Kerry Stevenson

Kerry Stevenson, aka "General Fabb" has written over 8,000 stories on 3D printing at Fabbaloo since he launched the venture in 2007, with an intention to promote and grow the incredible technology of 3D printing across the world. So far, it seems to be working!

Objet vs. ProJet

The gloves are off now. We’ve just found a rather dramatic slideshow from 3D Systems that provides their take on a comparison between 3D Systems’ ProJet technology and Objet’s deposition tech. The slides are filled with side-by-side images of identical objects printed using both technologies.    The examination covered areas of quality, accuracy, stability, productivity,… Continue reading Objet vs. ProJet

CubeSpawn

Another very cool KickStarter project has appeared: CubeSpawn, by James Jones. The project’s concept is to establish a standard approach to linking personal manufacturing machines together based on the common cube shape. In this vision, 30cm square cubes are placed adjacent to one another, and each contains some type of manufacturing machine. Results from one… Continue reading CubeSpawn

Open CASCADE

Readers might be familiar with Open CASCADE, but for those who aren’t it’s an open source software development framework that “includes components for 3D surface and solid modeling, visualization, data exchange and rapid application development.” The software is produced by Open CASCADE S.A., who make their money by providing consulting, support and custom development, as… Continue reading Open CASCADE

3D Printer “Gym” Opens in Philly

NextFab Studio opens a new workshop for innovators today in Philadelphia at the University City Science Center. The workshop comprises some 3,600 square feet of space filled with various modern manufacturing tools, including laser cutters and of course 3D printers. Use of the facility, which operates much like a neighbourhood gym, is by membership, which… Continue reading 3D Printer “Gym” Opens in Philly

Inventables – The Material and Technology Marketplace

Tipster Zach points us at a new service: Inventables. Here’s the premise: Inventables exists to make it easy for vendors of materials and technologies to get an initial introduction to potential buyers. These buyers (engineers, designers, marketers) browse our online marketplace with the hope to find and work with vendors that manufacture materials and technologies… Continue reading Inventables – The Material and Technology Marketplace

Welcome to The Product Bay

The Pirate Bay may be fading away, eaten slowly by corporate legal teams, but their inspiration carries on – and not only for bigtime entertainment media. We’ve just bumped into “The Product Bay”, whose intention seems similar to the Pirates. They “want to take all of this to the next level … for real life… Continue reading Welcome to The Product Bay

The uPrint PLUS!

Stratasys just announced a new member to their 3D print family: the uPrint Plus. One year after they announced the inexpensive commercial uPrint device, they’ve upgraded it to the new Plus version. The main features of the Plus: Small floor footprint: 25×26 inches (.635m x .660m) Build chamber: 8x8x6 inches (.2 x .2 x .15m)… Continue reading The uPrint PLUS!

HP Makes 3D Printers!

Not quite yet, but apparently soon – HP will be selling not only 2D printers, but 3D printers, too. Today it was announced that Stratasys will “manufacture an HP-branded 3D printer” after the two parties signed a “definitive agreement”.   The new line of printers (suggesting there will be more than one model) will be… Continue reading HP Makes 3D Printers!

NextFab Conference Brewing

We received a message from folks organizing a new conference tentatively titled the “First International Conference on Accessible Digital Manufacturing Technology and Design” to be held in Campinas, Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2010. While the conference’s title is not yet written in stone, their objectives are:   NextFab Organization and the Brazilian government’s Renato Archer… Continue reading NextFab Conference Brewing

Dental Scanning

We’ve all been to the dentist (you have gone, haven’t you?) and from time to time we need to get replacement teeth or portions thereof. The dentist makes you bite into rubber or plastic moulds to capture the 3D shape of the required parts and then sends it off for custom manufacturing. But Is there… Continue reading Dental Scanning

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3D iPhone Covers Now Available

We wrote last month about Freedom of Creation’s venture into printing with the MCOR paper-based 3D printer. They were playing with some rather colourful iPhone covers. Now you can buy iPhone covers from their online store, but these are not from the MCOR and are instead merely Laser Sintered Polyamide.    We prefer the Double… Continue reading 3D iPhone Covers Now Available

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One Blue Ring

The guys at Open3DP seem to have made a breakthrough in their quest to develop glass-based 3D printing. Every week they seem to make progress, and this week we see a “semi translucent blue glass ring”.    There’s no details on their blog to describe how they managed to create this magical item, but if… Continue reading One Blue Ring

