When new technology reaches its ascendancy, a question is posed. Can it be used to improved the lives of less fortunate? Specifically, those people that live in lesser developed countries? Sure, the latest Shamwow doesn’t apply – but what about more expansive and innovative technologies? Like 3D printing? Well certainly. But you have to find…
Okay, you know the rule. You can only cut once. Not twice, not thrice. But once. And when you have powertools, your mistakes are magnified. Curse be to the Human Condition, your hands shake, you’re eyes are dim and maybe you barely have the strength to handle your powertools. It is a reality, but a…
Even Grandma is getting into the act, posting her best 3D printable CAD models of lids that expand the usefulness of that ubiquitous items of every food preserving home, the Mason jar. Lifehacker gathered up a few from Thingiverse – SolidSmack added a few more. It started when a Thingiverse user uploaded his Mason jar…
So – you decided to attend Burning Man. And above the Mutant Cars and the becostumed attendees, you notice a quadcopter flying about, with what appears to be a figurine hanging underneath it. Just then, you hear an alarming sound coming from one of a becostumed woman – its coming from a device in her…
“Hey Hunny! Bring your belly over here and have a look at this!” I’ve seen disturbingly decorated decoupages of bosom and baby bump hanging on walls, bronze cast sculptures of the unborn, but this new keepsake puts all those other reminders of pregnancy to shame. A Japanese tech company called Fasotec is providing a new…
Rust never sleeps, especially in Ohio. The heart of the steel manufacturing has suffered more from the decline of the industry and the recession more than anywhere else in America, and 3D Printing has been hyped for how it could bring jobs back. It might, but the story is more complicated than what it seems.
While some are worrying about high-efficiency this and fuel-economic that, others are putting the electrons pulsing through their cognitive, übercreative brain cages to much better use creating “an open-source, 18ft wide, 4,000 pound, 6-legged hydraulic robot that you can ride.” Project Hexapod is a robotics class turned Kickstarter project that hit its initial funding goal…
ParaNorman is a film to be released tonight, a zombie flick that’s fun for the whole family. Its not just another 3D computer animated film – its entirely stop-motion. Portland-based LAIKA studios, which brought you Coraline a few years previous, uses a 3D System ZPrinter individually manufacture every single head for every single character. All…
I could have done a post on creating the cube matrix you see above, but what fun is that when we have an actual 3D (not really 3D) matrix that encapsulates the power and expanse of the 3D Scan-to-Print industry. Tuan Tranpham, the Community Managaer for Objet (soon to merge with Stratasys), in a perfect…
Ever so recently, a number of awesome infographics on 3D printing, and fabrication in general, have appeared on the Interwebs. You probably haven’t seen or heard enough about 3D Printing, so we’d like to share them with you so it’s firmly ingrained into your brain tissues. What’s 3D printing? – Still have no clue about…
What’s more fun than spending a few hours (days) building your very first 3D printer? Watching a videographic about those who have already built their first 3D printer (not really more fun). Stephen Murphey has put together this superb visualization of the survey results gathered by the “The Journal of Peer Production” in a global…
If it were up to me, everything important to sustaining life–computers, blenders, sinks, beer–would be kept and deployed via a briefcase, mostly for the effect of grabbing the briefcase in times of panic and letting everyone know, not to worry, you have your briefcase. Ben Heck has the same idea, and he has fit one…
Sean Charlesworth is a digital designer from New York, and no doubt, 20,000 leagues beyond his colleagues. His OPUS V is a 3D printed, sea-punk submersible, his final project for his Masters at NYU. Complete with LED lights, moving parts and flexible tentacles. Bar none, it is the most impressive 3D prints we’ve ever seen…
Trying to get your buddy out of the clink? Hit up your friendly neighbourhood Fablab, churn out this handy double-ended key and chances are you’ll be able to uncuff him quicker than you can say, “I didn’t do it officer.” A German hacker named Ray has demonstrated the key vulnerability in a great majority of…
So, what does the University of Washington, milk jugs, recreational boating and 3D Printing have in common? Not much… until now! The new ‘Washington Open Object Fabricator’ Group (WOOF), UW Engineering students and the Open 3D Printing Lab managed to manufacture a boat from shredded HDPE milk jugs and a hacked Plasma Cutter named ‘Big…
