3D Printing Flies High now. Articles on three-dimensional printers are popping up everywhere these days. And nowadays there are many 3D printer products. Some are small enough to fit in a briefcase and others are large enough to print houses.
Everything you ever wanted to know about 3D printing article tells that 3D printing is having its “Macintosh moment,” declares Wired editor -in-chief Chris Anderson in cover story on the subject. 3D printers are now where the PC was 30 years ago. They are just becoming affordable and accessible to non-geeks, will be maybe able to democratize manufacturing the same way that PCs democratized publishing.
Gartner’s 2012 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies Identifies “Tipping Point” Technologies That Will Unlock Long-Awaited Technology Scenarios lists 3D Print It at Home as important topic. In this scenario, 3D printing allows consumers to print physical objects, such as toys or housewares, at home, just as they print digital photos today. Combined with 3D scanning, it may be possible to scan certain objects with a smartphone and print a near-duplicate. Analysts predict that 3D printing will take more than five years to mature beyond the niche market. Eventually, 3D printing will enable individuals to print just about anything from the comfort of their own homes.Slideshow: 3D Printers Make Prototypes Pop article tells that advances in performance, and the durability and range of materials used in additive manufacturing and stereolithography offerings, are enabling companies to produce highly durable prototypes and parts, while also cost-effectively churning out manufactured products in limited production runs.
3D printing can have implications to manufacturers of some expensive products. The Pirate Bay declares 3D printed “physibles” as the next frontier of piracy. Pirate Bay Launches 3D-Printed ‘Physibles’ Downloads. The idea is to have freely available designs for different products that you can print at home with your 3D printer. Here a video demonstrating 3D home printing in operation.
Shapeways is a marketplace and community that encourages the making and sharing of 3D-printed designs. 3D Printing Shapes Factory of the Future article tells that recently New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg cut the Shapeways‘ Factory (filled with industrial-sized 3D printers) ribbon using a pair of 3D-printed scissors.
The Next Battle for Internet Freedom Could Be Over 3D Printing article tells up to date, 3D printing has primarily been used for rapid commercial prototyping largely because of its associated high costs. Now, companies such as MakerBot are selling 3D printers for under $2,000. Slideshow: 3D Printers Make Prototypes Pop article gives view a wide range of 3D printers, from half-million-dollar rapid prototyping systems to $1,000 home units. Cheapest 3D printers (with quite limited performance) now start from 500-1000 US dollars. It is rather expensive or inexpensive is how you view that.
RepRap Project is a cheap 3D printer that started huge 3D printing buzz. RepRap Project is an initiative to develop an open design 3D printer that can print most of its own components. RepRap (short for replicating rapid prototyper) uses a variant of fused deposition modeling, an additive manufacturing technique (The project calls it Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) to avoid trademark issues around the “fused deposition modeling” term). It is almost like a small hot glue gun that melts special plastic is moved around to make the printout. I saw RepRap (Mendel) and Cupcake CNC 3D printers in operation at at Assembly Summer 2010.
There has been some time been trials to make 3D-Printed Circuit Boards. 3D Printers Will Build Circuit Boards ‘In Two Years’ article tells that printing actual electronics circuit boards is very close. Most of the assembly tools are already completely automated anyway.
3D printing can be used to prototype things like entire cars or planes. The makers of James Bond’s latest outing, Skyfall, cut a couple corners in production and used modern 3D printing techniques to fake the decimation of a classic 1960s Aston Martin DB5 (made1:3 scale replicas of the car for use in explosive scenes). The world’s first 3D printed racing car can pace at 140 km/h article tells that a group of 16 engineers named “Group T” has unveiled a racing car “Areion” that is competing in Formula Student 2012 challenge. It is described as the world’s first 3D printed race car. The Areion is not fully 3D printed but most of it is.
Student Engineers Design, Build, Fly ‘Printed’ Airplane article tells that when University of Virginia engineering students posted a YouTube video last spring of a plastic turbofan engine they had designed and built using 3-D printing technology, they didn’t expect it to lead to anything except some page views. But it lead to something bigger. 3-D Printing Enables UVA Student-Built Unmanned Plane article tells that in an effort that took four months and $2000, instead of the quarter million dollars and two years they estimate it would have using conventional design methods, a group of University of Virginia engineering students has built and flown an airplane of parts created on a 3-D printer. The plane is 6.5 feet in wingspan, and cruises at 45 mph.