Flying With Objet

Objet 3D printing technology is being used at the University of Maryland’s A. James Clark School of Engineering to produce a Robotic Samara – a micro unmanned aerial system (UAS). The school focuses on advanced propulsion, composites and hypersonics for potential alternate modes of flight for military applications:   Micro/Nano Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) are… Continue reading Flying With Objet

3D Jobs of the Future

The Guardian’s Ian Wylie posts an interesting vision of the future, where he extrapolates technologies emerging today into full-on industries and associated job roles. They describe a great many truly interesting jobs of the year 2020, and one of them involves 3D printing: Construction Worker. Actually, they believe that Construction Workers might be at risk,… Continue reading 3D Jobs of the Future

Full Color 3D Printing

Yes, that’s right – Shapeways now offers full color 3D printing. They’ve scored a ZCorp 650 3D printer, which provides the color capability. The “Full Color Sandstone” material is able to handle color texture maps.    It’s obviously more work to prepare color models. You must create a texture map in your 3D modelling software… Continue reading Full Color 3D Printing

The Blueprints

The Blueprints is:   a website dedicated to collecting 3/4/5-view drawings, templates and blueprints for as many objects as possible. Ranging from humans to tanks and cars to mobile phones, the goal is to provide reference material for 3D modelers, scale modelers, replica builders etc.    That’s right – a very large repository (37,000+) of… Continue reading The Blueprints

3D Printing the Vasona Branch

The “Vasona Branch” is a model railroad setup by Robert Vasona, who recently wrote on his experiences using 3D printing for a 1920’s Drive-In Market section of the model railroad.    Building unique structures is a constant interest among model railroaders, and it seems to us that 3D printing technology is more than an excellent… Continue reading 3D Printing the Vasona Branch

Bre Prettis at 26C3

The 26th Chaos Communication Congress (26C3) took place in late December in Berlin and offered a multitude of topics from the hacker world. One of the speakers was Bre Prettis of MakerBot, whose speech entitled, “Peanut Butter and Plastic: Industrial Revolution” focused on “decentralized manufacturing and desktop fabrication”.    Bre speaks on many things during… Continue reading Bre Prettis at 26C3

New Image Plastics

Need some plastic for your 3D printer? Unsatisfied with your current choice of print media? There’s another option for you to consider: New Image Plastics, who manufacture a variety of different thermoplastic rods: We manufacture and stock a vast inventory of the finest quality, zero porosity (voidless) plastic welding rod and welding wire for all… Continue reading New Image Plastics

Possessions are Over!

Writer Bruce Sterling fantasizes a new flat near Old Street Station in London. Apparently he’s a bit short on facilities right now: As yet, I possess no stove, no toilet, no bathtub and and no bed. In fact, there are no physical objects in my flat whatsoever, except for my two roll-aboard suitcases, this Taiwanese… Continue reading Possessions are Over!

Cathy Lewis On Daily Planet

  Cathy Lewis, former CEO of Desktop Factory and now VP of Global Marketing for 3D Systems, recently made an appearance on Discovery Channel Canada’s Daily Planet science news show.   In the short interview, Cathy explains the basics of 3D printing and displays a variety of different printed objects, including one with moving parts.… Continue reading Cathy Lewis On Daily Planet

The Third Wave of Industrialization

Alf Rehn is is Chair of Management and Organization (Åbo Akademi University) and formerly Professor of Innovation and Entrepreneurship (KTH, Stockholm), and in a recent column he postulates the future for Finland, and by implication the rest of the world.    Rehn writes of the growing troubles in our world today, including climate change, financial… Continue reading The Third Wave of Industrialization

MakerBot Introduction Video

Yeah, we keep talking about MakerBot. But this wonderful video introduces the MakerBot concept and how it arose from Maker Culture. There’s plenty of other highly interesting (but unrelated) videos to watch, too. Enjoy!   Via Babelgum  

New Blog Layout

Fabbaloo readers may have noticed a slight (well major) change in our blog in the past few days. We’ve relocated our web hosting and completely redesigned the layout, including the new logo above.  There are new features, including descriptions of the blog and the technology we follow, as well as several new ways to search… Continue reading New Blog Layout

