Digital Fabrication Brings on a New Wave of Entrepreneurs January 25

NESTA panel on personal manufacturing

The rise of digital fabrication and the revolutionary potential behind this increasingly accessible technology were the topics of a recent panel held by the UK’s National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts.

Three experts including a Fab Lab manager, a 3D printer inventor, and a start-up founder in the toy industry talk about how on-demand manufacturing technologies like 3D printing are creating an environment for a new wave of inventors and entrepreneurs.

Alice Taylor left her job in educational programming at UK’s Channel 4 to start Makieworld.com, an online site for creating 3D printed, biodegradable dolls.

She talks about the closed world of the toy industry in contrast to the open world of gaming and why it’s time for that to change.

Taylor calls 2011 the year for personal manufacturing services taking note of major players like Shapeways, iMaterialise, and Ponoko and adding that there will be several new companies making their way to the market.

As for her own foray into the consumer world of digital fabrication? “Makieworld is brand, brand new. … I’m looking at how we might be able to produce dolls that come up to toy safety standards in a couple years time.”
(more…)

Posted in 3D Printing, Digital Fabrication, Interviews, Thoughts + Opinions, Kristen Turner, Maker Movement, Mass Customization by Kristen Turner | Comments are off for this post

Make your own stuff using: 3D Printing, Laser Cutting, CNC Routing

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Ponoko Made Fab@Home 3D Food Printer Whips Up Dessert January 25

The first robot to graduate cooking school?

CNN Money’s Tech Talk featured a Fab@Home open source 3D printer being used at the French Culinary Institute to make dessert.

Chef David Arnold explains the advantages of 3D printed food as the printer squeezes out a square of masa dough (which is later fried and passes the taste test!)

Fab@Home project leader Jeff Lipton talks about the open source nature of the Fab@Home 3D printer saying “We give away all the blue prints to all the designs, all the technical information that you need to build your own, sell your own, and to innovate with it.”

The printer seen on the CNN video was digitally fabricated by Ponoko, and you can order one yourself.

Just download the free plans from Fab@Home’s Ponoko showroom and have your 3D printer parts made using Ponoko’s Personal Factory.

I think I’ll start working on the world’s first digitally fabricated food cook book and become the Julia Child (or Paula Dean — nothin’ wrong with butter) of extruded foods.

First recipe: a Menger sponge cake!

Posted in 3D Printing, Kristen Turner, Ponoko News by Kristen Turner | Comments are off for this post

Make your own stuff using: 3D Printing

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Top Ten Projects + Maker Stories January 25

Best of the Blog 2010 – Projects + Maker Stories

Some of our favorite articles around here are the maker stories. We love to learn about all the amazing and surprising things people do with Ponoko. These stories are about the challenges makers face along the way and their eventual successes.

If you need some encouragement after something went wrong with a project or if you just want to read about some of the things other people are making, keep reading for ten of the best maker stories.
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Posted in Maker Stories, Taylor Gilbert by Taylor Gilbert | Comments are off for this post

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Building a Better Paperclip With 3D Printing January 25

Can it be improved? Download the file for free and see for yourself.

Improving a design as enduring as a paperclip sounds impossible, but i.materialise may have pulled it off. The Infinite Clip can clip onto things in four different directions and serve as a hook. It can clip onto thin and thick things, which has always been the weakness of normal paperclips.

The 3D file can be downloaded for free from Thingiverse if you want to try it for yourself with your favorite 3D printing service. Unfortunately, they claim it probably won’t work with a Makerbot since the curve needs to be supported.

Posted in 3D Printing, Downloadable, Taylor Gilbert by Taylor Gilbert | Comments are off for this post

Make your own stuff using: 3D Printing

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Ten Helpful Tutorials and Guides January 24

Best of the Blog 2010 – Tutorials and Making Help

In addition to the ten fantastic guides that are featured in the Ponoko Blog sidebar, today we’ve gathered for you a collection of ten more helpful guides and tutorials from the archives.

Read on for some simple advice for beginners (that may be a welcome reminder for more seasoned makers) through to a complete analysis of turning making into a business, with a few surprises in between.   (more…)

Posted in Guy Blashki, Tutorials + Making Help, Various How-To by Guy Blashki | Comments are off for this post

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Design Heavy Laser Cutting January 23

a weekly dose of laser cut love


Lucky week 13 and I back collecting this week’s post from The Laser Cutter!

Above is some laser cut art works from Molly M Designs at Session Art and Design…

After the jump: aluminum, Pakistan, Mexico and Australia; The Big Apple, foam, a book, and NLC Design #2. (more…)

Posted in Laser Cutting, Sam Tanis by Sam | Comments are off for this post

Make your own stuff using: Laser Cutting

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Ten Super Cool Materials for Creative Design January 21

Best of the Blog 2010 — materials

While our minds may be jumping around the virtual playground, our bodies ultimately engage with objects through their physical materiality.

Materials are the original user interface, and sometimes all it takes to create a successful design is the use of a compelling material.

Here’s a look at ten super cool materials guaranteed to result in design creativity.

(more…)

Posted in Kristen Turner, Materials by Kristen Turner | Comments are off for this post

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i.materialise Now 3D Printing in Titanium January 21

The world’s first service to offer titanium 3D printing to consumers.

Titanium has an undefinable coolness factor that few other materials can match. 3D printing is one of the coolest ways to make things, so 3D printed titanium is just plain awesome. Thanks to i.materialise, this awesomeness is now a reality.

3D printing in Titanium uses Direct Metal Laser Sintering (DMLS). Here’s how it works according to i.materialise:

1. A thin bed of titanium powder is laid down in the 3D printer.
2. This layer is then sintered by a very powerful laser and will become the bottom layer of your part.
3. A new layer of powder is applied and the process repeats itself.
4. Your part is taken out of the 3D printer and any loose unsintered powder is removed.
5. In most cases your part will have support structures 3D printed on and around it out of titanium.
6. These supports have to be removed manually using very powerful circular saws and other tools.
7. Once the supports have been removed manual polishing is required to remove evidence of the supports.
8. Then a post finishing step may be required such as polishing the entire part.

On a related topic, the world’s first 3D printer capable a printing directly in gold was built recently. Unfortunately, it’s not yet accessible to consumers.

Via i.materialise

Posted in 3D Printing, Taylor Gilbert by Taylor Gilbert | Comments are off for this post

Make your own stuff using: 3D Printing

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Top Ten Tools and Apps January 20

Best of the Blog 2010 – Tools + Apps

The right tool can make extremely difficult tasks amazingly easy. Sometimes they even help you do things that would otherwise be impossible. Here are ten of our favorite articles about tools, both physical and digital.
(more…)

Posted in Taylor Gilbert, Tools + Apps by Taylor Gilbert | Comments are off for this post

Make your own stuff using: App Gateway

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Surfboard Rulers January 20

Ponoko Product Of The Week

Ever wondered if you’ve got what it takes to be a board shaper? Thanks to Ponoko user Yakas, here’s a tool to help get things started.

Clear and flexible, these rulers are laser etched with all the right numbers to mark dimensions for rail and fin placements, and there’s also a cutout for drawing in fin lines.

Available to purchase either as plans or laser cut by Ponoko from 0.5mm clear PETG; for almost half of what they’ll cost from your local surf store.

If you’re a surfer who wants to take a more hands-on approach to customized gear, grab yourself a set of guides from Yakas’ showroom.

Posted in Functional Art + Objects, Guy Blashki, Laser Cutting, Product of the Week by Guy Blashki | Comments are off for this post

Make your own stuff using: Laser Cutting

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