3d Printer hacks

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More MRRF, This Time A Roundtable

April 2, 2015 by 5 Comments

Ah, you thought we were done with our coverage of the Midwest RepRap Festival, didn’t you? No, there’s still more, thanks to [Timothy Koscielny] sending in some digital assets that were required to put this post together. This time, it’s the RepRap roundtable with [Johnny Russell] from Ultimachine, [Shane Graber] from MakerJuice, [Lars Brubaker] from MatterHackers, [Sanjay Mortimer] from E3D-Online.

The first video covers the introductions for these very prominent 3D printer developers and their views on what future advances in 3D printers will be, the differences between Delta, Cartesian, and Polar bots (there aren’t many), and when resin printers will start to pick up.

In the Q&A session, the panel fielded a few questions from the audience. Questions included how to get people into 3D modeling, an amazing question dealing with what we should be making (with the implication that we’re only making stupid plastic trinkets), and what needs work to bring 3D printing to the masses.

Special thanks to [Casey Hendrickson] from ninety two point three WOWO for MC’ing the RepRap roundtable and to [Timothy Koscielny] for the audio work. This isn’t it, though: I still need to dump a bunch of pictures after the break.

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Automated Target Practice

Automated Robotic Target Practice

April 1, 2015 by 12 Comments

Fan of shooting things? Jealous of proper shooting ranges? Why not build your own automated target practice rig (link dead, try the Internet Archive) with a few servos and an ATMega168?

[Cowboy Bob] of Making Stuff decided he needed a practice target, and wanted to make it a bit more interesting than throwing up some beer cans on a fence. He’s created a highly durable 10-target “Robo-Target” which can be remote controlled or automated.  A thick piece of 1/4″ angle steel makes up the main frame of it, so if you’re practicing with hand guns it’ll take the abuse. If you’re just using  an air soft or paintball gun you probably don’t need to make it this beefy.

Five servo motors swing paper five targets back and forth on 3D printed swing arms — and since each target has a front and a back side, it gives you 10 different things to shoot at. In challenge mode it’ll even show you two targets at a time which will require you to quickfire in order to get both!

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Fail Of The Week: Easy Cheese? Printer Says No

March 31, 2015 by 39 Comments

Well, this is timely. We saw a lot of things at Midwest RepRap Festival this year on both the printer and the material fronts. We told you about the delicious offerings made possible through remote extruder setups, strong and heavy filaments infused with copper and other metals, and a printer built out of K’NEX. No one was printing with canned cheese, though, and maybe for good reason.

[Andrew] here has created a 3D-printed arm that holds a can of aerosol cheese-like substance in place. A motor causes the holder to move the spout to the side, dispensing the goo. At first he squirts it in a coiled pile on to a cracker. That goes pretty well until it’s time to move away from the cracker. [Andrew]’s later attempt to build up four cheesy walls had us cheering. You can see what we mean after the break.

There are a couple of issues at play. Sometimes the add-on just plain falls off the end of the spout. Other times, air in the can interrupts the flow, just as it does during manual operation. And every once in a while, it just seems that the spout was too close to the substrate.

What do you think about the viability of cheese printing? Would it work better if the extrusion took place remotely, and the cheese was pushed through a thinner tip? Would a cooled print bed help? Let us know.

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3D printed turtle shell

Take That Mario! 3D Printed Red Tortoise Shell Armor!

March 30, 2015 by 20 Comments

Between all the media coverage of using 3D printers for human prosthetics, some individuals are making a difference for animals too by using 3D printing. And here’s one we really didn’t expect;  a replacement shell for a tortoise!

We’ve all seen the heartwarming articles about pups getting wheels, or dogs getting replacement sprung feet — but is there any love for [Cleopatra] the Tortoise? Canyon Critters Rescue is an animal rescue based out of Golden, Colorado. The founder [Novelli] had recently took in little [Cleopatra] who had a painful and dangerous bone disease where her shell peaks and gets worn out — and without a shell to protect her, could easily become infected. This is typically caused by poor nutrition, so the rescue fixed her diet, but the damage to her shell was already done.

