Remoticon Video: How To 3D Print Onto Fabric With Billie Ruben

We’re impressed to see the continued flow of new and interesting ways to utilize 3D printing despite its years in the hacker limelight. At the 2020 Hackaday Remoticon [Billie Ruben] came to us from across the sea to demonstrate how to use 3D printing and fabric, or other flexible materials, to fabricate new and interesting creations. Check out her workshop below, and read on for more detail about what you’ll find.

The workshop is divided into two parts, a hands-on portion where participants execute a fabric print at home on their own printer, and a lecture while the printers whirr away describing ways this technique can be used to produce strong, flexible structures.

The technique described in the hands on portion can be clumsily summarized as “print a few layers, add the flexible material, then resume the printing process”. Of course the actual explanation and discussion of how to know when to insert the material, configure your slicer, and select material is significantly more complex! For the entire process make sure to follow along with [Billie]’s clear instructions in the video.

The lecture portion of the workshop was a whirlwind tour of the ways which embedded materials can be used to enhance your prints. The most glamourous examples might be printing scales, spikes, and other accoutrement for cosplay, but beyond that it has a variety of other uses both practical and fashionable. Embedded fabric can add composite strength to large structural elements, durable flexibility to a living hinge, or a substrate for new kinds of jewelry. [Billie] has deep experience in this realm and she brings it to bear in a comprehensive exposition of the possibilities. We’re looking forward to seeing a flurry of new composite prints!

12 thoughts on “Remoticon Video: How To 3D Print Onto Fabric With Billie Ruben

      1. I think that’s based off using an SVG to do the tool pathing for the bottom layer. It’s a really clever application and I think she was working towards a Cura plugin that was more generally applicable, not sure if anything came of it yet, though.

  1. Stage Name, or did her parents actually name her that?

    bilirubin
    [ˌbiləˈro͞obin]

    NOUN
    biochemistry
    an orange-yellow pigment formed in the liver by the breakdown of hemoglobin and excreted in bile.

  2. Very interesting. Something like a silkscreen frame might be a good way to keep the fabric in place. Or maybe an embroidery ring. You could tape some magnets to your print bed and then glue or tape matching magnets to the ring/frame that would hold it in place with the fabric stretched in it. Might streamline the process a bit.

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