September edition
September was another great month of new materials to make stuff with!
There are new laser-cutting materials available at Ponoko US, Formulor in Germany, and Vectorealism in Italy; plus a new 3D printing material.
Check ‘em out in this roundup of all the new materials added last month.
available at Ponoko US
We’ve got 3 updates to the Ponoko US materials catalog. Up first, a new thickest thickness of 6mm/0.236″ in Green Acrylic.
Next, a super useful and versatile new thinnest thickness of 1.5mm/0.06″ in Clear Acrylic. Great for use as a protective layer.
Last but definitely not least, we’ve now got Polarizing Film! This light grey laminate material of .8mm/0.03″ has a tinted polarizing layer and glossy finish. It’s typically used in making sunglasses and LCD screens.
Wanna know how polarization works? Check out this cute Polarization 101.
And keep your eye on the blog next week for a material related announcement we think you’ll really like!
dayglo design options from Deutschland
The folks at Formulor have been busy! The Makerplatz festival in Berlin, the world’s longest marble run, cute lasercut tape-cutting freebies, and now…
4 new fluorescent acrylics added to their materials catalog!
Say guten tag to fluorescent yellow, red, blue, and green.
Fluorescent acrylic absorbs light through its surface and emits it through its edges, creating a super cool effect especially mixed with engraving.
and the Italian words for the colors sound really pretty
Vectorealism, our Italian based laser-cutting hub, has announced the introduction of felt to their materials catalog!
Their felt is a blend of cotton, synthetic, and wool fibers dyed in 6 rich, graphic colors — Arancione, Azzuro, Giallo, Grigio chiaro, Marrone, and Verde chiaro. And the addition of the synthetic fibers eliminates the burnt edge and leaves a glossy finish!
To celebrate, Vectorealism is providing FREE *worldwide* shipping on every felt-only order placed before October 11, midnight CET.
How’s that for warm fuzzies?
Full details here.
Orders can use any size or color felt, but must only use felt. Only one order per customer.
Free shipping provided via refund of shipping costs.
dual resin printing for durability & detail
We’ve got another new 3D printing material for you, and this one is a real performer!
Durable Fine Plastic will give you excellent detail, a nice smooth finish, and tough-as-ABS durability. It also has great temperature and impact resistance.
But the best thing about this material is that your design is actually printed in two materials — one a UV curable resin that will harden into the final product and the other a gelatin support material that is removed in post-production.
This means you can make stuff like nested, interlinking, or hollow objects.
new colors, new thicknesses
Our achromatic selection of polypropylenes in the NZ materials catalog has gotten a shot of color and a shot of metallic — plus new thicknesses!
We’ve now got a bright tomato Red in 0.8mm (0.031″) and 1.4mm (0.055″) AND a brushed Silver in a 0.8mm thickness.
There are two new thicknesses for Black, 1mm (0.039″) and 1.4mm (0.055″); two new thicknesses for Clear, 0.4mm (0.015″) and 1.4mm; and those same two new thicknesses for White.
Polypropylene is a flexible plastic with a matte finish on both sides. It’s great for lamp shades, stationery, cutting mats, and packaging. It’s also good for hinges and can be heat welded. Enjoy!
filaments from Faberdashery
A few weeks ago, UK based start-up Faberdashery opened the virtual doors of its 3D printing materials store. And inside is a full color spectrum of plastics for use with your DIY desktop 3D printer.
Faberdashery sells PLA-plastic filaments in 18 different colors. Filaments are available in either 1.74mm or 3mm diameters, and are sold by the meter or by the coil (100m). Prices for most of them start at £0.29 (about 50 cents) per meter.
And did I mention that their color selection is fantastic?
3D printing with your Personal Factory just got food safe
We are psyched to announce our 8th material available for 3D printing — Glazed Ceramic!
Glazed Ceramic lets you create 3D printed ceramic objects which go through a fire and glazing process just like traditional ceramics.
The finish is a lovely smooth gloss, and objects made with Glazed Ceramic are food safe and heat resistant.
Samples for this material are still in the kiln, so to speak, but we’ll let you know as soon as they’re are available for $13.50 each!
And in October, the guys of FabBlab are doing a special Halloween themed Glazed Ceramic project. So you’ll be able to download their free file and make a 3D printed ceramic object even if you don’t have the skills to design in 3D just yet.
Speaking of designing in 3D, designing for Glazed Ceramic does take some special considerations. Think of working with 3D printed Glazed Ceramic with the same expectations of hand-made ceramics.
high style + high grade
We’ve got two new materials at the Ponoko US hub for your lasercut Personal Factory projects! Check it out:
Purple Tint Acrylic
Take a look at Purple Tint Acrylic — our latest addition to our wide range of colorful, laser-cuttable plastics.
The translucent grape color is perfect for jewelry designs and posh looking home accessories. Order a sample of our new Purple Tint Acrylic for $2.50.
Birch Plywood
We’ve added a high-grade Birch Plywood in 2 thicknesses: 1.5mm/0.06″ and 3mm/0.125″ This material is great for wood construction projects like model boats and airplanes, jewelry, and small home items.
You can order a sample of our new Birch Plywood for just $3. And check out these projects people have made with plywood using their Personal Factory.
New ways of getting beyond 2D
One of the things I love about digital fabrication is the process of elevating 3D forms from 2D materials. “2D materials” – anything that comes in a sheet – have all kinds of inherent efficiencies in terms of modelling, manufacturing, transport, and assembly, but it takes a certain amount of mental gymnastics to translate them into 3D objects. I stumbled across this image today and it opened up a fascinating new world for me – a construction technique known as curved folding. (more…)
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