It’s time for our yearly holiday party! We will again be printing ornaments and showcasing holiday themed projects. This is a great time to come hang out and meet the 3DPPVD crew. Whether you are a first-timer or a veteran, this is sure to be a great time. As always, the event is free and open to the public. Since this is a party we encourage you to bring a holiday snack to share with everyone (last year’s mulled wine was a huge hit).

We are also holding a 3D printed ornament contest. Submit your original design by Tuesday (12/9/14) for a chance to win a spool of clear PLA filament – perfect for printing your holiday snow-like ornaments. The winner will be announced at the meeting on Wednesday (12/10/14) and must attend this or an upcoming meeting to claim their prize (sorry out-of-towners).

The meeting will be in Ocean State Maker Mill’s new space on the third floor of the 80 Fountain Street Mill (80 Fountain St, Pawtucket, RI). We will kick off on Wednesday 12/10/14 at 7pm and will keep the party going for many hours. We hope you all can join us to celebrate another great year of 3DPPVD.

We are excited to be participating in the Rhode Island Mini Maker Faire for the second year in a row. The Rhode Island Mini Maker Faire will be held Saturday, October 11th from 11am-6pm in downtown Providence. This Wednesday, we will be meeting to preview some of our plans for MMFRI along with our standard 3D printing banter.

We are also excited to announce a new location for our meetings: Focus Vision Media in Pawtucket, RI. Focus Vision Media is an amazing marketing company pushing the boundaries of how products are presented to consumers. The Focus team is excited about rapid prototyping and the great talent pool that the 3DPPVD team has brought together. The Focus office is in a beautifully renovated factory with numerous other innovative organizations where we will feel at home.

Join us on Wednesday, October 8th beginning at 7pm at 80 Fountain Street, Pawtucket, RI. This meeting is free and open to all. If you are just starting out or have only heard of 3D printing but are curious and want to learn more, we would love for you to join us and learn from our team.

As we each continue to grow our individual 3D printer stables, there comes a point where it can make sense to put our printers to work doing more than just printing the items of our desires. A few companies have tried to find a way to allow printer owners to connect with those looking to get items printed, but few have done it well or have hit a critical mass to draw enough attention to make it all work.

This month, we will introduce you to 3D Hubs – a company that seems to have gotten it right. With over 6,000 members offering the services of their 3D printers worldwide, 3D Hubs is a growing community whose simple interface makes the process of connecting customers and printer owners easy and efficient. We will cover the basics of getting set up on 3D Hubs to help any of our members interested with getting started with putting their printers to work.

Of course – as always – this is also a social meeting and everyone is invited!  If you’ve never attended one of our meetings before, they are free and open to the public. No mater what your experience level, you are invited to come join us and share in our love for 3D printing. This meeting will be held again at the igus headquarters (257 Ferris Avenue, East Providence, RI 02916), and we couldn’t be happier to announce this! So join us on Wednesday, August 13th at 7PM for all the 3D printing fun.

This month we will be celebrating two amazing years of 3DPPVD!  Join us again at the igus headquarters in East Providence, RI (257 Ferris Avenue, East Providence, RI 02916) on Wednesday, July 9th. This will be a social meeting to discuss the past two years and plan the next year ahead. If you have a printer or 3DP project you would like to show off (or get help with), bring it along to show the group. This event, as always, is free and open to anyone of any skill/experience level and will be starting at 7pm.

Rhode Island my be a small state but it’s packed with opportunity and  sometimes being so close together amazing things happen. 3DPPVD is very excited to announce that we are working in partnership with the world leader in plastic composite linear motion products, igus (yes, they don’t capitalize their name). igus is a german company but their US headquarters is rooted firmly right here in Rhode Island in East Providence. You may have heard some of us talk about igus before, all of the linear guides in the 3DPPVD CastMax printers are from igus, we are big fans.

The igus team like the 3DPPVD team have realized that 3D Printing is going to be a big part of our future. To help drive that future, igus is releasing a new filament to the market, tribo, that is designed to help withstand mechanical wear. This means not only can you purchase bushings from igus for your project, you can also design and print your own.

igus and 3DPPVD are working on some big plans for the future and to kick things off, we are hosting June’s meeting at the igus head quarters in East Providence. As usual this meeting is free and open to the public and all skill/interest levels. We will be getting started at 7pm on Wednesday, June  11th. The new igus HQ is located at: 257 Ferris Avenue, East Providence, RI 02916. If you are planning on attending, please shoot me an email info@3dppvd.org to let me know so we can get the igus team some rough numbers. Oh and don’t forget to bring your printer along to show it off to the group. We look forward to seeing you all there!

Our May meeting is here and we are pleased to announce that 3DP PVD is making some big changes. Firstly, we are changing the location of our meetings, this month we will be meeting at Digital City. Digital City is located at 131 Washington Street, this is the same building that we have met at in the past, just down the hall. We will be kicking off this Wednesday May 14th at 7pm. Along with our announcements, we will be getting together for our normal jovial banter regarding the happenings in the 3D printing world. If you have a printer that you would like to show to the group (or one that you would like the group to help you fix), please feel free to bring it along. This meeting like always is free and open to the public. If you feel like bringing snacks or beverages, that would be great but is not required. We look forward to seeing you there.

It’s time for our April meeting and this month we are going to hold off on any organized presentation and instead give more time towards showing off (or working on) our bots.  Feel free to bring in your printer or any projects you want to present to the group. Snacks and drinks are always appreciated but are not required. Of course as always, this meeting is free and open to new comers. We will be kicking off at 7pm at AS220 Labs on Wednesday, April 9th.

Many of you have asked to learn more about the free open source 3D modeling tool, Blender. This month longtime 3DPPVD member Kelly Egan will guide us through the basics of using this powerful but daunting tool. From Kelly on the presentation:

Blender may have been designed for CG Animation but like many other 3D design tools they are adding features to help with 3D printing. In this presentation I’ll talk about those features, how I have designed a few 3D printed items using Blender and some of the benefits parts and drawbacks to using a animation package for solid modeling.

Join us Wednesday, March 12th at 7pm for this and our usual banter and idea exchange. This meeting is free and open to the public and will be held at our usual location, AS220 Labs on Lucy Way in the Mercantile block.