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!
Santa’s got the coolest tools. How else could he and his elves build all those gifts in time? Now, thanks to custom fabrication services, we can all get access to the Santa Claus Machines. From bespoke action figures, to interplanetary terrain models, from one-of-a-kind sneakers, to tailor-made machine parts, there has never been a better time to harness advanced fabrication tools to build objects of your own design!
Electron Beam Free-Form Fabrication (EBF3) is a rapid prototyping technology developed by Karen Taminger of NASA’s Langley Research Center. Dr. Taminger is prone to market EBF3 by analogy to Star Trek style “replicator” technology, which is nothing but shameless hype. Still, the basic idea is an interesting twist on extrusion-based 3D printing technologies (although there’s not really any “extrusion” going on), and is under development with an eye towards space-based fabrication. Working in outer space would eliminate the system’s major ground-based shortcoming, which is the requirement for maintaining a vacuum or inert atmosphere to prevent oxidation of the weld.
It’s been a while since my last build entry, mostly because the finish takes a few days to apply, and yet another few days to fully cure. I’m just happy it’s done! I want to start building…and printing!
I planned on writing an entry about burning bootloaders & updating the firmware, but I just realized my kit comes all ready to go! Yea! If you are making you own boards from scratch, or purchased a non-assembled kit, check out these detailed instructions on burning bootloaders and updating firmware before going any further.
OK, let’s get started with the CupCake Electronics Assembly. I ordered the Deluxe kit from batch #8, so most of the electronics are already assembled. Yea!
Conrad2468 on Thingiverse printed this LED clip for his glasses. Great for reading, soldering, and face tracking (use an IR LED for that one).
It’s time to unbox the Cupcake CNC and see what’s inside.
