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!
Two thousand and twelve was 3D printing’s breakout year. While still the realm of early adopters, the 3D printing genie is clearly out of the bottle. I checked in with several consumer-class 3D printer companies to see how 2012 went down and to get their thoughts on 2013 and beyond. Everyone I spoke with was extremely bullish about the future of 3D printing and some were already rolling out new models.
I got to play around with Chris Connors’ Mendocino Motor at Maker Faire New York last year. It consists of magnetically levitating pencils turned into motors with magnets, magnet wire, and 3D-printed joists. The Mendocino Motor floats in its own magnetic field and converts light into electricity and magnetism, which are then converted into the […]
Toronto’s 3D-printed jewelry company Hot Pop Factory received a client request to come up with a fun 3D-printed holiday gift for each of their employees, and I think they knocked it out of the ballpark with what they came up with: 3D scanned and printed Pez dispenser head toppers!
Providence-based artist and designer Wayne Losey makes these amazing 3D-printed modular action figures known as ModiBot, inspired by projects Wayne worked on in a previous life as a toymaker. Writing for Wired Design, Joseph Flaherty looks into the inspiration and realization of ModiBot.
ShopBot, creator of a line of popular CNC router tools, have collaborated with CAD powerhouse Autodesk to create a program that aims to bring digital fabrication tools into more schools around the country. Fifty ShopBot Desktops were set aside for teachers and educators in the US to claim through the promotion, “Digital Fab Tools for Schools,” and vouchers of $2,500 are available based on a first come, first served basis from 100kSchools.org.
In our Ultimate Guide to 3D Printing, we have a section on the innovative uses of 3D printers in the field of medicine, including San Francisco-based Bespoke Innovations: Bucking the typical one-style-suites-all model of conventional prosthetics, San Francisco-based Bespoke Innovations makes custom coverings, called Fairings, that surround an existing prosthetic leg, recreating the user’s natural […]
We reviewed Aleph Object’s Lulzbot AO-100 in our Ultimate 3D Printing Guide where it scored highly in several categories. The freshly upgraded AO-101 promises to make this capable machine even better! Check out the latest unboxing video for a comprehensive list of the updates and how it compares to the previous model.
