Make: Online: 3D printing Archives

Archive: 3D printing

February 3, 2010

RepRap Mendel mini documentary

This video, by Josef Davies-Coates, shows RepRap supreme chancellor Adrian Bowyer talking in depth about the latest version of the RepRap 3D printer ("Mendel") which has been out for some months now.

More:

January 31, 2010

Festo iFab in action

I know it's just a video of a 3D printer laying down plastic, but Festo sure does a great job of showing how sexy the hardware is! I love the spool holding the plastic, and the threaded rods spinning as the extruder rises and drops.

[via the Technocratic Anarchist]

January 30, 2010

CupCake CNC build, part 8: Building the X stage

Wow, the holidays (and their aftermath) can really put the brakes on project building! But they're over, and it's time to get back to building my CupCake CNC. Next up, building the X stage. It's another really easy part to the build, and it should only take about an hour or two to complete. My assembly is undergoing a little final QC in the picture above. Fortunately, it passed with flying colors.

January 28, 2010

Printable gel casting kit from cathalgarvey

If you're interested in doing gel electrophoresis (e.g. for DNA fingerprinting) at home, there are certainly easier ways to get a gel casting kit, but I wanted to throw some more props at Thingiverse user cathalgarvey, who recently also brought us a printable microlathe and a printable centrifuge attachment for a motor tool. He's fast making a name for himself as a forerunner in the design of practical printables. Might I suggest a printable microtome next?

From the pages of MAKE:

Make Vol 7 Gel Box.jpg
MAKE Volume 7, page 66 - Backyard Biology

Shapeways interviews Bre Pettis

Check out this great Bre Pettis interview on the Shapeways blog, where he expounds on such things as RepRaps, Thingiverse and ramen.

From MAKE magazine:
make volume 21 little cover.jpg
MAKE Volume 21 is the Desktop Manufacturing issue, with how-to articles on making three-dimensional parts using inexpensive computer-controlled manufacturing equipment. Both additive (RepRap, CandyFab) and subtractive (Lumenlab Micro CNC) systems are covered. Also in this issue: instructions for making a cigar box guitar, building your own CNC for under $800, running a mini electric bike with a cordless drill, making a magic photo cube, and tons more. If you're a subscriber, you may have your issue in hand already, and can access the Digital Edition. Otherwise, you can pick up MAKE 21 in the Maker Shed or look for it on newsstands near you!

January 27, 2010

Build a better 3D printer, win $100K!

The Foresight Institute has announced its Kartik M. Gada Humanitarian Innovation Prize to design and build a better RepRap. There is an interim prize of $20,000, and a grand prize of $80,000. They consulted with the core RepRap team before the announcement and we were initially concerned that the prizes might drive developers to secrecy in order to give themselves a competitive edge. As you will see they have addressed those concerns by making it a condition of winning the prize that solutions should be pre-published and made available under a free licence. For ourselves and on your behalf, we would like to thank the Institute for the enthusiasm that these prizes demonstrate for the RepRap project and for their magnificent generosity.

Letters from the Fab Academy, Part 1

As part of our coverage of 3D printing, laser-cutting, CNC routing, and other forms of desktop fabbing -- to coincide with the new "Your Desktop Factory" issue of MAKE -- we're thrilled to welcome guest contributor Shawn Wallace. Shawn is a member of AS220, the Providence, Rhode Island community arts space. From there, he weekly plugs into the global distance learning initiative known as the Fab Academy. In a series of the "Letters from the Fab Academy," he'll be sharing with you what the group is up to. Welcome Shawn, and all the members of the Fab Academy! - Gareth

Make a Press-fit Construction Kit

By Shawn Wallace

Since October of 2009, a handful of small groups of students have been taking part in an educational experiment called the Fab Academy. The Fab Academy is a distance learning collaborative that's built on the infrastructure of the Fab Lab network. Labs in Spain, Iceland, Kenya, Amsterdam, India, and Rhode Island participate in Wednesday morning lectures by videoconference. The curriculum is concentrated into two week topics with a project due at the end of each and a more ambitious annual project due at the end of the year. This series of articles for the Make: Online will follow each of the two week sessions in the curriculum and highlight the work, tools, and techniques being developed in the pilot year of the Fab Academy.

All Fab Labs are equipped with a laser cutter for cutting non-metallic sheet material up to a quarter inch or so, as well as a vinyl cutter for cutting adhesive films for signs, flexible circuitry, and antennas. The first Fab Academy section focused on techniques of computer-controlled cutting. For background on specific brands, accessories, and software, check the frequently-updated inventory of Fab Lab tools at the Center for Bits and Atoms site.

