If you’re a maker, 3d printing is an incredibly useful tool to have in your arsenal. Not only can it help bring your projects to life faster, but it can also offer unique results that would be difficult (or impossible!) to achieve with traditional methods. In these blog posts, we’ll provide you with some essential information and tips regarding 3D printing for makers—including the basics of how to get started, plus creative tutorials for spicing up your projects. Whether you’re already familiar with 3d printing or are just starting out, these resources will help take your game-making skills even further!
The Wip Chair, by Khodi Feiz, is a chair cut from a single piece of polystyrene foam. Basically the design was modeled in the computer, and something like a giant hot wire cutter carved out the form. The chair was mass produced and used in an installation at the Dutch embassy in Berlin in June 2006, called NL-Lounge.
Catarina M and Joel Belouet have been experimenting with using a MakerBot as a microscope stage.
A group of researchers from Harvard and MIT have pushed us closer to a world of programmable matter. Their approach is a self-folding surface that can take on almost any shape.
Gears are easy to understand, make, and use, IF you know the vocabulary and can space the gears at the correct distance apart.
From Pat and Tim of BotHacker, printed on their RepStrap. STL files available on Thingiverse.
I had the very great pleasure of meeting Ari Krupnik at the recent Bay Area Maker Faire. Among other cool toys, Ari was showing off his “RecycloGraph,” which is a two-piece Spirograph (Wikipedia) milled from an old CD on Ari’s ShopBot. Once he’s milled the profile, Ari turns the plastic over and etches words or graphics in the metal foil using a CNC laser. Ari’s selling them now using a “name your price” PayPal widget on his website.
MAKE subscriber Pierre Grand (France) has developed a CNC-based building system, sort of a Lego set for real-world applications (desks, chairs, tables, loungers, room dividers, etc.). He’s been working with 100kgarages.com and will be showing off some of his Ekkoflex concept models at both Detroit and NY Maker Faires (at the Shopbot booth). Ekkoflex
