This hack can refill your Stratasys 3D printer

stratsys-768-3d-printer

[Dan] has his own Stratasys Dimension SST 768 3D printer. It's a professional grade machine which does an amazing job. But when it comes time to replace the cartridge he has to pay the piper to the tune of $260. He can buy ABS filament for about $50 per kilogram, so he set out to refill his own P400 cartridges. Respooling the cartridge must be quite easy because he doesn't describe the process … [Read more...]

Making plastic filament at home

pineapple

There's one problem with the popularity of plastic-extruding 3D printers such as the RepRap and Makerbot; since they've become so popular, the price of plastic filament has skyrocketed over the past few years. Without a way to produce filament at a hackerspace or home lab, the price of 3D printed objects will remain fairly high. Project Spaghetti hopes to rectify that by building a machine to … [Read more...]

3D printer control for the Raspi

pi

Instead of dedicating his laptop to control his RepRap all night, [Walter] is using a Raspberry Pi as an Internet-enabled front end for his 3D printer. Before [Walter] got his hands on a Raspberry Pi, he set up his laptop next to his RepRap and let the machine do its work for hours on end. Obviously, this tied up his laptop for a while so when his Raspi was delivered he was eager to offload … [Read more...]

Eventorbot 3D Printer

The Eventorbot

Tired of 3D printers that use t-slot construction? The Eventorbot is yet another open source 3D printer,  but it's built out of steel and 3D printable parts. The design also aims to minimize the effect of vibrations by using a single solid frame. All of the wiring runs through the steel frame, which gives the printer a professional look. The Eventorbot page on the RepRap wiki provides details … [Read more...]

Zeppelin on the Fisher Price record player now thanks to a 3D printer

fisher-price-record-printing

[Fred Murphy] went ahead and revised his method of making custom records for a Fisher Price toy record player. He's now able to 3D print the discs. The toy works much like a music box, with a comb in the "cartridge" of the record player and notches in the record that pluck the fingers of the comb as it turns. He had previously developed a subtractive method that let him mill records out of a … [Read more...]

3D printed guns, laws and regulations, and philosophical discussions on the nature of printed objects

gun

For as long as they've been banded about, 3D printers were regarded as the path to a new economy, a method of distributed manufacturing, and a revolution for the current consumer culture. With every revolution, a few people need to get angry and the guys at Defense Distributed are doing their part to make that happen. They're designing a handgun able to be printed on a hobbyist-level 3D … [Read more...]

Toorcamp: Type A Machines

Series 1

Type A Machines designs and builds 3D printers in San Francisco. [Miloh], one of the founders, brought two of their flagship Series 1 printers to Toorcamp. He printed out a variety of models including water tight cups and quadcopter arms. The RepRap Arduino MEGA Pololu Shield (RAMPS) is used to drive the stepper motors for each axis, as well as the extruder. This is attached to an … [Read more...]