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Prototek Manufacturing

CNBC and Fox Business News recently aired a segment of “21st Century Business” in which Prototek Sales Manager Dennis Rocheford explained a bit about his company. Originally in the sheet metal rapid prototyping prototyping business, they’ve been expanding their capability and now include stereolithography and 3D printing with ZCorp machinery. Prototek is a large rapid… Continue reading Prototek Manufacturing

Making an Artist’s Living by 3D Printing

There’s a wonderful article by 3D printing artist Bathsheba Grossman over at Say Something, where she describes her journey from student to world-renowned 3D artist. And the best part: She’s now making a living from selling 3D printed art.   But it isn’t easy. She spent ten years after completing school to build up the… Continue reading Making an Artist’s Living by 3D Printing

3D Printing Wishes for 2010

  It’s New Year’s Day, 2010. We now have 366 days of progress in fabrication until 2011, and we’re wondering what might happen this year. Here are our wishes for 2010:   A consumer capable 3D printer. Yes, there are very inexpensive 3D printers available today, but they are hardly something you’d drop off at… Continue reading 3D Printing Wishes for 2010

3D Printing Trends in 2009

  While polishing off the last of the holiday eggnog, we’ve opened the Fabbaloo filing cabinet and dusted off our posts and reflected on what’s transpired over these past twelve months.   Much has happened this year, but we observe some overall trends. Some continue from earlier, but a few are new:   Maker culture… Continue reading 3D Printing Trends in 2009

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Ponoko Mystery?

New Zealand-based personal manufacturing service Ponoko has posed a mystery with an obscure post on their blog. The entire text of the post is: Hello Europe It may be snowing…. but some bright rays are on their way. We know that Ponoko has already set up a satellite manufacturing hubs in the USA (San Francisco… Continue reading Ponoko Mystery?

Material of the Year!

  Last month blog Material ConneXion announcement the winners in their new MEDIUM Award for Material of the Year. This is the first annual presentation of this award, and it was given to Concrete Canvas’s Concrete Cloth material. This innovative material mixes fabric with concrete that “allows it to be quickly and easily molded and… Continue reading Material of the Year!

Nervous Jewelry

  Actually it’s not the jewelry that’s nervous, it’s the creators. Or their company: Nervous System. They produce a line of jewelry (bracelets, rings, necklaces, earrings and brooches) that were generated by sophisticated algorithms in software. The designs are then either 3D printed, or in some cases 3D printed moulds are used to create the… Continue reading Nervous Jewelry

Print Your Guitar

  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… Continue reading Print Your Guitar

Shrunken Heads at Opend3DP!

The folks at Open3DP continue to investigate ways to produce 3D glass printing, and they’ve been quite successful so far. A recent post shows their work, but as one can clearly see in their image, a problem is shrinkage during the post-printing firing phase. Yes, that’s right – the image on the right shows the… Continue reading Shrunken Heads at Opend3DP!

O’Reilly Names 3D Printing Best Tech of The Decade, Sorta

That’s correct: James Turner at O’Reilly Radar has produced a list of what they believe to be the best (and worst) technologies of the past decade. Among the storied items on the list, “The Maker Culture” is prominently mentioned: There’s always been a DIY underground, covering everything from Ham radio to photography to model railroading.… Continue reading O’Reilly Names 3D Printing Best Tech of The Decade, Sorta

3D Ping Pong by Materialise

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:… Continue reading 3D Ping Pong by Materialise

Bios in San Jose!

The ZER01 Art and Technology Network is preparing for what promises to be a spectacular event in September 2010 in San Jose, California. The event is an art exhibition held every two years, and this year’s theme is “Build Your Own World”. Now that’s the a theme Fabbaloo readers would like to hear more about.… Continue reading Bios in San Jose!

MakerBot Hall of Fame

The MakerBot guys are not just hardware and software geniuses. They are marketing genuises, too. They’ve set up a “Hall of Fame” for MakerBot users, in the best use of Game Theory we’ve yet seen in the 3D printing space. This is a terrific approach that we think will definitely make more things happen in… Continue reading MakerBot Hall of Fame

The Spatter

We bumped into this intriguing 3D design on Flickr, produced by Phil Renato. According to the Flickr notes, the item was printed by Mike Gayk at 3D Systems University in “Projet thermophotopolymer”, for which we can’t locate any more data. The fine details are interesting, and evidently some work was done to accomplish this: I… Continue reading The Spatter

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Definitive Guide Complete?

