Fabbaloo - Fabbaloo Blog

Thursday

Sep022010

BotMill!

Thursday, September 2, 2010 |

There's a new shop in town: BotMill. They're addressing the growing DIY 3D Printing space:

At BotMill.com, we cater to the growing number of 3D DIY enthusiasts with quality products at discounted prices. We are constantly on the look out for new and innovative products…

They appear to market a wide variety of relevant 3D items, including their flagship product, a RepRap Mendel - either in kit form (USD$799 on sale now) or fully assembled and tested (USD$1545 also on sale). The Mendels come in Blue, Black, Red or Yellow - get one and then print your own Mendel offspring in more colors if you wish.

BotMill also sells electronics, hardware and various parts for the printers at pretty reasonable prices. In fact, their print material is less expensive than MakerBot's store. Example: 5 lbs of Black ABS are USD$65 from MakerBot, while BotMill's price is only USD$60 (but on sale now for only USD$52.45).

Once you've got your Mendel working and need something to print, you can also purchase a David Laser 3D Scanner kit for only USD$499.

It looks like BotMill's marketing plans are extensive, as their well-organized web shop includes a currency feature (only USD$ at the moment) and translation into fourteen languages!

Via BotMill (Hat tip to Fred and Rami)

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Wednesday

Sep012010

MakerBot Extrudes The Mk5

Wednesday, September 1, 2010 |

At long last MakerBot has finally released their new extruder design: the MK5.

This design incorporates a number of learnings gathered from MakerBot operators' experiments. Key features:

Greatly simplified filament drive that completely eliminates the troublesome idler wheel and replaces it with an easily adjustable chunk of Delrin, as well as a custom designed contoured gear for reliably grabbing input filament.
Redesigned heater core, which incorporates a pair of power resistors that provide even, predictable heat (unlike the hap-hazard every-time-unique Nichrome windings of the MK4 that assured no two MakerBots were the same). The new core is extremely tight and should prevent troublesome leaks.

We're really excited about this development, since the plastruder seemed to be the weakest point of the MakerBot, where most operators spent their time rebuilding after various failure modes. The new MK5 should do away with most of the problems. Well, done, MakerBot!

Via MakerBot

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Tuesday

Aug312010

Design-Worthy Cement Printing

Tuesday, August 31, 2010 |

Two years ago we wrote on Contour Crafting's experiments with building-sized 3D printing, in which they were designing a house-sized 3D printer assembly to extrude concrete into shapes suspiciously resembling buildings. The concept is almost unbelievable, where you could erect most of a house at the push of a button (and a few deliveries of fresh cement). We haven't seen many further developments since then in the world of concrete printing other than D-Shape's amazing printed monument.

However today we ran across Factum Arte and Anish Kapoor, who have been experimenting with cement printing for some years. They're not printing buildings, but instead are focusing on sculptures with a technique that "combines intention with chance and the live properties of the different cement mixes".

Kapoor has published a book detailing the entire process, entitled "Unconformity and Entropy", available right here. From the book:

Some three years ago, Adam Lowe and I wondered if it were possible to make a machine that could generate form. The printing machine formed a model for the basis of our thinking. After much trial and error, we found a surprisingly simple way of making a workable engine.

Once we had started making objects, a new reality began to emerge. These were objects like no others; they seemed to obscure the border between artifice and event. These are objects that are more akin to natural things than to those made by design.

One issue we foresee is the weight; moving tons of cement sculpture could be tricky. In the case of printing an onsite building or monument, weight is less important, but for sculptures you simply must print them on a moveable pallet.

Be sure to watch the videos that show the rather swift cement printer. It reminds us of a room-sized RepRap. Watch out for that Y-axis!

Via Factum-Arte and Magpie Aesthetic

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Monday

Aug302010

Dimension's STARBASE

Monday, August 30, 2010 |

3D printer manufacturer Dimension is contributing back to the community by working with STARBASE Minnesota on a way to deeply involve students in the process of 3D manufacturing. The students, from Minneapolis area public schools, are shown problems, data and techniques and they work out solutions.

One of their projects has been to design a mission to the Planet Mars. They design the rocket parts using 3D modelling tools, which are then actually produced on a Dimension printer. The rockets are then launched (if they work) and the students learn what works and what doesn't. Experimentation is the path to the truth.

Via StarbaseMN and YouTube (Hat tip to Jessica)

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Sunday

Aug292010

3D Print Post Processing: A Wiki

Sunday, August 29, 2010 |

So you've 3D printed your object, and hold it in your hand. Are you finished? Not at all - there's the often-required "post processing" step, in which your object is subjected to various treatments leading to its final, perfected state. That might involve manual trimming of extraneous blobs, painting or in some cases removal of support material. All of this activity and more is considered post-processing.

But what kinds of post-processing can be considered? Often it's a word of mouth transfer of knowledge to 3D printing apprentices, but today we're seeing a new Wiki that's specifically dedicated to Post Processing: The 3D PrintCraft Wiki.

This wiki is not well-populated yet, but that's how Wiki's go: share your knowledge with others in a central place. Currently they have information on Dye and Paint, but we believe Fabbaloo readers could contribute hugely to this effort.

Via 3D Print Craft

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Saturday

Aug282010

The Future of 3D Printing

Saturday, August 28, 2010 |

Here's an interesting 50 minute video from the Singularlity University by Scott Summit who speaks of many topics of interesting to our readers. Highlights of the "OK, So You Can Create Anything. Now What?" Talk:

Introduction to the concept of Mass Production - how the making of things became cheap
Some things are simply not compatible with the mass production concept of identical items, such as artificial limbs
He speaks of how to get 3D information into digital form (scanning), how to manipulate and change it (3D modelling) and how to "get it out" (3D printing)
The trend to do these activities at increasingly lower costs
The idea that these new technologies offer the ability to produce complex, unique objects at the same inexpensive cost as mass production

A great video, hope you enjoy it!

Via DesignPlaygrounds (Hat tip to Andy)

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Friday

Aug272010

Ponoko Arriva in Italia

Friday, August 27, 2010 |

Distributed manufacturing hub Ponoko continues its invasion of Europe by opening an Italian front. They've partnered with a local fabrication shop, Vectorealism, to produce your items locally in Milan.

The Italian operation joins the Ponoko club, which now boasts manufacturing hubs in San Francisco, London, Berlin and the 10,000 Garages of 100KGarages.com.

Oh, and if you visit the link below, Ponoko will provide a 50% discount coupon for using Vectorealism up until 11 September.

Via Ponoko

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Thursday

Aug262010

Another Slicing Option for BfB

Thursday, August 26, 2010 |

BfB (Bits From Bytes) has announced the availability of a new 3D slicing software option that will be bundled with each of their new 3D printers: Axon. This software is built upon the traditional Skeinforge software that performs the delicate task of converting a 3D model into layered slices suitable for 3D printing. The issue with Skeinforge is a rather difficult interface that appears daunting to new users.

BfB's prime client base are learning institutions, where the majority of users are in fact students, who we believe will benefit from a simplified interface. The other benefit is that the software is free; many current BfB customers use NetFabb, which while being a great program is definitely not free. We think that Universities and other public institutions that are no doubt enduring financial stress will appreciate the Axon option.

The new software bundles in all required bits for quick installation. Good work, BfB!

Via PRLog (Hat tip to Will)

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