Best of the Blog – Interviews, Thoughts & Opinions
Here’s five of my favourite interviews from 2011: we’re talking printed organs, education, DIY, hobby printing, and the future of connectivity. Kick back and tune in!
PopTech talks to Dr. Gabor Forgac, founder of Organovo, a company that sells “the world’s only commercial bioprinter proven to create tissue.” (more…)
Embracing the sculptural beauty of machines in motion
Hot on the heels of our Best of the Blog 2011: Art post comes this mesmerising clip from filmmaker Ralph Steiner’s Mechanical Principles, a 1930’s masterpiece in which the inner workings of all kinds of devices are revealed.
Taking a moment to appreciate the sculptural qualities of decidedly practical devices unveils the poetry inherent in their movements. It’s quite hypnotic, and well worth sitting back to contemplate (and indeed enjoy) over your morning coffee.
via Make
Best of the Blog 2011: Art
Take a moment to step back and see the world a little differently with this selection of ten memorable works of art that appeared on the Ponoko blog during 2011.
From unique perspectives on everyday objects to different ways of capturing and expressing movement, join us to explore how artists continue to use digital manufacturing technologies in new and exciting ways.
The mesmerising motion of professional dancers and martial artists is captured in this intriguing project by Mathew Schwartz. Data from the sinuous movements is 3D printed before being cast in bronze, giving a unique perspective on human movement that would surely have Muybridge’s nod of approval.
Best of the Blog – Architecture
From open-source buildings and zero-waste designs to scale models and temporary structures, here are ten awesome examples of what can happen when the tools of digital fabrication are in service to the field of architecture.
The enormous Metropol Parasol pavilion was erected in Seville, Spain last year. Spanning 230ft wide and 490ft long, the pavilion is said to be the largest wooden structure in the world.
Behold! Variables!
A new solid modeling tool called OpenJsCad was released a few days ago. Thingiverse user joostn created it to get around some frustrations that he was having with OpenSCAD, including a feature that many others have clamoured for: variables!
The tool can run in any WebGL-capable browser, and has a separate, offline parser for heavy lifting. It’s too early to guess at what kind of adoption there might be, but the embedding feature could make sharing parametric models even easier. (more…)
new fabrics & plywoods
We’ve added four new materials to the NZ making hub!
First up is a new 3mm thickness of Hoop Pine Plywood. It’s an interior grade level plywood and produces very crisp laser engraving results. Good for furnishing and accessory designs like boxes, small furniture, shelves, displays etc. A P1 size is just $4.30. Get a sample for $3NZ.
Next we have 1.5mm thick Upholstery Leather in Driftwood. It’s vegetable tanned and finished with oils and waxes. The underside has a soft suede finish, great for use with bags, wallets, shoes, or decorative pillows. Prices start at a little under $14 for a P1 size piece. Get a sample for $3NZ.
Coin blocks, laser cutting and 3D printing – Super Mario in the Digital Manufacturing Age.
For those of us who grew up with the ringing chimes of Super Mario coins in our ears, the clever tinkerers in the Digital Manufacturing community continue to provide nostalgic treats to satisfy all those retro-gaming cravings. Today we look back at five of our favourite Super Mario inspired projects.
Bryan Duxbury’s Question Mark Block Lamp (available in kit form or fully assembled from his Etsy store) features laser-cut plexiglass with a custom PCB mounted inside that hosts an ATTiny microcontroller and LED array.
I designed this Super Mario Question Mark Block lamp to behave as much like the “real” thing as I could without having it eject coins. The bottom is capacitive-touch sensitive, and when you trigger it, the lamp toggles its light and plays the classic coin sound.
The addition of a 1up sound after multiple toggles is a nice touch, making the interactive element one step closer to the ‘real’ thing.
And it sounds remarkably good too.
Shapeways user Fastness made this functional record over 6 months of iterations with the help of Processing. Ok, so I should mention that it’s a record for the Fisher-Price record player, but it is impressive nonetheless. It also sounds pretty good, as you can hear for yourself in the video below.
The music is “Still Alive” from the game Portal. The record is available for purchase for $41.87.
Via Shapeways
Best of the Blog 2011 – Inventions
“To invent, you need a good imagination and a pile of junk” – Thomas A. Edison
I believe Mr Edision was suggesting that inventions are created when someone’s imagination sees value in something no one else perhaps would. 2011 was certainly an impressive year of bringing physical form to those imaginations.
As the inventions category fit within many of the other categories we’ve featured on Best of the Blog 2011 so far, you can expect to see some familiar favourites…
The Panoramic ball camera is a playful exploration into novel ways of taking photos. You throw the ball up in the air – at the apex of its throw it takes a photo, or a lot of photos in every direction! Genius, where can I get one?
Quickly and easily make templates for custom gear systems.
Woodgears offers a handy app that automatically makes templates for gears that will properly mesh based on the size desired, number of teeth, etc. It is intended for wooden gears, but I suspect it will work for other materials as well. The catch is that the free online app only exports prints, not laser-cuttable files. For those so inclined, there are good instructions for making wooden gears using non-digital fabrication.
They also offer a more sophisticated version for $26 with a lot more features that will export DXF and Sketchup files (PC only).
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