Tag Archives: Sam Abbott

World’s First 3D Printed Skateboard from Design Competition Winner

Sam Abbott Wins 3D Printing Design Competition, Then 3D Prints Skateboard

Earlier this year, CGTrader and 3DPRINTUK hosted a 3D printing design competition. Sam Abbott won the competition with a portfolio of 3D printed designs, and in turn won an Ultimaker 3D printer.

Soon after, Sam took a more ambitious project, designing and producing the world’s first 3D printed twin tip skateboard.

3D Printed Skateboard

“There were published more than 250 3D models prepared for 3D printing from the May through June 2013,” CGTrader said in an interview with On 3D Printing. “Sam’s models are various and easy printable. From phone covers, jewelery to statues and other objects. Sam was the winner of 3D Printable Portfolio – that means he had to upload more models than others and the quality very important. He met these two requirements and won his Ultimaker.”

3D Printing a Skateboard

Sam’s next project was a 3D printed skateboard. Here’s a video of his 3D printing and assembly process.

We also caught up with the designer himself, Sam Abbott, in an exclusive interview.

On 3D Printing: How did you come up with the idea for a 3D printed skateboard?

Sam Abbott: I created the Skateboard design out of curiosity after designing many small items for 3d printing things like phone covers, jewelery, light shades etc. I was interested in print costs, print time functionality of the materials for a large design in 3d printing. Also I always loved to skate and so it was just an obvious choice to me to do a skateboard file. The form and aesthetics of the design were inspired from my memories of graffiti and street art from a recent visit to Gent, Belgium. Its 3D Geometry constructed in a way to add grip for grabs and less surface contact for grinds/slides.

On 3D Printing: Tell us about your experience of entering, and winning, the CGTrader competition?

Sam Abbott: Entering any competition is exciting as its a great way to see what others are doing and producing! It has the excitement of a lottery especially when the prizes are as awesome as what was awarded in this one. It has been an unbelievable experience to win the competition held by CGTrader. The competition the members of staff the platform to sell my files from has just been awesome and extremely helpful!

On 3D Printing: What do you plan to do with your Ultimaker 3D printer?

Sam Abbott: I am trained in SLS printing that is my expertise and so there is lots of learning, experiments and fine tuning to be done with the Ultimaker, as it build’s a 3d file in a different method requiring a different design approach. However I have successfully printed many of my rings, a phone cover, some vases, some technical parts for the printer itself and a mini version of my skateboard the size of a usb stick. I am currently working on a design to say thank you to everyone at CGTrader!

 

We can’t wait to see the next design from Sam.