Steampunk Lamp

Steampunk Lamp seen on Pinterest

Saw this on Pinterest. Unfortunately the artisan who designed and built it was not identified there. Thought it was cool, and rated a post here from Steampunk aficionados.

3D Printing Inspires a New Wave of Entrepreneurship in Japan

Financial Review has a new article up about a wave of 3D printing ventures that is building in Japan, especially attracting young Japanese entrepreneurs. Here at Cool Stuff We Like blog, we wish them the best.

3D Printed Gun Shoots Over 600 Rounds

Download a design file to you 3D printer and make a gun at home? Looks like that capability is here for real now...

Tech site ars technica reports that Cody Wilson of Texas has demonstrated a 3D printed AR-15 type "lower receiver" that withstood the firing of well over 600 rounds of .223 ammo. You can see it in action in the video embedded below.

Wired magazine's Danger Room staff tagged Cody Wilson as one of its "15 Most Dangerous People in the World" in December 2012.

The MoleculeSynth: low-cost, modular music synthesizer at Portland Mini Maker Faire

MoleculeSynth at Portland Mini Maker Faire 2012

I met Travis Feldman of Portland, OR at his Portland Mini Maker Faire booth last September. He was displaying and demonstrating his DIY modular music synthesizer, the MoleculeSynth. I meant to immediately blog about it here as part of a series about the Faire, but just didn't get to it... here it is, a bit late, but better than never.

The Molecule consists of hexagonal circuit blocks ("elements") that can be interconnected like Legos by the user to create a custom musical instrument. Individual blocks implement elementary synthesizer signal-generation, signal-processing, and controller functions, such as voltage-controlled oscillators (VCOs), voltage-controlled amplifiers (VCAs), low-frequency oscillators (LFOs), MIDI interface, touch control, and so on.

Travis had a successful Kickstarter campaign to raise funds for the MoleculeSynth back in September. He was looking for $15K, and garnered well over twice that.

You can see the available Molecule elements here. One that I don't see there, but was told would be available, was a breadboard that allows the real DIY aficionado to make his or her own custom block in a compatible format.

The MoleculeSynth looks like a great low-cost way to learn about and experiment with the technical details of music synthesis circuitry, both analog and digital types. It could also be a great introduction to electronics for aspiring makers or engineers of any age.

"Zero to Maker": David Lang & the Maker Culture

OpenROV Open-Source Underwater Robot

David Lang's life was upended when he lost his office job in 2011. In his telling, he felt that he'd lost not just a job, but his future with it, and consequently had to "rethink his entire entire career trajectory." He realized that by skipping high school shop classes, he'd never learned the fundamental, hands-on skills needed to make or repair useful things. His response was to learn those skills by plunging headlong into the maker culture. Within a few months he'd taken every class he could get into at the Tech Shop in San Francisco: wood working, laser cutting, CNC machining, and so on.

Within in a year of that intense learning experience, he became a partner in OpenROV, a business that has designed and developed and open-source underwater exploration robot. A successful Kickstarter campaign to fund the OpenROV robot project raised over $111.6K. Now David and his partner, Eric Stackpole, are busy keeping up with the orders for OpenROV kits that are pouring in from around the world.

David and Eric have started a blog at the OpenROV website to chronicle how and where OpenROV customers are using the robot around the world. It also serves as a place to exchange ideas about applications for the robot. The OpenROV is an open-source hardware project, so many users are already modifying the basic robot with new features, such as grappling arms and additional cameras.

David was also invited by the crew at MAKE magazine to blog about his experiences and other maker topics at the MAKE website under the moniker "Zerotomaker."  Now he's come back to Kickstarter to raise funds for a book about his transition from laid-off office drone to entrepreneur titled Zero to Maker. His Kickstarter campaign closed a week ago with a total of $49.5K, many times the target of $2,500.

We've embedded a video of the OpenROV robot in action below, check it out.

Very Informative 3D Printing Blog at Engineering.com

If you are interested in 3D printing, check out engineering.com's very fine blog that focuses exclusively on news of and developments in that technology and business.

Also check out Chris Anderson's new book on the Maker culture, open source design, and 3D printing via our Amazon affiliate link below, available in hardback and Kindle.

  

Wood Filament for 3D Printing from Formfutura

Form Futura LAYWOOD-D3 Filament

Formfutura sells 3D printing filaments in various materials, including ABS, PLA, and nylon. They are offering a new material, LAYWOOD-D3, that consists of wood fibers in a polymer binder. It is available for RepRap style printers in 1.75mm and 3.0mm diameters. The wood content is 45%.