Make Magazine has produced a complete list of open source hardware projects, ranging in categories from 3D Printing, Arduino, Clocks, Development Platforms, Green Energy, Games, Medical, Robotics and many other areas. The category of interest to us, is of course, 3D printing. There we find the major open projects listed: Contraptor Fab@Home MakerBeam MakerBot RepRap… Continue reading Definitive Guide Complete?

Designing Interface Architecture

FABberz and the Live Architecture Network are collaborating on a new venture to bring design tools to students in Brazil. Their idea: produce collaborative designs with residents and students to improve housing conditions in the slums of Rio de Janeiro. They’ll be holding a series of workshops leading up to the 2016 Olympics, which are… Continue reading Designing Interface Architecture

Let’s Download Some Hardware!

Bryan Bishop and Ben Lipkowitz talk about their new open source venture: SKDB. What is it? It’s a open source hardware distribution framework that takes cues from the highly successful software world. The software world was held back for decades by centrally controlled proprietary paradigms, but blossomed when open source principles took hold. Today we… Continue reading Let’s Download Some Hardware!

3D Printers Should Not Be Banned

Last week we posted our thoughts on Gartner’s Nick Jones’ article suggesting that 3D printers might be banned in the future as they might overflow our streets with discarded plastic items. We don’t think the world will look like a McDonalds Happy Meal Toy graveyard anytime soon, and apparently neither does anyone else, either. Followup… Continue reading 3D Printers Should Not Be Banned

Darwin’s Ring

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… Continue reading Darwin’s Ring

FOC Explores 3D Paper Printing

We’ve written a few times about the amazing paper 3D printer from MCOR, which uses common A4 paper as it’s build material. Now we see it being used by a professional design firm: Freedom Of Creation. They’ve been experimenting with the device and produced the iPhone cover shown above. As you can see, they slipped… Continue reading FOC Explores 3D Paper Printing

Micro-Machining Process

Swiss-based BESTinCLASS, developers of the very cool Micro-Machining Process  (MMP), have come to terms with EOS, makers of laser-sintering equipment for exclusive use of MMP in the UK. We’re a little puzzled, since we heard earlier that BESTinCLASS had awarded exclusivity to First Surface. Nevertheless, we believe this finishing process is quite interesting. The process… Continue reading Micro-Machining Process

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SOLIDO SD300 Pro

Israeli-based SOLIDO announced a new 3D printer: the SOLIDO SD300 Pro, which succeeds the previous SD300. The SD300 uses Plastic Sheet Lamination technology to produce 3D objects: The materials used in the SD300 Pro are a combination of PVC (PolyVinyl Chloride) and our own adhesive which results in rugged yet inexpensive models. These models can… Continue reading SOLIDO SD300 Pro

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Shapeways Expands Materials

As they’ve done many times in the past, the Shapeways 3D printing service has expanded the materials available for builds. This time they’ve announced some very interesting options for makers: “Grey Robust” is a rigid material similar to their previous “Cream Robust”. But let’s face it: “Cream” just doesn’t sound very robust, does it? Accordingly,… Continue reading Shapeways Expands Materials

Commercial Bioprinting Available Now

Invetech announced the availability of a commercial 3D Bioprinter. It’s being distributed by Organovo to research institutions around the world. What’s a Bioprinter? It’s essentially a 3D printer that deposits living cells according to a 3D model to form actual living tissue that can potentially be used inside living organisms. Typically a scaffold is used… Continue reading Commercial Bioprinting Available Now

3D Printers: Banned?

Gartner Analyst Nick Jones postulates banning consumer 3D printers in the future due to environmental concerns. He suspects we’ll accumulate vast piles of non-biodegradable plastic bits, much like we accumulate paper today that comes from our 2D paper printers. Jones: But as one of my clients pointed out yesterday, do we really want an affordable… Continue reading 3D Printers: Banned?

