Intriguing Photo of the Month
It’s from Thingiverse user DieselG. You can click through to learn what it’s for. DieselG, if you read this, I very much hope you’ll let us see how it works out.
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!
GRBLShield CNC Mill Conversion
Bay Area maker John Knoll (of ILM and PhotoShop fame) just finished converting his old manual milling machine to CNC with a GRBLshield and took the time to thoroughly document the process. If you’ve ever thought about attempting this conversion, you won’t want to miss this informative overview. In it John runs through the entire process from start to finish, beginning with converting a model using a Python script, sending G-code to the board using a Processing sketch, and ending with cutting the part.
Maker Wedding Enlightenment
Earlier this summer, Brett was working on a nifty 3 LED and 2 AAA battery holder design at the Boston Area Makerbot meetup. We get together when enough people feel the need, generally at Sprout in Somerville. When we got together again this week, he was able to happily report on the project and the role his making played in the big day.
The initial plan was to use throwies, but I felt they wouldn’t give as much light as a commercial 3 LED solution. This led me to a fun, albeit time consuming project.
Milling Machine Made Entirely From Lego
OK, almost entirely: The actual cutting is done by a metal drill bit. Everything else, however, is Lego system elements. It looks like the machine uses a “raster” type subtractive process, covering the surface of the block in a close-packed grid of holes, each of which is drilled to an appropriate depth to form the final surface contours.
Four Horsemen of the 3D Printing Apocalypse
Charles Stross’ excellent new novel, Rule 34 (Ace Books), is a futuristic police procedural set in a near-future Edinburgh, in which 3D printing has become boringly ubiquitous. You can buy safe, prepackaged 3D printers at the local housewares shop, and they’re handy for whipping up generic replacement parts for broken appliances (at one point a […]
Printing your Kinect scans on a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic
I got my hands on a Kinect a while back (thanks to Ashley Burns of Waggener Edstrom for sending me one to mess around with), and I’ve been itching to scan something and print it on my MakerBot Thing-O-Matic. I got as far as scanning things with Kyle McDonald’s KinectToStl, but as I have no skills with 3d modeling software, I had no clue how to turn it into something printable. I tried printing some of the STL files I got out of that tool, but they were way too complex. With some open source software, a few simple steps, and an occasional not-so-simple-step here and there, you can print what your Kinect can see.
3D Printed Model of a Virus Self Assembles When Shaken
Professor Arthur J. Olson of Scripps demonstrates a 3D printed model of a virus that self assembles when shaken. Olson is head of the Molecular Graphics Laboratory, which uses 3D computer models, 3D printing, and augmented reality to create tools for life science researchers and educators. He is also the project leader of Fight Aids […]
