find such buildings, as it’s integrated with Google’s 3D Warehouse. We suspect there… Continue reading Printing the Disney Concert Hall – And Other Buildings
MakerBot Calibration Hoedown
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
Breeding RepRaps
The premise behind the RepRap project is to build a machine that can reproduce itself. While it’s not quite able to accomplish that task entirely, it can produce a great many of its own parts. That’s exactly what’s going on at the University of Washington, where they seem to have set up a “RepRap… Continue reading Breeding RepRaps
The Inevitable Obj Store
After re-reading Bradshaw, Bowyer and Haufe’s paper “The Intellectual Property Implications of Low-Cost 3D Printing”, we’ve been considering where this personal manufacturing space is heading. In the paper, the tangled intellectual property rights scenarios they described involved personal manufacturing of some sort. It occurred to us that at the end of the day, most manufactured… Continue reading The Inevitable Obj Store
IP Rights vs. Personal 3D Printing
At this early stage in inexpensive personal 3D printing, we’re still exploring the technology and what it means. While we see intellectual property confusion and carnage in the digital music and now text-based industries, some of us feel that a similar catastrophe will befall personal manufacturing. In the meantime, we continue to explore the space.… Continue reading IP Rights vs. Personal 3D Printing
The Homebrew Industrial Revolution
Kevin Carson has published a new book speaking to a vision of industrial revolution based on home-based manufacturing. This is a theme we’ve written about many times before, but we’ve not yet seen anyone take the concept into such detail as Carson’s nearly 400 page tome. Carson starts with the history of manufacturing, discussing… Continue reading The Homebrew Industrial Revolution