Tis the season for giving and if the shipping numbers from some of our favorite 3D printing manufacturers are any indication, some of you are getting 3D printers for Christmas. We expect that mare than a couple of you are going to need help with those printers too. We are here to help! Stop by 3D Printing Providence at AS220 Labs Wednesday January 8th (from 7pm until late) for our free monthly meeting and we will do our best to get you up and running.
The holiday shopping season is in full swing and if you are struggling to find the right gift for that special 3D printing fan in your life (or possibly even yourself), then stop by Wednesday, December 11th, to check out the Form 1 from Formlabs. The Form 1 is on the cutting edge of desktop 3D printing. A true SLA printer, the Form 1 uses guided lasers to cure liquid resin into the desired model. The print quality provided by this technique leaves FFF printers in the dust. The Formlabs team will be joining us at 7pm at AS220 Labs. This is a great opportunity to ask questions and see examples of what this printer is capable of and hopefully see it in action.
Of course we will also have a few other machines on display and the regular crew will be there to answer any questions newcomers might have. Since this is our holiday meeting we will probably stick around late so if you can’t make it on time, don’t hesitate to stop by later but since the Form team is heading down from Boston we will be starting their portion on time (for once).
The team from ProtoPlant, Inc launched a Kickstarter to help bring to market their new line of 3D printing hybrid filaments: Proto-Pasta. Of course, since we are doing lots of filament research we couldn’t help but reach out to them and see if we could get a hold of some early samples to try out. The guys at ProtoPlant were happy to oblige and soon I was printing away in these awesome new materials.
If you are looking to get more out of your 3D printer by expanding the line of filaments and their capabilities, then this is a great way to get started. Head to Kickstarter now and back them before it’s too late. For a more detailed review, continue after the jump.
This Wednesday, November 13th there will be no plastic spared and no quarter given (just pennies) as we meet on the field of battle (AS220 Labs). The walls of plastic will be built and swiftly destroyed by the rain of skillfully aimed pennies, for this is Seej and no place for the weak!
Seej is a fully 3D Printed game by Jim “Zheng3“. Players can expand upon the game using the many different models created by Jim and other members of the community or even create their own war machines to bring into battle. We will be holding a small tournament to see who is the true master of the plastic battle field, so be sure to arrive on time or you will be left as a spectator. To keep things fair we will only be using pieces from the main battle set in our tournament, but you are more than welcome to bring your own printed armaments to enjoy side skirmishes.
This is going to be a fun social meeting so if you have never joined us before, this is a great opportunity to do so. We will also be collecting any additional parts that any of our community members have created since our last prosthetics meet up. These will be bundled up and sent to Africa to meet up with our first batch of hands that are already there.
The meeting will start at 7pm with the battles beginning shortly after. This meeting is free and open to everyone but if you feel like bringing drinks, snacks, beer, etc to share with the rest of the group that would be greatly appreciated!
On October 17th, Jesse Harrington Au, the Maker Advocate for Autodesk will be visiting providence and is stopping in to visit us. Jesse has given us a great teaser as to what he will be talking about:
“The 123D universe has become a vast place full of ways to design, create and fabricate, with this live demo of the tool chain from Design , Catch, and Make into Meshmixer and then out to 3D print utility you will get to see the full capabilities of radicalness involved with free software. I will also answer questions about life, dreams and guns.”
Join us at 7pm at AS220 labs for this special event.
As we reported last week, Adafruit, has helping organize a month long initiative to improve the functionality and production of 3D printed prosthetics. Every Friday this month, they will be hosting a Google hangout to show progress from the community and answer questions from those getting involved.
One of the main projects that has been adopted for helping those in need has been the Robohand project. There are numerous community members who are working on improving the design, including Michael Curry, who has designed a fully printable model without the need for any extra hardware.
On Friday, October 25th, 3DP PVD will be hosting a build party to bring together printers from around the region to help create these devices for those in need. We are working with other groups who are finding little heroes who are looking to become superheroes with their new mechanical hands!
If you have a 3D printer and would like to join us to help create these devices, come to AS220 Labs in downtown Providence, RI starting at 6pm on Friday October 25th. If you know a child who might benefit from one of these devices we would love to have them join us so we can fit them during the event. Please contact us at info@3dppvd.org if you would like to join us or would like to help us out in anyway.
To find out more about these projects check out the links and video bellow.
Over the course of our meetings we have talked a great deal about the abilities of the new lines of desktop 3D printers that have sprung into existence over the past few years. This month R&D Technologies is going to join us to show what the professional side of the industry is capable of. R&D is a reseller of Stratasys printers (the now parent company of MakerBot). So join us this Wednesday 7pm, at AS220 Labs as Ben Gardell and Justin Coutu demo some of the capabilities of these machines and answer your questions about these technologies.
One of the most exciting recent developments in the desktop 3D printing world has come from makers designing low cost but amazingly functional prosthetic devices. One of the most successful of these projects has been the Robohand project who’s work was documented in a promotional video created by MakerBot. The device created by Robohand can grip objects with the flex of the users wrist and was fully printed on a desktop 3D printer.
Now Adafruit is hosting a month long event to try to further the spread of this project. Every friday in October, they will be hosting a Google + hangout where fellow makers can share their progress in printing and helping to distribute these devices to those in need.
Adafruit reached out to us at 3DPPVD in hopes that our talented team of printing enthusiasts could join in on the fun. We invite all of you to join us this Friday, for the introductory hangout where members of the Adafruit team and other partners will explain the goals of the month long project.
You can find out more from Adafruit’s announcement here.
After months of watching updates that included cat shaped infill patterns and other nonsense, MakerBot has finally released their official support for dissolvable HIPS support material based on the research done here at 3DPPVD. They have branded their new filament line MakerBot Dissolvable and made it available to be shipped on the day of the announcement. MakerBot has priced their new filament at $65 a kilo which is an over 60% markup to the same material offered by Filaco.
With this new material MakerBot has also upgraded MakerWare to support printing support structures on a secondary extruder. Now on a dual extrusion machine, HIPS can be printed alongside ABS without the need to generate two separate models. They have also included color matching support and rafts for dual extrusion multicolor prints. This will eliminate colored scars in your prints from the removal of a different colored support material.
You can read more about our research into soluble support material here and find out more about MakerBots announcement here.
Finally, don’t miss Hack A Day’s coverage of some of our advanced materials research that was on display at this years World Maker Faire.
A few months ago, I mentioned the great kickstarter that was being run by Rhode Island’s own Wayne Losey: Modibot. I am pleased to announce that Wayne will be joining us this month to discuss his work designing toys for 3D printing and creating a business based on that. Wayne has been an attendee of our meetings in the past but I am excited to have him as our speaker.
As usual our meeting will start at 7pm at AS220 Labs in down town Providence, RI. It is free and open to the public. I hope to see you there!