3D printers can also print guns and synthetic chemical compounds (aka drugs). The potential policy implications are obvious. US Army Deploys 3D Printing Labs to Battlefield to print different things army needs. ‘Wiki Weapon Project’ Aims To Create A Gun Anyone Can 3D-Print At Home. If high-quality weapons can be printed by anyone with a 3D printer, and 3D printers are widely available, then law enforcement agencies will be forced to monitor what you’re printing in order to maintain current gun control laws.
Software Advances Do Their Part to Spur 3D Print Revolution article tells that much of the recent hype around 3D printing has been focused on the bevy of new, lower-cost printer models. Yet, significant improvements to content creation software on both the low and high end of the spectrum are also helping to advance the cause, making the technology more accessible and appealing to a broader audience. Slideshow: Content Creation Tools Push 3D Printing Mainstream article tells that there is still a sizeable bottleneck standing in the way of mainstream adoption of 3D printing: the easy to use software used to create the 3D content. Enter a new genre of low-cost (many even free like Tikercad) and easy-to-use 3D content creation tools. By putting the tools in reach, anyone with a compelling idea will be able to easily translate that concept into a physical working prototype without the baggage of full-blown CAD and without having to make the huge capital investments required for traditional manufacturing.
Finally when you have reached the end of the article there is time for some fun. Check out this 3D printing on Dilbert strip so see a creative use of 3D printing.
2,052 Comments
Tomi Engdahl says:
Slideshow: 3D Systems Changes What Engineers Can Do With 3D Printing
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1392&doc_id=270865&cid=nl.dn14
3D Systems has introduced printers, services, and software that will change what engineers can do with 3D printing. These include a bigger and faster SLA (stereolithography) build volume, another printer that does multiple colors in plastic, one that prints plastic multi-material objects bigger and faster, ceramic 3D printing via the cloud, and a universal print driver. All debuted at the Euromold 2013 conference in Frankfurt, Germany.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Reg reader crafts 3-axis GoPro ‘Stubilizer’ for skull-mounted cameras
‘Vertical learning curve’ for CAD and 3D printing novice Stuart Smith
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/29/stubilizer/
The development process has been heavy on CAD and 3D printing
Tomi Engdahl says:
Behold the world’s first full-colour 3D printer
Stratasys beast mixes materials and hues, for a modest £200k
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/01/28/full_colour_3d_printer/
According to the blurb, the Objet500 Connex3 “lets you incorporate as many as 46 colors into one prototype, from true jet black to sunny yellow to shocking magenta and hundreds of beautiful blended hues”.
“lets you build rigid, rubber-like and clear parts into one model and offers hundreds of composite materials, blended right in the 3D printer”.
Stratysys’s proprietary “PolyJet 3D”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Most Horrifying Use Of 3D Printing
http://hackaday.com/2014/02/02/the-most-horrifying-use-of-3d-printing/
3D ultrasounds of fetuses are all the rage these days
3D Babies – takes 3D ultrasound data from weeks 24-32 and turns it into a 3D model.
Tomi Engdahl says:
From CT Scans to 3D Prints
http://hackaday.com/2013/12/19/from-ct-scans-to-3d-prints/
STL is far from being ready to print after being extracted; there is a lot of extraneous data that needs to be cleaned up.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to 3D print a solder stencil!
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-3D-print-a-solder-mask/?ALLSTEPS
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printers Will Not Come to Every Household (Just Yet)
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1320870&
I’m sorry to say that I find the talk of 3D printers on every kitchen table overly optimistic. Don’t get me wrong; 3D printers are wonderful devices, but the question is whether they will ultimately gain hold in the consumer market.
3D printing technology needs to rise above the hype and become useful to a broad set of end users.
User mindset
We live in a world in which many do not have a desire or need to build or design anything. There is little incentive for people to get their hands dirty.
Content
Just having a 3D printer in the house is not enough; a user needs to have something to make with it. Content poses a much larger problem than I think many are willing to acknowledge.
Value proposition
This issue can be summed up as “What’s in it for me?” Is it worth it to print plastic cups?
Materials
This leads to the last challenge: materials. How many of the things you use every day are made only of plastic?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Finnish mB magazine 3D printed a copy of a key for a lock.
Used tools were 3D Studio Max 2014 free demo version for modeling and Leapfrog Creatr printer (Repetier Host and Slic3r software).
