We’re reading an interesting piece by Kevin Carson on OpenManufacturing who discusses the challenges of switching manufacturing from today’s highly centralized, mass produced, container shipped model to a more distributed, local and “home” based manufacturing world. Obviously there are challenges to providing appropriately capable equipment and software for such ventures, but in the piece… Continue reading Lowering Barriers To 3D Printing
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Things Growing Out Of Your Head
Inspired by our previous post detailing MeshMixer, a fabulous 3D modelling tool that easily allows arbitrary 3D models to be pasted together, tipster Ken has found further examples of making things grow out of your head. And these have been printed! (Click for larger images) What causes people to want things protruding from their… Continue reading Things Growing Out Of Your Head
See The MCOR 3D Paper Printer In Action
There’s a new video on YouTube showing a glimpse of the MCOR Matrix 300, a 3D printer that prints using common paper as its build material. In the video we can see each layer, er, sheet of paper, being cut by the print head. The unused portions are not removed; instead full sheets remain until… Continue reading See The MCOR 3D Paper Printer In Action
3D Printed Bridge Holds 146X Its Own Weight
Students at the Rochester Institute of Technology Statics Lab were challenged to build a truss out of any non-metallic material, with the winning design being the one holding up the most weight. While other students opted for traditional materials such as bamboo or wood, student Kyle Manchester remembered there was a Dimension 3D printer… Continue reading 3D Printed Bridge Holds 146X Its Own Weight
Metal and Plastic Materials from EOS
It’s press release season at EuroMold, and here we see that laser sintering equipment manufacturer EOS has released some pretty amazing new materials, as you might notice in the image of a laser sintered automobile engine exhaust manifold made in nickel alloy. Here’s the new materials: A flame-retardant polyamide, PrimePart FR, that is especially… Continue reading Metal and Plastic Materials from EOS
Objet Launches Two More 3D Printers
Two very interesting 3D printers were just announced by Objet at EuroMold: the Objet24 and the Objet30, both low-cost desktop machines. These relatively inexpensive, yet very capable printers begin pricing at USD$19,900 and ‚Ǩ16,900 in Europe. The Objet24 is labelled as a “Personal 3D Printer”, whereas the Objet30 is labelled a “Desktop 3D… Continue reading Objet Launches Two More 3D Printers
The New 3D Systems ProJet HDplus 3D Printer
Every year the EuroMold conference seems to be the place where new commercial 3D printing products are announced, and no surprise, we haz a new printer from 3D Systems: The ProJet HD 3000plus, a big brother to the ProJet HD 3000. The “plus” obviously means “more” in this case, because the PJHD3K+ has an… Continue reading The New 3D Systems ProJet HDplus 3D Printer
Human Thermostat Used in 3D Printer
YouTube user Moonyjube posts a video in which they use a manual temperature control (a human with a switch) to moderate the warmth on their heated print bed. Why on earth would someone use manual feedback? Haven’t they installed the appropriate and commonly available hardware to do this automatically? The answer is found on the… Continue reading Human Thermostat Used in 3D Printer
Thing-O-Matic Nears Release
Just posted on the MakerBot site: the advanced hobbyist Thing-O-Matic 3D Printer is about to start shipping this Friday. Those who’ve ordered the device in advance will receive their shipment in the order it was received by MakerBot. The new printer is perhaps the most advanced hobbyist 3D printer kit available, including a precision… Continue reading Thing-O-Matic Nears Release
Bits From Bytes Gets New Website and a RapChick!
We’ve been waiting to see what 3D Systems will do with their latest corporate acquisition, Bits From Bytes. BfB’s market is quite a diversion from 3D System’s normal industrial/commercial clientele. How will they take on this marketplace. This week we see two elements of their new strategy. First, 3D Systems has completely replaced the… Continue reading Bits From Bytes Gets New Website and a RapChick!
Gift Giving? How About Gift Making!
It seems that some of the popular media are starting to catch on to 3D Printing, with the notion that gifts can be made rather than purchased. Perhaps this is a reaction against the fear of oppressive crowds at the shops, but we think it’s a natural conclusion to 3D printing capability, which can produce… Continue reading Gift Giving? How About Gift Making!