Formfutura claims that objects printed with LAYWOOD-D3 will look and even smell like wood. They also say that interesting effects can be obtained by varying the temperature during printing: the finished material becomes darker as the printing temperature is increased. For example, the maker can simulate the appearance of a tree's growth rings or wood grain.

Check out the video below in which the print is controlled to give the printed object the appearance of growth rings.

Tip of the hat to Fabbaloo for bringing this to our attention.

DeltaMaker 3D Printer Kickstarter Project

DeltaMaker 3D Printer

The developers of the DeltaMaker 3D printer ask, "Why does a 3D printer have to look like a microwave oven?" So, they've taken a unique and elegant approach to 3D printing that employs a delta robot mechanism rather than the usual raster-scanning print mechanism.

The development team has gone to Kickstarter to raise the funds needed to bring the DeltaMaker to market. The Kickstarter funding effort is currently at $96K committed with 26 days to go, closing in on a goal of $107K. The printer pldege price ranges from the $1,399 "early adopters" special, to $1,499 for students and teachers, to $1,599 for all Kickstarters throughout the duration of the pledge period.

Delta robots per se are not a new technology, they've been around for decades, but I believe the DeltaMaker is the first commercial 3D printer based on this mechanism. Delta robots can be made very fast and are often employed in pick-and-place and packaging applications where speed is a virtue; for example, there is a great video of a small delta robot performing pick-and-place assembly here.

The three arms you see holding the print head are parallelograms that restrict motion of the print head to the x-y axis. As the build proceeds, the three arms are pulled upward by a motor as the layers of fused plastic filament are put down. The designers claim an astounding 100micron layer resolution in a build volume of approximately 9" diameter and 11" height.

Watch the embedded video below to see the DeltaMaker in action.

Update: The DeltaMaker Kickstarter fundraiser was successfully completed yesterday (Mar. 1st) with $152.6K pledged, well over its $107K goal. Congratulations to the DeltaMaker team.

MakerBot Opens 3D Printing Store in Manhattan

MakerBot Replicator 2 3D Printer

I just found this Businessweek article about the 3D printing retail store that MakerBot has recently opened in Manhattan. Customers can purchase 3D printed items and see the new Replicator 2, pictured to the left here, in action.

The store features the MakerBot 3D Photo Booth... step in and it creates a 3D model of your face from a series of 2D photos, which you can then have printed to scale there in the store.

I am assuming that customers can bring in their own design files and have them printed there, though that's not explicitly stated in the article or at the MakerBot website.

Check out the Replicator 2 in action in the video embedded below.

Portland, OR Mini Maker Faire, Sept. 15-16

The Portland Mini Maker Faire is coming up fast. It will be setup in the North parking lot of the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (OMSI), this coming Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 15-16. The Faire is open both days from 10am to 6pm.

Admission is $12 for adults, and $8 for kids 3 to 13 and seniors (63+). Two-day passes are available for a discount, $20 for adults and $15 for the kids. Seniors can get a two-day pass for the same price as daily admission, just $8. Admission for children under three is free. You can buy tickets online here.

A map and driving directions to OMSI are here.

OMSI is looking for volunteers to support the Faire. To volunteer your help, contact OMSI at volunteerservices@omsi.edu.

Check out MAKE magazine online while you're at it. See MAKE's online schedule of upcoming Maker Faire's all around the globe to find the date and time of a Faire near you.

UPDATE 9/15: Getting out the door now, heading for OMSI.

UPDATE 9/15pm: Just got back... took lots of pics. Had a great time. Will be blogging up a storm about it.

Wire for the Maker & DIY Projects from Amazon Supply

All kinds of wire is available from Amazon Supply... magnet wire, Nichrome for heating elements, copper braid, heavy gauge, light gauge. If you need wire for an electronics product, car repair, brass wire for jewelry projects, whatever it is, you're likely to find it at Amazon Supply.

They are also really good for crimp connectors, spade lugs, ring terminals, and other interconnect parts.

               

B9Creator 3D Printer Fundraising on Kickstarter

A couple of weeks ago we posted a piece about the Bukobot 3D printer Kickstarter fundraiser, which has been quite successful, easily exceeding its maker's fundraising goal of $42K with more than a week left to go. Well, yesterday we found out about another 3D printer project at Kickstarter, the B9Creator fundraiser, which has done amazingly well: In less than a week, and with a month still to go, more than $123,000 has been pledged,  far exceeding owner Michael Joyce's original $50,000 project funding goal.

I think this one is so way-over-the-top successful because of its unique technical approach: Joyce uses a deformable mirror device to project a 1024x768 pixel image onto a layer of light-sensitive resin. The entire layer is immediately cured where the light hits it, so each layer of the printed object is created very rapidly. This is in contrast with Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) techniques, where the material is laid down in a raster pattern after the fashion of inkjet printing.

