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 …
Using 3D printing for SCIENCE!
My son is doing his first science fair. I’m so proud. He wanted to do something with electricity, so I needed some battery packs. There’s an electro magnet and an electric coil motor. This may end up being on the first draft, but obijuan’s Parameterized Battery Pack really helped. Functionally there’s no difference, but it looks way better than duct tape.
Fully 3D Printed Engine update 2
I’ve been working on my fully 3D printed engine that I mentioned a while ago, but it’s still having trouble. I’m feeling like a total overhaul redesign is in order… which I really don’t have time for. Hopefully this video will help people understand how it’s supposed to work. Progress continues. The files on thingiverse have been updated with the latest …
My Pringles Dice Tower Build
I spoke before about a dice tower made of pringles cans. I also mentioned a project that I want to work on where I build an automated dice tower to test the balance of 3D printed dice. Believe it or not that project is going forward. Since that means I’ll need some dice towers (plural because I don’t trust the randomness …
What is up with today?
Seems like everyone is suddenly discovering 3D printing today. Shapeway’s twitter feed alone is full of articles published today lauding 3D printing. I’ve also had at least 3 people forward me information on the filabot like I haven’t been following since it’s kickstarter. I love it when someone discovers this hobby of mine for the first time. I just don’t …
That’s not good
I haven’t been reporting much on cool things that I’m printing because my Bot has mostly been occupied with making chess sets and restocking the store. I’m kind of determined to run out 4 rolls of filament, one white, one red, and two black, printing as many chess sets as I can out of them. However today I discovered that …
The problem with “Can anyone print this for me”
A common cry of those just outside the 3D printing community, and from many within, is that there needs to be a service where people can request something made by those with 3D printers. Well, now there are communities like Makzurie filling that gap. But twice this week alone I’ve seen the same story played out twice in different places. …
3D Printing Tidbit – PLA and Canola Oil
Personally I don’t use PLA, but this was just too weird not to share. According to the Makerbot Google Group if you put a little drop of canola oil on the tip of your PLA before you load it you have less problems printing. If you don’t remember PLA can be (and often is) made with corn starch. I think PLA …