Planter Bricks

This one seems so obvious to us now after seeing it, but originality always comes from those who are the first to invent something. This time it’s a special brick used to hold vegetation, and you can see various styles in the image above. The bricks were designed by San Fratello Architects, who explain: The… Continue reading Planter Bricks

.STL Overview

There’s a terrific overview of .STL and in fact the modelling and 3D printing process available at InstaTuts. It takes you through a simple explanation of how .STL works and how it is produced by modeling software. Eventually the model (a boxer, pictured) is sent to a Dimension SST 3D Printer for production.  Via InstaTuts

Pleasant Tuning of a MakerBot

Pleasant Hardware’s blog deals with the nuts and bolts of 3D printing, and recently they’ve been doing experiments with their MakerBot. One of the experiments involves printing “without a raft”. The raft is that cross-hatch base layer used to isolate the object from the build platform itself. Their advice: I recently started with printing objects… Continue reading Pleasant Tuning of a MakerBot

Makers, by Doctorow

Author and activist Cory Doctorow’s latest novel, Makers, paints a picture of the future as influenced by the maker communities of today. From Random House Audio’s audiobook description: Perry and Lester invent things—seashell robots that make toast, Boogie Woogie Elmo dolls that drive cars. They also invent entirely new economic systems, like the “New Work,”… Continue reading Makers, by Doctorow

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Sciaky’s EBF3

Following on from our previous posts on the promising EBF3 technique (Electron Beam FreeForm Fabrication), we bumped into a video showing a commercial implementation from Sciaky. The video shows the build process as well as highlighting the key benefits: Drastically reduce material costs Dramatically shorten lead times Slash machining time Save over costly forgings or… Continue reading Sciaky’s EBF3

Printing Steel. At Home!

There’s an interesting discussion underway at the RepRap forums, where the idea of Direct Metal Laser Sintering is being pondered. DMLS involves laser-heating metal (or other material) powder, layer by layer, slowly building up a solid object. This is pretty similar to how many 3D printers work, but the interesting bit is that these guys… Continue reading Printing Steel. At Home!

Ponoko’s List

You’ve probably heard about Ponoko, the New Zealand based personal manufacturing and marketplace service. You can not only have your item built with their facilities, but you can also mark your item for sale and others can have Ponoko build it for them, too. And you get paid for it! One of the interesting twists… Continue reading Ponoko’s List

The MIT Food Printer

MIT’s Fluid Interfaces Group is working on the design of a concept device that if made popular, would revolutionize how we cook, eat and even socialize. The device shown above (and don’t get your hopes up, that’s merely a conceptual image) would store a variety of raw food elements in cartridges. The cartridges would be… Continue reading The MIT Food Printer

Matt is BetaMaterialised

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… Continue reading Matt is BetaMaterialised

SUBSTANCE

We ran across an intriguing software tool that can be used to develop incredibly cool 3D models. It’s called “SUBSTANCE”, from NeuroSystems. Here’s NeuroSystem’s tagline: NeuroSystems creates and provides leading edge, high quality applications in the fields of realtime 3D simulation and Computer Graphics. One of those applications is SUBSTANCE, the Evolutionary and Organic Art… Continue reading SUBSTANCE

Sources of Inspiration

We’re always amazed by the incredible ideas from imaginative designers, who are often inspired to create fantastic works by unusual sources. We’ve seen designers taking cues from the weather, dead carcasses, natural design, mathematics, evolution, sketches and many other sources. Today we read an interesting article in The Daily Mail, in which they post startling… Continue reading Sources of Inspiration

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Glossy 3D Printing?

New developments are afoot in color sheen printing. Recently researchers at  Adobe Systems and Dartmouth college managed to create an inkjet printer capable of producing reflective surfaces in a variety of colors. Their color thermal printer is “versatile enough to print many metallic inks and foils as well as standard inks.”  One issue they’ve encountered… Continue reading Glossy 3D Printing?

The EBF3 Business Case

We wrote a few weeks ago about NASA’s new EBF3 manufacturing process (Electron Beam FreeForm Fabrication), which uses a high-energy electron beam to melt raw metal (typically aluminum) and deposit it on a vacuum-encased rotating platform. Shiny round metal objects soon emerge. Now we learn a bit more about the benefits of EBF3, which originally… Continue reading The EBF3 Business Case

Romantic 3D Printing

You gotta believe we’re all a serious bunch, always talking about Z-axis resolution, printing chemicals, trade shows, power requirements, NURBS and other tech stuff. But sometimes things just bump into reality. That’s what happened to fynflood when he reached a moment in his life when technology changes life forever. Caught without funds to purchase a… Continue reading Romantic 3D Printing

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The Karbon Kids

We were tipped towards a new service: The Karbon Kids. This service takes an approach similar to others, where the complexities of 3D modelling and printing are hidden from the consumer. In this case, a really friendly website helps you design a character from a list of standard components. Friendly example: when you finish editing,… Continue reading The Karbon Kids

Replacing .STL

We wrote on the problems with the prehistoric .STL format the other week, and bumped into a potential replacement: GTS. It’s an open source project: GTS stands for the GNU Triangulated Surface Library. It is an Open Source Free Software Library intended to provide a set of useful functions to deal with 3D surfaces meshed… Continue reading Replacing .STL

Real-Time 3D Scanning – With a WebCam!

