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I know. You’re like, Make it Real?? Wha!? Huh?! WHHHAAAT? I prefer to make it fake. So fake that it causes people to question if it’s really not real at all. However, for those of you who actually like to ‘Make it Real’, there’s a challenge for that and it’s being put on by the boisterously brilliant crew over at Instructables. It’s the ‘Make It Real’ Challenge and among other things, you could win a $34,000 3D printer.
“This post is from our new guest blogger, JF Brandon. He works with Enrico Dini and the DShape. He likes 3D Printing, Naïve Architecture, Open Source, Mass Customization and Hockey. He lives in Vancouver, Canada.”
I’ve seen a lot of videos promising a desktop 3D printer in every home, as ubiquitous as the inkjet. One statement-as-fact I hear is, “Instead of replacing a whole product or appliance, you’ll replace the broken part with a print made by your 3D printer.” Sure, your washing machine is broken. Replace the part. But this is a simplistic way of thinking. There is… so much more.
Let’s just say one day your old, decrepit body needs a piece replaced – a hip, a skullcap, maybe a kneecap or two. Having bits of bone replaced is fairly common, but for the first time ever, an 83 year old woman has a new jaw… a custom 3D printed titanium jaw. The University of Hasselt in Belgium recently made the announcement of the procedure that took place last June.
If there was ever any 3D cad app that could be compared with smooth, silky melted butter, TinkerCAD would be the one. If you’ve not experienced it yet, you must. You simply must. The web-based, 3D modeling app is out with a new version and it’s just about everything you would want and expect in a easy-to-use 3D modeling app. And from the looks of it, they’ve laid the foundation for 3D apps to come.
It may be completely mesmerizing to watch a wee desktop 3D printer do its thing layer by plasticy layer, but do you remember our interview with Enrico Dini? Creator of the D-Shape printer? The largest 3D printer in the world? Capable of printing large structures? The D-Shape printer. Imagine watching that thing in action. It’s the inspiration behind a new project by JF Brandon and will be used to print the structure said to be the largest 3D print in North America.
Imagine a Record Executive going over to a 3D file sharing site downloading a pair of patent-protected headphones, laughing as he jiggles and listens to his DRM’ed music list. Ironic. You may think ‘big deal’ when you hear it, but thePirateBay.org, a site infamous for file-sharing and online piracy is making torrent-tearing waves with the announcement of ‘Physibles’ – a category for physical objects you can download and print. Is this a bad thing?
Who loves wooden gears? We do! We do! Wooden hand high five all around for a tool that helps you create the gears and the templates to crank those creations. The Gear template generator from woodgears.ca is a magical web-based tool (probably) using little wooden mathematical gears on the back end to output a 2D downloadable file, that you can also print, slap on a piece of cardboard, plywood, acrylic or other material and cut out.
Nothing screams I AM AWESOME like having the faces of the people you have vanquished surrounding you. But what if you could turn those faces into 3D printed vases (or coffee mugs), put some flowers (or coffee) in them and bask in the glory of your victories? Now you can. Sculpteo has released the Sculpteo 3D printing app making it possible for you to take photos or yourself, your friends, children or enemies and create kitschy collections of your own or view and order 3d prints of design from others. A 3D printing app… You may have thought the day would never come. Well, it’s here. More details after the jump.
You see that little girl? She’s happy because she just printed some little yellow shoes to match her little yellow shirt. THAT COULD BE YOU. We should have known by now, with sites like MyRobotNation and the taunting of Origo 3D Printer for kids, it was only a matter of time before big 3D print industry caught on, buying them all up or, in the case of 3D Systems, producing a kid-friendly printer and print service of their own. It’s called Cubify and they’re launching next week, January 10th, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas.
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I saw a clock give birth to a timeline once. It was sticky and had something to do with how Julia Child’s vocalization of the words Les oeufs brouillés changed over time. This timeline curated by i.materialise is cooking up something a little different though. It’s a look at the the past year in 3D Printing and all the plasticy goodness, mainsteam media hype and acquisition insanity it produced. It’s a quick tour of the sixty-nine events of 2011 that you’ll look back on when you’re old and grey and think, “This is where the 3D printed parts on my half-human body all started.” You can view the full timeline here.
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