Believe me, I was so tempted to headline this story with “Geomagic and Creaform Ass-Scan Gets Australian Kayak Team Fitted” Damage done, but to be honest, the scan is of much more than the posterior. The process of how Ami Drory, biomechanist at the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), is forming the kayak cockpit, seat…
Logging into Shapeways last week was a bit disconcerting – almost made me think I was at the wrong website. Shapeways has completely revamped the look and feel of their site, their logo and their interface. The reason? Evolution we suppose. As Shapeways begins to offer more materials, higher quality and a better platform for its…
Cubify Invent is CAD software aimed at the uninitiated consumer with a 3D printer like the 3D System’s Cube. Unlike the free to use AutoDesk 123D, TinkerCAD or SketchUp, it cost $49, but has all the functions you would need to make almost any part fairly quickly. Extrude 2D into 3D? Yup! Fillets and other such…
This could also read, “Man machines gun parts, people freak out.” Hundreds of stories and thousands of comments erupted on the interewebs this week after HaveBlue, a gunsmithing member of the AR15.com forums, posted about printing the lower receiver of an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle. It’s not the first print of a firearm, the first freaking…
It’s shoes like these that make me wish I was a girl assassin 500 years in the future. For Janina Alleyne the future is now and she’s making here shoe designs happen with the help of a very talented modeler and a good dose of 3D printed precision. The Exoskeleton is just one of here…
In between writing blogs on 3D printing, I’ve been working hard on another project – The Rygo. Made of 3D Printed Concrete, this incredible piece is going to be properly unveiled on Thursday, July 26th in Vancouver, Canada. Weighing some 3,600 pounds and standing close to 7 ft tall, the Rygo is by far the…
3D Model-to-Print (3DMTP) is a cloud-based 3D printing service for Architects and Developers that need to take their 3D models and 3D print them quickly and painlessly. After 3 years of development and testing 3DMTP has perfected an algorithm that makes it easier for users to upload their CAD files and sent to them tout suite. Laying…
Who would have imagined that sound and shape mix and mingle so effortlessly! Brazilian designers at Studio Guto Requena took the street sounds of São Paolo and used them to alter a set of classic chair designs creating these fantastic Nóize Chairs. Yes, your chair has been infused with the Portuguese chatter, Samba music and untuned motorcycles,…
RepRap, is there anything you can’t do? The University of Pennsylvania announced they have managed to fabricate living tissue using a modified RepRap. (When is a RepRap never modified?) As if self-replicating machines aren’t scary enough, let’s have them making organic matter too. But this is great news for those in dire need of an organ,…
Innovation like this makes me excited! Solidsmack reported recently on how Optomec was experimenting with depositing metal on plastic and how damn cool (err, hot!) that was. Well, out in the land of RepRaps where printers of different breeds roam and their 3D Printistas tinker, manufacture and share ideas and objects, 3D printing metal on plastic…
This is a short video of three cars printed by Objet. These tiny 3D printed carsare all created the same way, re-sized and re-printed by the Objet Eden350 3D Printing machines. Watch this video – I couldn’t believe the resolution to make such small things was possible – printed, pre-assembled – My first thought? Monopoly pieces.…
Yep, we’ve looked at our stats. There are, in fact, a few Solidsmack readers in the frozen wastelands of Canada. If you were in my neighbourhood, and you like making things, you might have dropped into Vancouver’s mini-Maker Faire. Mini it was not! Hundreds of makers and vendors descended upon the Pacific National Exhibition grounds…
The biggest question in my head for years has been this. Can you start a business with a desktop 3D printer? With a nice little Makerbot, or a RepRap and a really useful product design, can I actually be my own, cigar-sucking factory boss? In my own living room, with a bathrobe on? An intriguing…
When you’ve removed the saw dust from your hand, stand up from the table and realize your hand is still there, it may be time to think about prosthetics and a different cutting device. One that involves laser. Lasersuar from Nortd Labs is an open source laser cutter that can bring all your desktop cutting…
Remember the 3D Printed Guitars we wrote about in March? Well, designer Olaf Diegel and the ODD team have created another guitar. This one is called the ‘Atom’ and may make you look more ‘ROCK’ than a diamond studded jean jacket with the arms torn off.
