Fabbaloo Blog

Laser Scanning Sale!

2010-03-20T06:00:30Z

Laser Design has a special offer on for those requiring a full-scale commercial 3D scanner: 30% discount. This is a substantial amount, given the normal prices for such equipment.

The device in question is the Surveyor WS-Series system:

Surveyor WS-Series scans parts from all orientations, then easily rotates the data back into a common coordinate system. A 4th axis scientific-grade rotary stage and Renishaw PH10 motorized indexing head options are available so that the scanning process can be fully automated.

Operators can quickly and easily scan free form surfaces and parts of all sizes, especially those with complex geometry. Typical parts include plastic and rubber components, EDM electrodes, extrusions, molds, dies, and castings.

The WS-Series includes six models of varying scan size. The smallest model, the WS-2030, can measure XYZ up to 0.5m x 0.7m x 0.5m. The largest device, the WS-4080, can measure XYZ up to 1.0m x 2.0m x 0.7m, with four other models in-between.

Via LaserDesign

WYSIWYG 3D Printing

2010-03-19T06:00:31Z

Shapeways has taken a step to ease the design process by using Blender to render images of 3D models. This addition to their service permits users to have a reasonably close peek at what their printed object might look like after emerging from Shapeways fleet of 3D printers. The problem up till now has been that objects being designed convey a sense of color and feel based on their screen appearance, and when actually 3D printed in a typical material, the physical object doesn't match your visual expectations.

With this new feature, Shapeways is doing "expectation management" in that you can see a reasonable facsimile of your object before it's actually printed. Could this be the first instance of WYSIWYG 3D printing services?

Via Shapeways

Kick Start Those Earrings

2010-03-18T06:00:39Z

Fluid Forms new golden earrings initiative is a unique approach to personal manufacturing. The idea is to produce individualized earrings based on a geographical location of your choice. The design is actually a street map of that location based on data obtained from open street maps.

Which location should you choose? Perhaps it's a very special place from your past, where you went to school or met your spouse. Maybe it's just a radical intersection.

To participate you must head over to Fluid Forms' KickStarter page, where a donation can get you in on batch number one. You'll be contacted by them to indicate your desired location. They'll whip up 50 unique pieces, etched in an acid bath and then gold plated.

Via Fluid Forms and KickStarter (Hat tip to Steven)

RepRap Explained

2010-03-17T06:00:42Z

Dr. Adrian Bowyer of the University of Bath and the father of the RepRap 3D printer takes us on a video tour of RepRap, including the new Mendel RepRap model. Bowyer speaks enthusiastically on the device, tools for 3D modelling and 3D model repositories.

The Mendel RepRap is physically smaller than its predecessor model, Darwin, yet has a greater build size. Smaller on the outside, bigger on the inside. Both models are able to reproduce approximately half of their own parts, the remainder being electronics and critical metal parts. The Mendel version produces better quality objects, but Bowyer says the big issue is the "human ease of assembly" of the device, so that is what his team is concentrating on.

The build material used by RepRap is typically plant based plastic (polylactic acid, made from starch), which is "easy to make on your own, but with one tricky step." The tricky step involves drying the material to less than 10ppm of water, which would indeed be tricky!

Other build materials discussed include ABS and HDPE. the common plastic used in milk bottles. The strategy is to design an accompanying "Shredder" that can eat the milk bottles or other similar plastic sources to produce new build material. As Bowyer demonstrates, you'll be able to shred your 3D printed shoes and print new ones as they wear out or you change size! The shredding component is still being designed, but as the project is entirely open source, perhaps someone else may be working on it.

A brief discussion of experimental circuit boards showed two techniques, both of which have some limitations. One circuit board involved printing grooves that are subsequently filled with molten solder. It's not quite ready for general use yet, but we're very pleased this is being developed.

Via YouTube

The Doctor is In at Shapeways

2010-03-16T06:14:25Z

That's him in the image, Doctor Shapeways! Well, not exactly. Always an innovator, Shapeways has released another terrific feature for those submitting 3D models to their printing service: MeshMedic.

MeshMedic automatically corrects very common mistakes made in 3D models that render the model unprintable. While the model might look tremendously beautiful on your 24 inch LCD monitor, it may also have unseen holes or other modelling difficulties preventing 3D printing. The new tool handles .STL, X3D or Collada files - but not color VRML files. A useful side effect is a significant reduction in workflow time for Rhino users.

We think this is a great benefit to Shapeways users, since it simplifies their efforts. Not everyone is a brilliant 3D modeller, and MeshMedic takes the barriers to 3D printing down a little bit more.

