10 Reasons you need a 3D printer now

It’s not a good thing when the first article on a “3D print” website is an article that is not grounded in the reality of 3D printing at all. Food? Really? Because when we have the Jetson’s food-o-matic if it’s called a 3D printer it will only be to latch on to the hype. And “Random household items” on your …

Steampunk Robot Chess Set

Modified version of DutchMogul’s Steampunk Robot Chess Set. These pictures are pre-smoothing but the acetone vapor finish goes very will with the robotic chess set. I think I’ll pair this one with the tiki chess set to make Steampunk vs Island Magic.

3D Printers for Peace

Just to make you aware, you could win a Type A Machine 3D printer, which isn’t too bad. Just design something that could change the world.

Making a hose spike

When putting down the watering system for the garden this year we needed something to hold the hose down. Sure, we could just use a piece of bent wire, but that idea literally did not cross my mind until I had designed, printed, and tested a solution, and only then when my wife suggested that we could just use wire. …

Questions about 3D printing Survey

User Rosalei on Thingiverse asked me to fill out a survey and per my usual I wanted to post it and my answers here. After some initial questions about my demographic and a strange one about what I do for a living (hint, asking about profession in a survey about 3D printing will give you almost no useful information) the …

Cute Dancing Robot from RoboBrrd

Thanks to writing buddy of mine Devin Watson to bringing this to my attention, here’s a fun 3D printing and electronics project that makes a fun toy for the kids. Buddy 4000 is a 3D printed robot with electronics and servos embedded to make it dance. Instructions are available on Robobrrd and they’ll even sell you the printed chassis sans the electronics …

Bauhaus Chess Set

The next in my collection of 3D printed chess sets is the Bauhaus Chess Set by Thingiverse user Le_Garage. It’s a nice chess set that even when scaled to the same size as my other chess sets by it’s nature was a bit bulkier and bigger than the others. Plus it took all day to print. This isn’t my favorite …

After a week quiet I’m printing again

Sorry I haven’t posted much about Joe’s Makerbot the past few weeks. The reason is that Joe’s Makebot has been sitting cold for a week. The reason is after my last repair I also upgraded the firmware to the latest version of Sailfish. I took everything back to stock in the firmware and… then I ran out of time for …

Design a toy, win an Ultimaker

GrabCAD is hosting a contest with Ultimaker. You have until June 5th to design a 3D printable toy, export it as STEP or IGES format (weird, have to figure out how to do that) and upload it to GrabCad, tagged “uutimaker”, and you’re entered to win either an ultimaker or a supply of PLA plastic! So get designing and upload …

3D printers can also make helpful things

I can’t help but think that the timing of this video could not have been better. While the conversation is turning towards the potential dangers of 3D printing, it’s good to remember that 3D printing can also do very, very useful things, a point I’ve made on numerous comments around the web. Please take a moment and watch this video, as well …