Aluminum Bronze Casting Succeeds
Open3DP’s experimentation with metalcasting molds has paid off: one of their experimental hydroperm molds was used in traditional metalcasting (in this case poured aluminum bronze) at the Port Townsend Foundry and the successful results are apparent in the image above. According to Laura West and Dave Feathers: The mold was placed in a greensand… Continue reading Aluminum Bronze Casting Succeeds
Reality Mixed Up By MeshMixer
Once in a while we bump into a truly amazing product and today its MeshMixer. This software permits easy manipulation of 3D mesh objects – that is to say, cut/paste/resize/move about, etc. The creation of unreal models such as the fellow with the unusual nose above is almost trivial using MeshMixer. Here’s some highlights: … Continue reading Reality Mixed Up By MeshMixer
MCOR’s 3D Paper Printers On Sale
MCOR produces the world’s only 3D printer that uses paper as its print material. This makes it among the least expensive devices to operate, since the print material (paper sheets) can be found at practically any store worldwide – and in any color you choose, too. The printer is also one of the most ecologically… Continue reading MCOR’s 3D Paper Printers On Sale
Printing Rockets
You may be under the impression that 3D printers produce flimsy models, suitable for show – but not for action. This is generally true, but it’s changing as 3D printing ventures into metal or concrete printing. One project we’re watching is taking place at ZCorp, manufacturers of high-end commercial 3D printers. Mark Cook, ZCorp’s VP… Continue reading Printing Rockets
Get Your 3D Printer At The Store Today
No, you can’t buy them at Best Buy yet, but we’re hoping you will within a few years. Meanwhile, you actually CAN buy a 3D printer at a corner store right off the shelf, if you happen to live in a particular Brooklyn, NY neighborhood. That’s right, MakerBot Industries has opened a Retail… Continue reading Get Your 3D Printer At The Store Today
Ponoko/Google Sketchup Contest Underway
Ponoko’s promoting their recent launch of Personal Factory version 4 by joining forces with Google Sketchup on a new contest: The Ponoko 3D Printing Challenge. As far as we can tell, there are very few rules, other than: produce a piece of instructional content that’s equal parts enlightening and entertaining. Each entry must be… Continue reading Ponoko/Google Sketchup Contest Underway
Ultra-Micro 3D Printing
We’ve been examining the work of EoPlex, a manufacturer that uses a proprietary 3D print technology to produce astonishingly tiny devices and structures, typically for electronics packaging. The EoPlex “basic design rules” state: Minimum object length of a mere 1mm, with a maximum of 200mm Feature size as low as 25 microns Layer size… Continue reading Ultra-Micro 3D Printing
Additive Memories
Laura West is a sculpture artist based in California. You may have heard of her successful work collaborating with the folks at the University of Washington on formulating a way to 3D print molds for metalcasting. But in addition to the lab work, Laura is also an amazing artist, who is currently running an… Continue reading Additive Memories
Lunar Spin-Offs for 3D Printing?
We’ve been reading a discussion on OpenManufacturing about the discovery of various elements on the lunar surface by NASA’s LCROSS project. LCROSS was a pretty daring expedition to determine if water is present in ice form within permanently shaded polar craters: Place a spacecraft into Lunar orbit Separate into two spacecraft, orbiting on similar… Continue reading Lunar Spin-Offs for 3D Printing?