Via Shapeways

OpenStructures

2010-03-15T06:00:08Z

As the world slowly fills with advanced personal and commercial manufacturing equipment, we're starting to see the emergence of systems to make the resulting manufactured objects fit together in organized ways. Projects such as SKDB and MakerBeam hope to help us locate and assemble independently designed objects.

Another project in this area is OpenStructures:

The OS (OpenStructures) project explores the possibility of a modular construction model where everyone designs for everyone on the basis of one shared geometrical grid. It initiates a kind of collaborative Meccano to which everybody can contribute parts, components and structures.

The concept is a simple 4x4cm grid into which "parts" are mapped. The parts can then be assembled into "components", which in turn are combined into "structures" and "superstructures".

It's not just a concept; OpenStructures has in fact already established a database of Parts, Components and Structures. Their database permits sophisticated searches as well as designer contributions with the opportunity for sales of physical items. You can download the 3D file, of course. There's even a QRCode for each item.

While the service seems oriented around the physical aspects, the 3D designs are what interest us, and the concept of combining objects together to make more complex structures.

Will OpenStructures succeed? Is it better than SKDB or other initiatives? Time will tell.

Via OpenStructures

The Battle of Big Thinking

2010-03-14T07:00:17Z

We listened to an interesting presentation from John Wilshire on the topic of "Big". He means the notion of mass production, mass consumption and the resulting mass media, where the goal is simply to have you "buy more" in a "big way". It's true. We've all been conditioned to think this way as that was one of the fundamental principles of 20th century industry.

Things change in the 21st century, where technology, networking and software permits us to be anywhere, build anything and have relationships with anyone. Well, potentially, anyway. The result is that we do what we want and then cluster in affinity groups.

These groups are increasingly less interested in "buying more" in a "big way" as they interests focus elsewhere. Wilshire proposes "Social Production", where manufacturing occurs on a lower, but more distributed scale. He describes at length the social constructs that permit the identification and development of solutions. But then the next step occurs: sharing the results.

Social Production

View more presentations from John V Willshire.

He describes how 3D printing can be the end point for this process, where the ideas become real. The conclusion: Our Future = Social Media + Social Production.

Via Slideshare

Maker Culture

2010-03-13T07:00:04Z

Great article on Maker Culture from Re/Creating Tampa, where they contrast 21st Century maker activities with historical events in the United States. They explain how inventions were largely the domain of the individual (think Benjamin Franklin, Eli Whitney, etc.) These renowned "individual gadgeteers" made a truly significant difference in the history of the United States and other nations through their genius.

Strangely, in the mid 20th Century the world shifted to assembly lines and centralized manufacturing. The inventive individual became an oddity.

An oddity until today, when we find individual genius on the rise again, this time powered by high-tech personal manufacturing equipment and software.

Via Re/Creating Tampa

3D Printing with Macs

2010-03-12T07:00:21Z

The 3D printing community would seem to be the realm of Windows or Linux, and as a consequence Mac owners might feel a bit left out. Much of the relevant software comes only in Windows form, posing a challenge for Mac users who might have to resort to installing Windows on their machines.

Interestingly, the readers of this blog, whom you'd think would have extreme interest in 3D printing, break down by Operating System as follows:

Windows - 67.70%
Macintosh - 25.61%
Linux - 4.25%
iPhone - 1.55%
iPod - 0.34%
Android - 0.31%

Clearly there are more Mac 3D'rs out there than one might expect! (And an amazing 2.2% from small mobile devices...)

However, hope for those users springs up a little bit with the efforts of Zaggo of Pleasant Hardware. He's spent considerable time porting software to Mac OS/X 10.6 and while the results are still early, they are very impressive. After he received his MakerBot, he thought there might be a better way:

As a (very) long time and hardcore Mac user and developer, I quickly thought about a nicer, cleaner and faster way to produce GCode and eventually print objects than ReplicatorG and Skeinforge.

His goal was to produce software to preview .STL and GCode and also transform .STL to GCode. After several iterations he managed to achieve something amazing: his "Slice" tool leverages built-in features of OS/X to run 230 times faster than Skeinforge!

We think everyone should pass thanks to Zaggo, and give him a hand with this huge job. Well done!

Via Pleasant Hardware and MakerBot

Alumide Examples

2010-03-11T07:00:05Z

Joris of Shapeways posted a video showing off several sample 3D prints using Shapeway's new Alumide material. The semi-metallic material, while less strong than other build materials offered, seems to convey quite a different character to the printed objects. They no longer look and feel like "plain old plastic".

The video includes several truly amazing items, including mechanical objects: a gearbox with embedded ball bearings and a working ferris wheel!

They're asking clients to print more Alumide to enable them to maintain it as a permanent material offering, as today it's merely a temporary experiment.

Via Shapeways