Better Living with MakerBot
If you haven’t checked them out already, Zaggo‘s mini documentaries on the 3D printing phenomenon are a must see. [Via the MakerBot Blog.]
3D Printing & Imaging
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!
3D print in silver at Shapeways
Shapeways now carries my material of choice for jewelry making: sterling silver. We are very proud to offer Sterling Silver as our latest production material! In the past we did a test with Silver Ring Poems and Cufflinks, but now you can order any design in brilliant shiny Silver, until at least November 7th. We’ll […]
Homemade high resolution DLP 3D printer
This link came in the mailbag from one Junior Veloso, of Singapore, who has produced this very impressive homemade photopolymer-based 3D printer. Traditional stereolithography uses a scanning UV laser to cure the liquid resin, one layer at a time. A DLP printer is similar, but uses a micromirror-based video projector to expose each layer, as shown in the diagram. Junior’s version exposes each layer for four to eight seconds, resulting in print times on the order of several hours. The resin has to be opaque to prevent “shadowing” from light transmitted through the printing layer.
3D printing overhangs with support structures
Rick Pollack of Shaker Heights, OH, printed this cat design with the help of support structures that are printed along with the main object, but the extruder prints the support materials at a cooler temperature. This makes them easier to remove. Readers, have you played around with support materials settings in Skeinforge? [Thanks, clothbot]
Printing in sugar with a DIY inkjet print head
Madscifi and Johnrpm of the RepRap Forums are showing some excellent results from their DIY inkjet print head.
Printable molds for casting monolithic button arrays of any size
Josef Průša saw last week’s post about choosing a silicone for casting soft button arrays and pointed me to his printable mold for such arrays on Thingiverse. The model was produced in Clifford Wolf’s awesome OpenSCAD 3D modeling package, and the .scad script is available for download with the Thing. It has been parametrized to produce molds of button arrays having any number of rows and columns–all you have to do is change two values. The individual buttons are sized to match the SparkFun 2×2 button pad used on the monome, and also include backside recesses for LEDs.
Twisting puzzles designed, built by my 15-year-old neighbor
Bumped into one of my new neighbors at the mailbox last week, and when I mentioned that I work for MAKE, she mentioned that her teenage son builds puzzles. Mechanical puzzles. Complicated ones. Turns out, he doesn’t just build them–he designs original configurations and sells them online. He’s got a following.