MakerFactory.com
As often is the case, and experiment leads to a hobby, leads to a business and sometimes to a multinational corporation. In this case the experiment was Vernon Effalo’s effort to build a dome. He required a large number of dodecahedrons and simply outsourced it to other makers, which eventually enabled him to complete the… Continue reading MakerFactory.com
Ponoko Personal Factory is 3D
Personal fabrication is an amazing feat: being able to press a button and then hold a completed item in your hand a short while later. Typically Fabbaloo focuses on 3D printers as the device of choice to do that, but the reality is that such devices are limited to producing only certain types of objects.… Continue reading Ponoko Personal Factory is 3D
Shapeways Finances Exposed
Some detective work by Joris Peels of i.Materialise has revealed interesting facts regarding 3D print service Shapeways. Recognized as one of the industry leaders in print service, we (and others) have wondered about the success of their expanding business. Peels reports that in an interview with Netherlands website Sprout, Shapeways CEO Peter Weijmarshausen reveals some… Continue reading Shapeways Finances Exposed
Printing A Beautiful Figurine
There are quite a number of people who collect and design figurines, those small humanoid representations. Actually, this has been going on for a very long time, perhaps thousands of years now, but these days we’re likely in the Golden Age of figurines, historically speaking. We read the adventure of how one figurine designer,… Continue reading Printing A Beautiful Figurine
3D Marvels
We ran across an unusual 3D model service: 3D Marvels. The site operates as a clearinghouse for 3D artist works. In other words, you can shop there for STL and COLLADA format 3D models that you can print on your 3D printer. 3DMarvels is a companion site to the very successful Wood Marvels site, which currently… Continue reading 3D Marvels
Battle at EuroMold
EuroMold is a massive trade conference held in Frankfurt each year, billed as “World Fair for Moldmaking and Tooling, Design and Application Development”. According to European Plastics News, this year poses to be a showdown among low-cost 3D Printer manufacturers. We add that it’s actually just the *commercial* 3D printer manufacturers, as we could not… Continue reading Battle at EuroMold
New 3D Modeling Interfaces Get All Touchy
The other week a surprise announcement from Interactive Fabrication described their “Beautiful Modeler”, essentially a touch-based iPad interface to a 3D modeling program. Nice! Also recently the MakerBot Blog reported on Dries Verbruggen demonstrating a no-touch motion-detecting way to sculpt a vase – which was then 3D printed to the delight of onlookers. Also… Continue reading New 3D Modeling Interfaces Get All Touchy
Printing A Car? Really?
After last week’s news that an entire car body was being produced on a 3D printer, we had an offline discussion with Joris Peels of i.Materialise on what this really meant. Obviously, the mass media would have everyone believe an Entire Car was printed, when in fact it was only the body – and then… Continue reading Printing A Car? Really?
Do 3D Printers Bypass Customs?
There could be several interesting effects on business and society when 3D printers become widespread, and we’ve discussed a few of them in the past, including possible crime, for example. But here’s another one to think about: Customs Control. Most countries have some level of customs controls, in which imported goods are inspected for… Continue reading Do 3D Printers Bypass Customs?
Stratasys 3Q2010 Results
We like to take a peek at Stratasys’ financial results, because as one of the very few dedicated 3D printing companies that is publicly traded, we get a glimpse into the state of the industry, at least from their standpoint. So what happened during the third quarter of 2010 for Stratasys? Their revenue hit… Continue reading Stratasys 3Q2010 Results
Human Organ Printing
We ran across a fascinating video showing a bio-printing concept being researched at the Biophysics Lab of the University of Missouri-Columbia. According to Dr. Gabor Forgacs, they will be able to replicate human parts by creating new organs cell by cell in a manner similar to everyday 3D printing. Here’s how it works: “Spheroidal… Continue reading Human Organ Printing
MCOR’s Talents
Here’s a new challenge specific to a particular 3D Printer: the Freedom of Creations (FOC) Talents design brief Quarter 4 2010 requests “end product application and design for Paper Rapid Prototyping (PRP)“. In other words, “what’s a commercially interesting object to print on the MCOR Matrix 300 paper 3D printer?” FOC has been running… Continue reading MCOR’s Talents
The Digital Manufacturing Analysis, Correlation and Estimation Challenge
One of the hugest proponents of innovation challenges has been the US military, and we’ve just uncovered a challenge sponsored by DARPA that’s underway right now. The prize: USD$50,000. The challenge: devise an algorithm to reliably predict the strength of digitally manufactured objects based on a series of input parameters. Here’s their description of the… Continue reading The Digital Manufacturing Analysis, Correlation and Estimation Challenge
