New for your Ultimaker: Cura 13.03 is out

New Ultimaker software is out: Cura 13.03.

http://blog.ultimaker.com/2013/03/19/poduct-innovation-cura-13-03/
http://daid.github.com/Cura/



Curascreencast 1 from Ultimaker on Vimeo.



Curascreencast 2 from Ultimaker on Vimeo.

Great introduction to 3d printing by tested.com

Replacing missing part of a bandsaw with 3d printed one

Great post on http://thinkl33t.co.uk/3d-printing-bandsaw-fence with detailed pictures and description of how 3d printed part replaced missing one on a bandsaw. Another epic win for additive manufacturing.

3d print farm

Just a picture I found on Reddit. 3d print farm. It looks mighty ... and unfinished ... Replicators everywhere ... I would like to see the numbers and business model ...

3d printed furniture - Multithread

I WANT IT!



Multithread by Kram/Weisshaar from Dezeen on Vimeo.
For the Multithread collection of 3D printed furniture, design duo Kram/Weisshaar developed a software application to automatically modify joints to support asymmetric force loads. The 3D printed pieces are custom painted to show the distribution of forces in their spidery frames.

Image by: http://www.tomvack.com/

Tutorial on how to mix simple DIY ABS plastic glue

Useful for repairing ABS models, gluing and welding ABS pieces together. Basically it is molten small ABS plastic pieces in small amount of acetone.
Video is by youtube user  MstrJames and he has this ubercool Iron Man project going on ...

Waelice 3d printed wall lamp

Waelice is interactive 3d printed wall lamp by French NoDesign. It has modular 3d printed elements which can be mounted however you want and modular electronic/lightning active elements.

Waelice : interactive modular lamp from NoDesign on Vimeo.

Via
http://www.designboom.com/design/waelice-3d-printed-wall-lamps-by-nodesign-saint-etienne-biennale-2013/

New flexible laser sintering material

Materialise group released this video on their new flexible laser sintering material. According to their info, TPU 92A-1 is  is the only 3D Printing material that combines:

• Durable elasticity
• High tear resistance
• High resistance to dynamic loading
• High abrasive resistance
• Snappy response 
• Good temperature range (-20°C to 80°C)

First 3d printed snowboard

First 3d printed snowboard in the world. They have printed in in pieces and the entire structure was not strong enough. It was reinforced with metal rods. The results would be more interesting if they used larger printer to get the one piece board.




Update (13.2.2014):

Stratasys shows 3d printed skis:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2014/02/stratasys-shows-fully-functional-3d.html

More on acetone vapor smoothing

Very detailed video on acetone vapor smoothing experience of ABS objects by So Make It crew.

How to get PLA model to stick on print platform?

Youtube user trenchphysics has great tutorial on how to improve PLA model adhesion on the 3d printer build platform. Hairspray or ABS juice. ABS juice is mixture of 1 part ABS and 9 parts acetone left to dissolve.
Let us know if you have any experiences with this method. Stay safe!

3d printers in material research and design

University of Chicago scientists using high-end 3d printers to researchers material strength and discover new, stronger shapes.

3d printed speakers with LED lightning

RepRap Morgan printing model with bridge

From video description:

You can see it printing bridges at 80mm/s, much slower than a failed 200mm/s test I did before this. With proper cooling, slower speeds works much better! I am tempted to slow it even more.
There is a moment when I thought there would be a nasty string, but it was somehow suspended on a whisker at the last moment...
The print is also surprisingly clean since I dropped the temperature to a more standard 185degC during printing. Hardly any visible whiskers between the two towers, and also only a few small blobs caused by minor oozing. Previously printed at 200degC to assist my previous extruder.

Repairing broken plastic parts with 3d printing

DRM integrated in physical objects

After specified number of interactions with the object it self-destructs.



DRM CHAIR from Thibault Brevet on Vimeo.
The DRM Chair has only a limited number of use before it self-destructs. The number of use was set to 8, so everyone could sit down and enjoy a single time the chair.

A small sensor detects when someone sits and decrements a counter. Every time someone sits up, the chair knocks a number of time to signal how many uses are left. When reaching zero, the self-destruct system is turned on and the structural joints of the chair are melted.

This was a 48h-long project, from concept to final video shooting.

This is our final entry for www.thedeconstruction.org.

