![](\"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/TxlKNPq5WM5JGJVuyMeCbjttIKr8PjiPgBEyKgiB0fX9z0KCpOssxXdvLfJPfhkqM76CJBKOIny0DutjlyM1_LLG25U\")
Darrell Maloney, aka The Broken Nerd
MatterHackers is on a mission to enable people to build things themselves using whatever method works best for them. We started with 3D printing and have expanded to CNC mills, and laser cutters, and now we are selling our first vacuforming machine.
\nThe Mayku FormBox is a $699 vacuformer that makes it incredibly simple to form plastic sheets into any shape that you want.
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PLA is a fantastic 3D printing material: any 3D printer is capable of printing PLA, users of all experience levels can use it with ease, and it’s available in an astounding number of colors. But every material has different characteristics, and although incredibly useful, PLA isn't resistant to higher temperatures. Just leaving a PLA print in a hot car will cause it to soften and deform, and if you’re in a place that gets hot enough, the 3D print may just collapse on itself or shrink in bizarre ways. Fortunately, there are derivatives of PLA that look to unlock the next step in its evolution as a 3D printing material, like MatterHackers PRO Series Tough PLA and HTPLA. Let’s take a look at what makes these special.
\nPolypropylene (PP) is a popular semi-rigid polymer material used to produce many common consumer products due to its superb mechanical properties. Suitable for a variety of applications, examples of everyday use cases can be found in the form of squeezable bottles, flip-top mint containers, car bumpers, toys, and so much more. Positive features associated with polypropylene include its robust resistance to chemicals, fatigue, high-temperature, and impact. This thermoplastic material is made up of hydrophobic molecules (molecules physically resistant to water), making it ideal for products that heavily rely on protection from moisture. With these qualities in mind, its no wonder polypropylene has caught the attention of 3D printing enthusiasts for prototyping purposes and even ready-to-use functional parts.
You’re ready to start 3D printing with your FFF 3D printer, whether it’s for business or for fun, and maybe you’ve purchased a machine and it’s on the way or you’re still researching which one to get (which, I suggest giving us a call and we can help you find exactly what you need). Something that I didn’t even consider until my first printer arrived on my doorstep, was where exactly was I going to put it and what do I need to keep it organized. I’ve taken some time to look around MatterHackers’ headquarters, my setup at home, and some stations I’ve seen online and at public makerspaces and compiled a list of things you may encounter while using your new 3D printer.
\nWe currently have many different colors of FiberForce Pantone Premium PLA, but there’s still plenty of room to grow with the nearly 2,000 colors in the Pantone color matching system. Thanks to the system FiberForce has developed in their filament production lines, it is now possible to specify and custom order filament in exactly the Pantone you need.
\nMost 3D printers out there utilize one nozzle, which means one material and color. If you’re looking for multiple colors in your finished part, you have to know ahead of time to research and purchase a dual extrusion printer or take the time to learn and develop hand painting skills. With the former, you’re still limited to two colors, and with the latter, there’s steps between printing and painting like sanding and finishing to make sure paint doesn’t seep along layer lines. Enter the Palette 2 from Mosaic Manufacturing.
\nAfter using some wood slices at my wedding as centerpieces and risers, I thought it would have been a great idea if I had time to carve out something custom on them. As is typical for wedding planning, there just wasn’t that sort of time, however, it was still something I wanted to keep in my back pocket for the future. My cousin is getting married early next year and I think this is the perfect opportunity to make a special wedding gift for the newlyweds. With that plan in mind, I set out to use the Inventables X-Carve to carve something out for them.
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When we test a new printer or material, we will usually run them through these set of different calibration prints. In previous years, MAKE magazine put together a list of FFF and SLA 3D printers and tested them using a set of 3D models specifically tailored for different geometry conditions. Each model is designed to test one specific facet of the 3D printing experience, from overhang quality to Z-banding to support removal. MAKE would score each test from 1 to 5 with 1 being a total failure and 5 being a perfect print with no defects related to that test (and one test was pass or fail). With this set of 3D models, you can fine tune your 3D printer to optimize your 3D printer's capabilities and finished 3D print quality.
\nUntil recently, 3D printing with metal has been limited to sintering or powder 3D printing. Essentially, metal powder is bound together using high powered lasers, and then the parts are post-processed in a kiln or forge to produce nearly 100% solid metal parts. These machines, materials, and the post-processing needed to produce parts are expensive to own ($100,000+ for entry-level machines), and cost-prohibitive for the general public. You could easily spend over $1000 for a few small parts.
\n\n\nMetal 3D printing has not only increased in popularity over the years; it's also become more attainable for the common consumer as new game-changing products enter the market. Materials like BASF's Ultrafuse 316L Filament make metal additive manufacturing through desktop 3D printers an accessible reality. Starting right from the home, any advanced user or professional can produce metal parts on a Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) 3D printer that comprises of the necessary components to extrude abrasive materials at high temperatures. BCN3D Sigmax R19, Ultimaker S5, and Pulse are just a few of many 3D printers capable of this, right out of the box.
Dual extrusion is a lot more commonplace than it used to be, but the different methods possible are as varied as ever. Some use articulating within the print head to change from nozzle to the other, some have multiple toolheads they switch back and forth from, some use one nozzle and purge out the old material, and some have two nozzles mounted to the same printhead. Each of these has their own set of advantages and disadvantages, but the biggest thing is that if your 3D printer doesn’t already utilize one of these, there’s some external cost involved in upgrading your printer to do more than one color or material in a print, unless you fake it.
This is a project I’ve been wanting to put together for a long time that I finally figured out the right workflow to make it a fairly quick and easy process to get from scan to 3D print. We carry 3D scanners that have some variance in the objects they are intended be used to scan; the Matter and Form or BQ Ciclop are intended for scanning small, action figure sized objects, or the 3D Sense scanner is for large objects or people. That being said, we don’t have a lot of prints around the office that utilize 3D scanners as the basis model, so I came up with a project that needed one: a 3D printed organization chart.
\nThe 3D Printing and Maker Community is truly a special place to let creativity flow freely. Because of that, we want to give you the chance to display your creative side at MatterHackers HQ!
Much like 3D printing, getting started with thermoforming has its own nuances, tricks, and workflow that takes some getting used to. Even across the various forms of 3D printing, the workflow is different; some can handle complex overhangs, geometry, and things like internal cavities, but models for thermoforming need to be a lot simpler than that. Thanks to this article, you will have a much better understanding of how thermoforming works, what you need to consider, and some ideas of how to utilize it best.
\nIt’s happened to the best of us; you want to organize and clean up your space but there’s just not enough room to display that cool print you’ve put together or keep all your equipment neatly laid out. I’ve developed a system I use at home that’s really been really beneficial to have at the office; small or large I can wall mount any object you can throw at me. There’s three main methods I use of varying skill levels, so let’s start off with what you need for all methods:
You need an object to mount. This can be something you 3D printed, or something that only exists in the physical world (you don’t have a 3D model of it). Once you have your object, consider how you want it mounted, what might get in the way when hanging it up, are you going to use screws and drywall anchors, nails, etc. From there you can figure out which method is going to work best for your project.
When it comes to digital fabrication, MatterHackers is your one-stop-shop for all your equipment and material needs, like laser cutters and engravers. While we carry several different machines, this article is going to focus on the FSL Muse and the companion software, Retina Engrave 3, simply because I’m most familiar with that laser cutter and its workflow.