The goal of the first assignment -- make a press-fit construction kit -- was to get a feeling for settings, materials, and the workflow of creating files for the tools. Press-fit construction is a way of building things without adhesives or fasteners; parts are designed to be held tightly together by friction, but not so tightly that they can't be pulled apart with a stiff tug. Applications can range from flat-pack style furnishings, like Elliot Clapp's slideholder lampshade (below), to Larry Sass's human-scale prefab New Orleans house.

January 26, 2010

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, which converts continuous rotary into intermittent rotary motion, with positive locking of the stationary shaft between cycles. PrintTo3D has also posted a YouTube video showing the final printing, assembly, and action of his model.

Portable wooden CNC machine

Nick Santillan wrote in to share his collapsible wooden 3-axis CNC machine. He decided to make the machine portable because he didn't have a permanent space to use, and needed to be able to move it easily. Though he certainly isn't the first to design such a machine, I do really like the fact that it has an open working surface, which allows it to work on pieces that wouldn't fit in a standard machine. It seems like it could be fun to stick down on top of tables or other furniture and engrave patterns directly into them.

Modular printable boxes

More component storage, here I come! Check out these modular printable boxes by Thingiverse user Domonoky. [Thanks, Nathan!]

January 25, 2010

MAKE On Detroit Area Newsstand

Here's the new issue of MAKE on the newsstand at Barnes and Noble in Dearborn, MI. It's always a delight for me to find it and see MAKE next to other magazines. MAKE is like a little brother who somehow gets attention by being a bit different. At this newsstand, the computers and business categories run into each other. We're in standing out in a row with MaximumPC, Consumer Reports, Business Week and Wired.

Also, Wired's new issue, "The Next Industrial Revolution," pairs nicely with MAKE's "Desktop Factory" issue.

Is there a consensus emerging that we're entering into a new era of manufacturing? The big idea is that complex tools for making things are becoming available to more people, just as desktop printing gave consumers capabilities that were available previously to professionals with typesetting and printing equipment. The learning curve required to operate this equipment and interface it to computers is making it possible for more people to get involved. So, in lots of areas but especially in manufacturing, professional-grade tools are coming within reach of hobbyists and small businesses. The future is open to anyone who wants to make something and even start a business.

Let a thousand factories bloom! And I write this from Detroit, which will be looking in this direction for its future.

January 18, 2010

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.
Since all the digital files needed to cut the Shelters are available for download under a Creative Commons, share alike, no commercial license, anyone in the world with a ShopBot CNC tool can cut one...that's 6000+ possible fabricators. The potential for a distributed manufacturing of even a fraction of this size to cut things like emergency housing is pretty powerful. Tools and materials could be shipped to the place they're needed and cut there, but more practically parts could be cut in regional clusters and shipped where they're needed in containers. With services like 100kGarages starting to assemble fabrication networks, it will become increasingly easy to get projects like this organized and rolling when the need arises. And with design files available in places like the Sketchup 3d warehouse, design refinement is faster and easier.

He and some others have ramped up their design iterations to develop a new end wall system. They shopbotted the parts and set it up over the weekend.

January 17, 2010

Milled blocks designed in Sketchup

Recently, I had a class of 7th graders designing in Sketchup. One of the projects is to accurately design a block of 2" x 2" x 1.25". These designs were then converted to G code with Millwizard by an 11th grader who then milled them in the high school across the street on a Taig Micromill. This was a fun project that helped illustrate the concepts and processes of separating the design from the manufacture of objects.

The way it worked out was that the middle schoolers would make some designs, and share them with the high schooler. If the files were designed correctly, proper size, no overhangs, then they would be converted to code and milled. He was able to process 4 files in one class period by cutting in 2 inch insulating foam. Then, the next time I met with the 7th graders, I gave them the blocks they designed.

Parts from this project could be fabbed on a variety of tools including Shopbot, Makerbot and mill. So you don't have access to any CNC tools in your program? The designing part of the project could work fine if paired with a manufacturing system like Big Blue Saw, Shapeways, 100kGarages, Thingiverse, and Ponoko.

