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!
Today we are happy to announce a new product in the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic line, our new MakerBot Gen 4 Interface Board Kit v1.1! This is a fun DIY Interface that allows your to operate your Thing-O-Matic independently, without the use of a computer! So you can pop in your SD card into the Generation 4 […]
When we have blogged before about folks laser-cutting old records to make stuff, readers have been quick to point out that laser-cutting vinyl is dangerous because it releases chlorine gas which, in turn, presents two hazards: A) you don’t want to breathe it (and probably shouldn’t just vent it into the atmosphere), and B) it will corrode the metal parts of your equipment.
Erik de Bruijn is working on adapting his Ultimaker 3D printer to act as a pick & place machine. Assembling medium quantities of PCBs was never within the reach of a home based manufacturer. It requires expensive equipment, but most of these parts can actually be 3D printed, and you can use your existing 3D […]
MINIMALS, which is currently being exhibited at Boston’s Axiom Gallery, is a work by my friends and labmates Jonathan Bachrach and Jonathan Ward. In the academic world, they both research “digital assembly,” or the idea that in “the future,” we will be able to make anything out of reusable, discrete blocks of interesting and varied geometries […]
Instructables user dnewman used his EMSL Eggbot rotary plotter to print an accurate nutrition label on the side of a raw egg. A delightful and otherwise fairly useless thing to do. I heartily approve. [via adafruit]
Friday afternoon, I was vising my friend Amon Millner at Olin College. After finishing up, he invited me to go with him to the nearby Wellesley College and the Engineering Studio. Not knowing quite what to expect, but always interested in seeing hands-on learning spaces, I went along for the ride. What I saw took my breath away and left me speechless. It is still a bit mind boggling to consider what this lab has, and the amazing ideas that have come from it.
This codebox shows you how to create a physical zoetrope using Processing, a Kinect, and a laser cutter. The sketch will load in a movie recorded from the Kinect’s depth camera, use the Processing OpenCV library to turn that movie into a series of outlines, and save the outlines out in vector form as a […]