\nThere’s a lot of different things you can actually do with your laser cutter once you have it, more than I could even think of. To give you an idea of what you can do, I’m going to work on three different projects around three different concepts: reconstructing a 3D model, engraving a pattern, and creating custom packaging. Let’s get to it!
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With the many projects I am juggling at once, it’s really easy for my desk to get cluttered. Either I’m planning out the next Weekend Build or putting together the current one and 3D prints tend to pile up. A couple coworkers built themselves desk risers to combat their clutter, so I set out to do the same for the Creative Team.
One of 3D printer users’ greatest challenges is warping. Whether it’s due to poor bed adhesion, moisture-filled filament, unstable environment temperature, or some combination of all three, every user has had their parts lift during the printing process. Nylon and nylon-based filament, for example, are materials notoriously known for their susceptibility to warping during printing due to nylon having lack of rigidity, relatively high shrink rate, and high hygroscopicity (absorbing water from the air).
\nWe have a solution for that. Introducing our LayerLock Garolite Build Surfaces—your one stop solution to achieving strong bed adhesion for advanced-material printing. You'll achieve better bed adhesion that is designed for nylon and nylon-based filaments such as NylonX and NylonG, as well as standard filaments such as PLA, PETG, TPU, and more!
When you want strong adhesion between your prints and bed, PEI is a great alternative build surface to turn to when your go-to build surface isn’t cutting it. PLA, ABS, PETG, and TPU—PEI surfaces provide strong adhesion for all these standard filaments. We trust PEI’s strength so much, we’ve added the LayerLock Powder Coated PEI Build Plate—a durable, long-lasting steel sheet to help users succeed in their 3D printing endeavors—to our list of trusted build surfaces.
For a lot of people, one of the biggest hurdles with 3D printing isn’t cost or quality, it’s time. My interest in 3D printing came from the perspective that it was a tool I could use to ramp up the detail for my props and personal cosplay projects in a passive way; I was not a user with strict deadlines. If I set a “deadline” for an upcoming convention, not finishing a print in time had no real consequence other than disappointment that I didn’t finish it in time. A professional doesn’t have that luxury, and I’ve talked to plenty that use more traditional mediums like clay sculpting, carving, or “kitbashing” to make something, specifically because a 3D printed project may take a week of print time and they only have a couple days, not counting the time it would take them to finish the prints as well. Print time is directly related to nozzle size; enter the Volcano hotend.
New from Slice Engineering: the Mosquito Hotend. This 3D printer hotend platform has been designed to easily fit into 3D printers you already have, but it’s biggest benefit is how well it keeps heat localized to the heater block and avoids having heat creep as readily as other hotends might. Rather than require you to use proprietary hardware, you can instead choose to use parts you already have from other 3D printers.
The short answer: because the community wants it. We had enough questions, comments and plenty of tweets asking if we had plans to pick up the Master Spool concept. Seeing the response and interest within the community made it clear to us: we needed to bring this idea to the States. With a joint effort between MatterHackers and Village Plastics, you can now purchase Master Spool refills from within the US.
\n\nThe Peopoly Moai has been a great machine to introduce more people to SLA 3D printing and the possibilities this 3D printing method brings with it. Whether it’s used for printing miniatures for tabletop games, high-resolution anatomical models, or for small but intricate engineer prototypes, there are just some things that SLA is much better suited for than FFF (Fused Filament Fabrication) 3D printing. There is a different workflow to the process, because rather than printing, removing support, and sanding to make a clean and finished model using FFF 3D printers, you need a couple different tools to make your SLA 3D prints come out that much better.
If you’re used to 3D printing using plastics like PLA, ABS, PETG, or nylons, transitioning to an SLA 3D printer is a foreign experience. While parts of the process are similar, there are some major points that are different between the two, the biggest being safe handling of the materials and maintaining a clean work environment. With plastic based 3D printers, you really only have to worry about hot parts, the occasional fumey material, and throwing away your scraps when your prints are done and supports are removed. With SLA printers, the liquid resins that are hardened to make the 3D prints are a bit more hazardous. Let’s look into how you should be handling your resins, using them before and after cleaning, and how to dispose of them when you’re done with them.
If you've ever looked into printing and assembling Daniel Noree's OpenRC F1 car, you may be familiar with its size, Bill of Materials, and overall cost. Each of which can be potentially prohibitive; the large car means long print time to assemble the first time and even longer after it crashes, the bill of materials consists of a variety of screws, bearings, and electronics that are hard to get in the exact quantity (one of this screw, four of this bearing), or the cost of just getting everything is discouraging. Enter Skissografen and his ingenious idea: rather than sourcing all the individual parts that are needed, why not gut a cheap RC car for its hardware and electronics, and print everything significantly smaller to cut down on both print time and the time lost from a crash.
At MatterHackers, we need a lot of printing assets for one reason or another. Whether it’s for a new video, posts for social media, or just a cool project we want to get done, there are a lot of printers at my disposal to get it done. When I need something large, I’ll usually go for the Lulzbot TAZ 6 due to its sizeable build volume. But sometimes the bed leveling procedure fails and there isn’t a way to manually level the bed and disable the bed leveling, but there is a solution.
\nNote: as the Lulzbot Mini uses the same leveling system, this solution equally applies.
If you’ve ever split a 3D model larger than your build plate into smaller pieces so you can print it, you probably found yourself trying to reattach all the pieces. Sometimes, the pieces don’t butt against each other as cleanly as you’d like to, or there’s a huge gap between the seams that you can see through. If you have wanted to print a model larger than your print volume and you’ve never done it before, check out the article by our MatterHacker Pro, Scott, here.
Since the beginning, bed leveling has been the part of 3D printing that can make or break a users experience. Initially, rafts were the best way to ensure your 3D printer had a flat surface to work with. A raft is a sacrificial structure to compensate for an unlevel bed to be a flat, temporary print surface. They’re used much less often now because of the variety of ways a bed can be reliably levelled. There are three main categories: software leveling, hardware leveling, and manual leveling; let’s take a look at these and the various subcategories of each.
The E3D All-Metal v6 Hotend is one of the most popular and most important third-party upgrades that 3D printing enthusiasts can make to their stock 3D printer. The ubiquitous nature of the J-head mount makes it compatible with most open standard RepRap printers, and the utilitarian design helps prevent hotend maladies that include heat creep, inconsistent nozzle heating, and variable heatsink cooling airflow. With all the advantages of the E3D All-Metal v6 Hotend, many users still seem to have trouble with the correct process in the assembly and installation of the hotend. This article will cover the assembly and installation process in more detail, building upon the foundation set forth in E3D’s V6 Assembly. At completion, the user will have all the knowledge essential for a successful upgrade to their 3D printer.
\nWe also sell the E3D All-Metal Hotend fully assembled if you are not sure you want to tackle the assembly yourself!
\nFor all your E3D needs, we have some of the lowest prices on hotends, nozzles, thermistors and more - as well as FREE SHIPPING!
\n\n\nThere are many brands and colors of wood-filled filaments like ColorFabb Woodfill or Fillamentum Timberfill, but what exactly are they? These filaments are a composite material, made by combining a plastic (PLA) with finely powdered wood (or sometimes bamboo). The ratio between the two can fluctuate, but you’ll find that most fall somewhere near 70% PLA to 30% wood powder.
\n\nIn the past, I’ve had some great ideas but haven’t really have a set of guidelines for how to make it a reality. Over the years with all the projects I’ve put together, it’s gotten a lot more natural to start a project, develop a plan for it, and then execute according to that plan. From that, let’s take a recent project as an example: the Plinko Game for our April 2018 Meetup.
