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!

Maker Wedding Enlightenment

Maker Wedding Enlightenment

Earlier this summer, Brett was working on a nifty 3 LED and 2 AAA battery holder design at the Boston Area Makerbot meetup. We get together when enough people feel the need, generally at Sprout in Somerville. When we got together again this week, he was able to happily report on the project and the role his making played in the big day.

The initial plan was to use throwies, but I felt they wouldn’t give as much light as a commercial 3 LED solution. This led me to a fun, albeit time consuming project.

Continue Reading Chris Connors2
Stung Love

Stung Love

Responding to criticisms that their new no-trolling-allowed policy lacks teeth, Hack a Day writer Jack Buffington threw down the gauntlet Monday, announcing that, henceforth, anyone leaving a nasty comment about one of Jeri Ellsworth’s projects will receive a visit from the Pain Fairy.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan20
Wooden FN P90 Rubber Band Gun

Wooden FN P90 Rubber Band Gun

Although I believe this impressive, apparently working wooden rubber band gun and the page that presents it originate in Japan, I’m not having any luck with machine translations of the accompanying text. So unfortunately I have no other information. If you can identify the maker or other details, and can spare the time, I’d appreciate your comment, below.

Continue Reading Sean Michael Ragan12
Printing your Kinect scans on a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic

Printing your Kinect scans on a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic

I got my hands on a Kinect a while back (thanks to Ashley Burns of Waggener Edstrom for sending me one to mess around with), and I’ve been itching to scan something and print it on my MakerBot Thing-O-Matic. I got as far as scanning things with Kyle McDonald’s KinectToStl, but as I have no skills with 3d modeling software, I had no clue how to turn it into something printable. I tried printing some of the STL files I got out of that tool, but they were way too complex. With some open source software, a few simple steps, and an occasional not-so-simple-step here and there, you can print what your Kinect can see.

Continue Reading Brian Jepson