Category Archives: 3D Printed Stuffs

Winners Create a New 3D Printing Technology Challenge

After long deliberation and discussion we’ve finally been able to decide on the winner of our “Develop a New 3D Printing Technology Challenge.” We looked closely at the level of innovation, feasibility & achievability of the technology. We also looked at to what extent the entries would revolutionize 3D printing and be a step change in 3D printing for the desktop 3D printing user. We tried to determine which technologies were not already being worked on within the open source 3D printing community. We also looked at which technology would let designers & makers explore new design directions in 3D printing and make new things possible. Our final conclusion was to award two Ultimaker Originals to two winners.

The First Winner is Laird Popkin with his “High Speed Large Format 3D Printing with Detail Finish” Idea. Laird wanted to solve the issue that 3D printing is too slow by creating a dual nozzle 3D printer. And “build a printer with two extruder nozzles, one very large (e.g. 1.2mm) and one much smaller (e.g. 0.4mm), and to configure/modify the slicer software so that it can use a single perimeter layer that is fine resolution (small nozzle, 0.1mm to 0.2mm layer height) and then interior perimeter and infill using much thicker lines of filament (large nozzle, 0.5-1mm layer height).” He wanted to, “make the modifications to the open source slicer software and configurations to optimize print speed and quality for such as configuration.” His goal was to, “Once the software and configuration are validated on standard hardware, my ultimate goal is to “hack” the Ultimaker to support 2x dimensions, for 8x the print volume, in order to be able to extremely rapidly print prosthetics for entire adult limbs in a single print.” He wanted to start with the Gigimaker design for a large format machine and go from there. We loved the ambition but also thought that he had considered the issues and problems well. We thought that this would greatly help the open source 3D printing community and that he had thought well about the issues and challenges at stake. We hope that Laird enjoys getting an Ultimaker Original and can’t wait to see what he shares with the YouMagine community.

Our second winner is XYZAidan‘s Silicone 3D Printing Process. Aidan made a video describing his process, you can check out above. We liked his ambition and by introducing new materials and a completely new way of 3D printing we could see that his idea could radically transform 3D printing for the home user. His idea to 3D print a silicone mix could be difficult to implement. If he is successful however it would be a significant advance for desktop 3D printing.

In addition to silicone his 3D printing technology would open up 3D printing to many more 2 component materials and this would greatly add to the home user’s 3D printing arsenal. Aidan wants to increase the resolution of 3D printing with his technology and also bring about higher print stability. He hopes to be able to extrude the silicone while having it cure inside the 3D printer’s nozzle. We love this idea and can’t wait to see him implement it! Congratulations to both Aidan and Laird on winning their Ultimaker Original’s. We hope they share their innovations with the YouMagine community and that their work lets others create more technology at home!

SprintPerformance uses 3D printing for dragrace competition machine

Sprint performance is a team of two Dutch guys competing in the national NSSC dragrace championship. Sprint performance are YouMagine community members. I contacted the teammembers Peter en Benjamin, because they build awesome bikes for dragracing. Their second bike for example, was built for the 50cc shifter class. Benjamin became Dutch champion with it, the fastest time achieved was 7.130 seconds. 0-100 is faster than a Lotus Elise S. The corresponding top speed was an impressive 110 km/h. You can read parts of my interview with them below the picture with Benjamin in action!

The NSSC championship is a Dutch moped drag race championship in which the rider and machine have to cover 150m from a standing start, as fast as possible. The Sprint Performance team has been competing in this championship for over 6 years now and their aim has always been to be the fastest.

For the 2015 season they decided to step up their game and build a complete new machine for the 70cc class such that they can become champions. The new machine has to be lighter, faster and more powerful than any of their previous machines. In order to reach this kind of performance they need to explore new fabrication methods and this is where 3D printing comes into play.

Sprint Performance is currently developing their own special 2-stroke cylinder which has to be cast in aluminum. They use an Ultimaker2 to convert the complex shapes from the computer model into a true model. Interesting is that they are attempting to apply casting methods in a new way order to overcome the problem of manufacturing expensive molds.

