With the recent surge of popularity of 3D printing, there has come a deep need for information. Many require an introduction to the technology, while others wonder where it’s all headed. When we were requested by Auckland, New Zealand’s Media Design School to put together some thoughts on the future of 3D printing, we… Continue reading Words For The Media Design School
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Fabbaloo Visits London
It’s time for a road trip! As luck would have it, Fabbaloo will be visiting London this coming week. We’ll be hanging around the city looking for 3D printing-related stuff. If you have something you’d like us to see on either Tuesday May 15th or Wednesday May 16th, please give us a shout right… Continue reading Fabbaloo Visits London
The Beginnings of FDM 3D Printing
While visiting Stratasys’ HQ in Minneapolis, we were able to meet CEO and Founder Scott Crump, who told the story of how he invented the Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) process many years ago. He was inspired by two things: the need to be able to make prototypes inexpensively and two-dimensional plotters. He had the… Continue reading The Beginnings of FDM 3D Printing
Did Our 3D Print Wishes Come True in 2011?
In January 2011 we posted a short list of three “wishes” for 3D printing in 2011. Now that 2011 has officially been placed on the expired list, we thought we check in on our wishes to see if any of them actually happened. Here’s the results: We wished for “A capable and assembled 3D… Continue reading Did Our 3D Print Wishes Come True in 2011?
Top Tweeted Posts of 2011
Many Fabbaloo readers use Twitter to keep their friends informed of important 3D printing news by retweeting links to our posts. The most frequently retweeted posts are possibly the most interesting, as least according to our readers. But which posts were most frequently retweeted? These were the top ten in 2011: Sneakey Captures Your… Continue reading Top Tweeted Posts of 2011
Ultimaker Operators Needed!
Fabbaloo was contacted by Manhattan-based radio reporter and podcast producer Jon Kalish, who enquired about our experience with the Ultimaker 3D printer. Unfortunately, we don’t have any direct contact with that particular 3D printer yet. We asked why is he so interested? Turns out that Jon is writing a piece on Ultimaker for a major zine and… Continue reading Ultimaker Operators Needed!
3D Printing April Fool’s Round Up 2011
Ok, you may have been fooled by Freedom of Creation’s amazing wooden 3D printing post yesterday, but it wasn’t the only fib told in the 3D printing blogosphere on this year’s April Fool’s day. Here’s a compendium of notable tall tales: Freedom of Creation described a quite elaborate secret project to 3D print using… Continue reading 3D Printing April Fool’s Round Up 2011
Announcing Fabbaloo’s 3D Resources
When we started blogging about 3D printing more than three years ago things were a lot simpler. We tried to promote the technology by including a list of appropriate links on the side of our pages, but in the past year there seems to have been a bit of an explosion. More companies, experiments, services… Continue reading Announcing Fabbaloo’s 3D Resources
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
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
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
A Very Solido Blog
There are many personal blogs detailing adventures with one’s MakerBot or RepRap, but what about a personal Solido SD300 3D printer? That’s exactly what Scott Elliot does on his blog. The SD300 uses dry PVC sheets as its build material, fusing them together layer by layer. However: Since the SD300 builds models inside a… Continue reading A Very Solido Blog
RapidToday For Sale
We were contacted by fellow 3D print blogger Barnaby Wickham, owner/writer of the popular RapidToday blog. Barnaby says: I am selling www.rapidtoday.com, the rapid prototyping and 3D printing site I own and have edited for the past 2.5 years. I thought one of your readers might be interested in it. RapidToday has developed good… Continue reading RapidToday For Sale
Boing Boing’s Bong Debate
Our post earlier this week describing Tom Matten’s “MakerBong” was picked up by BoingBoing. Now then, BoingBoing is a somewhat bigger blog than Fabbaloo, ahem, and a vigorous debate therefore emerged regarding the post’s idea – whether it’s the object or the design that matters when an illegal item is in question. Here are several… Continue reading Boing Boing’s Bong Debate
Fabbaloo Survey Results
Readers may recall we issued a survey the other week, attempting to duplicate 3D Systems’ survey by using the same questions. The responses have slowed, so it’s time to take a look at the results, which you can see by clicking on the chart for a larger view. The highlights, as we see it:… Continue reading Fabbaloo Survey Results
3D Printing Experimentation with Replibot
There are many inventive hobbyists who are making very good use of the 3D printing knowledgesphere. That knowledge includes hardware, software, electronics, design, tools, models, examples, help, tutorials and services. For those who are not satisfied with the current offerings, they often dig in deep in attempts to find better solutions by leveraging all available… Continue reading 3D Printing Experimentation with Replibot
Opinions on HP’s 3D Printer
Following up on last week’s massive news that HP has linked up with Stratasys to produce an exclusive line of 3D printers, we scanned the 3D blogosphere and found a great many comments and opinions. Here’s the highlights: Shapeways thinks this will raise the profile of 3D printing, but says everyone can easily print in… Continue reading Opinions on HP’s 3D Printer
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
An Introduction to 3D Printing
Anthony Lockwood of Desktop Engineering writes a review of a white paper from ZCorp that explains in 2D print form the entire process of 3D printing for beginners. While the PDF paper is somewhat (well, quite a lot actually) slanted towards ZCorp’s line of 3D printers, it is very well written for those who are… Continue reading An Introduction to 3D Printing
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
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
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!
