Digital Fabrication

Digital fabrication tools have revolutionized the way designers, engineers, and artisans express their creativity. With the right resources, you can learn to use these powerful instruments in no time! Whether it’s 3D printing or laser cutting that interests you, these articles will provide useful tutorials and inspiration for makers of all levels. Discover how digital fabrication can open up new possibilities so that your craftsmanship is truly extraordinary!

Busy Retiree’s Filament Extruder Wins Fabrication Competition

Busy Retiree’s Filament Extruder Wins Fabrication Competition

Last year, at Maker Faire in San Mateo, we launched a global competition to find ways to reduce the cost of producing parts on a 3D printer that uses plastic filament as its feedstock.

3D printing holds great promise for prototyping and small-volume production, but it has the potential for high volume production as well. Over time, the software interfaces that control these machines will improve, the number of files available for printing will increase exponentially, and the precision of the machines will be indistinguishable from parts made on an injection molding machine. However, to become competitive with conventional manufacturing processes, the unit cost of each part produced by 3D printers must be reduced.

Low-cost 3D printing, including Up! Plus, Makerbot’s Replicator II, Cubify, Printrbot, Solidoodle, and the Ultimaker, range in price from $399-$2200. These machines require extruded plastic filament that costs about $40-$54 per kg. This is between 5-10 times the cost of the raw resin pellets.

Continue Reading Dale Dougherty14
Making Digital Art Real

Making Digital Art Real

3D printing service provider Sculpteo and game developer Infinite Dreams today announced a partnership that will allow users to turn digitally rendered pots into the real thing.

Infinite Dreams’ popular “Let’s Create! Pottery” app lets users shape, fire, and paint a piece of pottery in a virtual environment. The new relationship with Sculpteo brings the experience into the physical world by allowing users to purchase full color, printed versions of their pottery directly from the app.

Continue Reading Eric Weinhoffer6
Ping Fu Stands Her Ground

Ping Fu Stands Her Ground

Last month I wrote about Bend Not Break, a memoir written by Ping Fu. Fu is the founder of Geomagic and now chief strategy officer at 3D Systems. In her book, Fu wrote about her life as a young girl in China and her experiences living under Mao’s Cultural Revolution. She described being forcibly removed from her family by the Red Guard at 8 years old and spending the next ten years living with her younger sister in a government dormitory under brutal conditions before ultimately emigrating to the U.S. For me, it was a harrowing, but ultimately uplifting story about overcoming adversity.

But that’s not how many people reacted to the book.

Continue Reading Stett Holbrook48
Tapigami, 3D Sculptures Made Entirely of Tape

Tapigami, 3D Sculptures Made Entirely of Tape

Tapigami came to Maker Faire Bay Area last year with a gorgeous fantasy cityscape installation, made entirely of tape! (The wall behind it was wire coat hangers covered in fabric.) The Sacramento artist behind Tapigami, Danny Scheible, and his crew were also on-site (along with rolls and rolls of tape) to show Faire-goers how to make their own Tapigami sculptures. It was a huge hit. Buy your tickets for Maker Faire Bay Area 2013 today to get our special Early Bird discount prices!

Continue Reading Laura Cochrane

3D Printed Canon Flash Diffusers

I made a flash diffuser for the Canon Speedlight 580EX II after seeing our photo intern taping a piece of paper to his flash to act as a light bounce. His paper bounce didn’t last more than a few days of project photography in the extreme conditions of our lab, so after seeing him repeatedly throw them into the recycling bin, I decided to make him a durable 3D printed diffuser.

Continue Reading Eric Chu2