Every one of us is a specialist in something, and our belief is that great things happen when different specialists intersect to combine the expertise from different disciplines. One such collision recently took place at RedEyeOnDemand, a popular 3D print service.

 

It turns out that Tim Thellin and several co-workers at RedEye are hobby musicians, and they decided to put the two skills together. They experimented with different guitar styles and build materials, and eventually came up with a variety of interesting instruments:

It started out as a gimmick to build something really different that would stand out for use at tradeshows. So, we made our first two telecaster style guitars out of PC-ISO and ABSi red materials. The sleek, translucent look of the PC-ISO only added to its rigidness and durability. Then, we chose ABSi red to build something in a different color that we could send to Stratasys' European sales office for use as samples and at their tradeshows. We quickly learned how easy it was to create custom designs with intricate geometries using the FDM technology.

We couldn't stop with single color projects, so we worked on a truly custom design and build a double S-shaped guitar for Stratasys using ABS black and blue. We further enhanced the complexity using PolyJet Clear and Vero White for the knobs.

To accomplish this, Tim first purchased an actual guitar so that he could reuse the non-printable bits as well as get some hints about dimensions and layouts. The video shows some of the process undertaken and the resulting rather unconventional guitar. Future designs are limited only by their imagination.

 

Amazing stuff, but we're wondering whether this opens up a legal question: what happens if someone buys an object and then precisely copies it? Could that be considered "personal use" by means of making a "backup copy" of the object? Whose Stratocaster is that?

Via YouTube and RedEye On Demand

Materialise, one of the larger 3D print services recently did an experiment using their new "Extreme" stereolithography material. They call it extreme because it's quite robust, with an impact strength of 0.45J/cm.

How robust, you might ask? Apparently strong enough to make ping pong paddles from the material and play a real game with them: "Even smashing is possible!" Don't believe us? Watch the video.

The material would be great for snap-lock parts or extra-durable cases. We're wondering when this robustness will make its way from stereolithography into 3D printers.

Via Materialise

Multiple tips arrived this week directing us to a rather amazing design: FluidForm's Evolve Ring Silver, designed by Michal Piasecki and Krystian Kwiecinski. Not only does this item look very attractive, it also has a scientific heritage: The design was machine generated by Artificial Intelligence software, specifically a genetic algorithm. GAs use simulations of reproducing generations to gradually "evolve" a solution.

Piasecki and Kwiecinski designed a GA specifically to produce such rings and this is their result.

But it doesn't end there. This GA is evidently to become part of Fluid Forms' standard service. In other words you'll soon be able to use the GA as a "ring configurator" to generate a unique ring of your own! They say this is mass customization, and it is.

But it's also Customized Evolution. Your solution, grown in seconds.

Via FluidForms and Michal Piasecki (Hat tip to Andreas, Bryan and Kerry)

Matt Sinclair of We Dont Do Retro writes of his experience using the beta 3D printing service from Materialise, called "i.materialise".

The beta service proudly announces their manifesto:

We love 3D printing and are excited by amazing designs. That's why we developed the i.materialise platform. An online service making 3D printing as easy as printing on paper.

That, of course, is the goal of every 3D printing service: to make it easy to do. It's quite difficult, and each service attempts to tackle that mountain in a different way.

Matt's experience was based on his attempt to print a potentially challenging children's book character. Among his findings:

• Unspecified file limits, and had to guess at maximum resolution - but it turns out there are no limits
• Expressed concerns regarding whether i.materialise is correctly determining the feasibility of printing a pathological object. However, it's apparently fixed manually if necessary
• Orientation is apparently non-changable, at least for now, meaning you cannot use the standard trick of rotating the object to take advantage of higher resolutions along one axis of printing
• Encountered difficulties in attempting to use the color capabilities of i.materialise's ZCorp printer due to the monocolor preview

We're with Matt on this one: is this a service for professional designers or consumers? While it appears to be an excellent service, it seems to have a little of each in it. Some 3D print services are so clear on their target market that non-targeted visitors would immediately recognize they don't belong there. But this is a beta service and the purpose is to test and improve the service, so stay tuned!

Via We Don't Do Retro and i.materialise (Hat tip to Bart)

If you are incapable of designing your own character, there's an extensive gallery of possibilities to choose or steal ideas from.

Once your design is fabulous, save and print the item and it's shipped within seven days. The costs? That depends. For a painted model, it's USD$50, while the dull, grey non-painted version is only USD$25 and you can paint it yourself.

And no, we don't look like that. Much.

Via The Karbon Kids (Hat tip to Shawn)