Digital fabrication tools have revolutionized the way designers, engineers, and artisans express their creativity. With the right resources, you can learn to use these powerful instruments in no time! Whether it’s 3D printing or laser cutting that interests you, these articles will provide useful tutorials and inspiration for makers of all levels. Discover how digital fabrication can open up new possibilities so that your craftsmanship is truly extraordinary!
Rich was curious about printing with polycarbonate (PC), but couldn’t find any definitive answers to his questions online. So he bought a roll of 1.6mm PC filament and started experimenting, and his reports are fairly glowing. PC melts hotter than ABS or PLA, is more rigid, and comes out of the printer cloudy, which some have suggested may be due to atmospheric moisture.
Ranjit Bhatnagar’s Voice Extruder makes a shape from your voice, and then sends it to a 3D printer for output.
Thingiverse user Thing-o-Fun from Austin, TX, designed this printable, fully functional padlock. (A)ll items are printable except for the springs which I removed from ball-point click pens (thankfully my wife is still putting up with disassembled pens around the house). This one is a little more complicated but it still works and makes a good […]
MakerBot Industries is a company founded in January 2009 by Bre Pettis, Adam Mayer, and Zach Smith, producing an open source 3D printer to democratize manufacturing. You order it, build it, and you have a machine that can make almost anything. I met Bre years ago when he lived in Seattle and was a public school teacher, and I helped get him a job working with MAKE. Since then, he’s worked with Etsy, had his own TV show, founded MakerBot, got $10 million in funding, and just became a dad. After I saw the funding announcement, I asked Bre if I could ask him some really tough questions about what this means for makers and other companies. As usual, Bre answered them with style and grace as only Bre can. The questions I ask range from his time at MAKE to the future of MakerBot. Enjoy!
I have built a couple of laser-cut and CNC-routed kits, recently, that use this clever arrangement of tabs, slots, and a couple bits of cheap hardware to securely butt one panel against another at a right angle. One panel has a pair of rectangular ports with a round hole in between, and the other has a matching pair of tabs with a smaller T-shaped slot between. In use, the ports receive the tabs and a screw passes through the round hole and along the upright of the T to mate with a square nut captured in the arms of the T. There are many possible variations and the technique has lots to recommend it from a manufacturer’s standpoint.
In my last post, I heralded the underrated benefits of analog drawing and why I think it’s the perfect gateway to making. The post was not, however, meant to take anything away from the incredible benefits of computer-aided tools. In fact, after last night’s ShopBot class at TechShop, I have an even higher respect for how amazing computer-based tools can be.
Um. Wow. It’s attributed to MOCPages member PLUM B, and here described by The Brothers Brick: “[F]eatures a clip-fed firing mechanism that shoots rubber bands – perfect for taking out the paper Locust horde. If that’s not enough, the saw blade on the front of the gun is motorized for slice and dice action.”