Video: Näin teimme 3D-tulostimella toimivan Abloy-avaimen
http://www.mbnet.fi/artikkeli/blogit/mblabra/video_nain_teimme_3d_tulostimella_toimivan_abloy_avaimen
MBlab: Vertailussa 3D-tulostimet – MB tekee murron
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq0xNfDb5CA
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printering: Making A Thing In FreeCAD, Part I
http://hackaday.com/2014/02/05/3d-printering-making-a-thing-in-freecad-part-i/
FreeCAD is an amazing tool that, if used correctly, can be used to make just about any part, and do it in a manufacturing context. If you need a bauble that’s three times the size of the original, FreeCAD’s parametric modeling makes it easy to scale it up.
Sidney Willium says:
Thanks , I’ve recently been looking for information about this topic for a long time and yours is the best I have found out so far. But, what about the bottom line? Are you positive in regards to the supply?|What i do not understood is in reality how you are not actually much more neatly-liked than you may be right now. You’re so intelligent.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Systems profit warning rekindles 3D printer bubble fears
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/05/us-3dsystems-outlook-idUSBREA1414Q20140205
3D Systems Corp slashed its profit estimate for 2013, reviving fears of a bubble in the 3D printing industry and sending its shares down as much as 28 percent.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Did the 3D Printing Bubble Burst?
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/did-the-3d-printing-bubble-burst-7TaT0jE5Qb~v1nHMx2uMSA.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
3DP Unlimited™ to Unveil Large Format 3D Printer at ATX-West
http://www.pbclinear.com/Blog/SIMO-Series-featured-on-Large-Format-3D-Printer-at-ATX-West
The X1000 3D printer
huge workable print area of 1m x 1m x 0.5m
Tomi Engdahl says:
Photonics Applied: Laser Additive Manufacturing
By GAIL OVERTON
How does additive manufacturing ‘stack up’ against subtractive methods?
http://digital.laserfocusworld.com/laserfocusworld/201402?sub_id=sub_id&folio=23#pg25
Tomi Engdahl says:
4 Axis Delta Router Says Hello World
http://hackaday.com/2014/02/12/4-axis-delta-router-says-hello-world/
For motors, he went with non captive steppers. “Non captive” means that rather than a shaft, the motor has a hollow threaded nut which rotates. A lead screw (usually with an acme thread) is passed through this nut.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Investors throw cash at affordable 3D scanner
Kickstarter success fuels Fuel3D landrush
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/02/13/fuel3d_funding/
Proof that the 3D bandwagon continues to gain pace comes with the news that Fuel 3D Technologies has secured a suitcase full of private investor cash to further fund “the world’s first 3D scanner to combine pre-calibrated stereo cameras with photometric imaging”.
“The 3D printing market is the focus of significant investor interest at the moment,”
While the Fuel3D was punted as a sub-$1,000 device, its eventual “expected retail price” is $1,500.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Gartner Predictions: 3D IP Theft
“By 2018, 3D printing will result in the loss of at least $100 billion per year in intellectual property globally.”
simply have to buy one of your products and scan it
This won’t be a problem limited to the Global 500, either. Smaller companies and even artisans could feel a major impact as their creative work is stolen and mass-printed.
Source:
http://www.enterpriseefficiency.com/author.asp?section_id=1129&_mc=sem_otb_edt_entereffppcm&doc_id=269098&image_number=3
Tomi Engdahl says:
Music Tech Monday: 3D-printed instruments
http://www.electronicproducts.com/Packaging_and_Hardware/Prototyping_Tools_Equipment_Services/Music_Tech_Monday_3D-printed_instruments.aspx
You can customize a 3D-printed guitar or bass!
ODD Guitars uses Selective Laser Sintering (SLS), a process that takes a layer of nylon powder, fuses it into the specific locations to fit the components.
Tomi Engdahl says:
A UK Surgeon Successfully 3D Printed And Implanted A Pelvis
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/uk-surgeon-implanted-a-3d-printed-pelvis-2014-2#ixzz2tkuFlmvd
Tomi Engdahl says:
3-D Printed Pelvis Holding Up After 3 Years
http://science.slashdot.org/story/14/02/19/0349240/3-d-printed-pelvis-holding-up-after-3-years
Tomi Engdahl says:
Carbon fibre 3D printer by Mark Forg3d is now available to pre-order
Updated Costs a pretty penny
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2325804/carbon-fibre-3d-printer-unveiled-by-mark-forg3d
Mark Forg3d claims the Mark One is the world’s first printer to produce composite materials and is designed to overcome the strength limitations of other 3D printed materials.