The Ultimaker 2 is of more use to them than just using it to develop a new type of cylinder. It is also used to manufacture prototypes of parts, such that they can be test fitted first before machining them from aluminium. Furthermore, the ride position is fine tuned with 3D printed parts to determine the optimal geometry. These parts are shared on YouMagine with anyone who is interested, such that they can benefit from Sprint Performance’s knowledge too. If you are interested and want to know more about them, feel free to follow them on their SprintPerformance facebookpage.

Kideville at the BETTSHOW

Kideville is a project by Kidesign that lets kids build and 3D print a model city. To introduce a new version of their interactive and fun educational project, Dejan Mitrovic & Alberto Rizzoli we’re at the Bettshow the leading trade show for technology & education. Kideville are YouMagine community members and Ronald, who heads up YouMagine’s education efforts caught up with them to see how they were doing and how they wanted to help kids learn through 3D printing. Below Ronald’s report:

“In London at the Bettshow, I had a nice conversation with Dejan Mitrovic and Albetro Rizzoli about their company Kideville. Their aim is to help educators to teach Design & Technology in innovative ways, through CAD and 3D Printing. Their first “full curriculum kit” Kideville that was launched at BETT London, helps schools that buy 3D Printers but lack relevant projects and curriculums to integrate into their lessons. Dejan and Alberto started out in 2010 by running educational design workshops and that developed into a company that specialises in curriculum materials and games for 3D printing design. Kideville is a city design project for a whole classroom that takes the children through a full design process and gamifies the experience through various missions, tasks and exercises around building their island, populating it and creating all the necessary buildings for it. Getting students to use computers in more creative ways and connecting their own digital designs with the real world through 3D printing is Kideville’s goal. The design on Youmagine can be used with the game that Kideville launched at BETT in London.

The KideVille team with Ronald in the middle.

In the picture: on my left hand side: Dejan Mitrovic. On my right hand side: Alberto Rizzoli.

Dejan Mitrovic is a London-based design entrepreneur from Belgrade, Serbia.

Dejan also works as a tutor in design enterprise at the Royal College of Art, Ravensbourne College and Imperial College London. Alberto is the sales manager at Kidesign. In front of us: the boardgame with some 3D printed parts.

Team Rembrandts uses 3D printing for the FIRST Robotics Competition

Team Rembrandts

The FIRST Robotics Competition is a fun way for kids to compete while learning about robotics. The competitions are organized all over and we’re huge fans. We came into contact with Team Rembrandts and decided to support them by giving them filament and lending them 3D printers. Team Rembrandts is a team made up of students from the Fontys University, Summa College, TU/e and the Ubbo Emmius. The team is a part of the YouMagine community and has shared a Micro Robotics Arm & The Recycle Rush Game elements with us. They had a kick off event and below they describe it in their own words:

“Last weekend Team Rembrandts organized a Kick Off Event for the FIRST Robotics Competition 2015. The event was held in Lage Mierde, the Netherlands which is also the hometown of our Founder & Chief. During this event the second Dutch FRC team from Groningen were present, including some international mentors.

For this event five Ultimaker 2’s and an Ultimaker Original+ with dual extruder were made available for our use. During the weekend we used them to print robot parts and souvenirs. For example we printed gears for a different project of Team Rembrandts. We also printed a lot of Ultimaker robots and sheep to give away to children and other visitors of our Kick Off Event.

All of the Ultimaker 2’s were printing during the entire weekend, we printed parts for the robot, for private projects of our team members and for the visitors of our Event. We made a 3D scan of a couple of our team members with an Xbox Kinect camera and printed these with one of the Ultimaker 2 printers.

During the Kick Off Event we also learned about the new game of 2015 called “Recycle Rush”. We all watched the livestream of the game reveal. After that we started with brainstorming about our strategy. To aid us in explaining our strategies to each other, we printed the game’s components on 1/20 scale.

Ultimaker will also have some Ultimakers available to us during the build season of our robot for the game “Recycle Rush”. With these printers and our home build 3D printer we can print components and spare parts for our robot. Ultimaker also delivers the PLA filament in multiple colors for the printers they will have available for us.”

Winner Announced of YouMagine Useful 3D Prints Contest

A ColorFabb Value Pack!

