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!
Tonight! The next episode of Make: Live, our streaming show and tell, is all about 3D modeling and printing. Liz Arum will give us a tour of Tinkercad, Michael Curry shows off his turtle shell racers, and MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis answers your burning 3D printer questions. All that plus a special surprise tonight, don’t miss it!
Join us Wednesday evening for the next episode of Make: Live, our streaming show and tell! Episode 16 is all about 3D modeling and printing.
Back a few years ago, if you wanted to design a 3D object, there were only a few options. Not many of those options were free or easy. TinkerCAD appears to be one of the many new modeling options that promises both free and easy. At World Maker Faire, I had a chance to see the browser-based TinkerCAD in action. It does appear that it is easy to operate, and free, if you can get it to run in the browser on your computer. TinkerCAD requires Windows Vista or OS X 10.6, so that will work on one computer at my house and one in my classroom.
I could not resist this 3D-printed sight gag from Thingiverse user mustachejack, who says it’s been on his bike for two months, so far, without breaking. The model includes an integral tube-clamp to be secured with a bolt or a zip-tie.
At this weekend’s Maker Faire, one of the exciting announcements came from MakerBot Industries, with their release of a new Stepstruder MK7 extruder head and their demoing of the experimental use of the MK7 in a dual-head, two-color in a MakerBot. I asked Noah Levy, one of the developers at MakerBot whose working on the “dualstrusion” project, a few questions.
Thingiverse user Steven Conine designed, printed, and published this excellent model of the Braddock park row house he inhabits in Bostn.
Joris Peels and Artur Tchoukanov, both former i.materialise employees, have started Origo, a company which aims to develop a 3D printer for kids. Artur thought, “what would a 3D printer that would work in the home look like? What if we could make it easy enough so that kids could use it? What if it […]
