Just a quick heads up. There’s a company from here in Utah that is entering the Filament game. Not the filament distribution game, the filament manufacturing game. Zeni Kinetic has their own production facilities right here using a top secret process to produce filament at prices competitive to buying your filament overseas. They’re just starting out but I’ve decided to …
More 3D Printer Contests
Just a couple of heads up in case you hadn’t heard already. First of all Makerbot is having a contest. Grand prize is a Replicator 2x. (I’d really like a Replicator 2x.) All you have to do is learn OpenSCAD and upload a customizable object to their customizer app in one of 3 categories, useful, wearable, or artistic. This contest …
3D Printing Jewelry Report
Sina from the university of Paderborn asked me a few questions a while back about 3D printing particularly in relation to jewelry production. Well now his report is done and I’ve got permission to present it to you. You may find the results interesting (click for full sized image): I find intersting the conclusion that a virtual platform is so paramount to the widespread use of 3D …
Print success by orientation
The story is I’m printing a replacement key that someone who had never done home 3D printing designed. Without thinking I just threw the STL he sent me into the printer instead of looking it over first. Never a good idea. The problem was the peg in the middle was actually raised off the build platform. So when it finally …
What’s your resolution?
A lot of talk is made about resolution in 3D printing. What that means is the thickness of the layers. Individual layers are drawn in a continuous line so each layers doesn’t really get any more detail than the next one. However, being able to stack more layers makes it harder to see the individual layers resulting in a better print at …
Talking about my i-i-iteration
The air vent in my boy’s room was broken. The drywall on one side was so shredded as to render any attempts to anchor in it useless. (The other side went into a stud, so no problems there.) I had the idea that I could print a custom joint that would attach the vent to the duct wall. It took me 4 …
Stealing an Obvious Idea
The GameKlip is a piece of plastic that lets you mount your bluetooth PS3 controller to your android phone for real game-like experiences. The Game Clip on Thingiverse, a a piece of plastic that lets you mount your bluetooth PS3 controller to your android phone. GameKlip has different versions that will work with different phones and tablets plus a universal version …
Modibot, love child of Stikfas and Xevoz
If you’ve never heard of Stikfas, bad news, you’re a bit late to the party. Stikfas were a super cool set of modular posable robot toys that sold for about $20 a set. But like all semi-great toys they had their run and now they’re gone. Reminds me of Scud Only they’re not all gone. Toy designer Wayne Losey is …
Filament by the foot
Friend of the blog and fellow 3D printer Joseph Chiu has decided to plunge into filament sales. If you’ve ever wanted a color but didn’t want to commit to a full kilogram he’s selling 100g bundles of ABS or PLA in many colors so you can test it out before you commit to the big buy. 100kg is plenty to …
Figuring out lithophanes
When I tried out pp3dpNL’s Mona Lisa Lithophane I printed it on its side and what I ended up with (on the left) was disappointing. Not only did it take forever to slice and cracked while printing (darn ABS) the final result just didn’t look very good. The one on the right above was printed flat on the build surface using a …