3DHacker Round Up 3

In case you're not following me on 3D Hacker:

• I break down how to get something 3D printed
• Andrew unboxes a 3D printer and tries out a Type-A
• I rip on the Makerbot Digitizer for being overpriced
• Andrew visits those changing the world for good in Albania
• There's yet another kickstarter for making things no one needs
• There's a $200 3D scanner that... actually looks good
• I introduce you to YouMagine, Ultimaker's Thingiverse
• Makergeek is running a contest
• Failed prints can be hilarious
• Andrew unboxes and assembles a Printrbot Simple, and wow that box is small
• And 3DBurrito is lost to the dark side

I have also recently been introduced to 3DPrintBoard.com, a forum for many things 3D printing related. You know, in case you don't get enough conversation about the subject here or on Reddit. Ah well, one more place to evangelize.

3DHacker Round Up 2

Andrew Mazotta is having troubles with an RSS feed, but here's what I've been rambling about over on 3D Hacker:
Everything is Amazing, and I'm Not Happy
Is the future FDM, SLS, or DLP?
In the year 2000...
3D Models for Expired Patents
$650 for a $350 filastruder
Is there really a demand for 3D printed shoes?

and I revisit an old post frome here and tell you...

How to make money with 3D printing (redux)

There is also more in Andrew's continuing series of world-wide interviews with influential people in the 3D printing world like:
Leapfrog Interview in the Netherlands!

So go read 3dhacker and visit frequently for more editorials from the 3D printing world!

3DHacker Update

In case you missed my announcement, I have moved my 3D Printing commentary to Andrew Mazzotta's 3DHacker site. In case you haven't been following it here's what you've missed:

3D Printing is more than a Gimmick or I don't think so Mr Uog
How much is a design for 3D printers worth?
First step to 3D printed eletronics, or the birth of the T1000?
Leopoly, like Tinkercad for Sculptris
And the most talked about topic:
DRM and 3D Printing or DRM isn't the solution, it's the problem

Andrew is working on an RSS option and I'll make a note of that when it happens so you can use feedly keep up to date on all my rantings.

3D Printing Commentary will now be on 3DHacker

I've been thinking lately that there's too much of my commentary on the constantly changing face of 3D printing in general on this blog an not enough of "Joe's Makerbot" and what it's making here. Fortunately there is a solution. Andrew Mazotta has graciously given my ramblings a new home on his site 3DHacker.com. From now on anything that would have been under 3D Printing Commentary will now be at 3DHacker.com and this blog will now be dedicated to Joe's Makerbot, the way it should be.

So go hit up 3DHacker's blog to hear my ramblings and stick around here to see what I'm making. And if you've got a cool project you'd like to share sign up for 3D Hacker and show off your stuff.

Windows 8.1 will have 3D printing support

Alright, fine, I'll comment on Windows 8.1 having 3D printing support since it seems every news outlet and blog in the world is talking about this. Seriously, I have more links than words.

Thing is my recent opinion changing experience with MakerWare has taught me 2 things:

• With a good slicer it is possible to get great prints without exposing a lot of settings.
• A good slicer makes all the difference.

That said, let's take a moment to think about what this announcement really entails:

• Microsoft is going to make the slicer.
• It will be a one size fits all solution for Makerbot, Cube, Afinia, and whoever else gets on board.

With the differences in each printer, for instance acceleration and whatnot, the only way I see this happening is if each manufacturer submits their own "driver" which now includes their own slicer as well, to be dynamically linked in. I suppose this is no worse than having the option of any other hardware drivers for instruments I don't own. But what's lost is the ability to print multiple objects on a single plate and what about dual color or support structure options? Plus I don't print over USB, I drop my files onto an SD card, will that still be an option for Windows 8? What about full color prints on high end printers? What about when someone makes a low-end printer that can do full color prints? STLs only or will Makerbot's own .Thing or Cube's proprietary formats be supported?

Personally I have said for a long time that one day we'd be able to double-click on a 3D file, preview it, and print it like we do with 2D images. I'd love to be able to print directly from Blender or whatever Cad program you use. Maybe that day is now. I think it might be a bit premature, but if Microsoft is willing to tackle these problems then maybe I'm the one behind.