After long and careful deliberation we’ve selected a winner for the Useful 3D Prints Contest. The winner is….Martijn de Winter for his Bird Food Dispenser. Martijn will win a Colorfabb Value Pack with 16 rolls of filament in it! We can’t wait to see what he’ll print with it! We chose Martijn’s design because it was a useful object that was very well documented. Martijn included screenshots of settings & Cura in his upload. He also made a movie showing how to fill the bird feeder. He had photos of the object from different views as well as showing the 3D print and the final object. We also liked that he upcycled a Coke bottle to use it as a bird feeder. Its a lovely object and a useful one and just the kind of thing we like to see on YouMagine. We would like to congratulate Martijn on winning and would like to thank the other Community Members for participating.

We had lots of other very inspiring designs uploaded for the contest, in no particular order below you can see them. Such as an Ultimaker feeder by iRoberti, a lovely toilet roll holder by UltiArjen, a Honda key housing, a portable fishing rod & pocket ratchet by Cleven, a GoPro extender, the awesome eSherpa, micro mesh pad holder by Marcus Wolschon, Ikea lamps for your 3D printer, a personalized scuba tank gift, a customizable Xbox controller holder, an Ultimaker front panel, an Ultimaker enclosure by Flowalistik, a spool holder for loose filament by Kristoffer Joergenson, a spool holder by Protpartoia, a a replacement switch for an Ultrasound machine, a stand for shooting off fireworks, Ulticontroller case, a Christmas star by iMake3D, a modular lighting system the Mo(o)dlight, a quick fill and pour attachment by Protosphere, a Japanese style rice paper lamp, a gripper for garden waste by Branez & a photo holder. Thank you all so much for participating!

Develop a New 3D Printing Technology Challenge

At YouMagine we’re always trying to stimulate new exciting 3D printing developments, objects & inventions. We want to make all the stuff in the world better, shareable and malleable. We’ve decided to give away one Ultimaker Original kit to the person who wins the “Develop a New 3D Printing Technology Challenge.” The idea is for someone to come up with an idea for a new 3D printing technology. They will describe to us how they hope to make this a reality. We will pick the best idea coupled that seems achievable on February 1st. This person or group will then win an Ultimaker that they can use to implement their technology. They will then share their invention with the world through YouMagine.

Ultimaker Original Kit

How do you win?

Go to the design ideas section and:
Come up with an idea for a new or improved 3D printing technology.
So not an incremental improvement to an existing 3D printer or new part.
You may want to 3D print glass, electronics, etc.
A similar 3D printing process could exist but you could want to perfect or change it.
Describe succinctly why you are the person capable of doing this.
Tell us how you will do this.
You will also describe to us how you plan to make this a reality and within what time frame you hope to achieve this.
Groups, classes and organizations may submit ideas and win also
The winner will be chosen on the 1st of February by the YouMagine team.

Rules for the winner:

The winner could use the Ultimaker Original kit to implement the technology.
The winner will document their development process.
The winner will share their success or failure with us so we can all learn.
The winner will share their invention with the world through an open source license of their choice via YouMagine.
The winner will have a deadline to show their progress to the YouMagine community by June 1st.

An innovative 3D printed motorized off road trolley: the eSherpa

Ralph Naumann’s eSherpa Electric off road cart

YouMagine community member Ralf Naumann is working on the eSherpa an open source motorized cart that you can use to transport heavy loads across rough terrain. We interviewed him to see what the eSherpa is and how he used 3D printing to make it. You can check out the eSherpa website here. The eSherpa was originally developed to transport paragliders to their launch locations but we see lots of potential in this great open source project. Check out the video below.

Why did you make the eSherpa?

Ralf Naumann: Some say because i’m lazy – some say because i’m clever – some say because i’m old….I think it’s because i’m lazy, clever and old 😉

Working as a tandem pilot is one of the best jobs in the world – most of my passengers do paragliding for the first time and I feel for them when they get nervous just before take off and i feel for them when they are totally ecstatic and happy after landing.

But there is one part I really don’t like: carrying 25kg equipment uphill to the take off and lifting this voluminous back pack four times per turn… in main season i do up to 7 turns per day. I’m lazy is one part – i’m old the other… after my first season I felt my back and my joints badly and i saw the other tandem pilots which have doing this job much longer – they all have problems with their backs and their joints… and I don’t want to ruin my body because of my work. While I payed the bills for my chiropractor I decided to find a solution – because i’m clever…

How long did it take to develop?

