I’ve been toying around lately with 3D modeling software like Blender, and while I think digital art is neat and fun and cool and all, I think I’d find it a lot more rewarding if I could create stuff that actually exists in the physical world. I don’t know much about 3D printing other than the fact that it’s only somewhat recently becoming something that can be done on a consumer-grade level without needing a whole fancy factory full of expensive injection-molding equipment and whatnot. I know 3D printers still aren’t cheap but to anyone who’s bought and used one I’d love to know all about it. What have you created with it? (it’s OK if you didn’t model it yourself). If you did model it yourself, what software do you use? What materials do you use? How much have you spent on it? What obstacles/challenges have you encountered? Etc. And of course if you have pics, please share them!
I haven’t bought a 3D printer, but I was tempted when Makerbot Cupcakes went on sale for $500. I have had a couple things printed though. I had a soap dish that was made to sit in a wall mounted bracket. It kept getting knocked out and broken, and after gluing it so many times I finally recreated it in 3D and had someone print it for me in ABS on a Makerbot. I did some extra finishing work on it, and posted the result on Flickr-
My wife likes to make soap shaped like chocolates, using cocoa powder on the outside and complementary scented filling on the inside. Neither of us is good at sculpting clay for molds, so I decided to use 3D printing instead. I got a few chocolates, and created 3D models using photogrammetry by way of the open source Photosynth Toolkit.
The first one was a See’s candy which was printed for me on a Makerbot. I dipped it in ABS pipe cement to smooth the surface. It was a little to small due to the limited build area of a Cupcake.
Printed See’s Candy
The next one was a Godiva chocolate. I had it printed by Shapeways, and hollowed it out with almost the thinnest wall allowed to keep the cost down. It will be used to make a silicon mold.
I’m a little torn about getting a printer. $1300 for a Thingomatic is a lot for me to spend on a hobby at the moment. Most of the stuff I want to do would fall within the $25 minimum order from Shapeways, and I can get a lot of prints before I equal the cost of my own printer and not be limited to ABS. I also don’t have a lot of time for the assembly and tweaking and adjusting the hobby printers seem to require.
On the other hand I’m sure I would think of a lot more things to print if I had my own printer and didn’t have to wait for something to arrive from a service.
Cool dish! So I didn’t even know this was a service people were providing - checking out Shapeways now and it looks nifty (and just as an aside, this thing is friggin’ crazy. I can’t believe they’re selling it for 1500 bucks). They even support models created in Blender! I will definitely try it out.