At a public education program for the rescue, [Novelli] made an offhand comment about how cool it would be to 3D print a replacement shell for her to protect the weak spots. Lucky enough for [Cleopatra], someone from the Colorado Technical University was there and wanted to help.

First they 3D scanned [Cleopatra’s] shell, and then created a 3D model of it optimized for 3D printing. They printed miniature test models on a MakerBot, and once satisfied printed the entire thing in 4 pieces. It fits over top of original shell, protecting the weak areas.

It was an incredible learning experience for all involved, and [Novelli] was extremely grateful for the help he received from the community:

I am grateful to all these people volunteering their time and energy to help me. At the rescue I don’t have the resources or funds to do something of this scale.

As for [Cleopatra], she’s living a happy tortoise life once again — and since she’s only in her teens, she has nearly a century of life to look forward to with thanks to 3D printing.

3D Printed Mechanical keyboard

3D Printed Mechanical Keyboard

March 29, 2015 by 11 Comments

Tired of buying boring keyboards with almost no customization available? We’ve seen lots of keyboard hacks before, but if you want to take it a step further — why not make it from scratch and have it 3D printed?

Reddit user [Wildpanic] has just finished his first attempt at a 3D printed keyboard and he’s even shared the files to make it over at Thingiverse. The frame is entirely 3D printed, but he’s chosen to use pre-manufactured key switches, which is probably for the best. They are the Cherry MX Green variety, which have these little clips in the side which make them super easy to install — especially on a 3D printed frame.

He’s wired them all using 20ga copper wire (which might be a bit overkill) to a Teensy 2.0 microcontroller. The diodes he chosen to use are 1N4148 which he was able to get fairly inexpensively. Total cost is just a bit over $50. Not bad!

Oh and in case you’re wondering, he’s chosen the style of keyboard that makes use of 4 keys for the space bar — as made popular by the planck style custom keyboards — you know, for people who love symmetry.

For more awesome keyboard hacks, check out this roundup [Adam Fabio] put together in a Hacklet last year!

[via reddit]

A Recycled Robot Arm For All!

March 28, 2015 by 10 Comments

It’s mind boggling how much e-waste we throw out. Perfectly good components, mass produced for pennies. And at the end of their life, going straight to a landfill or some poor country to be melted down. Don’t you wish you could help?

Stepper motors are a dime a dozen when it comes to e-waste, and there’s tons of cool projects you can do with a stepper motor — [Madivak] is just starting on a robot arm design over at Hackaday.io that makes use of recycled components.

It’s fairly early in development, but that means it’s a great time to start following it on the project site. The robotic arm is being designed for his final year project in his undergrad degree. Besides the steppers, he’s using his school’s Utilimaker 3D printer to manufacture all of the other mechanical components with control coming from DRV8825 stepper drivers and the Freescale Freedom KL25Z dev kit. Check out the clips after the break to see current state of the build.

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3D Printed Desklamp Follows Tesla For Cordlessness

March 28, 2015 by 26 Comments

If not for [Nikola Tesla], we’d be pretty behind when it comes to electricity. So to pay homage to one of the greatest inventors, [David Choi] decided to make his very own wireless Tesla Desk Lamp!

As expected, [David’s] a big fan of [Nikola], and has always been inspired by his life and experiments — in particular he loves wireless power. Ever since he saw a Tesla Coil light up a bulb from a distance he was smitten. He even named his cat Tesla.

The funny thing is, [David] actually failed physics in high school, but a few years later decided to pursue it as a career while attending Wesleyan University. It didn’t stop when he graduated, he also studied electronic design in his spare time — which is where he learned about resonance.

Wanting to apply what he had learned he has created a very unique wireless desk lamp. Don’t let the pictures fool you; it’s actually 3D printed! It uses one of those retro “vintage” light bulbs, which has it’s power transmitted to it wirelessly by a 6.5MHz signal. It was relatively easy to get the wireless part right, because once he had calculated the number of coils he needed, all he had to do was 3D model the track for the copper to go in.

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