3D Printing Made In Space
We wrote about NASA’s interest in 3D space printing here and here, but now there is interest from an independent space printing company: Made In Space, recently founded by students from The Singularity University. At last week’s SSI Space Manufacturing Conference, several folks from Made in Space presented “3D Metal Printing in Space: Enabling… Continue reading 3D Printing Made In Space
Metalcasting Breakthrough
Those inventive folks at the University of Washington are at it again. This time they’ve been working on a simple formula for cementenous metalcasting. In other words, material with which you can make an effective mold for molten metal casts. At one point, they were using this recipe: 1000 parts VersaBond 250 parts Maltodextrin 250… Continue reading Metalcasting Breakthrough
Make $80,000 With Just an Idea
Personal manufacturing doesn’t have to take place on your premises using your own equipment. It can be outsourced to Ponoko, the personal manufacturing company. Ponoko posted a very interesting story of one of their users who managed to bootstrap his way to a cool USD$80,000 – starting from nothing! It started with an idea,… Continue reading Make $80,000 With Just an Idea
Phil Renato’s Designs
Phil Renato is an Associate Professor at Kendall College of Art and Design in Grand Rapids, Michigan, but he’s also an amazing designer. We admire his tagline: My work oscillates between mass-produced and one-of-a-kind, trendy and timeless, fashionable and filthy. I make jewelry and functional wares that engage playful, intimate, procreative subjects using primary,… Continue reading Phil Renato’s Designs
Shapeways Stretches Their Envelope
Most low-cost 3D printers offer rather constrained build sizes, of less than 20-30cm per side, sometimes much smaller. Print services can be similar, unless they use SLS approaches, but Shapeways has broken through this barrier by now offering a gigantic build envelope of 70cm x 38cm x 58cm (27.6″ x 15″ x 22.9″). This is… Continue reading Shapeways Stretches Their Envelope
RapCAD Announced
If you are into personal 3D printing, one of the first things you’ll observe is the disconnected nature of the required software. You might design models in one environment, then convert them for printing in another, and finally drive the 3D printer to produce the object. This is awkward to say the least, and is… Continue reading RapCAD Announced
The Marble Challenge
Talk about difficult things to print: Scott Elliot of My SD300 3D Printer has been working on designs for marbles. Sure, one could easily print a sphere and call it a marble, but that’s just too easy. Scott is designing a two-piece snap-together model with embedded colors and a twisty design. As you might… Continue reading The Marble Challenge
OpenSCAD
There are several free 3D modeling tools available, including Blender and the ubiquitous Google Sketchup, but each has the advantages and drawbacks. Some are designed to produce viewable or artistic 3D scenes, rather than 3D objects. These are often usable for designing 3D printable objects, but they are not optimized for engineering of solid machine… Continue reading OpenSCAD
The Gada Prize
We’ve seen tremendous achievements in recent years through the excitement generated by a series of startling X-prize challenges. Now there’s one addressing 3D printing, specifically the RepRap project. The Gada prize, to be awarded to a winning team on January 1st, 2013, intends on dramatically improving the capability of open source 3D printing. Some USD$20,000… Continue reading The Gada Prize
FormZ
Have you ever used form.Z for preparing 3D models? As shown in this video, it’s fully capable of doing so. form.z is known for its 3D modeling capability, but it also includes features enabling exporting model files to formats suitable for 3D printing. This video demonstrates some of the 3D printing features, including fixing up… Continue reading FormZ
3D Printing Demo in Silicon Valley
James Warmkessel, founder of the Bay Area MakeBot users group will deliver a public talk on 3D printing in Santa Clara California on November 8th. The talk, entitled, “Making 3D Printing Ideas Real: Demo and Talk” should provide an introduction to 3D printing concepts as well as a demonstration. From the event description: The… Continue reading 3D Printing Demo in Silicon Valley
Capture That Onion!
Last year artist David Bowen produced a fantastic kinetic artwork entitled “growth modeling device” in which a live onion plant is 3D scanned once every 24 hours, and then that scan is 3D printed. Amazingly, the 3D prints are then shuffled along a conveyor belt so you can see (and touch) the various stages of… Continue reading Capture That Onion!
Stratasys Prints A Car!
Well, not exactly an *entire car* – but just its body. The Urbee was an entrant to Progressive Insurance’s Automotive X-Prize. The competition has now closed and Urbee ended up ranked “in the top 30 in the world” according to a recent press release. What’s so interesting about this to us? The car’s body, including… Continue reading Stratasys Prints A Car!
