Tag Archives: MakerBot
Fab Lab of the Week: 3D Printing Providence Interest Group
This week’s featured Fab Lab is 3DPPVD, or 3D Printing Providence. Although 3DPPVD is more of a meetup than a Fab Lab, it is spreading the interest and adoption of 3D printing.
We are pleased to announce the first meeting of 3DPPVD, a monthly meetup for MakerBot, RepRap, other 3D printer operators and anyone who’s interested in digital fabrication. Even if you are not an owner of a 3D printer this will be a great opportunity to learn about the emerging field of desktop rapid prototyping. If you do have a printer feel free to bring it down and show off your mods and prints.
Our first meeting will be on Wednesday July 11th at AS220 Labs (AS220 Mercantile Block, 131 Washington St (Entrance on Lucie Way), Providence, Ri) from 7pm until they kick us out. Since this is the inaugural event, there won’t be a theme so we have time to get to know each other and find out what kind of topics we would like to discuss at future events. This event is free and open to the public so please bring your friends and family.
Via MAKE.
3D printer photo by makerbot used under Creative Commons license.
TechCrunch TV Takes a Tour of MakerBot with Bre Pettis
TechCrunch writer John Biggs takes a tour of Brooklyn-based MakerBot with founder and CEO Bre Pettis.
It’s been months in the making, but here it is: the first episode of TechCrunch Makers, featuring Bre Pettis of Makerbot. We visited Bre’s downtown Brooklyn factory where he and the rest of team design, build, and ship hundreds of Makerbots a week.
Our goal for this series is to highlight hardware entrepreneurs – folks who are building something cool and making the world a cooler place while doing it. Look for upcoming episodes on distilling in the city, reanimated farms, and Arduino.
Our favorite part of the video is when John Biggs realizes that MakerBot machines are actually assembled onsite, as opposed to some factory in China. In a tongue-and-cheek reference to people buying eggs and not knowing a chicken is involved, Bre responds ”these are my glorious chickens.”
Via TechCrunch.
Autodesk Shows off 123D Catch Software and 3D Printing at Google I/O
At the Google I/O conference in San Francisco this week, 3D printing was a popular theme. We reported earlier about the 3D Systems Cubify team hosting a printing station. Also at the conference was the Autodesk 123D team.
They were showing off their design software called 123D Catch, software for your laptop or iPad that lets you import a series of photos of a physical object and create a precise 3D model from those photos. The software is powered by the cloud and takes about 10 to 15 minutes to produce a model. In the example they were showing, the team had taken 30 photos of a marble statue in a museum and the software created a rich 3D model that was ready to print.
The Autodesk team was also printing objects on the MakerBot replicator.
Read more about Autodesk and 123D in our previous coverage.
Photos from Google I/O by on3dprinting.com.
Broadway Shows Get New Mojo with 3D Printed Set Design
Broadway set designer Kacie Hultgren is using 3D printing to innovate on how she brings the stage to life.
To realize the vision of a Broadway production, financiers and producers need to see what the set is going to look like, at a miniature scale. Hultgren and others in her profession had always done this the old-fashioned way, through crafting cardboard, paper, and foam core. Now Hultgren is setting a new standard in set design by way of 3D printing.
“The thing about a 3D printer is, it’s almost like having light manufacturing in your house,” Hultgren says. “For small quantities, MakerBot is great. You can test out what’s going to be popular.”
3D printing technology lets her build full sets to scale and then replicate the models quickly to share with stakeholders. She has worked on shows like John Lithgow’s The Columnist and Hugh Jackman: Back on Broadway.
Via Wired.
Fab Lab of the Week: Dickinson College Media Center Adopts 3D Printing
This week’s featured Fab Lab is the Dickinson College Media Center, located in Carlisle, PA.
In their own words:
The Media Center is your media mecca. We help you create multimedia projects from simple graphics to short films. Our equipment office is available for students, faculty and staff to check out cameras, mics, audio recorders, light kits, green screens, dollies & much much more. We help you along your way from novice to expert and the center helps not only students working on class projects but anyone who needs assistance starting a project.
Recently, the Media Center has added 3D printing equipment to their selection of tools that students can use. The first 3D printer to arrive was a MakerBot.
The Media Center’s newest member, The MakerBot Replicator, is finally available! After several weeks of troubleshooting and trials, it is now fine tuned and ready to print your designs! Here is a look at the phases of the tuning process, through the creation of a unique Media Center keychain designed in Google Sketchup 8.
The MakerBot uses an Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic, which is fed through the top of the extruder. The extruder is heated to ~220C or ~430F, which turns the ABS plastic into a viscous liquid. The extruder then positions itself just above the warm print surface and begins the expel the plastic in the formation designated by the 3D file. Each print begins with a “raft,” which is nothing more than a thick grid of ABS plastic, that allows for the MakerBot to ensure that the rest of the object is built upon a stable foundation. Below is a snapshot of the raft creation process.
It is great to see colleges embracing the future of 3D printing and giving their students a chance to innovate with the technology. Way to go Dickinson!