Metal infused filaments are a really unique subset of materials that you can print with. From brass to stainless steel, they offer a lot of creative possibilities. Now, while they aren’t nearly as strong as an object cast in pure metal, they make for some great decorative or ornamental 3D prints. However, like most 3D printing materials, there is a level of post-processing to bring out those qualities. With most materials, you need to do it by hand with some elbow grease, but with metallic filaments, you can leave a lot of that work to a rock tumbler. However, keep in mind that this method is the “I don’t have a deadline” method.
If you’ve never changed a nozzle before, you might be wondering why you’d even want to. Well, there are a couple of reasons. While most stock nozzles are brass and have a 0.4mm diameter, nozzles come in a huge variety of materials and sizes. Brass nozzles are standard and are great at heating up and holding temperature, but stainless steel and hardened steel won’t wear out nearly as quickly as brass will with abrasive materials, like copperfill or NylonX with its carbon fiber. There are 0.25mm nozzles for high-details models and even nozzles as large as 1.2mm for incredibly strong, structural parts. In addition, it’s really nice to be able to minimize downtime by taking out a clogged nozzle, installing a clean one, starting a print, and then worrying about taking care of the clogged one. Every nozzle has its purpose and specialty, but first, you need to know how to change them out, so let’s get to it.
\nIf you’ve ever printed with a high-temperature material, you’ve probably found that there’s some difficulty in getting your parts to stick to the bed. Some higher-end 3D printers don't have a heated bed and can print nylon beautifully, and that’s due to the unique properties of their garolite bed.
It’s happened to the best of us; you start an overnight print, come to it in the morning, and find that your filament had a tangle halfway through it and your print failed a long time ago. Except that’s not how the tangles work. In this article, I’m going to dive into what exactly causes tangles, how to fix them when they happen, and what you can do to prevent them from happening in the future.
If you're anything like me, your workbench is either in a state of chaos or meticulously organized for about 30 seconds before I start my next project. With this collection of workbench and pegboard related 3D models, hopefully my bench and yours spend just a little more time clean and tidy.
This is the second in a series about making silicone molds for 3D prints. If you missed the first one, you can read it here.
It's time to take the next step in your 3D printing journey and start printing with flexible materials! Using flexible filament allows you to expand your 3D printing projects - sometimes you need a little elasticity and bend for them. All flexible materials are thermoplastic elastomers that have a rubber-like feel once printer, making them perfect for things like custom sized gaskets and stoppers, phone cases, and more!
\nBelow is a list of ideas for some quick and easy prints to get you started with flexible filament. Now, flexible 3D filament can be a little tricky to print with, so we've created a guide for you. Learn How To Succeed When Printing With Flexible Filament here!
When my son, Carter, turned to me and asked “Daddy, will you build me a hand?”, I didn’t know how to respond. Carter has a congenital below the elbow amputation. Simply put, he was born without his right hand. It was because of his request that I discovered the world of 3D printing.
Who doesn't want a custom cutting board? And with the holidays right around the corner, it's time to start thinking of things that earn you serious brownie points with your loved ones - enter your Inventables Carvey and the customized cutting board project.
If you’re like me, you hoard your empty spools even though you aren’t really sure what to do with them. Not only that, my desk is always a scattered mess of tools, nozzles, bearings, SD cards, USB sticks - you name it - no matter how nicely I try to keep them organized. That’s why I put together this Spool Tool. By combining leftover spools with my scattered mess, I was able to knock out two birds with one stone. Read along to see how to assemble your Spool Tool and turn your desk of despair into a neatly organized workspace.
\nNot very long ago, nylon was available in only a couple colors: black, natural, and if you’re lucky, white. Now, you can get nylon in a variety of colors in our PRO Series Nylon, like red, orange, green, blue, white, gray, or black. While there are certainly more options to choose from, there aren’t nearly as many colors when compared to filament like PLA, ABS, or PETG. What are you supposed to do if you need a printed part with the strength, flexibility, and durability of nylon, but you need a color that you’ve only been able to find in PLA? Simple, dye it! Dyeing plastics is really easy and is something I’ve been doing for years for cosplay.
With 3D printing, you have the ability to take something you've thought of, make it in a virtual setting, and then make it a reality. It's not a new idea, but it's so much more accessible. You can print after-market parts for your car, fancy or \"pop-culturey\" knobs for your kitchen, customized badges for your car, and so much more. The possibilities are endless for creativity, but 3D printing can take a long time. If you have friends, family, or potential customers all interested in one model that's really time intense, it'll take a while to print it all. The solution: use 3D printing to make a mold.
PETG is an abbreviation for Polyethylene Terephthalate (with a glycol modification) which is one of the most common polymers used today. It’s used to make water bottles, food packaging, and countless other common plastic items. As a 3D printing filament, PETG plastic has proven its worth as a durable material that is easy to use. Figuratively speaking, it combines the most useful characteristics of ABS 3D filament (the rigidity and mechanical properties for functional parts) with the ease of printing that PLA filament affords. Kind of a “best of both worlds” scenario. But how easy is it to finish? You can sand, use filler, or use epoxy resins for PLA and ABS, but what can you do to finish PETG?
\n\nThe rise of the “makerspace” (aka FabLab, hackerspace, etc.) means more people of all ages and backgrounds can have access to tips and technology to make anything they can imagine into reality. This is great for personal projects and “tinkering”, but gets truly powerful and urgent when you also open the opportunity to learn real-world skills for the job market of today and tomorrow.
PLA is a wonderful, easy to use, 3D printing material. It is a renewable and biodegradable resource. It is non-toxic and has a pleasant smell when printing. PLA filament comes in a wide range of colors and because of its thermal characteristics, is particularly easy to get great prints with.
Polycarbonate, also denoted as PC, is a strong, durable, and tough material. It's a naturally transparent thermoplastic with high impact resistance and excellent heat resistance. As a 3D printing filament, it's heat resistance is both a benefit and a problematic characteristic, as it is even more prone to warping and splitting than ABS filament. As such, this material needs high temperatures in order to extrude and have proper layer adhesion. Once it's all said and done though, successfully printing Polycarbonate filament can enable you to print some stellar and almost indestructible RC cars, drones, or anything else you can imagine.
It's summer! The birds are out singing, the sun is out, and there isn't a cloud in the sky! It's perfect weather to stay inside and 3D print. We have a really big tree outside the front door to our showroom, but we hardly ever see birds taking a rest on it. What it needs is a birdhouse! It'd be really easy to go out and buy some wood or go to a crafts store and buy a kit, but where's the fun in that? There's no personalization, no pizzazz, just a box with a triangular roof and a hole. Booooring.
\nKeep reading to see how to add some flare to your birdhouse by designing one yourself using Tinkercad. If you've never used Tinkercad, no problem! We have an article and a video demonstrating the basics of using Tinkercad. With that said, let's get to it!
To get started, make a quick sketch of the general shape you want your birdhouse to be. It can be as simple as a traditional birdhouse, or as complex as a castle. It all depends on your skillset and personal taste. In my case, I want something geometric, and hexagons are a shape found regularly in nature (and just so happens to be the shape of the MatterHackers logo).
If you're an active member of the 3D printing community, you've probably heard of Daniel Norée. If you haven't heard of him, you may have heard about one of his many Open-Source projects, like the OpenRC F1 Car, the OpenRC drone, the print-in-place adjustable wrench, or everyone's favorite: Benchy. We are going to 3D print and build the F1 car.
