Founded in 2010 by students from Aalto University in Finland, ideas2cycles aims to bring wild and new bicycle design concepts to market as quickly and efficiently as possible. Using 3D printing to speed up their development process, the small company consisting of a single industrial designer and an engineer have found a unique and affordable…

It came with little surprise that those having the most fun at the Faire were those that required a (very happy) chaperone. From the crowd surrounding the ‘Make-Your-Own Marshmallow Shooters’ stand to the long line waiting to get into the ‘Learn How to Solder’ tent, you might have mistaken all the kid-centric excitement as a…

It’s no secret: 3D printing and other methods of digital fabrication are more popular than ever before. From access to 3D printers becoming increasingly easier to 3D modeling tools that even 5 year olds can use, the presence of 3D printing at this year’s Maker Faire highlighted just how far 3D printing has come in…

The sweet smell of Asian-Infusion tacos and extruded plastics over the sound of kids screaming “I want to solder next!” or “Hey Dad, look at this 3D printer!” could only mean one thing: you’re at a Maker Faire. Held this past weekend at the NY Hall of Science, the New York Maker Faire drew record…

When the MakerBot Digitizer was announced a few weeks ago, it was considered a milestone for bringing 3D scanning to the masses. Could it be that a better and cheaper 3D scanner will be entering the market before Christmas as well? The Rubicon 3D Scanner is the Indiegogo project launched yesterday that aims to lop…

In last week’s Cool Tools of Doom n’ Stuff, we mentioned Elon’s upcoming reveal for a gestured-controlled rocket design. Sure enough he shared the video yesterday via Twitter. This is Elon riding the ‘Future of Design’ like the broken colt of an Altai mountain stallion. Giddyup.

To coincide with the Design Museum’s The Future is Here exhibition—a showcase displaying some of the most pioneering pieces of the new industrial revolution—the Museum caught up with iconic industrial designer Ron Arad to discuss his thoughts on 3D printing…and why he thinks it’s being abused now more than ever.

While there are plenty of books on the various methods of fabrication techniques, a select few ever appear on the subject of modelmaking and protoyping for product design purposes. Sure, there is value in learning dovetail joints and proper bandsaw maintenance, but the core values of these existing books tend to veer into ‘shop class’…

As reported by SolidSmack last week, MakerBot has announced that the MakerBot Digitizer 3D scanner is ready for pre-order. In the announcement video released today, MakerBot Founder and CEO Bre Pettis encourages you to “blaze a trail into the future…this is an amazing adventure we get to go on together.” So it is.

The folks over at WhiteClouds Labs certainly know how to strike the iron when the iron is hot. Their recently released video of Elon Musk’s (who is he again?) Hyperloop concept in 3D printed form is quite possibly the most satisfying rendition of any and all concepts posted since the open source initiative went into…

Pencils. They’re all the rage with kids these days. You can write with them, draw with them, chew on them and absorb the graphite directly into your blood stream. Unfortunately, the common pencil is a bit drab. So to prevent someone from becoming offended at that drabness and stabbing the pencil in your jugular, there’s…

Been feeling a little inspired to sketch out some robot designs after recently seeing Pacific Rim? Me too. Lucky for us, the studio behind all of the animatronics used in Pacific Rim (on a side note: holy crap, they actually used animatronics for those scenes?), Legacy Effects, has been celebrating Robot Month with a 3D…

Computer Science Ph.D. students Kai Chang and Jens Windau of tech startup AIO Robotics have just announced that they’ve been developing an ‘All-in-One’ 3D copy machine similar to that of what we have seen with 2D printers. The ‘copier’ from Chang and Windau would essentially let you be able to scan, print, copy, and fax…

It happens to the best of us. You think you’ve done everything right with setting up your print bed, your file resolution, the amount of available filament, alignments, etc. However you walk in to your office the next morning with so much anticipation for the perfect 3D print and yet—it looks as though Godzilla had…

Shower rings? iPhone cases? Banana Hooks? Watering Spouts? Whatever products you might create on your 3D printer as an alternative to purchasing said products, researchers at Michigan Technological University have determined that after a years’ time, you will most likely have paid for the 3D printer in money saved alone. Ultimately, this brings up perhaps…

Every once in a while we hear about a Maker with zero previous making experience come by and run circles around those who have been in the business of making for years. Ivan Sentch of Auckland, New Zealand is one of those Makers who only last December picked up his first 3D printer for $499.…

When it was announced nearly a month ago that Microsoft Windows 8.1 would natively support 3D printing similar to that of printing directly to a paper printer, the news was greeted with open arms in the maker and tech communities. With the release of Windows 8.1, a user will be able to plug their 3D…

