Another design contest

CGTrader is a site that I considered when planning to sell my 3D models for 3D printing. It’s still an option if Ponoko ever falls out of favor, but CGTrader is less about 3D printing and more about, just, 3D which I think would be confusing if my Mom were shopping for models for her theoretical $300 3D printer. But …

Upgrading the motherboard

Jetguy is now working on my motherboard, and am I glad he’s doing it an not me. He’s posted some pictures of the process and it’s fascinating. This, for me, would be a daunting process, but for him he’s quipping that he’s doing a Makerbot repair in the same amount of time that you can get express glasses. Unfortunately with …

MyMiniFactor Valentine design contest

MyMiniFactory is gearing up for Valentines day and is running another contest. http://www.myminifactory.com/object/view/734/Valentines-Day-Design-Contest And of course I have a book that will teach you how to design if you don’t know how so you can enter contests like this in the future.

See a need, fill a need

While I’m waiting for the mod on my motherboard I’d like to feature a project I found on Reddit that really caught my attention. The project and story behind it is best told by the original author, so I’ll leave it to him. Be sure to mouse over the images for the description or click here. And I’d be remiss …

Brainless and Naked

Never let it be said that Jetguy isn’t a cool guy. On the Google groups he also made me aware that every time I turn on my bot I’m playing Russian roulette with my power regulator. But he also offered to do the quick mod that will fix it. So I’ve ripped the brain out of my Makerbot in order …

Duster Ring on CubeHero

 Where to start? First off, CubeHero. Wil has put together a great little site. It’s basically a combination of Thingiverse and Github, meaning it’s designed to help the iterative design process. More than a few of my designs have benefited from a public exchange of information and expertise. But thingiverse made it hard to track changes and find “head”, or …

Running a 3D printing business can be… busy

I’d like to be entertaining you with awesome prints off my makerbot. I’d like to be composing some sort of intelligent commentary to the new Makerbot lineup and their closed 3D model store on 3DHacker. But no sooner does my delicious holiday break end and real work begin but I am besieged by people wanting to give me money. Literally, in …

HIPS Experiment #3

Now my final experiment with HIPS, not that I’m done with HIPS, just done with experimenting. Now I know what it’s capable of and I can stop experimenting and start doing. Not 100% satisfied with how the slicing software handles the bottom of spheres. But it worked well enough that the failures in the print came from the print, not …

Interview on 3DForged

If you’ve never heard of 3DForged.com, don’t feel bad. They’re new At least I think they’re new. Because I’ve never heard of them. Anyways, their kicking off their site with some interview questions of yours truly. http://3dforged.com/how-to-run-a-3d-printing-business-with-joe-larson/ If you think they missed a question post it in the comments or contact me and I’ll be happy to answer them all.

It’s over 1000

I’m pretty sure I had a board reset at one point, so the real number may be actually higher than that. The right LED behind the panel has just started going flaky, but the printer is otherwise functional and awesome and over 1000 print hours old. Here’s to another great year of prints.