We're about halfway through summer now, which means the weather is at its hottest and spending time at the pool is a great idea. Let's 3D print some pool toys! There's this toy torpedo that many remember playing with as a kid in the pool - you throw it underwater and it rockets across the pool. The toy works because it's neutrally buoyant, which means it has close to or the same density as the surrounding water, so it neither floats nor sinks, and instead moves easily through the water.
Today, we're going to try and replicate that, with some experimentation and some trial and error to make it work.
We have many customers ask us about 3D printing in metal and how they can do it. With most printers, the closest you can get to 3D printing metal objects is using a \"-fill\" material; copperfill, bronzefill, steelfill, etc. But these are all composites and only partially metal, with most of the material being PLA plastic. To truly print 100% metal is not an easy endeavor, and requires a $100,000 printer. However, there are other ways to take a 3D model and end with a metal part in the same shape without 3D printing in metal: casting!
In the past, creating an object based on a video game was difficult, time intensive, and generally accomplished by hand. My background in 3D printing comes from cosplay, and the most common question I am asked is \"how do you make your costumes?\"
When designing models for 3D printing, the prudent designer will ensure that negative space is minimized and that the positioning of the model on the printer assists in navigating or mitigating that space. However, any designer who has been around the block once or twice knows that there will come a time when the use of supports cannot be avoided. With that in mind, this article will explore some considerations during design to mitigate printing over negative space and to venture more in-depth on the use of supports while printing.
When most people think of 3D printing materials, plastics like PLA, ABS, or nylon are some of the first materials that come to mind. These materials all have one thing in common: their rigidity. Sometimes you want a part that is ductile and able to bend or compress as it is stressed. Fortunately, there's more than just rigid 3D printing materials; from TPU to PRO Series Flex, flexible 3D printing filaments are widely useful materials to have at the ready. By design, these filaments are essentially printable rubber, allowing you to create complex elastic designs in your specific shape for any project or product requirements. Flexible filaments come in a variety of colors, chemical make-ups, and hardness, giving you the flexibility to apply their various properties in unique ways. Let's talk about how to successfully 3D print flexible filaments.
Acetone is a powerful solvent that quickly dissolves ABS. However, the ABS reconstitutes itself once the acetone has evaporated. This phenomenon is used for welding ABS drain pipes (ABS glue contains acetone). It also allows us to use 'ABS juice' to apply a thin film of ABS to the print bed to help with adhesion.
The Band-IT component parts may be downloaded and printed at Band-IT Dragster. Follow these instructions to learn how to assemble your dragster once all the components are printed.
Halloween was coming and I needed a costume. I didn't want to go buy something and I didn't want to wear anything lame. With the new WASP printer that just arrived in our showroom, I wanted to utilize its power. Finally, a friend suggested Iron Man. It was perfect, but I had every intention of doing it right.
Working on a project that might require a customized stencil? Not a problem! With the power of MatterControl, users can imagine, design, and print exactly what they need. Here is how...
In this tutorial you will learn to calibrate the machine's extrusion rate as well as position sensitivity in the X, Y, and Z, axis. This tutorial works for Makerbot, Flashforge or any Sailfish Firmware printer.
We recently posted some of our custom stepper motors for sale. They are 0.9 degree NEMA 17s and we've been fantastically pleased when using them for our own projects, but we have had several people ask - \"How do I make these work with my printer?\". The reason is this - despite having higher step accuracy, 0.9 degree steppers are somewhat less ubiquitous than 1.8 degree steppers, so the default settings for most firmware assumes you are using 1.8 degree steppers.
Hydrographics is a process where you overlay a sheet of hydro dip film printed graphics onto an object. The hydrographic dip film is floated on the surface of a tub of water. It dissolves into a layer of paint floating on top the water. When you dip an object into it, the paint conforms and sticks to the surface.
Lars Brubaker, our Chief MatterHacker, spoke recently at the 2014 3D Printer World Expo, covering a range of 3D printing topics - from materials to troubleshooting. In case you missed it, you can still check out the slides that accompanied those presentations below.
If you have the desire to print standard hardware, but lack the motivation to reverse engineer the parts yourself, I have some good news for you.
\nMcMaster Carr's online catalog is well organized, has an overwhelming selection, and as it turns out, is a fantastic resource for standard hardware CAD Designs. A good portion of the standard hardware have downloadable CAD files within the product detail page.
Our requested samples of wood-based filament (LAYWOO-D3) came in the mail today, which begged the immediate question - \"What should we print with it?\". After much deliberation we ultimately decided to print a Stratos Glider as an homage to the balsa-wood toy planes of our childhood. Realizing that, since we were doing this all \"for science\", we really ought to have a baseline for comparison, we decided to print our first glider out of PLA filament.
Nylons are a fantastic group of 3D printing materials. Excellent chemical, abrasion, and impact resistance coupled with its durability and toughness make it a perfect choice for strong, functional 3D printed parts.
\nThe main “cons” of nylon filaments are the lack of rigidity, relatively high shrink rate, and the fact that it is highly hygroscopic (absorbs water from the air).
Hey everyone, we have some great news to share with you! MatterControl now includes a way to automatically calibrate your printer. This is a huge improvement over our previous foray into automatic printer calibration. In our previous system, we required modifications to your printer, uploading new firmware and a significant amount of DIY. Now, thanks to MatterControl's new wizard, all you have to do is follow the on-screen instructions and you can get your printer calibrated and leveled in no time.
MatterControl recently introduced 7 and 13 point software print leveling. These are great options for delta 3D printers, as well as Cartesian printers with large print beds.
At MatterHackers we are constantly tinkering with our machines. In the back of the office we discovered a discarded Makerbot Replicator 2 just itching for a face lift. Since we have gotten quite a few requests to make this upgrade available for you makers, we thought we'd give it a shot. As it turns out, with just a few tools it is an easy modification, and (more importantly) the results are fantastic.
Update: Be sure to check out our new article MatterControl - Automatic Print Leveling. This new solution is all software, you will not need to change any hardware or firmware. It will work today.
\nHey everyone, here is the promised update to our first post about our work on automatic bed height calibration and leveling. In that post we showed a working implementation of custom firmware gathering data on the level of the print bed and then automatically compensating its movements. Since then we've been working to put the final pieces in place in order to have a full solution that can be used in day-to-day 3D printing. Now, with two printable parts (a z-probe and a modified x-carriage), some magnets, and a switch, it is possible to add automatic bed height calibration and leveling to a Mendel90.
Hey there, stranger! I hear that you’ve been using MatterControl lately. I also hear that you're ready to start creating and customizing your own presets! Don't know where to start? Not to worry my fine friend, guides like this exist for a reason. So settle down into your favorite pair of pants, it's time to learn about presets.
If you want to add a custom profile to MatterControl, generate the .printer file as outlined in this article, then email it to support@mattercontrol.com and we will upload it so it is available for you and all MatterControl users.
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\n\nWhen I first started working at MatterHackers all of my friends were so intrigued by the concept of 3D printing, I would often get the question, \"What does something 3D printed look like?\". So I decided to make myself a key chain I could put on my car keys; something I could easily grab out of my bag when people asked me. The trouble was, I am a very colorful person. I did not want my key chain to be just a single color, I wanted it to be five colors. But, I was only a novice, and the printer I was using only had one extruder.
Version 1.2.1 of MatterControl allows users to send files from their MatterControl Desktop to the new MatterControl Touch, as well as to other MatterControl Desktops. With just a few clicks, you will soon be able to utilize MatterControl on multiple sources.