EDIT: 3D Printing Era did a good breakdown of the known features of what Microsoft is doing including their propitiatory format for storing color data (good) and DRM so you can lock your print off so it can only be printed (bad). http://www.3dprintingera.com/problems-with-windows-8-1-3d-printing-api/

Reevaluating MakerWare

After giving Makerware a public lashing I found myself in contact with Joe Sadusk who is a developer for MakerWare at Makerbot (this blog attracts the Joes doesn't it?) We spent the weekend talking about MakerWare, the shortcomings it had and Sadusk defended MakerWare extremely well.

So I decided to give MakerWare another shot and since I needed to test out the 3DHacker test object I decided this would be a great test. I also decided test out the new raft just for fun. I made a previous iteration of the 3DHacker test object on ReplicatorG/Skienforge but what came off MakerWare/MiracleGrue just blew me away. Unfortunately pictures of the RepG one I printed aren't really useful since I changed many elements between the two versions but MacGyver printed a version that is good for reference.

Let's brake it down zone-by-zone.

• The Raft came off the build platform well, but didn't come off the build very easily and bottom of the print where it attached to the raft was... weird. Kind of the texture of oatmeal. Not sure how to describe it. Now normally the raft is an assist to the supports, it's not meant for this sort of thing so I do want to see if it handles supports better.
• Overall the MW version had much better surface finish. I couldn't spot any gaps where layers started or ended, the layers were smooth and blended together. It just had an over-all better "look".
• The overhangs amazed me. 45 looks great, 60 looked great, 70 looked good. A 70 degree overhang looked good. That's not supposed to happen.
• The bridge on the H worked better than I've ever been able to get it to in RepG.
• MW pushed the detail on the fragility test behind the H much further than RepG did, to the point where they were so fragile they broke off when I was handling it, but it did try it and they held to the end of the print.
• The two pieces joined perfectly, but that's just luck. If my filament had swollen or had been from a different supplier this wouldn't have gone well.
• The increasingly narrowing wall Makeware took to a single wall and connected it. (You can see on MacGyver's print, second to last picture, how RepG gives up and turns it into a gap.)
• The vertical holes look great on this one. RepG for some reason trimmed the tops on most of them.
• And it does a 45 degree solid fill by default which I prefer.

Honestly, I'm impressed. However, this model was done with only the perimeter shell to make for a good picture and to avoid the "spurs" or little gaps that are left when an area gets too narrow for an inner shell to fill in all the way. So I did another one with 3 shells and discovered a few things:

• This time the 70 degree overhang failed entirely. Apparently extra shells cause overhangs to curl more. (Probably true for RepG because I'd seen it many times before and almost never printed with less than 3 shells.)
• MakeWare generated less spurs than RepG. For instance around letters removed from a flat surface like the "acker" on the test object there are many places that generate spurs. But Makerware generated less.

Sadusk also informed me about an option option in makerware called "doInternalSpurs" which attempt to fill what narrow gaps are left with a single line and sometimes identifies them right, and sometimes messes up perfectly fine areas. So I decided to try in out and the result was not noticeable. What few spurs were left were still there after. Personally I think the spur problem could be solved by doing zero extra shells on fill layers but Sadusk doesn't thing that's a good option and he's clearly proven his authority on the subject of slicers so far.

Okay, I'll admit it, I'm going to start using MakerWare more often. True you can't edit the settings very much but when it just works like this who needs to? Frees me up to design cool stuff. But there are a few things I will complain about:

• I don't like the blobby anchor. I worked hard to kill it last time, at least this time it isn't making a blob on the side of my print but I hate having to break something away on every print when there are better alternatives.
• I don't like having to create a custom profile for every filament diameter. Filament swells or shrinks with humidity and what works for Makerbot in NY by the sea does not work for Joe's Makerbot in the middle of the great American desert. I don't care if we get a gui to change all the options I want this one exposed on the GUI same as shells, temp, or speed.

But really, these are minor things to put up with for the benefit. Well done Joe Sadusk. It's hiring people like you that makes Makerbot awesome.

If you want me to believe you, don't let marketers handle your ad

Can you spot the mistakes?

