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!
Norwegian maker Christian Arnø (aka Webca) assembled his ginormous CUBE 3D printer from parts he printed on a Cupcake CNC he printed on a Cupcake CNC. Using over 15 pounds of plastic, his latest creation has a larger build envelope and a custom heated build platform. The project took approximately eight months and $3000 to complete.
Pro-regulation hysterics make recourse to the Four Horsemen of the Infocalypse: child porn, organized crime, terrorists, and pirates.
The printable ball-and-socket unit that makes up this tentacle is really just a prototype in the early development of Thingiverse user Misguided’s not-so-misguided (if we may offer a bit of encouragement) project to develop a printable tentacle actuator. Everything about his description makes me happy, so I’ll just quote it entirely…
This Nissin 3D bender is kind of like a PlayDoh Fun Factory, except it squirts out 1.25″ steel pipe instead of soft non-toxic-but-funny-tasting dough. Looks like much of the magic is in the bending-die head.
Photogrammetry has been with us for as long as we’ve had cameras. Autodesk has taken it to its logical next step with Project Photofly. Using a standard point and shoot camera you can take a series of photos of an object, upload them to the cloud, and get a detailed 3D model back that can be manipulated with standard design software.
I love Tony Buser’s 3D-printed Mars rover, especially how unrealistically cute he is!
Make reader Anders Haglund sent word of Edward Ford’s Project ShapeOko, which strives to build a complete and open DIY desktop CNC machine (including electronics) for around $300.
