News

Perils of 3D Printing (moderately graphic)
In honor of the great month of October and the coming of Halloween, I thought I would share this little 3D Printing injury with you all.   From my perspective, this is moderately amusing.  I've got decades of experience working in labs and around moving shop equipment.  I know where I'm at risk of a little scrape here and there and where I need to be more careful. Read more...
Getting Ready for World Makerfaire 2015
Fall is an awesome time for 3D Printing.  There are many great events.  One of the biggest for makers and 3D Printing is the World Maker Faire in NYC.   The 2015 event will be held at the New York Hall of Science on September 26th and 27th.  There will be a ton of amazing Makers showing off their work and lots of hands on activities.  More info about the Faire can be found here.   Printed Solid will be there in the 3D Printing Village with some cool things to show off... Read more...
3D Printing Design Tips - Part 1: Stress Concentrations
This will be the first in what I hope to be a series of tips for optimizing your 3D printed part design for mechanical performance.  An apology in advance: I have a masters degree in mechanical engineering and 15+ years of industry experience. Read more...
Midwest Reprap Fest 2015
  Better late than never, right? This year, I'm proud to report that Printed Solid will be a supporting vendor at the 2015 Midwest RepRap Festival.  This is an annual event held in NorthWestern Indiana where 3D printing people from around the world gather to discuss ideas and show off their work.  If you're into 3D Printing, hopefully RepRap needs no explanation, but just in case, here's a little primer. Read more...
How to Polish Bronzefill
This blog post has been on the to-do list for a few months now and I just have not had a chance to do it.  Fortunately, my favorite you tuber, Barnacules Nerdgasm, went through the same sequence of steps that I did and ended up with the same conclusion:  rock tumbler + stainless steel shot + water + detergent = awesome bronzefill polishing method. Read more...
XTC-3D
A few weeks ago, I read the announcement that Smooth-On had launched a product for post processing 3D printed objects to help smooth the layers called XTC-3D. From their product page, here is the description and the performance claims: Read more...
Movember – Moustaches and 3D Printing for Men’s Health Awareness
The Movember organization is a foundation that seeks to expand awareness of men's health issues.  Every November, men participate by starting the month clean shaven and growing a moustache (I think the stranger the better) over the course of the month to spark discussion. Read more...
Getting Ready for Makerfaire  NY
For the past few months, I’ve been very busy getting things ready for Printed Solid’s first official MakerFaire New York appearance.  We have been approved for a full booth and are extremely excited about it.  While I’ve done a few smaller MakerFaire’s and other events, this will be the largest scale by far. Here are some of the things that will be featured and available at our booth on 9/20 and 9/21 at the New York Hall of Science. Read more...
Robo3D R1 Unboxing and First Print
As I'm sure many of you who have read the blog before know, I was an early backer of the Robo3D Kickstarter. I'll be honest with my impression from the Kickstarter campaign.  The machine was in an interesting housing with a good build volume.  Print quality shown in the original Kickstarter was not so good (pics have since been updated with much better prints). Read more...
Extruder Cleanout Filament Review
Have you ever had a nozzle clog? :)  I'm sure the answer is no, right?  That never happens in 3D printing. Of course I'm being sarcastic.  Nozzle clogs happen.  There are things you can do to minimize them such as using quality filament and installing a filament cleaner, but they're still going to happen on occasion.  I've found that they seem to be at their worse when using filled materials and when doing a lot of changes between filament types. Read more...
Robo3D Enclosure Assembly Instructions
This post contains assembly instructions for the Robo3D flat packed enclosure kit that we sell here:   http://www.printedsolid.com/shop/printer-parts/r3dhouse/ It is a repost of a writeup done by Mike Kelly on the Robo3D forum with some edits to account for changes made since his original post.  Read more...
Get your prints to stick - Check your skirt!
One of the most simple, yet frustratingly difficult things to get figured out when you are learning about 3D Printing is how to get and keep your prints stuck to the bed. People have all kinds of tricks.  Bare clean glass, borosilicate glass, plate glass, PEI, buildTak, aluminum plate, circuit board perf material,  Painters Tape, Kapton Tape, Glue stick, hair spray, PVC film, higher temperature, lower temperature, etc.  The list goes on. Read more...