0:25 This would give depth information for making a 3D scan, but no human being holds still enough for a high-resolution 3D scan with a hand-held camera. At best the scan would be muddy and require some significant cleanup of background elements...which is also never shown. And there is not enough room in that space for the person doing the scan to get all the way around the people they're scanning, so at best she'll get a relief from the front.
0:49 Plugging a smart phone in to a 3D printer to do a print? Okay, I'll believe that for now. Getting a full color 3D print from a Cube? Nope.
0:52 And are we to believe that she got that print done by the end of the party? That's a 20 hour print at least, I don't care what printer you're using. So much nope.

This is an ad for the 16 array camera they're using, not for the process or software because all that exists right now is the 16 array camera. So it makes sense that the rest is marketing department fantasy and props to sell the 16 array camera to prospective manufacturers. Maybe I don't understand marketing but it seems to me like when the camera sales man does his pitch and the executive they're selling it to says "where can I get that software you're using" the presentation is going to go downhill when the answer is "Oh, that software doesn't exist, it's just something the art department mocked up. That's for you guys to make." I would think honestly is the best policy. Take the camera out, take some pictures, show some real 3D models extracted from the pictures (you could even use Agisoft to get the job done I'll bet) and show something real, not some fantasy with obvious holes in it.

Useless junk? What do you expect?

"All anyone ever makes with 3D printers is toys."

"Why is every tutorial for something useless?"

"Shapeways, is wasting amazing technology making inconsequential garbage."

"All that stuff is just designed to do is collect dust on a shelf."

" I just don't get this obsession with printing little trinkets."

3D printing is perhaps the single most useful new technology in the world right now, but when you're showing it to people what do you think is going to market it better: useful part that only some people understand the utility of or useless doodad that everyone can see move and go "oooh". Too on the nose? How about this: A useful part that only works if you happen to have a specific model of thing to use it with or a cool looking thing?

The very first thing I modeled for 3D printing was a guide for a drawer. The first thing I uploaded to thingiverse was a Chinese Chess set. In fact I've never even uploaded the drawer guide because unless you have that specific drawer I don't see this being spectacularly useful. On the other hand anyone can play Chinese Chess. In fact I've made a ton of useful things that I haven't uploaded for similar reasons, because I needed them for a job but chances are you won't be doing the same job. Looking over my Thingiverse page there are still a significant number of useful items I have uploaded there.

People are making useful things for 3D printing. People are also making trinkets. And know what? 3D printing can handle them both. But when showing off 3D printing the trinkets do the job better because more people can relate to it so it can seem like that's the only thing people use 3D printing for. But it's not.

And for the record, at least 2 tutorials in the book are for useful items.

To me the real opportunity of 3D printing is in the artistic-useful thing. Why have just a door knob when you can take one of these useless trinkets out there and use it to pretty up something boring and utilitarian. Unfortunately that sort of design takes a little bit more time and when you're not even sure the thing is going to work it's hard to risk design time on it, and when it does work it's hard to justify going back just for some prettying up. But when it does happen it's awesome. 

Rotary IPhone case with printed spring

It's that cute, a rotary dial on an iPhon.... HOLY SMOKES, it snaps back! I love this sort of thing. 3D printed springs excite me. I tried myself to harness the power of a 3D printed spring, without success. So when I see someone else make it work, even on a novelty level like this, I get kind of excited.

Via Shapeways.

Dizingof having his desgins misused by 3DSystems and Stratasys

Thingiverse user Dizingof, well known for intricate latices work designs, recently removed most of his designs from thingiverse in response to 3DSystems and Stratasys ignoring the non-commercial license associated with his things and using his designs to market their product. There are so many facets to this story I can't decide which one I want to talk about.

For starters there's two huge companies ignoring licenses protecting a little guy because what's he going to do, sue them? It is disgraceful and shameful and probably not going to effect their bottom line in the least. Sucks. And in a perfect world they'd get their comeuppance, but the world still ain't perfect and that's the risk you run when you give your stuff away for free. A "Don't make money off my stuff and be sure to credit me" license doesn't mean much when they've already got your stuff. My stuff has been used to endorse more than a few projects without my knowing about it. You gotta decide how you're going to react when the time comes.

