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!
Vik from the RepRap blog created these printable ball-chain gears, and uploaded STLs and SCADs to Thingiverse. I have finally managed to print tiny little ball-chain gears that work with 3.3mm and 3.5mm diameter ball-chain and still fit on the NEMA17’s 5mm output shaft. The trick is to print the gears in two pieces. As […]
Blueprint Magazine describes a very neat machine: In a small shed on an industrial park near Pisa is a machine that can print buildings. The machine itself looks like a prototype for the automotive industry. Four columns independently support a frame with a single armature on it. Driven by CAD software installed on a dust-covered […]
In this series, “Letters from the Fab Academy,” Shawn Wallace, member of AS220, the Providence, RI community arts space, shares his experiences with the Fab Academy, a distributed learning collaborative, built on the infrastructure of the Fab Lab network. — Gareth 3D Scanning By Shawn Wallace Victor Freundt prints a project using the ZCorp printer […]
When Bill from I Heart Robotics decided he wanted a cleanroom, he did what any self-respecting maker would do — he built one from scratch. First, he put together a budget lab bench/enclosure from heavy duty MDF shelving. Next, he 3D printed some endcaps to couple a dust filter to a PC cooling fan. Finally, he used a shower curtain to close off the front.
RepRapper Forrest Higgs designed an interlocking beamed structure that could be 3D printed — thus advancing the RepRap’s stated purpose of someday being able to print new RepRaps. Currently much of the support structure cannot be printed. But what if printable girders could be stacked on top of each other? Higgs’ project may not be […]
Cathal Garvey’s proposing a mousetrap design challenge: I have a problem. There lives in my house a tiny mouse, and as I am friend to all animals I wish him no harm. The live mousetrap I tried didn’t work: crafty mouse escaped it repeatedly. I also invented a few wacky methods involving pitfalls, narrow bottles […]
Recently we featured a lively point-counterpoint post featuring Dale Dougherty and Joel Johnson debating the merits of Chris Anderson’s Atoms are the New Bits article in Wired. Now the Thingiverse blog is weighing in with this thoughtful opinion piece by Allan Ecker titled Atoms are not the New Bits. Yet.. What do you think, readers?