This is a new project that worked well in several ways: Students got to do design work on the computer. The designs had authentic criteria, when the designs were done, another student had the responsibility to manufacture them, the manufacturing process had some deadlines, and the parts were delivered to the original designing students. All involved got a taste of various parts of the distance manufacturing services. Everybody seemed to have a good time, kids got to learn about design and manufacturing and have a custom part of their design delivered to them.

The block you see above, and these others, is unfinished. Next steps for the part would include finishing. The foam can be sanded with a fine grit paper, then painted with a mixture of white glue and water, and after drying can be sanded again and painted with a variety of paints.

How are you using the manufacturing and design process with your students? How do students get their designs out of the computer? Not every school has access to a mill or other fabrication tools, so what are some ways that students can get their hands on the parts they've designed?

January 14, 2010

3D printed bracelet of the future

Will Langford made this 3D printed bracelet with his MakerBot and some felt. Print your own, or grab one from his Etsy shop. I'm printing one right now out of my new PLA plastic!

How-To: Model a skull-badge in OpenSCAD

Hack a Day's Devlin has posted a great tutorial on using OpenSCAD (Clifford Wolf's fantastic, free CSG 3D modeling program) to model Hack a Day's trademark "skull badge" from this year's CES. I posted my own (much, much more basic) OpenSCAD tutorial a couple weeks back.

January 13, 2010

MIT's food printer

Cornucopia: Digital Gastronomy is a project by two grad students working in MIT's Fluid Interfaces Group. The goal: a consumer-friendly machine that prints food. (Spork not included...)

Cornucopia is a concept design for a personal food factory that brings the versatility of the digital world to the realm of cooking. In essence, it is a three dimensional printer for food, which works by storing, precisely mixing, depositing and cooking layers of ingredients.

Cornucopia's cooking process starts with an array of food canisters, which refrigerate and store a user's favorite ingredients. These are piped into a mixer and extruder head that can accurately deposit elaborate combinations of food. While the deposition takes place, the food is heated or cooled by Cornucopia's chamber or the heating and cooling tubes located on the printing head. This fabrication process not only allows for the creation of flavors and textures that would be completely unimaginable through other cooking techniques, but it also allows the user to have ultimate control over the origin, quality, nutritional value and taste of every meal.

[via the Shapeways blog]

More:

Tiny printable Dremel-powered lathe

While small lathes are of relatively limited value in my opinion, I've gotta give it up to Thingiverse user cathalgarvey for designing and uploading the parts to print this motor-tool-powered, printable micro-lathe. Would love to see some video of it in operation!

More from cathalgarvey:

January 11, 2010

Laser-cut MAKE magazine holders

Check out these sweet laser-cut MAKE back issue boxes that Jonathan Danforth made and loaded onto Thingiverse.

I like the look of MAKE magazine on my bookshelves but I wanted something to store them in that was similar to the holders I use for other magazines. MAKE's (and CRAFT's) unique form factor require a custom solution.

The images show the MAKE magazine logo and cover art for each year. I'm assuming that I can't include the cover images in the files here but I downloaded them from MAKE's own website if you want to make them exactly like mine.

Each file is designed for a loose fit for gluing and has been sized to contain four issues (one year).

The covers can be had here.

MAKE Magazine Holder

Printable cross-link ellipse gears

Thiingiverse user natetrue created this printable version of user stickoutrock's laser-cut cross-linked elliptical gear toy. Somebody post some video, please!

More gear pr0n:

January 9, 2010

CupCake CNC build, part 7: Building the Y-stage and adjusting the Z-stage

Before we go ahead and make the Y-stage, lets go ahead and level the Z-stage. It's a really easy process. All you need to do is adjust the nuts on the Z-stage threaded rods until they are all the same height. You did add an extra nut on each of the threaded rod, didn't you? I used a mechanical pencil as a reference point, but you can use anything, just get them all at the same height. Note: It's always best to get a second opinion, be it human or feline.

Now it's time to build the Y-stage. This only takes about 30 minutes and goes together fairly easily. One thing to note, some of the parts are laser etched on the wrong side. Take a close look at the pictures and make sure everything is going together the proper way. Apparently this is only an issue with CupCake CNC machines from batches 6-9.

Let's start by assembling the build platform. My kit came with a few extra, which is a good thing since the one in the picture doesn't work! The build platforms need to have (3) holes in the top to accommodate the (3) screws that are on the Y-stage assembly. I guess they redesigned the Y-stage and forgot to change the build platform. Oops! However, I received (2) additional build platforms in the kit, and both of them have the (3) holes allowing them to sit flush with the Y-stage. Problem solved!