The key to a successful 3D print is a good first layer, and the key to a successful first layer is choosing the right print bed surface for the material you are 3D printing. In this guide, we will go through the most popular 3D materials to print with and describe the best techniques for getting them to stick to the bed and achieving a stellar first layer.
We do our best to listen to the community, and we're always working hard to improve the software that helps control the hobby we all know and love. One of the most recent features, is our new Text Creator. Designing parts can be difficult for the average person, and sometimes it's nice just to be able to write something and have it printed, instead of waiting for someone to design the particular thing you want. Let's get started, shall we?
It began how all of us often get into 3D printing - a little curiosity. Two years ago, Matt Manhattan decided to follow through with that curiosity and jumped into 3D printing. Excited, Manhattan researched for a year and finally bought a machine - Ultimaker 2.
The latest update of MatterControl includes a powerful new add-on tool - the Image Converter. Using the Image Converter anyone can create 3D printable objects by simply dropping in an existing image (no prior 3d printing knowledge required). In this article we dive into this tool and some of its potential applications.
A few months ago my friend Barney said, “Can you 3D print Thousand Palms Canyon?”
\nI knew what he meant: all the hills and gulleys and landscape features we’re familiar with. “No,” I said. “That’s impossible.” But the idea kept bugging me. Why not? So I did what any of you would do in the middle of a sleepless night: I went online. Huh! Not impossible, but maybe a little bit tricky. Below are the step-by-step instructions to create a 3D topographic map.
PLA (Polylactic Acid) filament is one of the two most commonly used desktop 3D printing materials (with the other being ABS filament). It is the ‘default’ recommended material for many desktop 3D printers, and with good reason - PLA is useful in a broad range of printing applications and can be produced in a variety of colors. It has the virtue of being both an odorless and low-warp material, and does not require a heated bed. PLA plastic is also one of the more eco-friendly 3D printer materials available; it is made from renewable resources (corn-starch) and requires less energy to process compared to traditional (petroleum-based) plastics. Cool, but what do you do to finish a PLA print to make it truly good?
If you’ve been following along in this series of articles (How to Bring Video Game Characters to Life and How To Smooth & Finish Your PLA Prints - Part 1), you have seen some techniques to smooth out and remove the striations you get from a 3D printing. But what if your original model is significantly more polygonal and faceted than the intended shape? If you have a print that looks like this Soldier 76 mask, there are two different ways to solve this problem: using Bondo body filler after printing, or before printing by modifying the model with a modeling software of your choice. In this article, we will be exploring the former.
3D printers can be loud. While an unpleasant sounding 3D printer is merely an annoyance to the operator (and others sharing the room), the vibration of the printer may cause deeper problems with your print and ultimately lead to unexpected results in the final product.
This is a guide to show you how to print your ships from Kerbal Space Program, the game where you launch overenthusiastic little green men into space on rockets of your own design. We'll be using Dasoccerguy's excellent KSPBlender add on to import the .craft file into Blender, where we will clean it up and generate a .stl for printing. This guide was written with MatterControl in mind, but it is applicable to any 3D printing software. KSP has evolved as a game quite a bit since this article was published, some of the steps may no longer be accurate to the current state of the game.
Your 3D printer extrudes and retracts precise amounts of filaments in order to create your printed masterpieces. Well, it does if it’s properly calibrated. Calibrating your extruder is one of the most important, as well as one of the most overlooked, things you can do to your machine.
\nIf you’ve been unhappy with your printing results or have noticed either under or over-extrusion, this calibration will help resolve some or all of these issues.
\nBefore we begin, let’s identify the components on your printer that we’ll be covering, as well as the 2 different types of extruder setups.
If you arrived at this article, I have to assume you’re either a seeker of knowledge, or an unfortunate soul with a 3D printer that is not extruding. In either case, we are here to enlighten you with some techniques for making your 3D printer run like a dream.
When someone is new to 3D printing, it is highly recommended to start with PLA filament, and having mastered that, to begin experimenting with different and more advanced materials. While PLA and ABS filament are the two most popular filaments, they have drastically different properties from each other.
\nPLA is such a great beginner material because it doesn't warp, doesn't need high temperatures, and it doesn't give off fumes as you print. ABS has the opposite properties on all accounts, however, what it holds over PLA is its temperature resistance; leave a PLA print and an ABS print in your car on a hot day and you will find the PLA has warped but the ABS hasn't. Additionally, ABS has more finishing techniques available from its chemical makeup: it sands easier than PLA and you can use acetone to melt away the layer lines.
PETG is an abbreviation for Polyethylene Terephthalate (with a glycol modification) which is one of the most common polymers used today. It’s used to make water bottles, food packaging, and countless other common plastic items. As a 3D printing filament, PETG plastic has proven its worth as a durable material that is easy to use. Figuratively speaking, it combines the most useful characteristics of ABS filament (the rigidity and mechanical properties for functional parts) with the ease of printing that PLA filament affords. Kind of a “best of both worlds” scenario.
What is ABS? ABS is one of the most commonly used, and most versatile materials available in 3D printing today. If you're new to the scene though, it can be a bit daunting to start with. However, the payoff is worth it. Learning to print well with ABS is essential if you want strong, heat resistant parts.
Every so often, you might find your prints are looking stringy, sparse, and with missing layers. If you check through our 3D printer troubleshooting guide, you'd figure out your nozzle is more than likely clogged. No worries - this guide will help you solve the issue and get you printing again in no time.
Our previous article, How To Use Support Material: Part 1, delved into the specifics of how single extrusion support works and some design considerations that you might have to take into account when modeling an object. With dual-extrusion support printing, all that goes out the window.
PVA filament is a critical material for creating complex parts on a dual extrusion 3D printer. If you aren't using this material yet, you need to be. These tips and tricks for printing with PVA will guide you to success.
For anyone that follows our Instagram page (@matterhackers in case you’re not!), you’ll recognize the work of our Hacker of the Month for November 2020. His custom-designed brackets fabricated with NylonX and NylonG are a welcome addition to our IG Stories page on an almost daily basis.
As we move into an age of self-reliance and innovation, 3D printing at the small and medium enterprise level is becoming increasingly important for businesses around the world. This is the case for Derek Poupard, the Lead Farrier for Godolphin, a global thoroughbred breeding and racing enterprise founded by the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
Our Hacker of the Month for September 2020 is a Maker who has taken his passion for creating and evolved it from drawing and sketching with pencil and paper, to sewing dolls inspired by mythology, and eventually to robotics, 3D printing, and electronics. Jorvon’s hobby has taken him from art school in San Francisco to a manufacturing gig in Los Angeles, all while moving into the realm of Raspberry Pi and Arduino.
Multimedia making is the name of the game for August’s Hacker of the Month. Kim Stahl has been building and applying her skills in crafting since childhood, growing up on her family farm in Southern Indiana, where her father taught her how to use hand tools like a hand-held planer. Feeling curious and creative, and inspired by the movie, The Natural, she began to carve a bat. She also fed her curiosity by taking apart old phones and radios to investigate what made them work. This curiosity and creativity continued with her into college years later as she graduated from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana with a BFA in Jewelry Design and Metalsmithing in 2003 and a minor in Art History.
This month, instead of focusing on one individual for our Hacker of the Month, we had to take time to spotlight the efforts of the entire 3D Printing Community for coming together to help tackle the PPE shortage by 3D printing face shields and mask extenders for healthcare workers around the United States. The response from the community has been nothing short of miraculous; thanks to their efforts, thousands of nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists, and more healthcare professionals in almost every state have been given vital personal protective equipment (PPE) to allow them to continue their fight against COVID-19.