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have developed a breakthrough technique for vastly simplified 3D scanning. The system, called ProFORMA (Probabilistic Feature-based On-line Rapid Model Acquisition) uses 3D Delaunay tetrahedralisation to transform scanned points into a 3D surface mesh in real time by merely hand-turning an object in front of a webcam! The video demonstrates… Continue reading Real-Time 3D Scanning – With a WebCam!

The Demise of FedEx?

A provocative article on Quiet Babylon proposes shipping companies such as FedEx may fade away as a result of new technology developments, including 3D Printing. The premise is this: FedEx and similar carriers base their business on two basic needs: Authenticated documents containing “wet signatures” Movement of objects from place to place We agree with… Continue reading The Demise of FedEx?

MaterialEcology

MaterialEcology is an interesting initiative by Neri Oxman, who is attempting to devise experimental design forms that leverage the synergy of computing, ecology, material engineering and design. Their mission: an interdisciplinary research initiative that undertakes design research in the intersection between architecture, engineering, computation, biology and ecology. As such, this initiative is concerned with material… Continue reading MaterialEcology

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Medical 3D is Contagious

Objet’s 3D printers seem to be taking hold in various medical applications, according to information passed our way. Here are four interesting approaches: Biorep Technologies creates tools for diabetes researchers and has created a “Pinch Valve” for indexing fluids and avoiding contamination of equipment and fluids, as well as a silicone membrane petri dish Arch… Continue reading Medical 3D is Contagious

Robert Geshlider’s Works

Robert Geshlider is a San Francisco-based artist that makes great use of 3D printers for his works. They are abstract and can be found from time to time in the great galleries of the world, including the SFMOMA. This work, entitled “Journal”, is from 2008 – and was created using SolidWorks and a ZCorp 3D… Continue reading Robert Geshlider’s Works

Virtual Becomes Real – Again

Shapeways provides an excellent post describing how to print a 3D version of your favorite Spore character. Spore? (It’s a 3D massively multiplayer online game in which you can design your own “creature”) What could be better than holding your virtual creation in your own hands? While this is a great service to Spore players,… Continue reading Virtual Becomes Real – Again

3D Printing Market to Hit $782M by 2013?

A recent report by ABI research suggests that the 3D printing market could reach heights of almost USD$800M by 2013. Is this possible? We think so – and here’s why: The number of applications of 3D printing continues to increase. We’ve seen medical, artistic, manufacturing and other uses appear simply due to the creativity of… Continue reading 3D Printing Market to Hit $782M by 2013?

Get Ready for Printed Electronics

We were all quite impressed when the RepRap printer managed to reproduce itself some months ago. But in fact the reproduction was only of its structural members, whereas the metal bits and electronics were not actually reproduced. No worries, it will eventually happen. Metal printing has emerged in several 3D print services, but what about… Continue reading Get Ready for Printed Electronics

MCOR Paper Samples

MCOR passed us images of sample prints from their new MCOR Matrix 300 3D paper printer (that’s right – it uses sheets of paper as it’s build medium.) We’re quite surprised at the quality and features. Look for yourself: This is a Geocalamus acutus, Amphisbaenidae, or Worm Lizard, courtesy of Dr Emmanuel G. Reynaud, School… Continue reading MCOR Paper Samples

Celebrity Faces

Vanity 3D head-print service That’s My Face now offers a new service in case you don’t like your own head: Celebrity Faces. That’s right, for the low price of USD$99 and up, you can own your own 3D print of say, Hugo Chavez (above). If you don’t like Hugo, you can order a Barack Obama… Continue reading Celebrity Faces

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Prepping for 3D Printing

Shapeways published an excellent article describing several tips for preparing your Blender file for 3D printing, specifically for using the Shapeways printing service. The article explains how to fix non-manifold vertices, handling overlapping objects and output scaling, and are good tips even if you aren’t using Shapeways. Via Shapeways

More Glass 3D Printing Experiments

The folks at the University of Washington continue their experiments with 3D printing with glass, and it’s looking even better now. Here are some of their latest results: A glass pot, this time fired at a different heating temperature curve than previous experiments. Notice the glassy sheen. They’re getting close! A test glass puck, post-firing… Continue reading More Glass 3D Printing Experiments

.STL To Be Replaced?

