One of the coolest 'toys' at the library where I work now is the 3D printer. Yup, we've got one, and it's available for public use (send us the files, and we print it up). I'm taking a course online, too, learning more about using the printers, designing 3D files, tons of applications, and so on. Very, very cool.
The model we have is a Makerbot Replicator. It's about the size of an average kitchen microwave. The final products are all solid-color plastic (we can't change colors on our machine mid-project), though there are models out there that can print in other materials too. It's really neat what people are researching as possible printing material - metals, circuitry, cellulose (wood pulp), food... As for what ours can print... pretty much anything that fits on it's platform and within it's frame. You can even print things with moving parts, printed all at once! That's one of the really cool things about 3D printers. Anything that's bigger than the Makerbot dimensions has to be broken down into smaller pieces, then fitted together after all the parts are printed (i.e., you could print a life-size R2D2 model, but he'd have to be printed in pieces and assembled after the fact). But other than that, yeah, sky's the limit.
So, how does it actually work? The machine is loaded with a plastic filament which reminds me of spools of weed-whacker line. Not quite as stiff as weed-whacker line, though. The plastic line is fed through the machine, where it is heated up at the extruder tip. (FYI: That's why we do the printing, not the general public - that tip gets very hot in order to melt the plastic - not something you want people getting curious around). The heated plastic is then extruded through the tip and fed onto the platform. It comes out in very thin strands - reminds me a little of hot glue, out of a much finer point than your average glue gun. You even have little threads of plastic to clean off your finished object, just like hot glue threads!
The 3D printer processes the 3D design by slicing it into very thin layers. The printer then prints each layer of plastic, stacking them one by one, until the 3D object is complete. The extruder move back and forth across the platform according to a grid to lay down one slice of the object. Then the platform drops a little lower, and the next layer gets added on. It's a process called additive manufacturing (as opposed to taking a big block of the original substance and chipping away until your object is done). It can be a pretty slow process, depending on the size and complexity of the object. And you do feel the layers (they aren't two dimensional, after all). If you run your fingernail across the side of a 3D printed object, you'll probably be able to feel the ridges of the printed layers. People who have created smooth 3D printed objects have either used a different type of machine (there are several types of 3D printing) or have smoothed or sanded the finished object until it felt seamless.
So where do you get 3D files to print? There are some websites out there where you can design your own, or see what other people have designed and then shared. Thingiverse is more a sharing site than an actual designing site, but it's a pretty good place to start if you're just getting exposed to the possibilities. There are ways to make shared files customizable, though, which a lot of people have done. The project pages are just marked as "Customizable," so just keep an eye out for that. Like signs or name tags, where you can customize the text. Or tools or figures that you can customize the size. Some of the users that are my favorites are computer science teachers who've shared files like that, with some notes about how they use it in their classes. Good learning tools. Not all files are customizable, of course, but you can still start playing around with design on Thingiverse, if you want. I find it very easy to maneuver, based on a pretty simple key word search system. So if you're looking for chess pieces, or replacement Crock-pot knobs, or Christmas ornaments, or desktop storage cups, or cell phone cases, or whatever else, you can just search for that and see what turns up! From there, a free account lets you build collections (save-for-later type sorting), download files for printing, upload your own design files, mark favorites, and share pictures of completed projects.
When you're ready to start getting a little more into designing, TinkerCad is a good next step. It's a basic 3D drawing site, where you can start building your design from scratch, or import a file and tinker on it. Don't be intimidated. They have some very handy lessons for learning the tools and controls, so you can play around some before you start actually tinkering, if you want. It's a pretty usable set-up, with similar tools to other drawing programs you might have encountered. The hardest part for me was getting the hang of the camera controls; you can move in three directions, after all. When you're done tinkering, your files in TinkerCad can be downloaded for printing, or you can share them onto Thingiverse, if you're so inclined. If you're moving on past TinkerCad, there are more complex designing and drawing programs out there (we're learning a few in my courses too). But Thinkiverse and TinkerCad are pretty good starting points if you just want to be introduced, get your feet wet, and see what all the fuss is about.
People have been really excited about our printer, and part of it is just seeing one in action or seeing the final products. The printers have become more affordable, so they're appearing more in the news, in tech articles, in computer store sales specials even. And they are becoming more common in libraries, in colleges and universities, in Maker hubs, and so on. But people really aren't sure what they can make yet, so seeing ours is a great opportunity to be introduced to it all. Society's still very much in the mindset to just go and buy what we need, even if that's not quite a perfect fit. 3D printing allows for repairs or inventive improvements to things we already have. I mean, a lot of things in Thingiverse are repair parts and adjustment pieces for existing objects. Crock-pot knobs, for example (or any other plastic knob). Or a clip for your shirt to hold your earbud wire in place as you run. One patron submitted a rotor for a model helicopter that his kids had. The rotor had broken, so they printed up a new one. And it worked - very stylist copter too, with those bright yellow blades :). A lot of businesses use 3D printing to print customized objects to sell - form-fitted earbuds, for example. Unlike with big mass production efforts, it doesn't cost proportionately more to print one set of earbuds for one person, tweak it, print a different set for a second person, and so on. With most mass-production methods, this is just impossible to afford, since each set of earbuds would require a different mold. With 3D printing, it's the same cost per printed set of earbuds. This same cost benefit makes 3D printing really good for mock-ups and models for companies during the design phase. They can easily and cheaply print and adjust plastic models before actually producing a finished product in another material. These sorts of benefits and uses are part of what we've been talking about in my courses; besides the design aspects of printing, we've talked about the economic possibilities and importance too. All really very interesting, so if you get a chance to see or interact with one, take advantage!
This is a final project that I submitted. No, I didn't design it (not quite that experienced yet). I just submitted it to print as I was learning about the machine. Yes, it's a yarn bowl. It's still me, after all. :)
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