While the concept of 3D printing eyewear frames isn’t necessarily groundbreaking, new company Protos is aiming to use 3D printing as a method of final manufacture on a mass market scale. For those with tiny noses, wide faces, or anything that’s overlooked in ‘stock’ eyewear designs, this just might be the next Warby Parker for…

If you’ve been looking for a way to keep those SolidWorks muscles strong and your History Tree Zen operating at it’s prime, consider the newly-released SolidWorks 101 Course from acclaimed industrial designer Adam O’Hern (AKA ‘the cadjunkie’). Unlike other industrial design tutorial series, Adam keeps the long, awkward pauses out and the intensity full throttle…all…

Consider it a Pinewood Derby for the 21st Century Maker…YouTube and 3D Printing included. As a way to kick off the 2013 IDSA International Conference (August 21-24), the IDSA is sponsoring the Launch Day Challenge consisting of 3D printed cars to be launched down a ski-slope track. Here’s how to enter.

SIGGRAPH 2013 has been kicking into full gear the past couple of days, and among other exciting news to come out of the Anaheim, California event is the announcement from Microsoft Research that they are developing embedded ID tags for 3D printed objects. Titled InfraStructs, the internal tags are created from the same 3D printing…

Recently, Shapeways announced a new ‘Maker-Only’ material in the form of Elasto Plastic – a high strength, high flexibility, low detail silicone-like material. Today, Shapeways introduced yet another material offering for all you happy-go-lucky Makers: Gold Plated Brass. Speaking of which, I’m pretty sure a Crania Anatomica Filigre from Joshua Harker would look good on…

When they made the announcement a few months ago, botObjects came under scrutiny from the designer/maker crowd because they had little more than a vector-esque orthographic rendering of what the 3D printer would look like….with no 3D print examples. They followed up a few weeks later with some sample prints, however there was still no…

It started with a 3D printed pinhole camera for hobbyists. Enthusiasts took it to the other extreme seeking ultimate quality with the wildly successful Travelwide 4×5 kickstarter campaign. Twenty-four year old Léo Marius has taken the middle road this time around with his project OpenReflex; a 35mm film SLR concept created with…you guessed it, a…

If there’s one outlet that 3D printing really shines, its in finding new ways to upcycle existing products that would otherwise end up as waste. Take the Sprout for example: through a simple design and 3D print, an otherwise disposable item becomes something a heck of a lot more useful…and in some cases, better than…

It seems as though biomimicry has taken on new meanings as of late—between the recent MIT Silk Pavilion and now this Dewars marketing campaign, ‘natural fabricators’ have been getting just as much attention as the latest 3D printer Kickstarter campaign. To help generate hype for their new Highlander Honey whiskey release, Dewars is live-streaming the…

The low hum of 3D printers echoed through the historic warehouse in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park District this morning as MakerBot ‘Productors’ were busy at work building Replicator 2’s and 2X’s. Today, Bre Pettis and NYC city representatives presented the all new MakerBot Factory…a two-story 50,000 sq ft warehouse filled with nothing but…you guessed it…MakerBots up…

Do what? “It’s a mask.” I said. Walking into the grocery story on 5th avenue, you would think the typical stares, the people piling their probiotic drinks and organic nut bars into their recyclable bags, would be fewer. That is until a baby cries and his big sister yells, “HIS FACE SKIN IS A GENERATIVE…

Hold on tight to your filament reels and don your Maker goggles. The Wall Street Journal has reported that MakerBot has been in acquisition talks with unnamed suitors, according to their sources. Who could it be? Stratasys could benefit from the acquisition and offer printers similar to their Mojo line for the Indie Maker crowd…

Neri Oxman just can’t help being Neri Oxman. Always on the forefront of the next big thing, she famously revealed a line of runway-ready 3D printed apparel before 3D printing was even a buzzword. Revealed this week, the latest project to come out of Neri’s innovative Mediated Matter program at MIT centers around the intersection…

Back in July of 2012, Shapeways teased Makers with a new material offering in the form of Black Elasto. Revealed this week, the NEW Elasto Plastic is a refined offering for Shapeways Makers that while still in it’s experimental stage, is readily available and looks extremely promising. Let’s take a look.