RapidToday posts an interesting interview with Hod Lipson, chair of the ASTM Committee on Additive Manufacturing Standards’s task force on file formats. The topic: .STL. You ask what’s wrong with .STL? Lots, it turns out. The 1987 vintage standard is so old you could legally buy it a beer in most states. As RapidToday points… Continue reading .STL To Be Replaced?

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Desktop Factory – 3D Systems Update

As readers may recall, Desktop Factory – the startup that attempted to build a sub USD$5,000 3D printer – was recently acquired by 3D Systems, makers of not-sub USD$5,000 3D printers. We’ve been wondering what has transpired since the acquisition, and this week Desktop Factory’s former CEO, Cathy Lewis provided an update. Here’s the highlights:… Continue reading Desktop Factory – 3D Systems Update

Contraptor!

Tips flowed in this week regarding “Contraptor”, the webchild of Vitaly Mankevich and Riley Porter. According to their About: Contraptor is a DIY open source construction set for experimental personal fabrication, desktop manufacturing, prototyping and bootstrapping. Various Cartesian robots can be quickly assembled from Contraptor and used as a platform for projects such as XY… Continue reading Contraptor!

MCOR Matrix 300

The Irish MCOR scientists still believe they can print 3D objects on paper – and they are correct! This past week they announced their latest 3D paper printer, the MCOR Matrix 300, pictured above. The new model apparently provides some interesting advantages over previous models: Faster turnaround (however, we saw no statistics on this) at… Continue reading MCOR Matrix 300

Vitraglyphic Prints Still Opaque

Doctoral student Meghan Trainor describes her experience producing her first Vitraglyphic 3D print. Wait a moment, you ask, “what’s a Vitraglyphic 3D print?” Vitraglyphic printing is a new approach to 3D printing that permits production of glass or ceramic type objects, being pioneered at the University of Washington.  Meghan writes: This was my first Vitraglyphic… Continue reading Vitraglyphic Prints Still Opaque

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Earth Cufflinks

Fluid Forms has executed another example of reality colliding with 3D design. Their new “Earth Cufflinks” product enables you to order silver cufflinks shaped to match the terrain of the earth. Which terrain? That’s up to you to select using their easy-to-use google-mapped tool.  You select a place name or post code, and immediately you… Continue reading Earth Cufflinks

Gadgetoff 2009

We noticed MakerBot made an appearance at this year’s Gadgetoff in September in New York City. They showed off their amazing Cupcake 3D printer kit, as we’ve covered before. However, that’s not the reason for this post. Instead, we were astonished by all the truly amazing gadgets makers demonstrated at this event. Be sure to… Continue reading Gadgetoff 2009

Home 3D Printers Not Practical?

Plastic Pals recommends not using the current generation of 3D printers (such as Fab@Home, RepRap, RapMan, MakerBot, etc.) for printing quality models: There’s a significant cost:quality/size trade off when dealing with home 3D printers. Even the cheapest commercial-grade printers cost around $15,000 USD. Alternatives such as the aforementioned MakerBot CupCake CNC ($750 + materials), are… Continue reading Home 3D Printers Not Practical?

ZCorp Goes Monochrome!

If the motion picture industry changed from color to black and white, we’d be concerned. The same would be true for ZCorp if they dropped their color technology and retreated to “monochrome” mode for their line of 3D printers. That’s not exactly what’s going on here: they’ve announced a new Monochrome 3D printer. Sounds strange,… Continue reading ZCorp Goes Monochrome!

RapMan Goes Pro

While everyone slept, the guys at RapMan managed to squeeze in yet another new product: the RapMan Pro, pictured above. What’s different from their original non-Pro Rapman, other than a price of “just under £2,000” up from the original £750 kit price? From their press release we can see the following: Pre-built only; not a… Continue reading RapMan Goes Pro

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