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!

Geneva wheels on Thingiverse

Geneva wheels on Thingiverse

Apparently I’m not the only one charmed by the simple elegance of the Geneva wheel movement (Wikipedia). Thingiverse users PrintTo3D and raumfahrtagentur have created printable and laser-cut-able versions, respectively, of the classic mechanism. PrintTo3D has also posted a YouTube video showing the final printing, assembly, and action of his model.

Shelter 2.0: Distributed manufacturing for emergencies

Bill writes in to tell about Shelter 2.0, a fabbed structure system that aims to leverage distributed manufacturing and shipping to provide durable emergency structures to situations of need.

The Shelter 2.0 was designed by Robert Bridges as a CNC-cut emergency shelter in the Guggenheim/Sketchup contest in 2009. The idea was that it would be partway between a tent and a real house and could be dis-assembled and re-assembled using some interesting CNC-cut joinery to make it easy.