How do you 3D print a house? This week’s guest is robotics expert and CEO and Founder of the D-Shape large-scale printer, Mr. Enrico Dini! Enrico was recently featured in the documentary The Man Who Prints Houses, which centers around the development of his large-scale 3D printer and his vision for a future of 3D…

Ahh the world of iPhone case designs. It seems that ever since Apple posted the iPhone blueprints for case designers, it is impossible to escape ‘the next big thing in iPhone case design’…especially when it involves 3D printing. Perhaps Graft Concepts is one of the more unique case designers, however. By creating a system of…

While 3D printing may not be disrupting entire distribution chains, there are quite a few people who will be printing their next iPhone case, or glasses, or headphones, or toy set…rather than purchasing one off of Amazon. While it may be a drop in the bucket, it is still real, and it is a threat.…

We’ve seen some killer 3D robot arm printing come out of the Institute for Advanced Architecture of Catalonia (IAAC) before in both clay and sand with others exploring recycled plastic, but this new collaboration between researcher, Petr Novikov, and architect, Saša Jokić, is making the print and the printer an absolute art form. Mataerial is…

Nearly a month to the date since they announced the ‘full-color’ desktop 3D printer, botObjects has published new details on their ProDesk3D printer, including specifications, pricing and images. The whole product launch is awash with skepticism from industry insiders due to a lack of physical prints, unrendered product shots, video or detail on how they’re…

While the majority of us may find happiness in 3D prints based off of complicated geometry, there is still a population out there that would love to turn a simple 2D drawing into an extruded shape (cookie cutters anybody?). While the 3D printing market has expanded into 3D print pens and other novelties, the ease…

As the number of 3D printers purchased each week increases exponentially, many proud new owners of a 3D printer are also learning the limitations of their new device. Chances are, an entire weekend may have been spent calibrating your printer or waiting for that very first test print. But what about the other limitations of…

File this under your ‘good uses for 3D printing’ stack. The Local Motors Lab Team has been actively using the MakerBot Replicator 2 3D Printer to print prototypes, scale-down versions of parts, and smaller replicated pieces. Lo and behold, one of these sample parts actually found it’s way onto the Rally Fighter as a final…

Have you ever wondered what Willy Wonka’s factory would be making if it ‘existed’ in 2013? After attempting and failing to 3D print a cake for a friend years ago, Silver Lake-based husband and wife design team Kyle and Liz took their understanding of complex geometry and did something Wonka himself would be proud of:…

Missed the early adoption period for a Google Glass? Need to see how they frame your pretty mug without forking over the $$$? Sunny Gao, an entrepreneur from China, showed off his replica Google Glass during the the Global Hackathon this past weekend in Shanghai. He also uploaded the file for your 3D printing pleasure.

Here are two phrased I’d like you to let sink in for a few moments. Share and sync models from GitHub. Edit models with OpenSCAD in the browser. If you just frightened your boss with a high-pitched squeal as he walked by, you’re not alone. However, you may also be wondering, “What the gravy is…

That roaring tiger head coming out of a lattice work structure? That’s Shapeways. On their blog and at the Inside 3D Printing conference this week, they announced a $30 million round of funding from Andreessen Horowitz’s Chris Dixon. He’ll be joining the executive board and, you better believe it 3D shop-makin’, material-bakin’ fiends, Shapeways is…

For those who aren’t cranking out 3D prints in full-rotation 24/7, there is another money-making opportunity on the block on par with MakeXYZ. As previously reported by SolidSmack, MakeXYZ is a sort of ‘AirBnB’ concept for your 3D printer. Similar to the concept of renting out a spare room in your house to travelers that…

Aiming at becoming the flagship store for the UK Makers Community, the iMakr store is getting ready for their highly-anticipated grand opening later this month. As previously reported by SolidSmack, the store will stock all things Maker on two stories of retail space. However most importantly, will it be an early example of the ‘office…

Need 600 ice cream spoons for a birthday party tomorrow…straight from your CAD file? In this recently released video from Stratasys, we are able to see just how powerful 3D printing can be in a traditional manufacturing environment. For garage and hackerspace Makers who may only need a few hundred parts for their Kickstarter project…

This week we have the great pleasure to speak with the talented Elliot Blanchard of Invisible Light Network. Elliot is a multi-disciplinary designer who recently presented his latest 3D printed product at Austin’s SXSW Festival. We’ll talk with Elliot about everything from Rhino’s Grasshopper to using the new Shapeways API. Rock.

As a PhD student at the University of Florida studying Mechanical Engineering with a specialization in controls, Tim Elmore is about to shake up the future of 3D printer filaments. Currently, a spool of your favorite color of ABS (or PLA or PVA) runs just south of $50 at the MakerBot store, not including the…

It’s not quite Halloween yet, but if you’re the type that likes to plan ahead, then you should consider this for that masquerade ball seven months from now. COLLAGENE is a Kinect software application designed to create adaptive and customizable masks based off of a quick scan from an XBox Kinect. Developed by DO THE…

Are you tired of waiting more than two episodes of Breaking Bad for your high-resolution part to 3D print? Two Masters of Engineering students at UC Berkeley are too, and with their ingenius new 3D Refiner Kickstarter project (already funded with 29 days to go), you can 3D print at a fast low resolution, and…