3D Printer Helps Make A Neat Lyric Video

These days, it’s a lot easier to get attention online if your lovely music comes with some kind of visual accompaniment. Of course, shooting a full-scale music video can be expensive, so lyric videos have become a more affordable, approachable avenue that are growing in popularity. [prash] whipped one up recently with the help of a 3D printer.

The video is a timelapse of a 3D print, something we’re very familiar with around these parts. [prash] embedded words in the various layers of the objects to be printed. Thus, as the prints are laid down on the build plate, the words are revealed to the camera shooting the time lapse. The scene is further improved by shaping the prints to reference the lyrics of the song, and using attractive infill designs like spirals and stripes. There are even some strategically placed clouds and pretty lighting to improve the effect.

It’s a neat use of 3D printing, and an artful one at that. We’re pretty confident that [prash] has put together a highly unique lyric video, and it’s much more impressive than the dodgy 3D printing [Will.i.am] featured in his not-quite-a-Britney song a decade ago. Video after the break.

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Art of 3D printer in the middle of printing a Hackaday Jolly Wrencher logo

3D Printering: Today’s Resins Can Meet Your Needs

Filament-based 3D printers spent a long time at the developmental forefront for hobbyists, but resin-based printers have absolutely done a lot of catching up, and so have the resins they use. It used to be broadly true that resin prints looked great but were brittle, but that’s really not the case anymore.

A bigger variety of resins and properties are available to hobbyists than ever before, so if that’s what’s been keeping you away, it’s maybe time for another look. There are tough resins, there are stiff resins, there are heat-resistant resins, and more. Some make casting easy, and some are even flexible. If your part or application needs a particular property, there is probably a resin for it out there.

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STEM Award Goes To Accessible 3D Printing Project

When you are a 15-year old and you see a disabled student drop the contents of their lunch tray while walking to a table, what do you do? If you are [Adaline Hamlin], you design a 3D printed attachment for the trays to stop it from happening again.

The work was part of “Genius Hour” where [Hamlin’s] teacher encouraged students to find things that could be created to benefit others. An initial prototype used straws to form stops to fit plates, cups, and whatever else fit on the tray. [Zach Lance], a senior at the school’s 3D printing club, helped produce the actual 3D printed pieces.

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Injekto Injection Machine Reaches 2.0

Last time we looked in on Injekto — a homemade plastic injection machine — it was at version 1.0. A recent video from the team that you can see below shows version 2 which is much improved and can work with 3D printed molds. Injection molding takes a lot of pressure and the machine certainly looks stout with lots of machined aluminum.

If you want to skip the build process, you can skip up to around the 9-minute mark. That’s where they show a machined mold and a 3D printed mold being used with the machine.

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The World’s Most Expensive 3D Printers

How much would you pay for a 3D printer? Granted, when we started a decent printer might run over $1,000 but the cost has come way down. Unless of course, you go pro. We were disappointed that this [All3DP] post didn’t include prices, but we noticed a trend: if your 3D printer has stairs, it is probably a big purchase. According to the tag line on the post, the printers are all north of $500,000.

Expensive printers usually have unique technology, higher degrees of automation, large capacity or some combination of that, and a few other factors. At least two of the printers mentioned had stairs to reach the top parts of the machine. And the Black Buffalo — a cement printer — uses a gantry that looks like it is part of a light show at a concert. It is scalable, but apparently can go up to three stories tall!

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3D Printing With Sound, Directly

Canadian researchers at Concordia University want to change how you do 3D printing. Instead of using light or thermal mechanisms, they propose using ultrasound-activated sonochemical reactions. Sounds wild? You can see a video about it below, or read the paper in Nature.

The idea is that sound causes bubbles of cavitation. This requires a focused ultrasonic beam which means you can actually print through items that are transparent to ultrasonic energy. Wherever the cavitation bubbles form, liquid polymer turns solid.

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Saving Birds With 3D Printed Boats

Montana, rightfully nicknamed the big sky country, is a beautiful state with abundant wide open landscapes, mountains, and wildlife. It’s a fantastic place to visit or live, but if you happen to reside in the city of Butte, that amazing Montana landscape is marred by the remnants of an enormous open pit mine. Not only is it an eyesore, but the water that has filled the pit is deadly to any bird that lands there. As a result, a group of people have taken to some ingenious methods to deter birds from landing in the man-made toxic lake for too long.

When they first started, the only tool they had available was a rifle. Scaring birds this way is not the most effective way for all species, though, so lately they have been turning to other tools. One of which is a custom boat built on a foam bodyboard which uses a plethora of 3D printed parts and sensors to allow the operator to remotely pilot the boat on the toxic lake. The team also has a drone to scare birds away, plus an array of other tools like high-powered lasers, propane cannons, and various scopes in order to put together the most effective response to help save wildlife.

While this strategy runs the gamut of the tools most commonly featured here, from 3D printers to drones to lasers, the only thing that’s missing is some automation like we have seen with other drone boat builds we’ve featured in the past. It takes quite a bit of time to continually scare birds off this lake, even through the winter, so every bit of help the team can get could go even further.

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