Our Hackers of the Month for July 2020 are a serendipitous team consisting of industrial designers located in Boonton, New Jersey, and a motivational speaker from England who is on a journey to inspire other amputees by helping them unlock the door to their own resilient mindset.
For Shawn McCarty, science and experimentation have been at the forefront of all his endeavors. From running a handyman business, a gardening business, a home buying/renting business, a home recording studio, and working in the film industry as a digital imaging technician, Shawn has done, and seen, it all.
Our March 2020 Hacker of the Month is a designer and technologist with over a decade of experience creating technologically augmented games, interactive artworks, and immersive theater. He currently works out of a studio in one of London’s premiere makerspaces, Makerversity at Somerset House, where he continues to explore new and exciting projects in a variety of forms and functions.
Our February Hacker of the Month, Garrett Durland, originally hails from Denver, Colorado and currently resides in Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Garrett’s background is in Mechanical Engineering for a number of companies. “I spent 2006 to 2015 working as a Steam and Gas Turbine Engineer in the power generation industry. I worked for GE, Toshiba, and Xcel Energy. As an on-site traveling engineer, my duties included planning and supervising and routine and emergency maintenance of large rotating machinery. Then I moved to Oak Ridge to accept a job at Oak Ridge National Lab (ORNL) at the Spallation Neutron Source (SNS). I worked in the Central Cooling Systems group from 2015 to 2018. There I was a control room operator and the subject matter expert for some of the subsystems of the accelerator.”
One of the best things about working at MatterHackers is the depth and breadth of creative people that work in every department. We have woodworkers, engineers, paper crafters and of course, cosplayers.
The ever-increasing range of applications for 3D printing spans many different industries and professions. For Stefan Ulrich, AKA RandomDesign, 3D printing has enabled him to create some truly epic computer case mods.
In Flagstaff, located at the foot of the San Francisco peaks in northern Arizona, nestled in the ponderosa pines, lives a large, diverse population. The people of the nearby Navajo and Hopi reservations, students and teachers of Northern Arizona University, and the almost year-long influx of tourists as Flagstaff lies at the crossroads of a multitude of cultural and geological sites in northern Arizona including Sedona, the Grand Canyon, the Petrified Forest, and many others.
Our October 2019 Hacker of the Month is a northern California resident who has taken her desire to create cookie cutters and turned it into a full-time product design and 3D printing manufacturing business for custom sewing and quilting accessories.
One of my most anticipated moments upon meeting someone new is when I tell them what I do for a living. When I tell them that I am a professional 3D modeler and run a 3D print lab, a bulb lights up; one that shines bright with familiarity, excitement and curiosity. I then ask them (knowing well what the answer will be) if they are familiar with 3D printing. They are. And they proceed to describe the first time they saw a 3D printer in action and recall how mesmerized they were by it, watching its plastic filament, zipping around in space, slowly building something from nothing. They describe to me, one of the many desktop FDM printers which are currently occupying public libraries, school’s makerspaces, and maker events and conventions across the country.
Our January Hacker of the Month is Neal McKenzie, an Assistive Technology Specialist for the Visually Impaired Department at the Sonoma County Office of Education, which works with Blind and Low Vision students K-12. He helps his students use 3D printing technology in order to make their education more accessible and more comfortable.
Our September Hacker of the Month, Oliver Vaughan-Jones, is an outdoor, snow-sports enthusiast that comes from a design engineering background in central Wales.
\nOliver started his journey into 3D printing early - his father was a dentist who used 3D design and printing to recreate jaws and dental molds for his practice. Seeing the benefits of the technology early on, Oliver was already familiar with the concepts and applications of 3D printing when he enrolled in Brunel University in 2008 to study design engineering. Oliver also worked as a snowboard instructor and was very passionate about snow sports.
Our August 2019 Hacker of the Month, Chuck Taggart, resides in Southlake, Texas. Chuck began his professional career as a civil engineer, planning, designing and overseeing construction and maintenance of building structures and infrastructure, but moved into insurance about 15 years ago. He currently owns a large health insurance agency, Health Reform Team, based in Grapevine, Texas.
Our May Hackers of the Month are a dedicated group of military members that have leveraged the power of 3D printing to make ordnance disposal training inexpensive and safe for new recruits at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, North Carolina.
Our July 2019 Hacker of the Month is Ian Davis from Medford, Oregon, where he works as a prototype design engineer and steel fabricator. Since becoming an early adopter of 3D printing back in 2012 with his purchase of a MakerBot Replicator, Ian has refined his design, prototyping, and production skills to help him with his current project; creating a prosthetic for the missing digits on his left hand.
One of the most successful public makerspace models out there today is Digital Harbor Foundation in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 2012 by Andrew Coy, Director of Operations Shawn Grimes, and Director of Education Stephanie Grimes, Digital Harbor Foundation offers flexibly-priced programming including Maker Camps for young people, STEM classes, and family make nights. They also offer professional development programs for educators where they can learn how to teach 3D printing and educate on other Maker technologies for their students.
When art and science come together, some amazing things can happen. If you add 3D printing to the mix - watch out! Let’s take a look at how the magic of theater and the science of engineering merged into the company known as R3D Shifters in our latest MatterHackers Minute.
The dynamic duo that has been tearing up the Maker scene, Evan and Katelyn, has dabbled in everything from 3D printing to carpentry, to mold making and DIY high-power water cannons. Learn more about them in our latest MatterHackers Minute article.
December Hacker of the Month, Danny Sanchez, wants to take you around the world - with your 3D printer! The creator of MiniWorld, an online catalog of 3D printable landmarks, Danny keeps himself busy keeping up with requests from around the globe.
Based in the vibrant city of Montevideo, Uruguay, our April 2019 Hackers of the Month are creating a new model of production, style, and sustainability for eyewear with their start-up company, MVD Frames.
Our September Hacker of the Month is a Maker through and through. Greg Bellows of Riverside, California, uses his creative talents to contribute to two great organizations; the 501st Legion - a nationwide network of costumers and prop makers who attend conventions and charity events as stormtroopers, Imperial guards and other unsavory Empire characters from the Star Wars universe, and the R2 Builders - a fascinating group of makers that build astromechs like R2-D2 and BB-8 with all the bells and (literal) whistles.
At MatterHackers, we are constantly searching for inventive and unique ways that 3D printing is being used in the world, and we are always excited to find stories of those who use their talents and skills to help others. In this case, we were lucky enough to learn about Preston Tobery and Hannah Shaw, the minds behind the amazing MegaFeeder3000; a 3D printed feeding platform for cats and dogs that suffer from megaesophagus.
As a research and development mechanical engineer, Michael Graham has seen a few different kinds of technology come and go. But once a college friend mentioned 3D printing to him, he was hooked.
Our March 2019 Hacker of the Month, Tom Tullis, has been creating decals and painting templates for models of historical warplanes, dungeons, and monsters for over 25 years. As the owner of Fat Dragon Games, he 3D models environment tiles and miniatures for roleplaying games revolving around science fiction and fantasy, most notably for Dungeons and Dragons.
Our May 2019 Hacker of the Month, Cesar Joshua Camacho, who goes by Josh, hails from Brooklyn, New York and currently works as a College Lab Technician at New York City College of Technology, where he also earned his bachelors in mechanical engineering. He is currently involved in teaching machining 101, two CAD design classes and a senior design class. During his second year in school, Josh had the opportunity to work on a broken 3D printer his professor made him aware of. After he was shown 3D prints that were done on the printer before it was broken, he knew he had to make the repairs to get it up and running again.
