Rhys Jones has been working on 3D printing circuits using a RepRap printer. He has recently made enough progress to have a working circuit. One of the main problems I previously had was solubility. Running molten metals were acting as solvents for my heated nozzle – resulting in the nozzle slowly dissolving during a print. […]
Author Archives: NicholasCLewis
Mark your tools
Steve Hoefer from Grathio Labs has a nice how to on marking your tools. This covers both marking for preventing mixed up tools as well as marking to recover stolen tools. Both of these things seem to be good ideas as more and more of us work together at community workshops and hackerspaces. I also work at […]
The Audrey Braille Display
David Pankhurst has a very interesting open source project, The Audrey Braille Display, which aims to lower the cost of braille displays. While researching ways to ensure blind individuals have equal access to digital services of all kinds, including casinos not on GamStop UK, Pankhurst recognized the need for an affordable solution. A braille display allows […]
The Resistor JelTone: an edible toy piano
A group from NYC Resistor (Ranjit Bhatnagar, Astrida Valigorsky, Mimi Hui and Catarina Mota) made an edible toy piano, called The Resistor JelTone, for the Jello Mold Competition. As part of our experiments we realized that jello and fruit, which contain a lot of water, are conductive. Embedded in each jello/fruit key is a sterling silver pin (food safe) connected to […]
A marriage proposal via a PCB design
Bill Porter proposed to his girlfriend, Mara Tuchman, in a very unique way via a modified PCB design. This was carried out with the help of James “Laen” Neal from DorkpotPDX. Mara had designed a PCB for a project and Bill had the brilliant idea to use it to propose. This is her first time getting a circuit […]
A large scale 3D printer
The creative makers at Metrix Create: Space have had their first successfully print on the Big Robot, which is a CNC router table converted into a large extrusion based 3D printer. The basic technology is much like a RepRap, but the nozzle is about 6mm, while most RepRap nozzles are around 0.5mm. It currently prints […]
3D printing with solar sintered sand
Markus Kayser has a very interesting project, called SolarSinter, where he is using the energy from the sun to fuse sand into glass. This is very thought provoking as it utilizes two very ubiquitous things solar energy and sand. While the printer does not has very high precision at the moment, it does appear to […]
DIY inkjet printer
This quarter at the University of Washington a group of students (Patrick Hannan, Jared Knutzen, Joy Markham, & Myself – Nicholas C Lewis) produced some documentation on the development of a DIY inkjet printer. This project is attracting a lot of attention and spawning some interesting ideas. There are people talking about adapting it to […]
3D printed Logic Sniffer case
Domonoky designed a very nice 3D printable case for the Open Bench Logic Sniffer. He then printed it using different colors of PLA fed into the printer to get a multi-colored print. It is even customized with a name on the top. This is a very nice example of using 3D printing to make custom […]
Music from blenders
John Park is making a Blendophone for Maker Fair. This is a very unique musical instrument using an iPhone, Arduino, and 8 blenders. So far the Arduino is setup with a shield to connect it to a XBee for wireless and 8 PowerSwitch Tails that will allow the 5v output from the Arduino to switch […]
3D printable PCB stand-offs
We recently ran across another 3D printable PCB accessory on Thingiverse. This time it is a stand-off that slips on the edge of a PCB and the edge of a piece of plywood. This is a quick way to mount your PCB on the side of a project or into a project enclosure.
3D printable IDC header shrouds
Renosis has created a 3D printable add-on shroud for 6 and 10 pin IDC headers. Breakaway headers are much cheaper than shrouded headers and it would be possible to make them in other sizes if needed. If you have access to a 3D printer this looks like a great way to add shrouds to your […]
Atomic cookies
The creative people over at Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories are making atomic cookies using a traditional cookie press. These cookies are in the shapes of hydrogen atomic probability functions. It is very cool to see cooking hacks like this and we wonder what other creative geeky cookies could be made using a cookie press with […]
TinkerCAD web-based 3D CAD
There is a new teaser site for an upcoming web-based CAD tool aimed at artists and makers. This looks like it may be a nice entry level tool to get even more people into 3D modeling. It is currently unknown how this will be released and what it will cost, but we look forward to […]