3D Printing & Imaging

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!

Best of 2012: 3D Printed Objects

Best of 2012: 3D Printed Objects

While 3D printers don’t yet compete with toasters and DVD players in the home, the dam on the consumer market has been breached as the number of lower priced, easy-to-use models–and those who use them–grows. Part of this trend surely comes from the ever-expanding catalog of 3D printed objects, from the useful to the fanciful. Printing chess pieces and busts of Stephen Colbert is nice, but the range of what people create with their printers grows by the day and in turn inspires others to model and print ever more striking/utilitarian/beautiful/ridiculous/amazing objects.

Thingiverse Cracks Down on Firearm Parts

Thingiverse Cracks Down on Firearm Parts

This is the lower receiver of an AR-15 rifle, printed in fused plastic filament from a digital model that was, until this week, freely available for download on Thingiverse. This component is significant because all other parts of the common rifle can be readily purchased in the open market. A person who builds a working lower receiver has, in the eyes of the state, essentially built a working AR-15.