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 makersโincluding the basics of how to get started, plus creative tutorials for spicing up your projects. Whether youโre already familiar with 3d printing or are just starting out, these resources will help take your game-making skills even further!
Roland DG is a subsidiary of the famous Japanese firm that makes sythesizers, drum machines, and other electronic musical instruments. Since 1983, the DG (“Digital Group”) brand has manufactured business-class plotters, engravers, mills, and other CNC tools. The iModela iM-01 is their first hobby-class product.
Here’s yet another delightful mechanical curiosity from among Nikola Tesla’s nearly 300 known patents. Shown above is the sole drawing page from US patent #1,329,559, “Valvular Conduit,” issued 1920. You may have to stare at the upper section, for a moment, to figure out what’s going on: Flow from left to right, as illustrated, is against the valve’s biasโthe stream is broken up and diverted in circular paths that return to interfere with each other. Flow from right to left, however, is not so impeded.
Visual effects artist Karl Stiefvater takes us through the steps he used to build a 3D model of his home (SketchUp and its handy “Photo Match” function), apply the textures (Maya), and produce the X3D file Shapeways requires for full-color 3D printing (MeshLab). He also covers such useful, decidedly non-virtual details as how to seal the model to prevent the color from bleeding, how to treat the water to prevent algae growth, and how to assemble the snowglobe kit itself.
Version three of Thingiverse user armjunkie’s Robotic Hand improves over the original with fewer non-printable parts, less plastic to print, less sanding, and requires less pull force to move.
Inspired by this Instructable, Thingiverse user patchorang created a 3D-printable plastic card that fits in your wallet and can hold the right amount of coins so that you can pay with exact change.
Back in November at AnDevCon II, I met Jonathan Hirshon of Horizon Communications, who hooked me up with a complimentary robot from My Robot Nation. This had nothing to do with Android; it probably came up because we had a MakerBot running in OโReillyโs booth printing out little Androids (using casainhoโs Android magnet design from Thingiverse). Enough about androids and robots. As ST:TNGโs Lt. Commander Data is so fond of reminding us, there is a difference between the two!
Maybe we finally DO live in the future. I had to call my mother-in-law a few days ago to deliver the bad news that we wouldn’t be able to make it up to New York/New Jersey for our annual post-Christmas dinner. “Hey, maybe you could send 3D print-outs of your heads,” she responded
