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.
From TPE to Soft PLA, flexible 3D printing filaments are widely useful materials to have at the ready. By design, these filaments are basically printable rubber, allowing you to create complex elastic designs that would otherwise be impossible. Flexible filaments come in a variety of colors, chemical make-ups, and hardness, giving you the flexibility to apply their various properties.
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 printed graphics onto an object. The hydrographic 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.
\nThe McMaster Carr 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.
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.
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.
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.