The main idea is older but 2 years ago I started to build a prototype – a proof of concept. I bought an electric golf caddy, built it apart and used some glass fiber and epoxy to clue the usable parts together – this prototype worked somewhat well and I discovered the problems limitations of it. Packing up must be faster, more compact, lighter, stronger, easier and cheaper to build and maintain, easier to control.

I decided to buy a 3D printer and it took me one more year to find the right parts and to design, 3D print and test it. Finally I built 4 different versions and now I’m really satisfied with the result..

Would you like others to collaborate with you on it?

Yes for sure! This is why I gave it to the open source community. I want to see others building it, using it and thinking about it. Improvements or developing other uses for the eSherpa can be done best in a community.

3D printed telescopic handle for the eSherpa

Why do paragliders need a specific cart made for them?

A cart which helps a paraglider to carry their equipment uphill must be flown down again. It has to be strong enough to manage offroad trails and able to carry voluminous weight. Because of safety reasons it has to fit into the backpack of the pilots harness without restricting movement. Therefore a cart for a tandem paraglider has to be very compact and lightweight. An efficient, easy and quick setup is important because the next guests are waiting – the gondola doesn’t…

Could one use this for many more things?

Compactness, lightness, efficiency and simplicity -this a good base for a lot of other uses. Yes, why not a 3D printed golf caddy, or a caddy for toolboxes, shopping or pattern catalogs… with the right set up an eSherpa can carry everything which needs to go uphill in a easy and healthy way. Or also downhill – with the engines you have e nice brake to bring heavy loads downhill. In a flat area you can use a eSherpa „light“ without engines, batterys and electronics to carry things…

Top view of the eSherpa cart

Does it work well?

Yes, I’m really satisfied with it. I solved a couplet of problems with electronics, 3D printing, maintenance, reliability and stability. It works well now, it works for me!

And the best: no bill from the chiropractor… 🙂

Would you like to improve it?

An invention is never finished…see these three thin wires from the pot to the electronics through the telescope with several plugs – shouldn’t that be wireless?… but there is a risk of over engineering 😉 Uploading the files to youmagine.com was akin to saying: Now its pretty good lets improve it together!

YouMagine Useful 3D Prints Contest

Win a ColorFabb value pack with 16 rolls of ColorFabb 3D printing filament in it!
Add the tag “Useful 3D prints Contest” to your uploads to participate.
Enter before the 31st of December.

We really want YouMagine to be a place where people work together to build the future of things. Due to this we want to stimulate you to work with other people and help each other. Especially where some people have skills that others do not. Any way we can stimulate this would be great. And any ideas on this that you have would be very much appreciated! In order to show how useful 3D printing can be we will be holding Useful 3D printing contest from now until the 31st of December. Just add the tag “Useful 3D prints Contest” to your uploads to participate. The winner will receive a ColorFabb value pack with 16 rolls of ColorFabb 3D printing filament in it! This usually sells for €484 ($604). Thank you ColorFabb for providing this prize!

A ColorFabb Value Pack!

The contest will be judged by the YouMagine team.

Criteria

We will look at the originality and quality of the photographs but most of all the utility of the 3D printed object.

The contest will be judged by the YouMagine team.
We will look at how the photo illustrates the scale of the 3D printed object in an interesting way. This is important in order to get viewers to understand how large the objects on the site are.
We will look at how the photo illustrates the utility and purpose of the YouMagine file or project to other community members.
We will look at if you’ve made the 3D printed thing look beautiful.
We will look at if you’ve shown how a person is using or uses the 3D printed thing.
Above all we will look at how useful is the object? How does it add value to people’s lives?
How well is it made, designed and printed?

By using these criteria we hope to get a lot of you guys to start thinking about ways through which we can make the photography on the site more useful to the community. As well as thinking about more practical applications for 3D printing. Compared to other sites we do have much better photography, more complex items and higher quality 3D prints. But we think we can as a community improve even more by finding out how to convey more information to the community through each photograph. That way people browsing the site can much quicker find what they want or need. So how can photos be used to convey more information and make the 3D printed designs on YouMagine look nice at the same time? We want to convey scale, utility & beauty in a simple way. We can’t as a team figure out how to do this. Is every model going to be a shot of someone holding it in her hand? Does there always have to be a Coke can in the picture? How to get a good photo of something using an Iphone? How to quickly take a great picture that gives the rest of the Community an instant idea of what this thing is? Since we couldn’t come up with an answer to these questions, we have turned to our extended team, the YouMagine community for answers. Additionally many people now make tchotchkes, small fun things that have no real value. What we think is different about YouMagine is that we are seeing you make things that are useful, interesting and do add value to people’s lives. We hope to encourage more of this and this is why we’re having the contest. Happy 3D printing!