In a small town in the middle of Norway, Lasse Anhanger is bringing scale model monster trucks and construction vehicles to life using 3D printing. Since he was a kid, Lasse (remember to pronounce the ‘L’) has been making scale models and constructing things from scratch.
A strong indicator that the power 3D printing has to fuel growth in the maker community is finding it being put to use far and wide in niche groups of fellow artisans. This is the case with Aura and David Welsh - denizens of central California. They have discovered and cultivated the use of 3D printing, to enhance their craft, accept more commission work, and create new and exciting parts and accessories for their Ball Joint Dolls (BJD’s).
As 3D printing becomes more and more accessible to consumers and institutions, educators are quickly becoming proficient at incorporating 3D printing into their curriculum. Public Services Librarian from Houston Community College, Rumela Bose, has picked up the torch of demonstrating how 3D printing can expand into various disciplines within her institution.
Our April Hacker of the Month is an amazing cosplayer from Cambridge, Massachusetts who goes by the name of Spoon Makes; Alina Granville.
\n\nAs a young girl growing up, Alina was given the Spoon moniker in grade school when mysteriously, a spoon flew out of her lunch box much to the amazement of her peers. As she grew older and began to create things, especially cosplay and props, she added the Makes as the second portion herself.
Our June 2018 Hacker of the Month is a 14-year old student who attends the Nueva School in San Mateo. The Nueva School is an internationally-recognized independent PreK-12 school, serving gifted learners since 1967. They use a dynamic educational model to enable gifted students to learn how to make choices that will benefit the world.
\nSean Cheong has been working with 3D printers and design since he was in middle school. After getting a taste of the possibilities of what he could do with 3D printing, Sean decided to embark on an epic quest to design, fabricate and build a life-size, 3D printed robot. His vision is called Project 'Bot 44.
Our July 2018 Hacker of the Month is Emily Ruhl, a graduate student at the University of Delaware. Emily is currently pursuing her master’s degree in Marine Biosciences in the College of Earth, Ocean and Environment where she is investigating using 3D printing to create marine habitats that simulate coral reefs.
Our August 2018 Hacker of the Month is the owner and designer behind Lindy Design Lab, based in Melbourne, Florida. Lindsey uses several types of media to get amazing results for her cosplay and prop production business and hobby. Up until 2016, she was using typical cosplay materials for her builds; EVA foam, Kydex, wood, fabric, and leather. Once she was introduced to 3D printing by a friend, she was hooked! With her background in AutoCAD and 3D modeling, she was able to transition into 3D printing to add another creative tool to her arsenal. Now, she primarily uses Fusion 360 and MeshMixer to design the 3D models that she prints on her Ultimaker 2+. Lindsey gets most of her creative inspiration from sci-fi, anime, and fantasy.
Our May Hacker of the Month, Jacob Stanton, hails from Chicago, Illinois where he works as an industrial designer making 3D sketches and models for new and improved consumer, industrial, and medical products.
For some of us, turning a passion for a hobby into a profession can become a reality. This story is all about Drew Aufhammer, who did just that with his love of 3D printing.
\n\nOur February Hacker of the Month is Matt Schmotzer, who hails from Gross Pointe Park in Michigan. Matt currently works for Ford Motor Company on turbocharged inline four-cylinder engines. While his work sounds impressive, it pales in comparison to his latest 3D printing hobby build; a fully-functioning, to-scale replica of the Invertigo roller coaster at Kings Island Amusement Park in Ohio.
3D printers are the ultimate customization tool. They can help expand any hobby. Seriously - we've covered someone who uses 3D printing for ocean kayaking, to someone who uses it for building combat robots. 3D printers really can do some incredible things. Something that we love here at MatterHackers, though, is when one persons' passion turns into a business, and, thanks to 3D printing, is then shared with others. David Martin, our November Hacker of the Month, started his company, Dicey Ventures, which created The Elemental Village, table-top fantasy game pieces that are 3D printed.
My name is Jim Leemhuis. I’m 34 years old from Lexington, Kentucky. By day, I’m a mechanical engineer helping design laser printers for Lexmark International Inc. By night, I spend my time 3D printing, coding, and assembling animatronic figures.
I don't think there is anyone out there who doesn't think the words \"awesome\" or \"rad\" when they hear the words \"combat robot.\" If there is, and that person happens to be reading this article, they should probably just move on to the next great MatterHackers article, because this section is all about Corey Nason's awesome and rad 3D printed battle bot!
Building dragons may be one of those situations where you are training yourself as much as your creature. In the course of breathing life into Vogal, Zeichen Zwei, Saphira, and the other dragons, I have learned innumerable skills and tricks from beyond the classroom and even beyond the almost endless reaches of YouTube and Google. I still have a long road a head of me in creating even more lifelike creatures but here's a bit of a break down of what I've gone through, lessons I've learned, and useful tips to help the aspiring puppeteer along the way. Although, puppeteer doesn't sound quite right in this light; maybe we had best call ourselves a sorcerer's apprentice.
Garrett Faulkner, our July Hacker of the month, is a Digital Fabrication Specialist and Architectural Model Maker for Faulkner Industrial, where he makes designs come to life with the use of 3D printing.
Cal Poly Pomona’s Human Powered Vehicle team is a club that designs and builds a recumbent bicycle and competes with it against other colleges. This year, we made a “tadpole” which uses two front wheels and one rear wheel. We used 3d printing to build critical components of the bike.
We love when 3D printing is being used for education, especially at the elementary level - get 'em obsessed with 3D printing while their young! What we love even more, though, is when students problem solve using 3D printers on their own. Brooke Peterson, a fourth grade student from California, decided that the best way to create her California Mission project was to use her father's 3D printer.
Congratulations to Trevor Byers, the 3D printing animal lover who gave his dog, Bubbles, the ability to walk. Bubbles the weiner dog, born July 27, 2014, came into the world without her two front legs - but, as you can tell from the picture below, this did not discourage her!
Congratulations to Mekah Design Studios, our July 2015 Hacker of the Month! Mekah Design Studios has implemeted 3D printing into part of their craft. Printing for about a year, the Mekah team has been improving the speed and quality of their work with the use of their SeeMeCNC Orion. Less than a year ago, the team had a request for 20 trophies that they chose to fulfill with the help of 3D printing.
It all began three years ago when Kevin Seele, founder of BLOCK Riser Innovations, wanted to combine his two favorite hobbies- skateboarding and building. While the designs for a skateboard's wheels, truck, and body had already expanded and changed over the years, risers had not. In fact, they had stayed exactly the same. Seele realized there was potential for a riser mechanism that had multiple functionalities, which led to the idea of BLOCK risers.
Small, but incredibly mighty, nine-year-old Abigail wowed us with her impressive dollhouse furniture designs.
\n\"I just went on Tinkedcad and started making stuff. It didn't look very real at first because it was flat and then I started adding shapes and it started to build itself,\" Abigail said.
A big congrats to Troy Peterson, our April 2015 Hacker of the Month! Troy intrigued us with his method of using 3D printed parts to make production-ready silicone molds. His submission included a thorough video about creating molds for a Skin Rejuvenator that often gets mistaken for a hair dryer. Peterson, who works in Technical Sale and Marketing for BJB Enterprises, has a background in aerospace composites, mold-making, and graphic design. BJB has a long history in product development, entertainment, theme park, and manufacturing industries. They produce raw materials; not finished parts.
