by Steve | Dec 8, 2015 | Uncategorized
Today’s blog post is brought to you by the one and only Robert Nipper, a practical 3D applications guru who has also taught us how to repair a broken Crock Pot and build a basic holiday ornament. No Need to Run to the Store – 3D Printing Practical Applications. As I was on my way out the door this morning, my darling wife shared some information with me: “The shelf in the white hutch fell down. “ The white hutch is a catch-all piece of furniture that resides in the breakfast nook, housing everything from craft supplies to cookbooks to small hand tools and greeting cards. Imagine a junk drawer on steroids. I went to investigate with her. The shelf had fallen last night, and she had already done her best to triage the situation. I asked where the shelf was now. “Right there” she said. I then asked about the pegs that the shelf was resting on. She handed me two small white plastic pegs. Two. Just two. “There are supposed to be four of these” I commented. She informed me that there were only two, and asked if I could have it fixed before our neighbors came over for dinner. Since Christmas was just a couple of weeks away, we both had a full schedule. I didn’t really have time to go across town and look for replacement supports from the home supply store. Then a smile crept across my face. I am not sure she knew what I was thinking, but she was very familiar indeed with what I had to say next: “I can 3D...
by Steve | Oct 27, 2015 | 3D Printing, Additive Manufacturing, Advancing Technologies, Future of 3D Printing, Uncategorized
How big do you want to print? Last week in our 3D printing basics series we discussed the history of 3D printing. Today, we are going to explore the wide variety of printer build volumes and tolerances that allow you to create prints ranging from very tiny to quite massive. While all printers work by building a part layer by layer, the machines can vary significantly in terms of quality and functionality. When searching for a 3D printer for your home or office, you can really distinguish one printer from another based upon the printer build volumes and tolerances. Printer Build Volumes The build volume, quite simply, determines how big your machine allows you to print. For years, analysts believed that limited build volumes were the biggest obstacle standing in the way of widespread adoption of 3D printing technology. Today, we are starting to see the design of 3D printers re-imagined in ways that allow them to build full-scale structures, effectively eliminating this critique. Starting at the true desktop level, the printer build volumes for a 3D printer can be quite limited. Many of the entry level printers, especially those around or below the $1,000 mark, have rather small build volumes, mostly less than four inches by four inches by four inches. This means that you can only print something that would fit inside of a four inch cube. While this is enough space to play around with the technology and build little trinkets, if you want to make actual, usable parts, you will find a four-inch limitation to be rather cumbersome. Moving into the next level of printers,...
by Steve | Oct 31, 2014 | 3D Design, 3D Printing, Additive Manufacturing, Autodesk, Future of 3D Printing, Uncategorized
Autodesk hopes to bolster the future of 3D printing The Announcement In May of this year, Autodesk announced that they were ready to jump into the 3D printing game. In a blog post by Carl Bass, Autodesk President and CEO, Bass explained how his frustration with the state of the 3D printing industry had led him to seek out a better option. The result of this search was twofold: the development of an entirely new open source software platform, Autodesk Spark, and a 3D printer, the Ember, that would be designed to work with the Spark platform. Through these innovations, Autodesk hopes to help shape the future of 3D printing in a more user-friendly direction. Development for Spark In an update from Autodesk CTO Jeff Kowalski at the Inside 3D Printing Conference this week, Kowalski spilled a few more details about the software. One of the things that really separates Spark from the competition is its “autocomplete” feature, which allows the software to anticipate the design and complete the shape for the user. The Spark software program will also be able to work with multiple materials and can be used on any available hardware platform. Like the software, Ember, the 3D printer, will be designed through a heavily collaborative process. So far, it is known that the printer will have a resolution of 10 microns and will primarily use photo-cured resin for its material, although it will also print other materials. It is estimated that the printer will go on sale for somewhere around $5,000. Raising the bar This week, Autodesk took their role in the 3D marketplace a...