Tomi Engdahl says:
OpenKnit, the Open Source Knitting Machine
http://hackaday.com/2014/02/20/openknit-the-open-source-knitting-machine/
[Gerard Rubio] is bucking that trend with OpenKnit, an open-source knitting machine that’s able to knit anything from a hat to a sweater using open source hardware and software.
The software is based on Knitic, an Arduino-based brain for the old Brother machines
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Systems Prints First Hybrid Robotic Exoskeleton Enabling Amanda Boxtel To Walk Tall
http://www.3dsystems.com/press-releases/3d-systems-prints-first-hybrid-robotic-exoskeleton-enabling-amanda-boxtel-walk-tall
3D Systems (NYSE:DDD) today announced that it recently debuted the first ever 3D printed hybrid Exoskeleton robotic suit in collaboration with EksoBionics at a Singularity University-hosted event in Budapest. Amanda Boxtel acted as the test pilot for this venture.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printering: Making A Thing With Solidworks, Part I
http://hackaday.com/2014/02/19/3d-printering-making-a-thing-with-solidworks/
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printed RGB LED Bracelet
http://hackaday.com/2014/02/23/3d-printed-rgb-led-bracelet/
[Marcus's] 3D-printed LED bracelet has moved through a number of revisions recently, but each iteration is impressive in both simplicity and functionality.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printing Metal Structures with a 6-axis Robot
http://hackaday.com/2014/02/24/3d-printing-metal-structures-with-a-6-axis-robot/
[Joris Laarman] is working on a project called the MX3D-Metal which uses an ABB industrial robot arm and a welding machine to create strong metal structures on any working surface and in any direction.
He started last year with the MX3D Resin printer, which is the exact same concept, but instead of metal, it uses a two-part epoxy that bonds instantly upon mixing.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printing Multiple Colors with a Single Extruder Printer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sk1aP6MQEhc
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printing Approaches End Production With Single, Multi-Materials
http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1392&doc_id=271813&dfpPParams=ind_183,industry_auto,industry_aero,industry_consumer,industry_gov,industry_medical,bid_27,aid_271813&dfpLayout=blog
End-production using 3D printing, including objects made of multiple materials in one pass, is getting closer to reality as we saw on the exhibit floor at the recent Pacific Design & Manufacturing Show.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printed Zipper Saves the Day!
http://hackaday.com/2014/03/03/3d-printed-zipper-saves-the-day/
[Amr] recently built a 3D printer and came across his first practical application for it – his jacket’s zipper broke!
Of course we know he could have gone into town and bought a replacement zipper — but where’s the fun in that?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sneak Peek: The 3-D Printing Boom Gets a Documentary
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2014/03/print-the-legend-documentary-clip/
It seems hard to believe that the world of 3-D printing has been around long enough to warrant a documentary—Bre Pettis’ company MakerBot has been around barely five years—but yet one is already in the can.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Kinect + Wiper Motor + LEGO = 3D Scanner
http://hackaday.com/2014/03/09/kinect-wiper-motor-lego-3d-scanner/
There are 2 main components to the hardware-side of this build; the Kinect Stand and the Rotating Platform. The Kinect sits atop a platform made from LEGO pieces.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MRRF: 3D Printed Resin Molds
http://hackaday.com/2014/03/16/mrrf-3d-printed-resin-molds/
With the right mold, anyone with 2-part resins can replicate dozens of identical parts in an hour.
You could print a plastic part and make a silicone mold to cast your part. The much more clever solution would be to print the mold directly and fill it with resin.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Midwest RepRap Festival: 3D Printed Waffles
http://hackaday.com/2014/03/14/midwest-reprap-festival-3d-printed-waffles/
Tomi Engdahl says:
DAGU: The Standalone CNC Controller
http://hackaday.com/2014/03/14/dagu-the-standalone-cnc-controller/
In terms of user interfaces, 3D printers are far, far beyond the usual CNC machine. It’s difficult to find a new, commercial 3D printer without some sort of display, set of buttons, and an SD card slot for loading G Code and running a printer. For CNC routers, though, you’re usually dealing with a parallel port interface connected to an old computer.
Tomi Engdahl says:
E-Nable(ing) Shea to Build a Prosthetic Hand for Herself!
http://hackaday.com/2014/03/15/e-nableing-shea-to-build-a-prosthetic-hand-for-herself/
Here’s a heartwarming story for the day. Introducing [Shea], a little 9-year-old girl with a prosthetic hand made possible from a community of internet strangers!
