News

Converting a Robo3D to a Dual Bowden
Our friend Mike Kelly on the Robo3D Forum put together an awesome upgrade and set of instructions for the robo3D. Check it out! Read more...
Unboxing the Deltamaker 3D Printer
A few weeks ago, we happily accepted delivery on one of our Kickstarter rewards!  We pledged for this at the end of January 2013 and were hoping for delivery around July 2013.  Of course like most (all?) Kickstarter projects it was delayed 'a little'.  In this case, I think it was delayed because the team really put some engineering effort into the design to ensure future success. Read more...
Vapor Smoothing 3D Printed Parts - PLA, colorFabb, XT, T-Glase, PET+
As you've seen in some of my previous posts, I've spent a fair amount of time experimenting with using an acetone vapor bath to smooth 3D Printed parts. Recently, I saw this cool make of a Moai head posted by thingiverse member Shapespeare.  He used acrylic cement to manually smooth the PLA printed part with a really great result. Read more...
Shiny New ColorFabb Spools
At the beginning of 2014, colorFabb launched a bit of a rebranding.  Shiny new spools, new packaging, and a new website. The new spools are really cool.  The form is the same.  They still use the same large bore size and large winding diameter as on their prior spool, but they are now transparent where they were previously black.  What does this mean to you other than looking cool? Read more...
Sigi's Helicopter 3D Printed in Woodill Coarse
This is a fun model I downloaded from youmagine.com to print. It was printed in colorFabb woodfill coarse on an Ultimaker with a nozzle drilled out to 0.8mm.  0.2mm layer height.  I think all 4 parts took about 40 minutes. Read more...
Using MixeePopper to Turn a Child's Drawing Into a 3D Printed Thing
A few weeks ago, my wife and I had some friends over for dinner.  They wanted to see the printers. So, we went into the shop and talked about how the printers worked, different file formats for models, etc.  Then one of them pulled one of her son's drawings of Boba Fett out of her purse and said, "Can you make this?"  My response was, "of course". Read more...
3D Printed Christmas
Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays!  Cheery Consumerism! Whatever you believe in, it is definitely a time of year for festivities with friends and 'stuff'.  What better way to check out 'stuff' than with a 3D printer? 3D printing is a really fun hobby, it can be a money saving prototyping tool for inventors, and can even be a production method for new products. Read more...
3D Printed Decorative Letter Bowls
Here’s another application for 3D printing. Custom party decorations. My wife and I decided we wanted to have bowls in the shape of the letters of our daughter’s name to hold snacks for her birthday.  So, I designed some in CAD and printed them on my Ultimaker 3D printer.  Read more...
Testing New 3D Printing Filament - Carbon Fiber, Wood Filled, XT, and more!
A few months ago, I received some samples of colorFabb PLA/PHA filament.  I liked it so much that I decided to become a reseller in the USA.  Here is my initial evaluation showing off some of the great properties of the PLA/PHA.  This material is awesome.  Read more...
Halloween Ideas for 3D Printing
I've been 3D printing Halloween themed parts throughout the year, both for fun and as props for The Haunted Barn in Camden, DE. Now that Halloween is almost here, I thought it would be cool to put up some of the things I've printed.  I'd love to supplement this with other people's prints as well.  Please leave a comment with your print.  You can link it, or send it to me and I will add it to the post! Read more...
More 3D Printed Metal! Lost PLA
Between Makerfaire NY, shipping and ordering filament, I haven't had a lot of time to update the blog lately, but we've been doing some really cool work. So, I'm taking a quick break just to toss up some pics of castings. Here is a customer job we worked on a while back.  Read more...
Vapor Polishing colorFabb XT!
A few nights ago, I printed a thin walled part with colorFabb _XT.  It was very tall and unstable.  Essentially a 4 inch disk standing on end.  I used a brim, but that wasn't really enough.  As the part built up higher and higher, it became less and less stable.  As such, I ended up with a pretty low quality print and had a few layer delaminations. Read more...