Joyce writes that each layer is typically calibrated to be .004" (.1mm) thick, but that the user can trade off speed for even greater resolution. Claimed printing rates are 12-20mm per hour. The resin used is said to be very inexpensive.

The B9Creator is an open source hardware project, so all of the CAD files and software source code files will be made available under an open source license.

On another fun note, check out Michael Joyce's life-sized models of the Lost In Space "Robot B9." (And now you know where the "B9Creator" name came from...)

Update 5/21: With three weeks to go at Kickstarter, pledged funds for the B9Creator total just under $170,000, well over three times the project goal. 

Jet Hobby Mill from Amazon Supply

Jet JHM-610 Hobby Mill

Jet Tools has recently brought this low-cost ($799) manual benchtop mill to the market. From what I've seen of their marketing for this unit, they have apparently recognized an opportunity  in the growing DIY/Maker community.

Dime City Cycles, Vintage Bobbers & Cafe Racers

Dime City Honda CB450 Bobber

Dime City Motorcycles, "Redefining the motorcycle, one rusty bolt at a time."

Great tagline for an outfit that transforms everything from classic Hondas, Kawis, Suzukis to modern Triumph twins into nicely crafted cafe racers and bobbers. Their work has gained them some recognition... Herm Narciso of Dime City has been featured on Cafe Racer TV.

In addition to complete bike builds, Dime City design and sells parts for the do-it-yourselfer. They also offer a lineup of parts from other small, boutique makers, such as Roccity Cafe Racers.

Dime City is located in Largo, FL, but is setup to take orders domestically and internationally.

Dime City Honda Shadow VT800 Cafe Racer

Dime City has a very extensive, well-designed and well-organized website with plenty of technical content. Their blog here is good place to start.

Update May 12: Dime City guys just tweeted about their interview at Cafe Racer Podcast. 

The UP! Personal, Portable 3D Printer

UP! Personal 3D Printer

Another low-cost, 3D printer for the home, school, lab, and maker/DIY market has come to our attention: the UP! personal and portable printer from Delta Micro Factory Corporation in China. The research we've done so far indicates that the UP! printer has been on the market for about two years now. We have not been able to find a recent review of it, however, there are a number of Youtube videos uploaded by the company and by users.

The American distributor is UP! USA in Brooklyn, NY. Their listed price is $1,499 plus shipping and handling. (You may need to be patient when visiting their website... each page was annoyingly slow to load, at least for us this evening.)

The UP! has its own software environment for setting up the machine and running print jobs. It is claimed that the company is investing significant resources into software development, so that they are releasing frequent software updates that add new features. The software accepts the standard STL file format, so you can use a CAD program of your choice to create models. 

In our researches, we did find that ten UP! printers are being given away as prizes in the Instructables  "Make It Real Challenge" this year (we'll be doing a post about that soon... if you are a maker, take a look, you might want to enter). Meanwhile, check out the UP! demo video below.

"Making Things Move", an Excellent Book for the Maker

Making Things Move, by Dustyn Roberts

Making Things Move: DIY Mechanisms for the Inventors, Hobbyists, and Artists, by Dustyn Roberts

I found this excellent little book from prominent robotics engineer, consultant, and educator Dustyn Roberts on the new books shelf of our local library this past week. The Robby the Robot themed cover caught my attention right away, but after leafing through it for a few minutes, I found the content compelling and immediately tucked it onto our stack of the day's take-home selections.

This book teaches you how to apply basic mechanical engineering principles, and some basic knowledge of electronics, to your DIY projects without sending you back to school for an engineering degree. Perhaps you are an artist or graphics designer and don't consider yourself a "technical" person, or your technical experience is limited to the more abstract realms of software or chip design, but you'd like to get your hands dirty with a project using mechanical components, such as nuts and bolts, motors, gears, and solenoids. Maybe you have a great idea for a project that incorporates mechanical motion, but you just don't know how to get started. If so, this book can really help and guide you. From the introduction:

In this book, you will learn how to successfully build moving mechanisms through nontechnical explanations, examples, and do-it-yourself projects. Maybe you're a sculptor who wants a piece of art to come alive, a computer scientist who want to explore mechanics, or a product designer who wants to add function to complement the form of  your product. Maybe you've built projects in the past, but they fell apart easily. Or maybe you didn't grow up making things move but want to learn. The students in the class I teach at New York University's Interactive Telecommunications Program in the Tisch School of the Arts have been all of those things, and they gave me the inspiration to write this book. 

Ms. Roberts deliberately goes light on the math throughout... you don't have to be a calculus or physics wiz to understand it, just some knowledge of very basic algebra and trigonometry is all that's required, and if you're rusty on those subjects, you can easily brush up with a little help from the many tutorials available on the Web.