Made by Thibault Brevet in collaboration with Gianfranco Baechtold, Laurent Beirnaert, Pierre Bouvier, Raphaël Constantin, Lionel Dalmazzini, Edina Desboeufs, Arthur Desmet and Thomas Grogan.




http://thedeconstruction.org/team/les-sugus/

Petleh82 on one year owning the 3d printer

LaserOrigami cutting 3d objects with laser

LaserOrigami is a rapid prototyping system that produces 3D objects using a laser cutter. LaserOrigami is substantially faster than traditional 3D fabrication techniques such as 3D printing and unlike traditional laser cutting the resulting 3D objects require no manual assembly. Laser melts the material which bends under gravity.

The key idea behind LaserOrigami is that it achieves three-dimensionality by folding and stretching the workpiece, rather than by placing joints, thereby eliminating the need for manual assembly. 

LaserOrigami achieves this by heating up selected regions of the workpiece until they become compliant and bend down under the force of gravity.
LaserOrigami administers the heat by defocusing the laser, which distributes the laser’s power across a larger surface.

LaserOrigami implements cutting and bending in a single integrated process by automatically moving the cutting table up and down — when users take out the workpiece, it is already fully assembled.

http://www.hpi.uni-potsdam.de/baudisch/projects/laserorigami.html

Projected Image Prototyping System

Here is a project from the Rochester Institute of Technology working with light cured rasin and DLP printing.




Here is an image of printed models from their page:

Project web page has extensive information but it is not most user friendly:
http://edge.rit.edu/edge/P13552/public/Home

For a project summary in a clear infographic:
http://edge.rit.edu/edge/P13552/public/Poster_Final.pdf 

3D Printed Crossbow

Just a toy, but I'm sure that someone will upscale it :-)

http://www.trenchphysics.com/?p=131

Smoothing models with acetone vapor bath

Here are some great tutorials on how to polish your 3d printed model with acetone vapor. Some results are just awesome! Stay safe.

The process is pretty simple. Get a large glass jar, put it on a heated build plate, add a tablespoon of acetone, and crank the heat up to 110C. Acetone vapor will form in the jar and react with any printed part smoothing out those layers.

More info and pictures :

http://blog.reprap.org/2013/02/vapor-treating-abs-rp-parts.html

http://www.trenchphysics.com/?p=41

HIPS - Limonene Soluble Support Material

Here is an interesting experiment with soluble 3d print support material. Support material used is HIPS (High Impact Polystyrene) in combination to support ABS. HIPS is soluble in Limonene (4-isopropenyl-1-methylcyclohexene). The results look pretty good.

More details on:
http://www.3dppvd.org/wp/2013/02/soluble-support-material/

Here are how to videos and experiments in dissolving HIP in Limonene-D and turpentine:

http://diy3dprinting.blogspot.com/2014/04/experiments-in-dissolving-hips-support.html

sLAMP - Stereolithographic printer, For Everyone

It looks like SL printers will get major boost this year.




http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/opensl-3d-printer-a-stereolithographic-printer-for-everyone?c=home

DIY laser kaleidoscope with 3d printed parts

It makes laser shapes move on a surface! Almost like magic! Great little diy project.

3d printed parts are:

• Laser mount
• (3) Motor mounts
• (3) Mirror mounts
• (3) Knobs

Laser Kaleidoscope from Pete Prodoehl on Vimeo.


http://rasterweb.net/raster/2012/09/26/laser-kaleidoscope/

3D printed adjustable liquid lens

http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:57257

http://www.trenchPhysics.com


Why is it interesting:

Lasercut Ultimaker Direct Drive - DD1

With greetings from Croatia comes the DD1. Direct drive assembly upgrade for the Ultimaker, which enables you to get rid of the short belts on your X and Y axis. Idea behind it is to have one less source of potential backlash, and thus more precision. It is laser cut in plexy.
Development is under way and first in-action videos with downloadables will be available shortly.
Files are available for download at http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:58570

The mastermind behind it is Chopmeister, one of the lead Croatian 3d printing scene experts.

Clone wars continue: 3DJoy copy of Ultimaker

99.9% exact copy of Ultimaker printer: 3D Joy printer from China. For half the price.

Blast from the 3d printing past

News clip from 1989 showing 3d printing. It also shows why patenting technology is so problematic. Imagine if we had open access to the technology for 24 years? We would live in Star Trek world by now. Patents and IP rights are bad bad things ...