(via Skulltruder by schlem on Shapeways)

Behold and fear my Skulltruder!

This is a set of spur gears for the Printrbot ( and other) extruder. Derived from Brook Dunn’s Printrbot’s spur gears, which were derived from Wades Accessible and Herringbone gears

( http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:16990 )

and Cleaned Skull by ssd

( http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4126 ).

Notice that there is a cap for the bolt the skull on the larger gear - may need a wee bit of sanding around the perimeter for a proper fit. This should seat at the proper depth for stealthy concealment of your secret hardware. Upgrade your Printrbot with these gears from Shapeways in Laser-sintered nylon for greater precision and consistancy.

I ditched the small skull on the small gear. It never printed well with the hole through the forehead and the reduction in size. The NEW! small gear has some nice features, including cleaned up teeth, and a flat bearing surface for the set screw.

See the picture with the black and the white gears: The Black gear came with my Printrbot Plus kit. The STL file shows a diameter of 63.78 mm. The gear that was printed by a Printrbot in my kit measures 61.25 (averaged 8 measurements) The white gear was printed by Shapeways in Laser-sintered nylon and averages 63.25 mm

The Lyman Filament Extruder May Drop the Cost of Desktop 3D Printing Forever

The Desktop Factory Competition launched in June 2012 challenged makers to design a cheap, open source method to turn plastic pellets (which sell for $10 kg) into filament suitable for a desktop 3D printer (that currently sells for $50 per kg).  83 Year old inventor Hugh Lyman developed the Lyman Filament Extruder II which for under $250 in parts can take standard plastic ABS pellets and squeeze them into filament.

The fact that this device is released as open source hardware means that others can modify and improve the mechanism to lower the cost and increase the efficiency, just as we have seen with the open source desktop 3D printers based on the RepRap.  

Not only will this result in a massive reduction in the cost of raw 3D printing media, but it is also a very small step away from being able to grind and reuse failed 3D prints to feed into fresh new filament, or perhaps adding conductive media into the hopper to create filament suitable for making basic elctronic circuitry, or any type of tweak to customize the base material.

The speed of innovation in the open source 3D printing world is making many of the large industrial 3D printer manufacturers appear to be moving in slow motion.  We are not seeing the same rate of innovation in machines nor materials and we at Shapeways would LOVE to have new materials to share, or have a way to drop the material cost by a factor of five or ten as we see made possible by innovations like the The Lyman Filament Extruder.  

Congratulations to Hugh Lyman who scored a giant $40,000 cheque for his invention and the respect of thousands of makers around the world.

via Time.com

Need to Repair Your 3D Printer? Use Shapeways to 3D Print Replacement Parts

Anyone who owns a desktop 3D printer knows that sometimes you need to replace some of the components to optimize performance.  In many cases you can simply 3D print a replacement part with your 3D printer which is an incredibly rewarding process of self sufficiency but when it is a critical component that stops the 3D printer from functioning properly it can quickly become frustrating dead end. 

Shapeways community member Schlem discovered the extruder gears that came with his Printbot Kit were warped and his 3D printer was not functioning properly.  Of course a non functioning 3D printer can not 3D print repair parts so he used Shapeways to 3D print his replacement parts in laser sintered Nylon.  By using Shapeways to 3D print the parts for his 3D printer he now has a more durable, higher resolution part that will make his desktop 3D printer more accurate and reliable.

He also made it possible to make the 3D printer even more awesome by designing the Skulltruder, adding a little gothic bling to what is essentially an engineering project.

Why President Obama Mentioned 3D Printing in the State of the Union Address

In his 2013, second term State of the Union address, President Obama mentioned 3D printing, that it “has the potential to revolutionize the way we make almost everything,” mentioning the additive manufacturing hub the US government is helping to fund in Youngstown Ohio and three more they are about to launch, suggesting Congress should “create a network of 15 of these hubs and guarantee that the next revolution in manufacturing is made in America.”

When the President of the United States mentions a technology such as 3D printing in the State of the Union address you know his staff have undertaken substantial research from every possible angle, that his aides have spoken to engineers, economists and experts in manufacturing to understand the revolutionary potential.  When Obama mentions a ‘network of additive manufacturing hubs’ he is at the same time validating the Shapeways business model, that consists of a network of manufacturing hubs, in both the USA and Europe that bring manufacturing closer to the people that buy the products.  Creating products and jobs locally.

When Obama says 3D printing will revolutionize manufacturing, he is not speaking only of the technologies we have at hand today, the technologies that allow Shapeways users to create their designs in Nylon or Stainless Steel to sell to people around the world, he is also speaking of the technologies that will soon evolve. When you will be able to 3D print plastic and steel composites in a single 3D print, when you will be able to 3D print electronics into your products, when you will be able to make things that are beyond the realm of the imagination right now.

Think back to five years ago, when the ability to 3D print your ideas was extremely expensive and the option to buy and sell 3D printed products simply did not exist. Now for us at Shapeways it is the new normal, Obama and his advisors obviously think that 3D printed products will soon be the new normal for the rest of the world, really soon.

Cyber Monday : Gift Picks from the 3D Printer

Cyber Monday is upon us with Free Worldwide Shipping, after our Black Friday promotion our 3D printers are already running hot to keep up with the orders and have them shipped out in time for the holidays.

Take a look out our 3D Printer’s Gift Picks to see if anything tickles your fancy like the Honeycomb Borromean Surface below, or you can always design your own with one of the Easy Creators that make it simple to customize a design with no 3D skills.

Installing more 3D printers WHILE we build out the factory (at Shapeways LIC)

3D Printing Bacon to Infinity (VIDEO)

Infinite bacon is now possible direct from Shapeways 3D printers. The dream of 3D printing food, infinite possibilities, infinite supply is now possible with the ultimate food to infinity, 3D printed Bacon Mobius Strip.

More 3d prints from the meme machine (at Shapeways LIC)

Joseph Ducreux Sculpture 3D Printed by Shapeways

Teenage Engineering Make CAD Files Available to 3D Print Replacement Parts

Teenage Engineering not only make one of the sexiest synthesizers but also get the prize for being the first electronics company to offer their replacement parts as downloadable 3D Printed files.

This is the first company that I have seen so far that offer replacement parts to be 3D Printed by their consumers.  This is an incredibly smart move as it takes away the need for them to warehouse and distribute replacement parts.  It also means that their fans have an opportunity to modify and customize aspects of their synthesizers.

We work hard to make our OP-1 users happy with free OS updates and added functionality. But sometimes we fail. As some have noted, the shipping cost of the OP-1 accessories is very high. This is because we can’t find a good delivery service for small items. Meanwhile, we have decided to put all CAD files of the parts in our library section for you to download. The files are provided in both STEP and STL format. Just download the files and 3D print as many as you want. Next fail is the OP-1 manual update. We are almost there…we promise it will be ready sometime next week. Thank you all for your patience, we promise to work even harder in the future to make you happy.

Teenage OP-1 “fail” Team

The parts are now available on Shapeways if you need to 3D Print replacement parts for your OP-1 synthesizer.

Teenage Engineering, we LOVE you…. 

Mario in a 3D Printed Mobius Strip Runs on Forever, and Ever

This is a 3D Printed mobius strip of Level 1 of Super Mario Bros. The whole level is wrapped around itself in a single surface, and poor Mario begins and ends at the same spot every time