Up! Printer Photos
There are increasing numbers of Up! 3D printers appearing. Up! is a pre-assembled, low-cost RepRap-based plastic extruding 3D printer using an optimized physical design. We found recent photos of Up! in use, this time by Flickr user Christopher.e. In the photos we see some excellent quality prints, which is even more amazing when you… Continue reading Up! Printer Photos
Students Race 3D Printed Cars
The Utah Valley University recently held a competition in which students designed “pinewood derby” style race cars – and then printed them out for actual racing. This derby began in 2008, when Professor David Manning of their Engineering Graphics & Design Technology department managed to convince the budgeteers to acquire a Dimension 3D printer. … Continue reading Students Race 3D Printed Cars
3D Printing Saves NYC Jeweler
Crain’s New York Business reports on the fate of a New York City jewelery prototyping company, Tech-Designs, who produce one-of-a-kind jewelery models for designers far and wide. Amazingly, Tech-Designs, who have a staff of only three people, also have a fleet of seven 3D printers, which are kept busy printing six days a week.… Continue reading 3D Printing Saves NYC Jeweler
Another Free 3D Model Repository
You might have read our previous post about 3D Model Repositories, and understand that there are, well, tons of them out there. We bumped into another one that was quite interesting, as it includes a large number of unique and free items, including many that are suitable for 3D printing. All3DModel is the site… Continue reading Another Free 3D Model Repository
The Ultimate Home 3D Printing Setup: Tools
Yesterday we described the foundation hardware you’d need for the ultimate home 3D printing setup, including printer, scanner and computer. But of course, you’ll need a variety of other minor items to actually make your ultimate printing life comfortable. Here’s our list, in no particular order: Block of Wood: You’ll be working on cutting… Continue reading The Ultimate Home 3D Printing Setup: Tools
The Ultimate Home 3D Printing Setup: Hardware
So you want to get into 3D Printing at home? What do you need? How do you get started? A printer, obviously, but what else might be useful in your ultimate configuration? Here are our ideas: A Low Cost 3D Printer: Lots of ultra-low cost (~USD$1000) options here, including kit-based RapMan or MakerBot, or… Continue reading The Ultimate Home 3D Printing Setup: Hardware
Hot Ice For Support Material?
What’s “Hot Ice”, you ask? It’s not exactly water, as you might suspect. Instead it’s a totally bizarre liquid-to-solid material that just might be useful for 3D printing as support material. This mysterious substance is very simply produced: mix sodium acetate crystals with water, and cool. The result is a clear liquid that appears to… Continue reading Hot Ice For Support Material?
MakerBot FanDom
We heard about Botacon, a convention taking place in Boston on December 11th of this year. Great, we thought, people getting together celebrating robots. Robots, great! But what we’re hearing is that a great many MakerBots will be showing up… But wait a moment – a “Con”? A Con, for those of you… Continue reading MakerBot FanDom
Sculpteo Sails Across the Sea
The 3D Print Service market just got a bit more interesting. France-based Sculpteo, whom we reported on some time ago, announced they now ship to the USA, joining major players Shapeways, i.Materialise and Ponoko. Previously, they shipped only to Europe. Thus it’s time to check out Sculpteo in a bit more detail. Sculpteo operates… Continue reading Sculpteo Sails Across the Sea
The MetraSCAN 3D Scanner
Creaform just announced a brand new ultra-high-end handheld 3D scanner, the MetraSCAN. This totally amazing 2Kg device can scan 3D objects up to 10m in size to an astounding resolution of only 0.05mm, at a rate of 36,000 measurements per second! One of the key advantages of this device is that it’s completely handheld,… Continue reading The MetraSCAN 3D Scanner
A Whole Lot of Meshes
Looking for some 3D models? We stumbled into a rather large pile of them, located at the INRIA Gamma team research database. Researchers there evidently required a lot of models and collected many. Well, 90,000+ of them – that’s many! The models are mostly stored in .mesh format, but quite a few appear to be… Continue reading A Whole Lot of Meshes
NetFabb in the Clouds
Having trouble submitting your 3D model file to one of the popular print services? The model isn’t watertight? Not sure how to fix it? Don’t have the right software or training? Never fear, 3D software maker NetFabb is here to rescue you with their new beta Cloud Service – and it’s totally free! How… Continue reading NetFabb in the Clouds
K-3D Is Free
Baffled by Blender? Why not try an alternative, open source 3D modelling tool: K-3D. Version 0.8 is available for download for Windows, Mac, and a variety of Unix/Linux environments. K-3D can handle 3DS, Collada, OBJ, MD2, Ogre, PLY, STL, and SVG files and includes many industrial-level features. From their wiki: K-3D is free-as-in-freedom 3D… Continue reading K-3D Is Free
