10 Cool 3D Printed Objects

3D Printing & Imaging Craft & Design

“Open Wings” Cape

Melinda Looi

With the help of Belgian 3D printing company Materialise, Malaysian fashion designer Melinda Looi 3D printed her bird-inspired runway collection.

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Laser-Sintered Rocket Nozzles

NASA is testing the limits of 3D printing with complex, nickel-chromium alloy rocket injectors.

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Light Sculpture Lamp

Hilden & Diaz

Artists are finding interesting ways to use 3D printers, like Forms in Nature, a light sculpture that casts fantastic shadows of gnarly trees on the walls of the room in which it hangs.

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3D Print Yourself

There are services out there now that will 3D scan and print you as a figurine, like these high resolution captures by Twinkind. Get started making basic 3D figurines with our 3D Scanning Party “Photo Booth.”

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2D Drawings into 3D Prints

Bring your child’s whimsical drawing to 3-dimensional life by turning it into a 3D print, with the help of services like Crayon Creatures.

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3D Artwork for the Blind

The Midas Touch project transforms well-known two-dimensional artwork into 3D, allowing blind people to “see” it with their fingers.

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Nanomolecular Art

Shane Hope

Artist Shane Hope reshapes 3D models of nanoscale structures, like protein molecules and DNA double helices, by running Python scripts to visually “glitch out” the structures. He then prints the forms on clear acrylic and fills in empty spaces with paint.

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Aston Martin Replica

Ivan Sentch

Rather than shaping by hand, New Zealander Ivan Sentch is 3D printing the mold plug for the body of his replica 1961 Aston Martin, 4″ by 4″ at a time.

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TARDIS Prime Transforming Toy

Andrew Lindsey

Inspired by a fanciful T-shirt depicting a Doctor Who TARDIS transforming into an Optimus Prime-style robot, New Jersey engineer Andrew Lindsey designed and printed this amazing modular TARDIS Prime.

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Dodecahedron Speaker

Sean Michael Ragan

This array of 12 speakers, arranged on the faces of a 3D-printed dodecahedron, provides non-directional-speaker quality sound.

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Ultimate Guide to 3D Printing 2014This review first appeared in MAKE’s Ultimate Guide to 3D Printing 2014, page 96. Check out the full issue for more!

8 thoughts on “10 Cool 3D Printed Objects

  1. andytanguay says:

    I gotta admit, I’ve really been enjoying these practical examples of 3D printing that you guys have been kicking out lately.

    We’ve seen YEARS of 3D printers kicking out the same Yoda heads. I’ve frankly been rather skeptical about the ‘3D Printing Revolution’ that’s been prophesized, and still am somewhat, but these posts are changing my thinking bit by bit.

  2. Holiday Rentals says:

    I have made the 3D tardis transformer. very cool

  3. Jerry says:

    A little disappointed that organ printing is not listed.

    1. Laura Cochrane says:

      We do have a “Life-Changing 3D Prints” feature in this issue, where we touch on the medical applications of 3D printers. Get your copy of the issue to check it out! http://www.makershed.com/Make_Ultimate_Guide_to_3D_Printing_2_0_p/9781457183027-p.htm

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