Dizingof chose to stop offering most of his stuff for free on Thingiverse and started selling them on Ponoko. This has upset some people since models that were for free are now upwards to $25. (I may not be quite aware what models like this are worth, but I think that's a bit high myself. But whatever the market will sustain I guess.) Thing is, yes he was giving it away free and now he's not, and that feels a bit like being cheated, but really that's just the gravy train hitting the station. Before he started giving stuff away what did everyone have? Nothing. After he took it away what did we all have? Nothing. What did it cost? Nothing. So in the end no one's any worse off and arguably a little better off. Sure, Thingiverse got him where he is now and in his little way helped thingiverse, too, adding content that clearly had value in excess of what he was getting for it. So it was mutually beneficial.

But he left the listings up on Thingiverse and Thingiverse does drive some mad traffic. That's a little jerky. I mean putting one thing from a set on Thingiverse and then linking the place to buy the rest, that's fine. That's shareware. But flat out using Thingiverse for it's traffic and giving nothing back isn't cool. That's not exactly what happened here, he did have the things on thingiverse for a while, but this is not a trend I want to see continue. Dizingof gets special consideration in light of his circumstances but that is it. No one else gets to do this and escape the wrath of a lengthy comment on their Thing's listing. Fear the lengthy comment!

I hope Dizingof consults a few attorneys and sees if he can build a case. But then again the time he spends fighting this is less time he has to make cool things, and that's why this story is so tragic to me. Why can't creative types share their worth with others, be fairly compensated when appropriate, and be left to excel? Because the world doesn't work that way. This is the way the world works.

And that is a depressing way to end this post, so here's a clip from Grim Fandango:

Creating 3D objects... with your brain

So the project is pretty limited and hasn't actually gotten very far yet, but its very promising: an evolutionary algorithm that uses a brain scanner to determine fitness. I suppose that's the best we can expect since brain interfaces aren't suited for running 123DCreature yet, not without a surgical implant anyways. The hard part is going to be developing a robust enough EA, but that is always the challenge.

Andrew Mazotta's interview with Shapeways

Andrew Mazotta recently visited Shapeways an had an interview with Bart Veldhuizen who, incidentally, was one of the people who bought Blender and released it free and open source. (By the way, I'm totally writing a book that's all about Blender.) So an all around good guy and awesome to have Andrew interview him.

I like Shapeways. I'm on Shapeways. I really appreciate what they're trying to do. But unfortunately I'm not thrilled with how much Shapeways costs. That's the reason I don't have more things on Shapeways. To bring cost down your things either need to be whispy thin or you need to plate 20 or 100 of them and then sell them yourself on etsy.  (It seems Shapeways has an initial base cost plus material, so to bring the overall cost down spread the initial base cost across more materials.) And then if something is the wrong size or anything there is no return policy because it's not like they can resell the item to someone else. Plus that initial cost deters first time designers from buying their own things so they don't discover that their models are too fragile to work.

Obviously Shapeways has found it's niche with some people willing to spend $15 to make their transforms able to gesture with their fingers. (And I've already lauded modibots.) But since shapeways is too expensive for really solid things it seems it's relegated to the realm of novelty toys or jewelry, which doesn't do much to advance the field of alternative manufacturing.

But like I say, I love what these guys are doing and I wish them well. I just wish they were cheaper too.

3D printers can do food... now

Scrambled eggs on a RepRap? Checkmate NASA.

I guess I haven't weighed in on the whole "3D printed food" thing. I thought I had. The machine that NASA has bankrolled is, to me, hardly a 3D printer. It's a nozzle on a CNC machine, but that's where the similarity ends because this can only really make one thing. It's a food-o-matic, which is pretty cool but has been done before with pizza. Now, I'm all for automating food preparation. In fact I'd be thrilled if I went to Taco Bell and my food was made with minimal human interaction. Sure there will be hundreds of disgruntled underpaid teenagers free to do something creative with their lives, but that's a risk I'm willing to make.