More Moves by 3D Systems
If acquiring hobbyist 3D printer manufacturer Bits From Bytes wasn’t enough, industry giant 3D Systems has made three additional moves in recent days. Check these out: They’ve acquired Provel, S.r.l., who happen to be one of Italy’s leading commercial 3D print services. Provel specializes in laser sintering, and provides a variety of services to… Continue reading More Moves by 3D Systems
BfB Acquisition Reactions From Across The Interwebs
There have been many opinions raised after the blockbuster announcement of 3D Systems acquiring Bits From Bytes. The official announcements are here and here. We scoured the web to find reactions: European Plastics News: gained a 17% share of the worldwide 3D printer market in its first year of operation. Rachel Park: My… Continue reading BfB Acquisition Reactions From Across The Interwebs
Simplifying Mendel
The purpose of the RepRap project is to produce a 3D printer that can effectively reproduce itself. Fears of robot domination aside, this is a truly momentous project. However, it’s a difficult task to conceive of the most efficient machine design – the fewer and simpler parts required by the design means it’s easier to… Continue reading Simplifying Mendel
Objet is Certified
Objet Geometries, makers of the powerful Alaris, Eden and Connex lines of commercial 3D printers just announced they’ve managed to receive ISO 13485:2003 certification. This certification means Objet is now able to deliver various types of 3D printing equipment into a wide variety of medical roles. We’ve seen Objet dabble in dental before but this… Continue reading Objet is Certified
The Dome is Complete!
Some months ago we posted a request from maker Vernon Effalo who had commenced a project to crowdsource parts for his exterior dome project. Basically, he was paying USD$2 per icosahedron vertex connector, and he required 26 of them. We’re happy to announce that the project has now completed, and you can see Vernon… Continue reading The Dome is Complete!
The Suits Meet The Hobbyists
Up to now, the 3D printer space has been occupied by two entirely different groups: the high-end, high-priced commercial printers typically affordable only by large firms or service bureaus, and the hobbyist, open-source market of low-end, low-priced devices typically found in DIY kit form. The two groups could not be more different in almost all… Continue reading The Suits Meet The Hobbyists
An Olympic Finish at Shapeways
As we predicted in July, Shapeways 3D print service now offers Sterling Silver as a build material for 3D prints. At this point it’s only an experiment until November 7th, apparently for the tall foreheads at Shapeways to determine if it really works. Interestingly, the Sterling Silver is not actually 3D printed. Instead, they… Continue reading An Olympic Finish at Shapeways
One Really Big Replicator
Thingiverse member KurtCircuit has designed a rather enormous device: a 3D printer that is theoretically capable of printing 1m cube-sized objects. Even more astonishing is the fact that he’s actually building this device! The massive device, known as the “Scalable Largescale Cartesian Bot”, apparently uses RepRap-derived principles, and is likely the biggest 3D printer… Continue reading One Really Big Replicator
Veteran 3D Printers
i.Materialise reports they have some rather old 3D printers still in operation at their site. These stereolithography printers (3D Systems SLA 250’s) were apparently originally installed in 1990 – and are still used to produce parts for clients. To put it in perspective, these devices are so old you could buy them a beer –… Continue reading Veteran 3D Printers
A Rapid RapMan
How hard is it to build a RapMan? The very popular 3D printer DIY kit has been built by many people but here’s an opportunity for you to see it done in only 2 minutes and 53 seconds. No, it wasn’t actually built that quickly, but the video link below shows a time lapse of… Continue reading A Rapid RapMan
Bre’s Pumped!
We’re still excited by 3D System’s acquisition of BfB, and we’re not the only ones excited. We wondered how this move would affect BfB’s biggest competitor, MakerBot. Would 3D System’s massive resources put such a push into BfB that MakerBot would be sidelined? We contacted MakerBot mandarin Bre Prettis for his thoughts: I wish… Continue reading Bre’s Pumped!
Advertise on Fabbaloo
After receiving several requests for advertising information, we’ve decided to offer a suite of offerings for advertisers. At this time we offer two types of CPM advertising slots: a 336×280 image on the main Fabbaloo page, and a 200×200 sidebar image. For complete details, please check out our Services and Rates page. Thanks… Continue reading Advertise on Fabbaloo
Commercial 3D Printer Price Drops?
Apparently Objet has reduced the price of their low-end Alaris 30 3D printer to less than USD$25,000. We say “low-end” but this is only a relative term: The Alaris 30 is a much more refined printer than the hobbyist kits we also blog about. Nevertheless, this is a significant development, as it shows how the… Continue reading Commercial 3D Printer Price Drops?