Congratulations to Chris Wlezien, our March 2015 Hacker of the Month who impressed us with his practical and thoughtful Father's Day present! After his father had recently moved, Wlezien created a unique controllable LED address bar that made for the perfect Father's Day gift.
Congratulations to our February Hacker of the Month, Jesse Laster, who impressed us with his crafty 3D printed Meter Clock! According to Laster, it all began with the idea to make a birthday gift for good friend Lauren Bitikofer, electricity and aviation professor at the School of Aeronautical Science at LeTourneau University.
\n\"I started with the idea that I wanted to make a meter clock then I started putting together the pieces that I needed to get that result. Printing the box turned out to be one of the easiest parts of the build.\" said Laster.
We love all the innovative and creative projects our 3d printing community members are producing. We love them so much we would like to take the opportunity to highlight them. Introducing Hacker of the Month! A new Hacker of the Month will be featured each month in our newsletter as well as on our social media platforms. The winner also receives one free roll of PRO series ABS or PLA filament.
For many of us, all it took was one glance at a 3D printer to be immediately mesmerized, and then subsequently hooked. It was no different for 15 year old Ruth Blue. Her father brought home a Lulzbot for his projects, and over one weekend Ruth began to learn about the machine before eventually designing and printing projects of her own. \"From that moment forward I think the machine has been buzzing on one project after another,\" said Rhonda Blue, Ruth's mother, \"we live in an amazing time and just have so much fun with it!\"
Last December, Joe Dietz and his wife Amy needed a way to dispense their homebrewed beer on the go. With a great idea and the power of 3D printing, they found their solution: Attach-a-Tap!
It all began when Todd Borrel was playing a football game on his Xbox when the problem started to arise. His thumbs kept slipping on the joystick controllers causing his game performance to suffer. After several torturous games, Borrel decided enough was enough - he was going to create something to solve his problem.
In 1998, promotional ads worldwide were running on yo-yos. Not only were these toys fun, but they were educational. That same year, Kyle Weems was assigned to do a science project on these entertaining toys, seeing that they were (and still are) the perfect example of rotational physics. As his love for yo-yos grew, Weems had no idea that this particular science project would change his life.
Technology and the latest gadgets have always been an interest to me, but they were confined to hobbies during my limited free time as a financial analyst for nearly 20 years. I decided to take some time away from that world in early 2014 after the 2008 financial crisis effects sapped the industry of a lot of the bright minds that had attracted me to it in the mid-‘90s. I was hoping to unleash my creativity in developing something new where I could make a difference, and I was excited to finally have some time to do that.
It began how all of us often get into 3D printing - a little curiosity. Two years ago, Matt Manhattan decided to follow through with that curiosity and jumped into 3D printing. Excited, Manhattan researched for a year and finally bought a machine - Ultimaker 2.
We here at MatterHackers love exploring the possibilities of 3D printing. Whether it's new materials, complex designs, or even just silly projects, we've had our fair share of experimentation. One realm that is difficult to transition into, however, is the world of art.
It is hard not to feel excited or giddy when you hear Michael Ruddy speak about his passion: 3D printing.
\nRuddy first started 3D printing at the school where he works as a handyman when a neighboring school gave them an original MakerBot. \"The other school thought it was broken - obviously it wasn't broken, the nozzle was just clogged,\" said Ruddy.
\nAhhh, the joys of 3D printing.
\n\"The IT guy and I looked at it together, and the second we got it working, I thought, we can use this for everything\" - and he pretty much has.
Fire Fighter Captain Andrew Stotts first heard about 3D printing from a friend who is a high school shop teacher. Ever since then he's been hooked - hooked to the point that in the past year and a half, he now owns and operates a fleet of 15 printers.
Saroj Manandhar, an Engineering Manager at The Toro Company, first learned about 3D printing when he attended a tradeshow in 1999, where he set his eyes on a Stratasys FDM 3000. Right then and there, he knew he had to have one.
Last month, we published an article on exceeding the build volume of your printer - you can find it here if you missed it. Well, if anyone has been exceeding build volumes, as well as expectations, it's Andrew Harmon. Harmon, July's Hacker of the Month, has mastered transcending the limited space that certain 3D printers allow.
When it comes to foam dart guns, you could say that we here at MatterHackers are big fans. Seriously, not one holiday party has gone by where an all-out battle of flying foam darts ensues. So, needless to say, we were very excited to feature Jesse Kovarovics, creator of the FDL-1, for our August Hacker of the Month.
\nTo print your own FDL-1, visit the MatterHackers Digital Design Store, files are free!
We love when 3D printing collides with long-standing hobbies. Enter: Todd Schlemmer, our September Hacker of the Month, and his passion for pinhole cameras and photography.
\nSchlemmer has been building pinhole cameras for several years out of traditional carpentry and papercraft. He started 3D printing his cameras in 2012 once he built his Printrbot Plus kit: \"I was delighted by my initial results,\" states Schlemmer, \"and I have continued to develop and refine new camera designs.\"
Meandering through the produce section of your local supermarket, grabbing items off your shopping list, and tossing them in the cart are pretty mindless tasks. If you are like me, you're probably in zombie mode while shopping, thinking about far more important things like future plans, work, or even reliving embarrassing moments from your past. I'm definitely not thinking about where the tomato in my hand is from, or how the asparagus in my cart traveled to the grocery store.
Aida Legrand, MatterHackers' November Hacker of the Month, has only been 3D printing since January of 2016. Legrand's husband bought the self proclaimed \"technical geek\" and software engineer a Robo 3D R1 Plus to kick off her 3D printing obsession, which has now become her full blown hobby. She has since upgraded to the BCN3D Sigma, and her prints are stunning - Legrand creates 3D printed ball-jointed dolls.
It would be an understatement to say that Michael O'Brien likes cars. Take one look at his Instagram, and you'll see what I mean. He's fully immersed in the automotive industry; being lead engineer at the Roadster Shop, I'd imagine that you'd have to be.
\nWhen we discovered that O'Brien (aka Magic Mike) was using 3D printing to help design and manufacture custom accessories for cars, we knew he had to be featured as our December Hacker of the Month.
Ashley Ricart, our January Hacker of the Month, was first captivated by 3D printing technology around 2012. She originally went to school for character modeling, which eventually led to her discovery of 3D printing. Ricart, who is now a teacher, has been on a mission to implement 3D printing throughout her school - not just in STEM focused classes, but multiple courses, including Theater, English, Latin, and Art. Her most recent endeavor was producing masks and props for the schools production of the play, The Lion King. In total, thirteen masks were printed using seven to eight spools of PLA filament.
Like many of you, what brought me to 3D printing was the ‘cool factor’ – being able to create things out of nothing but a model and what looked like colored trimmer string. I started my journey over 3 years ago now, and at the time I was googly eyed by the impressive prints that people were making, and found it truly amazing that I could make a butterfly, a Christmas tree topper and a minion (my first two prints ever) right in my living room, out of plastic! I was looking forward to the direction that this new hobby may take me, but I would have never guessed where it would go.
One of the many things that I like to emphasize when people ask me \"what can you do with 3D printers\" is that they can enhance your hobbies through customization. Mike Skrzypczak, our March Hacker of the Month, is the perfect example of how any interest can be tweaked due to 3D printing to match personal preferences.
For the most part, we all know that you can make some really cool stuff thanks to 3D printing. Anthony Williams, our April Hacker of the Month, makes cool stuff and takes it to the next level by creating awesome videos during his design, printing, and building process. His most recent endeavor: a working mechanical Terminator hand replica.