She had seen 3D printed prosthetics through Facebook posts and managed to track down the E-Nable group, which is a community of maker’s dedicated to lending a hand — quite literally.
Online community lends a hand to build prosthesis for Mukwonago girl
Read more from Journal Sentinel: http://www.jsonline.com/news/health/online-community-lends-a-hand-to-build-prosthesis-for-mukwonago-girl-b99205013z1-248250401.html#ixzz2wDAepcOE
Tomi Engdahl says:
Smoothie is now on Kickstarter ! Come join the adventure now !
http://smoothieware.org/smoothieboard
SmoothieBoard is an Open Source Hardware CNC controller board based on the LPC 1769 or LPC1768 Cortex-M3 chip.
It is intended to run the Smoothie modular firmware ( GPL too ), and is targeted at 3D Printers, Laser cutters, CNC Mills, Pick and place and other small-sized CNC machines. Larger machines can be driven using the bare version and external drivers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
MRRF: Repables, The Nonprofit 3D Object Repository
http://hackaday.com/2014/03/17/mrrf-repables-the-nonprofit-3d-object-repository/
There’s a problem with online repositories of 3D printable objects: The largest repo, Thingiverse, is generally looked down upon by the 3D printing community.
Repables, launched at the Midwest RepRap Festival this last weekend, hopes to change that. They are the only repository of printable objects and design files out there that’s backed by its own nonprofit LLC. It’s free for anyone to upload their parts and share, without the baggage that comes with an ‘official [company name] .STL repo’.
http://repables.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
MRRF: 3D Bioprinting
http://hackaday.com/2014/03/18/mrff-3d-bioprinting/
One of the most interesting talks was given by [Jordan Miller], [Andy Ta], and [Steve Kelly] about the use of RepRap and other 3D printing technologies in biotechnology and tissue engineering.
[Jordan] got his start with tissue engineering and 3D printing with his work in printing three-dimensional sugar lattices that could be embedded in a culture medium and then dissolved. The holes left over from the sugar became the vasculature and capillaries that feed a cell culture.
It’s all awesome work, and the beginnings of both bioengineering based on 3D printers, and an amazing example of what amateur scientists and professional makers can do when they put their heads together.
MRRF 2014 – Bioprinting
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UTAre6tvgE
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printers Can Only Make Trinkets — What About Kayaks?
http://hackaday.com/2014/03/19/3d-printers-can-only-make-trinkets-what-about-kayaks/
The individual parts were printed on [Jim's] massive home-made 3D printer, which is loosely based off a RepRap
The kayak itself is made of 28 printed sections
Tomi Engdahl says:
3-D Printers Could Help Build Tomorrow’s Massive Data Centers
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2014/03/io-data-center-3d-printing/
Nike is using 3-D printers to produce football cleats. Doctors are using them to print prosthetics for their patients. And the likes of Ford and GM are prototyping brake rotors, shift knobs, and other car parts with the help of these modern printers, a new kind of industrial robot that can produce almost any physical object — at least in theory.
It should come as no surprise, then, that the tech world has now applied 3-D printing to data centers
The idea of a modular data center took root at Google about a decade ago.
In the years since, others have taken a similar approach to data center design.
various hardware vendors now sell modules that any business can use in building its own data centers. These vendors include tech giants such as Dell and HP as well as IO
To prototype even the tiny bracket for a light fixture at the top of the module, the company might spend hundreds of dollars and wait two or three weeks for the prototype to arrive. But in recent months, it has started using a Makerbot 3-D printer to speed the process.
The company can also 3-D print the basic design of the module itself, producing a physical model of the frame from digital blueprints mapped out by CAD
These aren’t full-size prototypes.
In the future, 3-D printing could be used to build not just prototypes but actual data center equipment, including computer motherboards and other circuitry, but this won’t happen for years — if it happens at all. “You can print things on a small scale to play with them. Architects do this all the time,”
“But building a complete container would be a stupid thing to do.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
KamerMaker Begins Printing a House
http://hackaday.com/2014/03/20/kamermaker-begins-printing-a-house/
The KamerMaker is the world’s largest portable 3D printing pavilion built out of a shipping container — it has started printing an entire house out of plastic.