In my mind in order for a food machine to be called a 3D printer you'd need to squeeze soylent (no, not that soylent) through a tube and flavor it as it came out. Mind you I don't know how well it would handle anything more complex than "sweet/sour/salty/bitter/sriracha" and texture would be another problem, but at least you could make, literally, whatever you wanted. But really until we have hydrogen recombination on-the-fly and can order tea, earl gray, hot printed food is probably a bad idea.

Which 3D printer to buy right now

This guy has done excellent research and wrote an excellent article. He does a good run down of what 3D printers are available and what factors to consider. The only problem with this list is it's good for right now, but in 3 months this list could be very different. In 6 months it will most assuredly. But for right now juliansarokin has written an excellent read.

Things like this...

I have been unable to print with my right extruder (why is it always the right?) for a week because of this. The filament broke when I tried to remove it and I couldn't push it out with another filament. Fixing it was ridiculous. After taking apart the fan and drive block so I could get at the broken filament I heated up the hot end and tried grabbing it with needlenosed pliers but it wouldn't pull out. So I pushed it in, but I could only push so far before I had to get a toothpick to push it further so that the next time I loaded filament it could push it through..

Granted this is the first time something like this has happened to me, but this is like a paper jam that I had to remove 4 screws and loosen a 5th to fix. My mother would have had to call a repair man. A repair man to fix a paper jam!

I don't know, maybe newer 3D printers have fixed this problem. If not, maybe I've got a future in 3D printer repair.

The Cheap 3D Printer

Ever hear the phrase "you get what you pay for"? It's not just a saying, it's true. You're probably looking at that $300 laptop or $200 smart phone you're reading this on and developing this idea about the cost of technology. Then a 3D printer comes out that's stable, solid, feature rich, and $2500 and you balk because that's so much more than the expectations you've built up. Why should a thing that can only make plastic doodads cost so much more than the computer that it's interfacing with?

Then someone comes out with a sub $300 3D printer and there was much rejoicing. Finally, a 3D printer that meets the pricing expectations. But don't run out and buy one just yet. Chances are that $300 3D printer isn't the technology you're expecting. What you save in money you will end up giving back in your time and effort and as Zheng said:

if (eval(‘yourTime’)>=eval(‘yourMoney’)):
     buyADifferent3DPrinter()

Qz.com did an excellent write-up about the current state of cheap home 3D printing. A Replicator 2 costs about what a good PC in the 80s cost, and "the parallels between the personal computing revolution and the one in 3D printing are irresistible". The point is that the home 3D printing industry is still the realm of the garage tinkerer but forces are pushing it into the mainstream very quickly. The demand is there, but there are a couple of things that need to be addressed before my mother will have a 3D printer, and price is only one facet.

Give an engineer a toy

My day job is full of engineers working on awesome things. Recently they got a 3D printer and they've been using it for... everything.

Here the printer is in it's natural environment. Next to it are the build plates. Theoretically they're one use only but they've found ways to extend that, tho it has been found to effect print quality introducing the same problems that I deal with all the time like curling.

But like I said before it's still a fused filament process with more-or-less the same tolerance constraints.

In some ways the things they’re using it for are silly. Nothing they couldn't do without, or fix with a box cutter and some cardboard, but they've got a 3D printer so they draw up a custom something that performs a single task in SolidWorks and print it out. They’re increasing efficiency by making the tools they need, tools that no one else will need so they could never buy them anywhere else.

There was a problem with cables we needed fitting into the ports of a particular brand of laptop. The solution was to just cut a bit off a standard cable and it would fit. So instead of cutting hundreds of cables with a knife they whipped up something that would hold a razor blade in the perfect place so you could just slide the cable down the groove and cut the part off. Then a problem arose that the increased efficiency was causing strain on the operators thumb so they iterated the design to be more of a press guillotine.

Part of a new process they’re developing involves a delicate custom part that ends up costing about $1000. So to prevent damage to this precious cargo in shipping a custom case was designed for it to keep it safe.

