Be Your Own Souvenir
from the 3d-printing dept
We've been interested in the potential legal implications of 3D printing for a while, but that shouldn't blind us to the fact that some of the natural uses of 3D printing can be pretty cool as well. There's something really remarkable about this new project, from blablabLAB, posted on Notcot, about the idea of being your own souvenir. Rather than just getting a little plastic trinket from a souvenir stand, you can pose yourself however you want, get a 3D scan, and then a 3D printing of yourself. There's a photo below and then a pretty cool video of the process in action.
Image courtesy of Notcot
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Filed Under: 3d printing, souvenir
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The ABS thread cartridges the printers use work out to costing about $5 per cubic inch of material or dissolvable support material.
Also, 3d printers have a large difference in resolution between the x-y plane and the z axis, which causes the stepping artifact you can see in the pictures above.
The mechanical properties of a 3d-printed part are often not very good because of the striated pattern caused by the rastering motion of the printer head. This means that parts can't take impacts, high stresses, or high rotational speeds. The material is also prone to material creep.
The printer sometimes needs pause to allow a layer to cool or to clean the printing head before printing the next layer.
3d printing is a good technology. It's very useful for visualization purposes, real-size part placeholders, and novelty applications like this souvenir gimmick. Unfortunately, 3d printing also has its limitations. It would be overstating the technology to believe it will be anywhere near the star trek style replicators that people envision it as, at least in the near future.
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Re: Cheaper than you think
As for the mechanical properties of printed parts, RepRap models Darwin and Mendel can print the majority of the non-threaded parts to make another Darwin or Mendel, and I'm not aware of any reports of mechanical failure of these printed printer parts. There's even a Mendel variant that can produce all the printed parts in one 8"x8" print run. It's true that FFD parts are not as strong as machining the same shape out of a solid block, but rarely does that present a problem; It's more of an aesthetic issue.
To learn more about affordable 3D printing you can do at home, google for 'reprap' or 'makerbot', or look for a user group near you.
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Re: Re: Cheaper than you think
the only reprap parts you can print are the joints. most of the structure is metal thread rod, and the actual work is done with micro-controllers, stepper motors, and stepper motor driver boards, all of which you can't print.
you can read about our hackerspace's mendel adventure here:
http://wiki.hive13.org/Mendel
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Re: 3d printer cartridges
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Re: Re: 3d printer cartridges
repraps don't use cartridges. they use loops of ABS filament and a gear to push it through a heated extruder called a thermister in a process similar to the frosting bags you use to decorate cakes.
there are other material types in the works such as polylactic acid which comes from corn and is biodegradable:
http://blog.makerbot.com/2010/01/09/bio-friendly-plastic-for-your-makerbot-polylacti c-acid/
ponoko is more of a marketplace for 3d things, and a lot of those things are laser cut and not always 3d printed. my favorite ponoko design is the ponoko reprap:
http://reprap.org/wiki/PonokoRepRap
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yeah, and intricate parts can also take several hours to print. oh, and with the desktop size of the makerbot or the mendel, you are limited to parts that are less than a cubic foot in size. also the ABS that repraps and makerbots use (it looks like weed eater cord) is about $10 per pound.
but even a 12 hour wait for a tiny, goopy gear made from what is basically melted lego is vastly cheaper and easier than waiting for 1000 parts to be injection molded and shipped from china, especially if you aren't done prototyping.
The mechanical properties of a 3d-printed part are often not very good because of the striated pattern caused by the rastering motion of the printer head. This means that parts can't take impacts, high stresses, or high rotational speeds. The material is also prone to material creep.
also true, but the purpose of a 3'd printer isn't always to make production parts, but to make one-off prototypes.
once your part is designed you can move up to a different (even slower, even more expensive) one-off prototyping process, like sand casting or CNC milling so you can make your part from aluminum or another metal, or laser cut it from a sheet of plastic, wood or metal.
3d printing is just one part of the desktop rapid prototyping stack. desktop sized CNCs and desktop laser cutters are also out there.
runs of a million widgets in a fully automated mega-factory will be always be cheaper on a per widget basis, but that's a very 20th century way to approach things.
the future is really uncertain from a supply chain standpoint. fuel pricing and natural disasters mean that making millions of widgets in one place and shipping them all over the globe could be a risky and/or expensive proposition.
look at how earthquakes in asia have affected the markets for electronics over the years.
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cool!
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Re: Fusili Jerry!
I guess it's the color, reminds me of pasta...or I need lunch.
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Souvenir pernikahan
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