Stockbrokers Looking Into 3D Printing
With all the kerfuffle last week (Shapeways gets major investment, New MakerBot 3D printer shown at NYC MakerFaire, Massive New York Times article) it seems that at least a few stockbrokers are taking notice of the 3D print industry. The broker we spoke with actually “got it” and could not stop talking about how this… Continue reading Stockbrokers Looking Into 3D Printing
Amazingly Detailed 3D Prints
David Munson is a professional 3D technologist who provides a wide variety of 3D-based rendering services, such as studies of solar illumination on proposed buildings, 3D diagrams, etc. But we noticed some incredibly cool 3D prints he’s prepared, including the one above. Notice the staggering detail in the support structure of the radar dish –… Continue reading Amazingly Detailed 3D Prints
Junior Veleso’s Homemade High Resolution 3D Printer
Junior’s making his own hi-res 3D printer, and he has the experience to do it, having previously converted an inkjet printer into a 3D powder-based version. He’s been blogging this journey since July 2010 and is providing all the information and discoveries to the public, “you agree to not make use of it for commercial… Continue reading Junior Veleso’s Homemade High Resolution 3D Printer
A Non-Obvious 3D Print: Sound
Andy Berlin, Z Corp engineer extraordinary decided to push the limits of 3D printing by printing something unusual, in an attempt to inspire others to bend their imagination. He managed to convert a sound wave into a spiral ridge, with the sound wave corresponding to peaks and valleys in the shape. That’s right – he… Continue reading A Non-Obvious 3D Print: Sound
Why 3D Systems Chose BfB
After Tuesday’s big announcement of 3D Systems acquiring Bits From Bytes, we wondered why 3DS chose to acquire BfB instead of the other major hobbyist 3D printer manufacturer, MakerBot. To get answers we asked 3D Systems VP of Marketing Cathy Lewis, who explained the reasons quite clearly: They have demonstrated execution and achieved the… Continue reading Why 3D Systems Chose BfB
Blockbuster Announcement: 3D Systems Acquires Bits From Bytes!
In a totally stunning announcement today 3D Systems has acquired the Bits From Bytes operation based in Bristol, UK. This is perhaps the biggest corporate manoeuvre we’ve yet seen in the 3D printer space, and heralds a bold move by 3D Systems into the ultra low-end 3D printer market, now competing directly against such… Continue reading Blockbuster Announcement: 3D Systems Acquires Bits From Bytes!
Materialise Rescues Itself
Interesting story from i.Materialise, where Joris explains that some two years ago, a tripod lever was catastrophically damaged. Rather than buying a new tripod and unable to acquire a replacement lever, they decided to “eat their own dog food” by designing and printing a replacement part. A suitable design was prepared and the lever… Continue reading Materialise Rescues Itself
US Government To Operate Fab Labs?
What? We think of Fab Labs as independent operations supplying a focus for local fabrication activities, channeling ideas, tools, techniques, parts and space together where Great Things Evolve. Typically they spring up out of grassroots ideas from strong proponents who just make it happen, sometimes with local academic or corporate sponsorship. But now we read… Continue reading US Government To Operate Fab Labs?
FOC’s Jointed Jewels
Freedom of Creation, one of the most dynamic artistic users of 3D printing technology have recently collaborated with Alissia Melka-Teichroew to produce “Jointed Jewels”. These artistic jewellery items were made using selective laser sintering, one of the few technologies capable of producing a ball joint in a single operation. While each jewelry item appears… Continue reading FOC’s Jointed Jewels
Sophisticated 3D Scanning Advances
Creaform, makers of the Handyscan line of 3D scanning devices recently released new software to drive their highly capable devices that increases their capability. While these scanners are typically out of the price range of hobbyists, they are very useful in a variety of commercial situations. The new software (VXElements) provides some pretty amazing capabilities,… Continue reading Sophisticated 3D Scanning Advances
Cool Stuff Collective Covers 3D Printing
The Cool Stuff Collective is a new UK-based kids show, where, well, “cool stuff” is demonstrated to children by well-known presenter Sy Thomas. In their first episode of September 13th of this year, they demonstrated 3D printing, but in a followup on September 20th they showed a related technology: haptic design. We’ve covered haptics previously,… Continue reading Cool Stuff Collective Covers 3D Printing
The Opposite of a 3D Printer?
