If you’re a maker, 3d printing is an incredibly useful tool to have in your arsenal. Not only can it help bring your projects to life faster, but it can also offer unique results that would be difficult (or impossible!) to achieve with traditional methods. In these blog posts, we’ll provide you with some essential information and tips regarding 3D printing for makers—including the basics of how to get started, plus creative tutorials for spicing up your projects. Whether you’re already familiar with 3d printing or are just starting out, these resources will help take your game-making skills even further!
Peter Dilworth, the other cofounder, was watching one of our Up! 3D Printers do its thing when it made an error. He was kinda miffed about it; he just wanted to take the thing off the platform, fill up the gap, and put it back on. And then he had that “Oh! We can!” moment. That’s when the idea for the 3Doodler was born, and it’s been quite a ride since then.
Last month I wrote about Bend Not Break, a memoir written by Ping Fu. Fu is the founder of Geomagic and now chief strategy officer at 3D Systems. In her book, Fu wrote about her life as a young girl in China and her experiences living under Mao’s Cultural Revolution. She described being forcibly removed from her family by the Red Guard at 8 years old and spending the next ten years living with her younger sister in a government dormitory under brutal conditions before ultimately emigrating to the U.S. For me, it was a harrowing, but ultimately uplifting story about overcoming adversity.
But that’s not how many people reacted to the book.
Tapigami came to Maker Faire Bay Area last year with a gorgeous fantasy cityscape installation, made entirely of tape! (The wall behind it was wire coat hangers covered in fabric.) The Sacramento artist behind Tapigami, Danny Scheible, and his crew were also on-site (along with rolls and rolls of tape) to show Faire-goers how to make their own Tapigami sculptures. It was a huge hit. Buy your tickets for Maker Faire Bay Area 2013 today to get our special Early Bird discount prices!
I made a flash diffuser for the Canon Speedlight 580EX II after seeing our photo intern taping a piece of paper to his flash to act as a light bounce. His paper bounce didn’t last more than a few days of project photography in the extreme conditions of our lab, so after seeing him repeatedly throw them into the recycling bin, I decided to make him a durable 3D printed diffuser.
I recently met up with the inimitable Dan Spangler, an intern working at MAKE Labs. He, along with several other interns, work hard to bring you the latest projects seen both online and in the print magazine. He gave me the grand tour and talked about what goes on in the labs.
This weekend I went down to Palo Alto to check out the DIY Musical Instrument Tailgate Party, hosted by Thingamajigs and the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA).
Present Obama mentioned 3D printing in the State of the Union address on Tuesday night, announcing the launch of three manufacturing hubs that will focus on additive manufacturing. He suggested that congress creates “a network of 15 of these hubs” to ensure that the focus is on making America “a magnet for new jobs and manufacturing”. The creation of these hubs will surely bring new, high-tech job opportunities with them.
