Why Can’t I 3D Print With Rubber?

December 31, 2025 by 59 Comments

A friend of mine and I both have a similar project in mind, the manufacture of custom footwear with our hackerspace’s shiny new multi-material 3D printer. It seems like a match made in heaven, a machine that can seamlessly integrate components made with widely differing materials into a complex three-dimensional structure. As is so often the case though, there are limits to what can be done with the tool in hand, and here I’ve met one of them.

I can’t get a good range of footwear for my significantly oversized feet, and I want a set of extra grippy soles for a particular sporting application. For that the best material is a rubber, yet the types of rubber that are best for the job can unfortunately not be 3D printed. In understanding why that is the case I’ve followed a fascinating path which has taught me stuff about 3D printing that I certainly didn’t know.

The extruder unit from a Prusa Mini 3D printer
Newton strikes back, and I can’t force rubber through this thing.

A friend of mine from way back is a petrochemist, so I asked him about the melting points of various rubbers  to see if I could find an appropriate filament His answer, predictably, was that it’s not that simple, because rubbers don’t behave in the same way as the polymers I am used to. With a conventional 3D printer filament, as the polymer is fed into the extruder and heated up, it turns to liquid and flows out of the nozzle to the print. It ‘s then hot enough to fuse with the layer below as it solidifies, which is how our 3D prints retain their shape. This property is where we get the term “plastic” from, which loosely means “Able to be moulded”.

My problem is that rubber doesn’t behave that way. As any casual glance at a motor vehicle will tell you, rubber can be moulded, but it doesn’t neatly liquefy and flow in the way my PLA or PET does. It’s a non-Newtonian fluid, a term which I was familiar with from such things as non-drip paint, tomato ketchup, or oobleck, but had never as an electronic engineer directly encountered in something I am working on. Continue reading “Why Can’t I 3D Print With Rubber?” →

Chamber-Master

Chamber Master: Control Your 3D Printer Enclosure Like A Pro

December 31, 2025 by 10 Comments

Having an enclosed 3D printer can make a huge difference when printing certain filaments that are prone to warping. It’s easy enough to build an enclosure to stick your own printer in, but it can get tricky when you want to actively control the conditions inside the chamber. That’s where [Jayant Bhatia]’s Chamber Master project comes in.

This system is built around the ESP32 microcontroller, which provides control to various elements as well as hosts a web dashboard letting you monitor the chamber status remotely. The ESP32 is connected to an SSD1306 OLED display and a rotary encoder, allowing for navigating menus and functions right at the printer, letting you select filament type presets and set custom ones of your own. A DHT11 humidity sensor and a pair of DS18B20 temperature sensors are used to sense the chamber’s environment and intake temperatures.

One of the eye-catching features of the Chamber Master is the iris-controlled 120 mm fan mounted to the side of the chamber, allowing for an adjustable-size opening for air to flow. When paired with PWM fan control, the amount of airflow can be precisely controlled.

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3D Printing A Telescope Is Rewarding, Even If Not Always Cheaper

December 29, 2025 by 3 Comments

What can one expect from 3D printing an 8″ Newtonian telescope? [Molly Wakeling] shares her thoughts after doing exactly that. The performance was on par with any solid 8″ telescope, but in the end it wasn’t really any cheaper than purchasing a manufactured unit. Does that mean it wasn’t worth it? Not at all!

[Molly] makes the excellent observation that the process of printing and building one’s own telescope is highly educational and rewarding. Also, the end result is modular, user-serviceable, and customizable in a way that many commercial offerings can only dream of. It’s a great conversation starter with other enthusiasts, as well!

[Molly] printed the 203 Leavitt design (3d models available on Printables) which is an 8″ Newtonian telescope. This telescope design uses a concave parabolic mirror (a significant part of the expense) at the back of the tube to gather and focus light, and a small flat mirror near the front of the tube reflects this light to an eyepiece on the side. The wood stand makes things convenient, and we like the elastic tie-down used as a simple way to put tension on the mounts.

Do you find yourself intrigued but would prefer to start a little smaller and cheaper? Good news, because the same designer of the 203 Leavitt has a very similar design we happen to have featured before: the 114 Hadley. It features easily obtainable, lower-cost optics which perform well and can be easily ordered online, making it a great DIY starter telescope.

Cheetah 3d printer mobo

Cheetah MX4 Mini: A Pint-Sized 3D Printer Controller

December 28, 2025 by 31 Comments

There’s a seemingly unending list of modifications or upgrades you can make to a 3D printer. Most revolve around the mechanical side of things, many are simple prints or small add-ons. This upgrade is no small task: this 17-year-old hacker [Kai] took on designing and building his own 3D printer control motherboard, the Cheetah MX4 Mini.