Community Blogger Joe Larson: Making a Lithopane in Blender

Joe Larson Mona Lisa Lithopane

Joe Larson is a YouMagine community member who makes lots of interesting stuff on the site under the name Cymon, he also shares his knowledge through his blog and tutorials. We’re sharing some of his posts here on YouMagine so you can get more 3D printing knowledge.

Joe made a Lithopane using Blender and he’ll show you how in his informative video.

Interview with Roy Ombatti

Roy Ombatti is a Kenyan mechanical engineer social entrepreneur. His projects Happy Feet and DIY ShoeLab aim to use 3D Printing to combat a horrible disease. We leant Roy an Ultimaker 3D Printer and helped him a little with the files. We interviewed him so he could tell us more about his projects.

Roy Ombatti HappyFeet

Why did you start this project? Because I am an idealist who believes in making the world a better place…no matter how small my efforts are. And for me it starts with my country. And there are more than enough problems that my country is facing. I figure if each of the Kenyans (myself included) do something leveraging our skills and creativity to help the country then we wouldn’t be experiencing the problems we face. And if we had collaborative efforts with the more developed world then together we would certainly be able to overcome all of the world’s problems. So it starts with me…this is me trying to make a difference.

That answer is to the question on a greater scale. On a more specific not, the jigger problem is a result of poverty as the people who are affected cannot afford water for proper hygiene and neither can they afford shoes. Those who are affected have deformed feet and cannot fit into a normal shoe. So my solution is about providing affordable and custom-fitted shoes for the people who are affected by jiggers, as well as tackle the issue of poverty.

Why is this project important? We are all one people and the gap between the poor and the rich is strikingly painful. I always say that it is amazing that the world has developed such futuristic and high end technologies that can do such amazing things to make life better…but sadly I feel like our priorities as a people are misplaced and so we have failed as humanity. If we instead focus our efforts and redirect them towards helping each other then the world will truly be a better place. This project is important to me because I want to help out. Like I said, it starts with me but I cannot do it alone and so I am telling people about it and asking for help. I am not asking for money (yet) but I am asking for help!

More specifically, the shoes are important because they prevent reinfection (which is very prevalent) by the jiggers which cannot jump. An affordable source of shoes would be great as it could empower the community and the solution would be even more effective if the community are engaged as part of the solution. Ideally they should make the shoes themselves and hopefully even sell them.

Roy Ombatti Happy Feet

How many people does this affect? 265 reported deaths so far, 2.7 million registered infections (1.5 million being school children) and tens of thousands of school drop-outs daily. But these figures are grossly underestimated as there is a lot of stigma and shame around having the jigger infection that many people hide it and very few come out to be helped.

How does this disease affect people?: The jigger measures about 1mm in size and feeds on the flesh and blood of it’s warm-blooded host. The female jigger burrows itself inside the flesh where it lays eggs. The infestation results in pain, itchiness and discomfort as a result of the sores. People are rendered immobile and cannot go about their daily duties such as tilling their land and thus cannot earn their daily bread. Children cannot go to school. The stigma and shame prevents people from seeking help which only contributes to the spread of the infestation. Infestation results in pain, inability to walk and function properly and can ultimately lead to death if not attended to.

How do you hope to help? My proposed solution involves providing customized shoes from recycled plastic, using 3D printing. A scan of the deformed foot can be made in my ‘mobile shoe shop/lab’ after which a frame or skeleton of the shoe is printed. A normal shoe is then built around the frame using locally available materials. The community should ideally be the ones making the shoes themselves, including the recycling of plastic to make filament. The collection, sorting, cleaning and extruding of filament can be run by the community as well as the actual shoe construction. There would only be need for some technical support in terms of the shoe-frame design.

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