Merry Christmas to 3D Printing!
We haven’t believed in Santa for, well, a while now. But for the moment we wondered what gifts Santa might bring to the world of 3D printing…. For MakerBot: a gigantic sack full of MakerBot parts with elves to put them together For (the former) Desktop Factory: a new start with lots of cash (oh… Continue reading Merry Christmas to 3D Printing!
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
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
3D Systems Unveils The Biggest!
3D Printer manufacturer 3D Systems demonstrated their new Projet 5000 Large Format 3D printer at the EuroMold conference. Is this just another 3D printer? No – there’s something unique about this one. It possibly has the largest build chamber available in a 3D printer today: a staggering 55 x 39 x 30 cm. To accompany… Continue reading 3D Systems Unveils The Biggest!
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
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
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
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
Radiohead Data Becomes a Head!
About a year ago, Radiohead released a great video of “House of Cards”, much of which was singer Thom Yorke’s face and head illuminated by teeny points of laser light. Very inventive, for certain, but they went a step further: Radiohead released CSV files the point cloud on Google Code for public access under a… Continue reading Radiohead Data Becomes a Head!
Fingers Restored By 3D Scanning
Did you ever take a very close look at your fingers? They are incredibly complex machines, with not only shape and texture, but also motion. Imagine if fate caused the loss of one or more of them? There are solutions today, such as those produced by Didrick Medical, who make a kind of finger-harness that… Continue reading Fingers Restored By 3D Scanning
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
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
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?
Stratasys Reports 3Q09 Results
We like to follow Stratasys’s financial results because as one of the major public companies involved in the 3D Printing and rapid prototyping space that issues financial reports, we believe we can get a feel for how most of the industry is doing. This past quarter Stratasys reports revenue, shipment and income all lower than… Continue reading Stratasys Reports 3Q09 Results
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
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
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?
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
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
Printing Carcasses
Continuing with the biology-meets-3d-printers theme today, we’ve run across a dark hobby: printing 3D models of animal carcasses! Designer Harry Allen has scanned and modelled a dead firefly, and then implanted an LED to create an unusual lighting system. He’s also scanned a deceased piglet to create an actual “piggy bank”. Perusing his portfolio… Continue reading Printing Carcasses
3D Printing Services Hurting?
Long-time 3D print service 3D Art to Part seems to be having some difficulty. According to a statement on their website: We are currently undergoing some changes in our services, and are unable to do any 3D Printing at this time… We are able to support mesh Fixing for 3rd party printing though. We’ve been… Continue reading 3D Printing Services Hurting?
BIOS Explores 3D Printing
The BIOS Collective is a working group of academic and professional designers exploring the application of biological patterns to architecture. We’ve seen a bit of this collision before where natural things inspire designs made real by modern 3D fabrication techniques. In this example, designer Charles Lee is working on a tower study for Ideate Inc.,… Continue reading BIOS Explores 3D Printing
Robots!
Timothy Mayer tips us to an example of a robot built by the Cornell Computational Synthesis Laboratory. The robot’s structure was fabbed with a Fab@Home 3D printer using KraftCreation’s FabEpoxy media. Of course, the electronics weren’t printed out, but that will come some time in the future. Readers might want to peruse some of the… Continue reading Robots!
A Chameleon Tears Down Barriers
A1 Technologies, the folks who make the very inexpensive RapMan 3D printer and more recently an inexpensive 3D scanner, now produce an innovative 3D mouse system: the Chameleon 3D. The Chameleon 3D is actually an effective packaging of software and hardware from other developers. The hardware comes from Novint, whose very unusual Falcon haptic controller… Continue reading A Chameleon Tears Down Barriers
RapMan Goes to School
We’ve written about the inexpensive RapMan 3D Printer kit before, and at that time it was focused on the UK market, priced at GB£750. Now we’ve learned that it’s now being marketed to educational institutions by Technology Education Concepts (TEC): The company provides 3D software and hardware solutions needed to teach today’s young people about… Continue reading RapMan Goes to School
Scan That Prison!
Every year a “Mock Prison Riot” takes place at a decommissioned prison in West Virginia. Corrections professionals arrive once per year to undertake training activities, but in order to properly prepare for the event, they have to know something about the prison. Unfortunately, no proper blueprints exist, and participants had to manually measure as much… Continue reading Scan That Prison!
MakerBeam Makes Beams!
And a lot more, it turns out. The MakerBeam project intends on providing a massive library of open source hardware connectors, all reusable and designed to interoperate. Their first big venture is Mini-T, which is a precisely downscaled model of larger T-slot building systems. It consists of extruded aluminum beams, 1 cm on a side,… Continue reading MakerBeam Makes Beams!
BitTorrenting Real Things
There’s a great discussion going on at the Ponoko blog, where Duann posed the question, “What will we do when product design files start hitting these peer to peer networks of sharing. The equivalent of ripping a CD and burning it for a friend?” We’ve been contemplating this as well, because it is going to… Continue reading BitTorrenting Real Things