But perhaps the most exciting was when a machined part got replaced with a 3D printed part. They wanted to add a release mechanism to this metal part and first attempts included doing what they thought this machine was for, prototyping the mechanism, trying it out, hoping that they could translate that into a machinable part before sending it to the machine shop. However eventually someone came up with the bright idea that the release mechanism could be 3D printed into the part, embedded as it were, using the unique properties of 3D printing. Now this part is going to be used in the production machine straight off the 3D printer. The problem is solved and they didn't have to wait a week to get the part back from the machine shop. The plastic is strong enough for the job and the demand is low enough that this is a perfectly workable solution. Now they’re impressed that 3D printing isn't producing prototypes, it’s producing production quality parts faster and in some ways better than any other method.

3D printing. In some way it’s replacing traditional manufacturing but for the most part it is simply broadening the tools available and making things possible that weren’t before and easier than they’ve ever been. These aren’t the sort of things that wouldn’t do anyone any good on Thingiverse since no one else could use them, but in many ways that’s the coolest thing about 3D printing. There doesn’t need to be anyone else who needs them.

So that's what's in the box

Pirate 3D released a video that seems to have answered my questions exactly.

The first 20 seconds is the interesting points. Looks like their XY gantry is similar to bot-of-the-cloth, but without the cross-over. Interesting this puts all the motors in the same plane, including the Z-Axis.

I'm not sure if this is a better or worse than other configurations or how it managed to bring the price down or if that price will be sustainable as the business scales. But Pirate 3D seems like good guys and they've opened the box, so good luck Pirate 3D.

3D printing is close to my heart too.

Between my own project and the news world this has been a very busy week for this blog. Thank you for reading.
Of course everyone is excited about the baby that Doctors made a 3D printed stint for and saved his life. It's awesome, it's 3D printing, and it's a baby, all the making of a good story.
But lest we forget this is the second heart (at least) that has been saved by 3D printing. Tal Golesworthy, a boiler engineer, looked at his own heart, failing due to Marfan's syndrome, like a bulging pipe and decided all it needed was a wrap.

Iterative design in medicine. Custom fixes for each heart. A faster, easier surgery performed while the heart is beating. No drug treatment afterwards. And 3D printing.
I have a personal attachment because when I was younger there was a time I was being tested for Marfan's. Back then I was having a very grim picture painted for me and thank goodness they were able to rule it out. However if I had been diagnosed it's comforting to know that the coming together of 3D printing  medicine, and a very extraordinary man who knew the solution to a very ordinary bulging pipe problem could have saved my life, today.

Everything you want, lubed with snake oil

Step right up folks! See a 3D printer that can print in full color! Get prints so flawless that you don't even need to see them only $400! How about a 3D printer without the printer for a measly $75? Get the most of of your 3D printer with these special, never before seen plans! All this and more can be yours! Each order comes with a special snake oil to lube your rods with.

3D printing is definately the new hotness, but that also means it's also the new exploitable. 3D printing does some amazing stuff, it's true, but unless you dig a little deeper some savy predator will play up it's hype (excellent read, please follow this link if none of the others) to line their own pockets.

I'm not saying the people behind those examples I mentioned are necessarily bad people, mostly because I don't want to be sued. But at the very least they are selling themselves up considerably more than they probably should be. I feel it's a more than a little dishonest.

Let's examine BotObjects claim to full color prints mixed with 5 different colors of PLA. Can it work? Well, yes, RichRap kinda proved that (but, I mean, look at that thing). But anyone who's changed filament colors can tell you that it takes about a meter of extruded filament for the colors to completely clear out of the nozzle. They're not doing colored prints, they're changing the colors mid way so you can make striped prints. No full color Kianu from a BotObjects printer. Defantly not worth the price tag they're putting on it.

And while they mentioned PVA for support there's no example of that on their site. That's becauase while some have managed it, it's more fiddly than an Automated Build Platform.

In the past I've mentioned my feelings on the 3Doodler and just yesterday on the kickstarter for models you can download for free on Thingiverse.

On the flip side printrbot has been nothing but upfront about their attempts to bring price down, and I respect them. They're struggling but they're not giving up. I'm rooting for these guys.

The point when you see the worlds "3D" and "Print" to market something approach it with skepticism and doubt. Especially if they're confident. Double especially if you've never heard of them before. Because cheap home 3D printing is a new and exciting field and not anyone knows what they're doing. Don't give in to the hype and don't give in to the snake oil pitch.