The opposite of a 3D printer would be a recycling machine. In other words, there should be a way to collect leftover material (or even leftover objects) and convert them back into a medium suitable for feedstock back into a personal manufacturing device for creation of new objects. No such universal device exists today… Continue reading The Opposite of a 3D Printer?
Has 3D Printing Hit The Knee Of The Curve?
We’re pondering a couple of recent developments in the low-end 3D printing space that may indicate a change of state in the low-end 3D printing world. First, Shapeways received a massive investment from top-ranked venture capital firms: USD$5M from Union Square Ventures and Index Ventures. We wrote, and still believe that this means Union… Continue reading Has 3D Printing Hit The Knee Of The Curve?
Shapeways Takes A Big Step
Since they emerged in 2008, 3D print service Shapeways has continually enhanced their capabilities very regularly. In fact, it’s rare week that we don’t mention Shapeways in one way or another. As such, they’ve grown from nothing to what is probably the most visible 3D print service in the world. Now they’re making a big… Continue reading Shapeways Takes A Big Step
The Tribulations of Printing 3D Models
You’ve read yesterday’s post about where you might find amazing 3D models for printing, but you’re wondering what to do next. Is it as simple as downloading the model and printing it? Not exactly. Here’s some considerations: Are you legally permitted to print this model? What license was it distributed under? Best to check… Continue reading The Tribulations of Printing 3D Models
MakerBot’s New Thing
In a rather sudden but welcome announcement, MakerBot industries has revealed a brand new 3D printer model: The Thing-O-Matic. This device replaces their original model, the Cupcake. But what makes it so different from the Cupcake? Sudden though the announcement was, the new device is evolutionary, and indeed elements of it were already appearing… Continue reading MakerBot’s New Thing
Free 3D Repositories
Your personal 3D printer sits idle while you ponder what to print. Should you go back to Thingiverse and print out another coat hook? Perhaps some spare MakerBot parts? Maybe you should fire up SketchUp or Blender and create a new 3D model of your own design. Nope, not tonight. You’re feeling lazy and… Continue reading Free 3D Repositories
LMN Tech Studio Reviews Objet Alaris
Seattle-based LMN Tech Studio recently received a new Objet Alaris 30 3D Printer, and they’ve written up an extensive report on their experience with the device. Here’s the highlights: They’re impressed with the build quality, resolution and smoothness of the printed objects They like the “lack of mess” and ease of use over comparable… Continue reading LMN Tech Studio Reviews Objet Alaris
Mom’s 3D Printer
Open3DP reacted to our reaction to MAKE’s post regarding the future of 3D printer manufacturers. MAKE suggested the hobbyist manufacturers would ultimately be eaten by cheap Asian factories, while we commented on the differences between the hobbyist and commercial 3D printer markets. Open3DP adds an analysis of material costs in the equation, suggesting that the… Continue reading Mom’s 3D Printer
Managing Strokes with 3D Printing
Leslie Langau tells an amazing story of how a 3D printer was used to treat stroke patients. Professor Robert Rennaker II at the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at the University of Texas in Dallas has been doing experiments simulating the various disabilities of stroke victims. … Continue reading Managing Strokes with 3D Printing
Underworld’s Selene: Printed!
You’ve seen the film. Now see the object. Or rather Selene from “Underworld” herself. See some amazing images of constructing this wonderful model, which apparently was done as a private commission. Via 3DTotal and The Creature Lab
Bespoke Makes Legs – Beautiful Legs
We’ve been waiting for something just like this: a startup company that takes full advantage of 3D printing technology to mass personalize an item for everyone. In the case of Bespoke Innovations, they supply one-of-a-kind prosthetics for individuals by leveraging 3D print technology from 3D Systems with an artistic flair: The Bespoke process is… Continue reading Bespoke Makes Legs – Beautiful Legs
MakerBot’s Factory Option
There’s been many add-ons and upgrades available for MakerBot 3D printers, but the latest addition, the MakerBot Automated Build Platform is special. It’s an amazing addition to an already amazing device that replaces the troublesome default orange acrylic build platform and provides two key capabilities: a heated platform and an automated object removal mechanism. … Continue reading MakerBot’s Factory Option