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!
MakerBot Thing-o-Matic I make CG animated movies by day and electro-mechanical contraptions by night. I split my time between the virtual and real worlds of 3D. So I’m really excited about the collision of these two worlds happening in the realm of 3D printing and fabrication. But it’s not just me, there’s a rapidly growing […]
Michael Curry of Kansas City, MO, designed and printed this sweet gearbox for the rubber band challenge on Thingiverse. Brilliant! [Via the Thingiverse blog]
calculus-book-cover.jpgMy buddy Trent Johnson, who works for AMD here in Austin, made this beautiful object. I was standing awkwardly in the corner at his birthday party last weekend, trying to remember how to interact with flesh-and-blood people on a face-to-face basis, when I looked down and saw it leaning against the wall next to me. And I immediately recognized it from the cover of my college calculus text, from the flyleaf of which I now quote:
Adam Wolf of Wayne and Layne built this Van De Graaff generator out of a cheap hobbyist motor, a rubber band, some Shape Lock, a pop can, a toothpick, and other el-cheapo components. I built this in one afternoon at my parent’s place in Wisconsin–in a town that lacks good hardware stores. While building it, […]
Back in April I blogged about the plans and kits for this and other elaborate laser-cut wooden models available from WoodMarvels.com. At the time, I snarked a bit about how all the images on their website are actually CG renderings, implying that, with models that complicated, it’d be nice to have some reassurance that somebody, somewhere, had put together a real physical version in the real physical world before giving up the green. Well, MAKE pal and dynamite CNC contractor Angus Hines sprung for a set of plans, cut the parts on his own equipment, and took these cool photos of the assembled model on red clay to suggest the Martian surface. [Thanks, Angus!]
Over on the MakerBot forums, Youssef Tayeb just shared this full-scale model of a trans-tibial socket, which was printed in 16 pieces, and reinforced with a layer of fiberglass.
Beautiful Modeler – use an iPad to make 3D models… Beautiful Modeler is a software tool for gestural sculpting using a multi-touch controller such as an iPad. Each finger is used to control a single touch point in the model, with multiple layers working to build up 3D volume. As the controller is connected over […]