The book begins with a presentation of six basic machines and mechanisms: levers, pulleys, wheels and axles, inclined planes and wedges, screws, and gears. The second chapter presents common project materials (metals, plastics, etc.), their basic properties, and how to choose the right materials for your applications. The third chapter outlines the basics of joining materials with screws, rivets, nails, adhesives, soldering, and so on. The next couple of chapters present some basic physics of mechanics, such as force, torque, friction, energy, work, and power, which lay the background for an understanding of the basic requirements --- strength, power, energy, and so on --- that a successful product will need to meet so that it won't fall apart or otherwise fail.

After these opening chapters concerning fundamentals, the real fun begins, with stepper motors, servos, bearings, bushings, springs, basic electronics, and how to combine them to make simple machines that are useful and fun. The final chapter details a handful of good projects that give you hands-on experience that complements the teachings of the book, such as a miniature wind turbine that powers an LED. Finally, the book closes with an appendix about the popular open source Arduino microcontroller board.

Dustyn Roberts has put together a website and blog for the book. Check it out, the website is very useful. I especially liked the "Resources" page set that is organized around the book's chapter, with videos and links to relevant external resources. Her professional website and blog is also interesting.

As indicated in the quote above, the book is an outgrowth of the author's real classroom experience with real students from diverse academic and professional backgrounds, many with very little or even no hands-on experience of technical work. In this book, she's showing you that you don't have to let this intimidate you and stop you from doing something cool that you really want to do. Study it, work the exercises, apply the principles and you'll get better results from your own DIY projects.

Meeblip Open Hardware Synthesizer

Meeblip Low-Cost, Open Hardware Synth

The Meeblip is an open hardware, open source monophonic music synthesizer with a MIDI interface.  It's ready to use as is, or, since it's an open, community-based technology initiative, you can hack it to suit yourself.  

The Meeblip is available in several configurations: a "quick build" kit with complete enclosure and an assembled printed circuit board for $149.95; a "build-it-yourself" kit for with enclosure but unassembled circuit board for $129.95; and a "micro" version for the experienced hacker, pictured below, which is a circuit board with MIDI interface but without the manual controls... think of the micro version as more of a software development board. It costs only $39.95.

Meeblip Micro Hacker's Kit

The Meeblip is open source hardware, so you are free to make your own version of the Meeblip and to sell them. You are also free to buy Meeblip kits, assemble and test them, then put them up for sale as finished units to buyers who don't want to go to the trouble of building the kit themselves. You are also free, of course, to modify the software, to add new features and functions to it.

The Meeblip hardware is based on the Atmel ATmega32 micro, so if you already have Arduino experience, you'll be up to speed on hacking and programming Meeblip to a great extent. 

To learn more about the Meeblip community, go to the Meeblip forum pages here at Noisepages.com. 

To find out more about the Open Source Hardware (OSHW) movement, check out their wiki.

Sheet Metal Fabrication, Tools & Techniques

I've really enjoyed working with sheet metal in recent years. It's really satisfying to start with just a sheet of say, 18guage steel and some mallets and hammers, and shape something useful or beautiful from it. If you've got a hankering to try your hand at metal fabrication, take a look at some of the resources available from Amazon and Amazon Supply here.

I have some Martin body hammers and dollies, very nice tools... high quality stuff.

Ron Covell is a great teacher in this arena. He has various books and videos out there, and he holds seminar classes around the country, too.

            

3D Stuffmaker's RepRap 3D Printer

3D Stuffmaker "Allstar" 3D Printer

In response to our recent post about Cubify and the "Cube" 3D printer, one of our readers contacted us about 3D Stuffmaker and their RepRap-derived 3D printers for the DIY market. RepRap is an open-hardware, community-based project, so makers are free to create and market their own printers based on RepRap designs.

The engineers at 3D Stuffmaker have made it their mission t o improve on the RepRap technology, and to make it much more accessible to a wider range of home users and educators by offering DIY kits and assembled printers... at their website, click on the "Sales & Specs" tab to see what's on offer.

If you are in the market for a low-cost 3D printer, or just want to get a feel for what's happening in the 3D print community, check out 3D Stuffmaker.

We will continue to post here about 3D printing and other Rapid Prototyping technologies as things develop in those arenas.

Steampunk Arts & Crafts Materials

Amazon Supply is a great source for Steampunk project materials, such as brass, copper, adhesives,brass nuts and washers, gears, metalworking tools, leatherworking tools, etc.The Amazon bookstore is, of course, a great source for Steampunk how-to project books.

Check 'em out.