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!
OK, so maybe the Digital Manufacturing Analysis, Correlation and Estimation Challenge isn’t as sexy as your grand robot challenges or your race to space prizes, but hey, if you’re into digital manufacturing, and are excited by the idea of using crowdsourcing to advance knowledge of the field and to explore the capabilities of DM, then […]
Nathan Patterson, aka Thingiverse user pattywac, has organized a pair of user-funded design contests and is soliciting entries and prize donations for each. The first, with a current prize pool of $100US, is to design the cleverest MakerBot-able object that incorporates a rubber band. Two of my favorite entries so far are shown above.
The second contest, to design the most useful improvement for the MakerBot itself, is also ongoing, and currently has a prize pool of $65US. Both contests end on Sunday, November 14. [Thanks, Nathan!]
Last week I posted about this cool twist-action irising jewelry box by Matt, from Seattle, WA, (aka Thingiverse user msruggles) and the first real prototype that user Linkreincarnate printed on his Up! personal 3D printer.
Since that time, Matthew LaBerge of Minneapolis, MN, (aka Thingiverse user labmat) has printed his own copy and posted a video showing off its mechanical action. Bonus points for the lovely blue color!
Matt’s printer–which he calls “IceBot One”–is a heavily customized rig using MakerBot electronics and components from what appears to be a salvaged CNC mill. Check out the deets in his Flickr stream.
It’s also worth noting that, since first posting his original design, msruggles has published a shortened version that will print faster and use less material.
Jeri Ellsworth made this quick and dirty gas containment chamber for her laser cutter — to be able to test the gases generated from the lasing of various materials — using a silicon wafer (which the beam passes through) and a cookie tin. This rig can also be used to contain materials that might otherwise […]
The folks at iFeelBeta.de have created a chemical formula that will dissolve 3D-extruded PLA but leaves ABS alone. This is critical because it allows you to print a fabject with overhangs: you use the PLA as a support structure during the print, and when done you dissolve it. Now all we need are dual-extruder printers! […]
Very cool design from Thingiverse user msruggles, printed as shown above by user Linkreincarnate, who reports some reification issues with the model requiring hand finishing. Gonna keep an eye on this as it develops.
This lovely object is more than just an interesting gewgaw: It’s called a “turner’s cube”–so named, I think, because it is a challenge for one who turns on a lathe rather than eponymously–and according to Bob Warfield, “[i]n the old days, novice machinist’s [sic] were handed one and told to work out how to make one of their own.” Bob’s got a cool page describing his efforts to make one manually and then using a CNC mill, with some bonus commentary on this thread by CNC Zone member widgitmaster, who made the cube pictured above, using the jig pictured above, on a big engine lathe. Beautiful!