Cute Robots. Perhaps two words not heard together often. Cool Robots, yes. Fleash-eating robots, sure. But cute? In this case, yes! The Pingbot is a testament to what Instructable user Tomdf can do with a piezo buzzer, IR control, some electronics skill and a sense of humour. Oh and of course, a 3D printer. Tell me…
Rumour has it that Kickstarter will be going international by the end of 2012. This is freaking awesome, as I live in the frozen reaches of Canada, and know quite a few other people stymied by the rules as well. Indiegogo is great for non-US makers and creators with a super idea and insufficient funds…
How do you fold metal? Assuming your arms are not grafted with bionically reconfigured, pneumatic driven suction nubs, that’s an easy question to answer. ROBOTS. Big, 6-axis robots with a 120kg payload and… a delicate touch. RoboFold is making complex, metal bent facade and furniture with a fabulous new approach to shaping the steel. The…
I walked into Vancouver Hackerspace the other day to hang out, There, in all of it’s colorful, tabletop printing beauty, was a new 3D printer and a smiling man named Brad (aka Sublime) giving a little demo on his Tantillus 3D Printer. It’s a small machine that packs a punch. The details were marvellous for such…
Fab-fabulous machines of fabbing people. The Fabbster was developed and manufactured by German company Sintermask, the very ones who develop a unique sinter and powder deposition technology that utilizes principles similar to a silkscreen press. What sets Fabbster apart isn’t the fact that it’s high-speed (400 mm/s) or has a incredibly high-temperature extruder (300C or…
I’m always amazed by how good graphic designers have become at explaining information. Since design has leapt into the 3rd dimension, so has the elaborate art of infographics. We’ve seen it with Johannes Tsopanides’ InfObjects in a previous article. We’ve seen it with 3D printed bracelets that are made from stock market data. What’s next? Have a…
Hungry for pounds and pounds of purple filament to feed through your printer? I know the answer to that is a pellet-melting YES. However, the cost of this filament… RIDICULOUS. Sure, 3D printers are awesome – You can make virtually anything – But the filament is expensive and there isn’t an easy way to make…
Do you have a soft spot for hardcore hacks, fanatical fabrication, robots, steampunk and funnel cakes? Do we even need to ask? It’s exactly why we were at this year’s Bay Area 2012 Maker Faire featuring all of that and a mass of 3D printers, tons of guest speakers, Tesla coils set to music and…
¡Híjole! 3D Printed Burritos. To be honest, I thought that this project was an April Fool’s joke. Perhaps it was posted as such and I’m just now seeing it. Nope, it’s for real. Marko Manriquez has developed the Burritob0t as his graduate thesis for the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU. Ready your tortillas, prime the…
3D Systems is getting into the Consumer 3D Printing market in a big way. If you recall last January, the Cube was showcased on the catwalk we all know as the Consumer Electronics Show. From the outside, The Cube seems to ‘walk-the-walk’, but can it ‘talk-the-talk’? We will soon know. The Cube is now available…
What’s the best way to illustrate years of information and research in a space small and visually stimulating enough that even the most attention deficient of us can understand? Infographics baby! But let’s add a dimension or three to that and see what can be visualized through the glorious technology of 3D printing.
Great gobs of gravy! If you think you can launch a highly technical project on Kickstarter and get funded with $2,000 pledges, in less than 24 hours, you would be RIGHT. Your name would also be Michael Joyce. Mike’s B9Creator kickstarter project has met the $50,000 goal and is nearing $100,000 after less than two…
By day, you’re an ordinary citizen. Yet, when you hear a cry for help, you dash into the nearest telephone booth, drop your disguise and become the savior to an innocent, mildly over-reacting damsel in distress. Or at least, you would, if it were true. Everybody wants to be a superhero, but if dressing up…
You now have the perfect reason to slap on the sideburns, Wayfarers and open up the .STL files of your British-motif 1970 Jaguar E-Type. Today, Stratasys (Nasdaq: SSYS) announces their all-in-one 3D Desktop Printer. SolidSmack was on hand at the Stratasys media event a few weeks ago and got to see first hand the factory tour…
You know, sometimes counting is difficult. 1,2,3… Uhg, Eleventy! Maybe you need a machine to help you along. A counting machine perhaps? An electro-mechanical machine!? How about a 3D printed electro-mechanical machine? One which runs on of the pure, unadulterated power of PUNCH CARDS? YES!
What’s going on in the world of Crowdfunding? Amazing things! But before I get into this edition of “Wisdom of the Crowd”, I’d like to point out that Maxifab has beat its target of $5,000, pulling in a whopping $24,393 and iZen Bamboo Keyboard past its goal of $18,000 reaching $26,436. Pretty kickass if you ask…
What could you do with stacks of 5mm plywood and exhaustive knowledge of Latin, iambic pentameter, gear ratios, Turing machines and the mechanized inner workings of computer systems? Anything you want, but mostly you would build amazing kinetic sculptures capable of computing and endless variety of data, be it fractals or the eternal bond of…
3D printers are slow, but they can make virtually anything. Humans are slow, and most of them can make virtually anything as well. What does this mean? SHOWDOWN.
Have a spare Fisher-Price record player around from your childhood? Do you like playing Portal? Well, we have the record for you! Shapeway user “Pittance” designed a record that plays the song “Still Alive” by Jonathan Coulton, the featured music in the end credits of the popular game “Portal”.
3D printing is growing fast. It’s rather amazing that something once considered a speciality item for engineering and design firms has now slipped into the consumer market in only a few years. Right now Solidsmack is working on 3D Printing Resource page and it’s impressive how many 3D printing companies and printers there are.