So far the KamerMaker has printed one corner of the Canal House
The project is estimated to take three years for completion
Tomi Engdahl says:
Heated Build Chambers Don’t Have to be That Complex
http://hackaday.com/2014/03/19/heated-build-chambers-dont-have-to-be-that-complex/
Looking to improve the quality of your 3D prints? Worried about peeling, warping, and de-laminating layers?
All you need is to do is make a heated build chamber!
The heated build chamber is one of the patents that the big 3D printer company owns
that’s why you don’t see it as a feature on any of the “consumer” grade 3D printers.
But that won’t stop people from making their own!
with the heated build chamber he can print ABS without any warping
Tomi Engdahl says:
Ask Hackaday: Auto Bed Leveling And High Temperature Force Sensitive Resistors
http://hackaday.com/2014/03/19/ask-hackaday-auto-bed-leveling-and-high-temperature-force-sensitive-resistors/
Automated bed leveling on a 3D printer is now a solved problem. [Johann] over on the RepRap wiki has an ingenious solution for making sure a borosilicate glass bed is completely level before printing anything on his Kossel printer: take three force sensitive resistors, put them under the build platform
Tomi Engdahl says:
HP will bring 3D printing to the masses in June
CEO claims to have ‘solved’ the problems of low quality materials
http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2335400/hp-will-bring-3d-printing-to-the-masses-in-june
MAKER OF EXPENSIVE PRINTER INK HP plans to enter the commercial 3D printer market later this year to bring the technology to the mass market.
So far, 3D printing has attracted a lot of attention in the media, but has failed to make much of an impact on a mass scale.
Many of the giant software firms have readied products for the true arrival of 3D printing, such as Adobe
Microsoft also made 3D printing native to Windows late last year
However, so far the 3D printer market has been dominated by a number of smaller firms like Makerbot that hope to sell small scale devices to consumers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Soft Robotics, Silicone Rubber, And Amazing Castings
http://hackaday.com/2014/03/24/soft-robotics-silicone-rubber-and-amazing-castings/
[Matthew] calls his creation the Glaucus, after the blue sea slug Glaucus atlanticus. Inside this silicone rubber blob are a series of voids, allowing compressed air to expand the legs, gently inching Glaucus across a table under manual or automatic control.
Even though no one seems to do it, making a few molds for casting on a 3D printer is actually pretty easy.
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printing: Have You Taken the Plunge Yet? Planning To?
http://ask.slashdot.org/story/14/03/25/0325250/3d-printing-have-you-taken-the-plunge-yet-planning-to
“With recent advances in working with different filaments (Wood filament, Nylon, etc) and price drops seen lately, I’m curious to know how many of you have decided to take the plung and get into 3D Printing. There are several kits available now or even assembled units that are in the same cost range as a ‘gamer’ video card (DaVinci 1.0 for $499, Printrbot Simple 2014 — $399, 3d Stuffmaker — $499).”
Tomi Engdahl says:
3D Printed… Measuring Tape?
http://hackaday.com/2014/03/25/3d-printed-measuring-tape/
Here’s a new one to push the envelope… How about a 3D printed measuring tape?
This unique 3D printed tool was designed and printed in a single job.
[Angry Monk] has been challenging himself lately with these intricate designs, having recently finished a completely 3D printed set of dial calipers, which is impressive in its own right.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Who Wouldn’t Want 3D Printed Candles of Yourself on Your 70th Birthday?
http://hackaday.com/2014/03/25/who-wouldnt-want-3d-printed-candles-of-yourself-on-your-70th-birthday/
what do you get someone who probably has everything? Well… you 3D scan him and make candles in his likeness of course!
Instead of printing the mold out, they opted to print a high resolution figurine of their CEO, and then make a reusable silicone mold instead.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Mostly 3D Printed Violin
http://hackaday.com/2014/03/26/the-mostly-3d-printed-violin/
While Thingiverse is filled with Ocarinas, there’s little in the way of printable instruments for more serious musicians. [David Perry] hopes to change this with the F-F-Fiddle, the mostly 3D printed full-size electric violin.
The F-F-Fiddle is an entry for the LulzBot March 3D Printing Challenge to make a functional, 3D printed musical instrument.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Medical First: 3-D Printed Skull Successfully Implanted in Woman
http://www.nbcnews.com/science/science-news/medical-first-3-d-printed-skull-successfully-implanted-woman-n65576
Another day, another advance in 3-D printing technology.
Doctors in the Netherlands report that they have for the first time successfully replaced most of a human’s skull with a 3-D printed plastic one — and likely saved a woman’s life in the process.