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!
Cornucopia: Digital Gastronomy is a project by two grad students working in MIT’s Fluid Interfaces Group. The goal: a consumer-friendly machine that prints food. (Spork not included…) Cornucopia is a concept design for a personal food factory that brings the versatility of the digital world to the realm of cooking. In essence, it is a […]
Devlin has posted a great tutorial on using OpenSCAD (Clifford Wolf’s fantastic, free CSG 3D modeling program) to model Hack a Day’s trademark “skull badge” from this year’s CES. I posted my own (much, much more basic) OpenSCAD tutorial a couple weeks back.
While small lathes are of relatively limited value in my opinion, I’ve gotta give it up to Thingiverse user cathalgarvey for designing and uploading the parts to print this motor-tool-powered, printable micro-lathe. As always, would love to see some video!
This month’s theme of Make Space for Crafting has got me thinking about designer/hacker/artist Emily Albinski’s helpful 101 feature on SketchUp, Google’s free 3D modeling software, which originally appeared on the pages of CRAFT Volume 09. As Emily writes in her intro: For decades, computer-aided design (CAD) applications were expensive tools used only by a […]
Check out these sweet laser-cut MAKE back issue boxes that Jonathan Danforth made and loaded onto Thingiverse. I like the look of MAKE magazine on my bookshelves but I wanted something to store them in that was similar to the holders I use for other magazines. MAKE’s (and CRAFT’s) unique form factor require a custom […]
Thiingiverse user natetrue created this printable version of user stickoutrock’s laser-cut cross-linked elliptical gear toy. Somebody post some video, please!
Sketchup is an easy-to-learn program for 3D modeling. While it gives you an easy way to design creatively, it is a bit more challening to design accurately. If you are going to make physical models of your designs, you will need to make them small enough to fit on the tool that will make the part. You can send the 3D models to a number of toos, including the ShopBot, CNC Mill and MakerBot, among others.
If you follow these pretty easy steps, you can get yourself and your students into the habit of designing accurately dimensioned objects. Here is a set of screenshots and a sample file that show the steps of this process.