He started the build by picking out the MCU to control everything. For that, he settled on the STM32H743, a fast chip with tons of support for all the protocols he could ask for, even as he was still nailing down the exact features to implement. For stepper drivers, [Kai] went with four TMC stepstick slots for silent motor control. There are provisions for sensorless homing and endstops, support for parallel and serial displays, and both USB-C and microSD card slots for receiving G-code. It can drive up to three fans as well as two high-amperage loads, such as for the heated bed.

All these features are packed into a board roughly the size of a drink coaster. Thanks to the STM32H743, the Cheetah MX4 Mini supports both Marlin and Klipper firmware, a smart choice that lets [Kai] leverage the massive amount of work that’s already gone into those projects.

One of the things that stood out about this project is the lengths to which [Kai] went to document what he did. Check out the day-by-day breakdown of the 86 hours that went into this build; reading through it is a fantastic learning aid for others. Thanks [JohnU] for sending in this tip! It’s great to see such an ambitious project not only taken on and accomplished, but documented along the way for others to learn from. This is a fantastic addition to the other 3D printer controllers we’ve seen.

3D Printed PC Case Focuses On Ease Of Access

December 26, 2025 by 24 Comments

There are all kinds of fun, glowing PC cases on the market these days. However, if you want something that focuses on serviceability over flash while still looking stylish, you might like the Makeyo MK01. It’s a PC case that you can print yourself, and [Marst_art] has published a video on what it’s like to whip one up at home.

The MK01 is assembled from lots of smaller parts, so the components can be made on any 3D printer that has a print area of 210 x 210 mm or more. All the outer panels are affixed to the main chassis with magnets, which makes servicing easy. You can just pop off panels when you need to get inside without undoing any fasteners or clips.

Plus, the cool thing about the MK01 is that since you’re printing it yourself, you can easily make whatever mods you like prior to printing it out. [Marst_art] notes that he threw in a USB-C port to the front panel for easy access, and a few internal mounts for 2.5″ SSDs. He also made some mods to the power switch assembly. It also bears noting—you get to choose your own color scheme when you make one of these. This level of customization is something you simply don’t get when you buy off the shelf!

[Marst_art]’s video is a useful guide if you’re planning to undertake such a build yourself. It outlines what it’s like to actually print one of these things on a consumer printer, and how the settings will influence the final look and feel. It’s worth noting that you’ll probably want to print this in ABS or another filament that can handle high heat, unless you’re building a very cool running machine.

It’s not just a great looking case, it’s a highly functional one, too. Files are available on Printables if you’d like to make your own. We’ve featured other printed cases before, too.

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Disposable Camera Viewfinder Becomes 3D Printed Lens

December 24, 2025 by 10 Comments

Disposable cameras are a fun way to get into classical photography. However, they can also be a valuable source of interesting parts that can be put to other uses. For example, as [Billt] demonstrates, their viewfinders can be repurposed into a rather interesting lens for more serious cameras.

[Billt] was lucky enough to score a grabbag of used disposable cameras from a local film lab, and tore them down for parts. He was particularly interested in the viewfinders, since Kodak equipped its disposable cameras with actual plastic lenses for this very purpose.

[Billt] wanted to see what these lenses would do when thrown on the front of a proper digital camera, and set about designing a mount for that purpose. The 3D printed part was designed to mount one of the viewfinder lens assemblies on the front of any Sony E-mount camera. In a rather nifty trick, [Billt] realized the lens assembly could be installed in the adapter by pausing mid-way through the 3D print to drop it in. The only unfortunate thing? The lenses didn’t really work, and all the camera could see was a haze of unfocused light.

With the aid of some cardboard experiments, [Billt] decided to make some changes. The front element of the viewfinder was dumped, with the rear element being used solo instead. This was fitted to the adapter on a simple slide mechanism so that focus could be reliably adjusted. With these changes, the lens came good, and provided some really interesting shots. It’s quite a cropped lens and it can achieve a very close focus distance, as little as 1 inch in testing. It’s quite sharp in the center of the image, while softly blurring out towards the edges—something that sounds very familiar if you’ve used one of these disposable cameras in the wild.

Sometimes it’s fun to grab a random piece of junk to see if you can turn it into something good. Video after the break.

Continue reading “Disposable Camera Viewfinder Becomes 3D Printed Lens” →

3D printed Origami mechanism

Origami On Another Level With 3D Printing

December 21, 2025 by 12 Comments

Origami has become known as a miracle technique for designers. Elegant compliant mechanisms can leverage the material properties of a single geometry in ways that are sometimes stronger than those of more complicated designs. However, we don’t generally see origami used directly in 3D printed parts. [matthew lim] decided to explore this uncharted realm with various clever designs. You can check out the video below.

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