3D Printing & Imaging

If you’re a maker, 3d printing is an incredibly useful tool to have in your arsenal. Not only can it help bring your projects to life faster, but it can also offer unique results that would be difficult (or impossible!) to achieve with traditional methods. In these blog posts, we’ll provide you with some essential information and tips regarding 3D printing for makers—including the basics of how to get started, plus creative tutorials for spicing up your projects. Whether you’re already familiar with 3d printing or are just starting out, these resources will help take your game-making skills even further!

MakerBot TV Debuts

MakerBot TV Debuts

MakerBot Industries is blowin’ up the matrix with a new video series, MakerBot TV, featuring new video superstar Annelise Jeske. Looks great! Let me take you on a virtual adventure to an Afro Punk head-scanning party, watch how we MakerBot the heads of Angelo Moore (of Fishbone) and comedian Reggie Watts, get some tips and […]

GRBLShield CNC Mill Conversion

GRBLShield CNC Mill Conversion

Bay Area maker John Knoll (of ILM and PhotoShop fame) just finished converting his old manual milling machine to CNC with a GRBLshield and took the time to thoroughly document the process. If you’ve ever thought about attempting this conversion, you won’t want to miss this informative overview. In it John runs through the entire process from start to finish, beginning with converting a model using a Python script, sending G-code to the board using a Processing sketch, and ending with cutting the part.

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.

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.