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!
Bart Bakker of Utrecht, Netherlands sent us these images and a link to a short piece about his mini home fab lab. He built it for around US$4K. The lab consists of an A4 Laser Cutter, a vintage Ultimaker 3D-printer, a Mantis CNC mill, and a CraftRobo vinyl/papercutter. Bart built the Ultimaker and the Mantis […]
Turns out it’s also possible to drill hexagonal hole using a very similar tool based on the Reuleaux pentagon. The video immediately above, again from jacquesmaurel, shows a tool he describes as a “Vika attachment,” mounted in a lathe, boring an hexagonal hole in a piece of stock. The video below, part of the Wolfram Demonstrations Project, illustrates the process.
Thingiverse user BenJackson designed a bracket and two gears that allow you to add numeric ontrol capability to your Etch-A-Sketch. What can I say? I’ve never been able to draw anything with an Etch-a-Sketch. I won this one in a Christmas gift exchange some years ago and hung onto it with the idea that someday […]
The claim of penetrating a razor-blade impresses me, although I note the only metal penetration in the video is thin aluminum, which has been painted, possibly so that it will absorb more light energy. There’s also some cool shots capturing the pulsed-laser’s plasma ball in midair.
Eureka Magazine has a profile of this sweet ride, the whole thing “printed” from laser-sintered nylon powder. The ‘Airbike’ is made of nylon but, according to EADS, is strong enough to replace steel or aluminium and requires no conventional maintenance or assembly. It is ‘grown’ from powder, allowing complete sections to be built as one […]
Gavilan of On Shoulders is building an excellent looking 3d-printable dogbot, using openSCAD. But the awesomeness doesn’t stop there: He’s also producing a TV show about his projects, such as how to mill PCBs and print your own 3d printers. Well done! [via MakerBot]
Yesterday, we introduced the Syntheos grblShield, an Arduino Shield, created by MAKE contributors Riley Porter and Alden Hart, that allows you to control three stepper motors and run grbl, the motion-control language, for CNC operation. To show the grblShield in action (two motors of it anyway), Riley decided to try his hand at our Drawbot […]
