3D Printing

I was first thinking using eMashineShop, but now I'm leaning towards buying a 3D printer instead! First I was planing to buy the RepRap Huxley, but after some discussion on IRC in the #reprap channel, the good folks there recommended me the newer Prusa Mendel model. Somewhat more expensive, but have a bigger working area, better extruder, and bigger community too apparently. There is also this Thing-o-matic, but it's more expensive and sounds more:



What is cool with these RepRap (Replicating Rapid-prototyper) printers is that everything is open. Both software and hardware. You can buy the parts separately or, as I will probably do, as a kit at MakerGear. That way, I know I get all I need, and also, don't have to pay extra for several shipments. You can even build the better parts using the printer itself later, which is quite handy.

Also, for me, having my own printer I will learn a lot, and also, I will be able to experiment and fail with the enclosure more without it being too costly. I can be more creative with the design, and basically be more personal with the device I'm making. The software also support adding up a few of the same on the board, so mass-producing shouldn't be all that much of a trouble. Although, I will need to spend some time to fine tune everything so the end-product enclosure looks good! It will probably not be as excellent as made by the bigger more expensive machines, but from what I've seen, it's not all that bad. Just look at these examples:




Also, look at Thingiverse site for more awesome things one can create!

Short introduction:


Longer presentation:




This is still all in early stages, and there seem to be a lot of improvements and developments going on here all the time! Futhermore it's interesting idea behind this. Evolution. It will improve itself! It will cost around $800, but compared to commercial ones at $30000+, it's not all that much. I also love the idea that I can create my own items, and just print them, say I needed a new part to hang something up.

Related to this is also the open source application OpenSCAD! Want to create a cube? Easy, just type:

cube([10,10,10], center = true);

Want to remove parts of it? Easy, just add "difference" and then all but the first will be removed from the first mentioned.

difference() {
cube([10,10,10], center = true);
translate([0,0,6]) {
cube([5,5,5], center = true);
}
}

Note I also translate (move) the part to remove, otherwise it would have been in the center of the larger cube here.



So easy to create my 3D objects this way. And, you get precise sizes directly too. Here you can think of values as millimeters. After you're done, just export the file as .stl and basically print it in your 3D printer! (You may have to convert to Gcode, but this can possible be made in the printing software too). OpenSCAD also supports variables, functions and for-loops, so that makes it even easier and practical to create objects!