My favorite kinds of 3D printing projects are the somewhat mundane ones that are born out of necessity: a lost or broken part that needs to be replaced. This tripod at work has been missing its mount for months, maybe even years! I assume it walked off on someone’s camera. I fired up my trusty FormIt 360 and knocked out the model in an hour or so. Here is the Thing.
I received my new iPad Pro back in November when it came out – and the Apple Pencil soon after. While I love this new stylus, there is no where on the iPad to store it. Considering its $99 cost (and my penchant to lose things) I really wanted a way to store it in transit. I realize that there a number of cases coming on the market with stylus holders, but what fun is that? So here is my very quick 3D printed solution on Thingiverse with a small strip of flexible magnet glued on the inside to hold it in place. It works wherever there is magnet within the iPad Pro bezel. I may modify this design to incorporate stronger magnets in the future.
This is one of the first projects I ever 3D printed last year when we first purchased the Replicator2. This is the keel for one of my father’s water skis. We have owned these skis for 30 years. Soon after purchasing them, the right ski was run over after being dropped and the keel was broken in half. We have been skiing on it like that ever since! I wanted to solve two problems. First, fix the keel, obviously. Secondly, the keel is black to match the bottom of the ski. This makes it VERY difficult to find after being dropped and turned over in the water. So, I printed the keel in bright green and it makes it much easier to find! I wanted to revisit it a year later to see how it is fairing under the punishing forces and water exposure. There are a few cracks, so I am planning to re-print this in ABS once I retrofit my Replicator 2.
I logged into Thingiverse today and was pleased to find that one of my Things from last year was remixed. I had designed a toy mobile phone for my daughter; with press-able buttons and a spot for mini sticky notes to send “texts.” Thingiverse user Richard Spehr remixed it and made his own version.
This piezo pickup was inspired by my first ever 3D printed design: a guitar pickup that was designed to hold an old “oyster” style pickup. I wanted to make one that was more general and could hold a standard sized piezeo speaker. It is built for the 4″ (103mm) diameter sound hole on my Yamaha. If you are interested in modifying for a different size, I designed it with Autodesk Fusion 360 and made the design public.
Check out the video of it in action:
This is the first (and so far only) item I have 3D printed in metal. This is a necklace I designed for my wife’s birthday in 2014. The design features four leaves, each one features an initial of a member of our family. I used Revit to design the initial outline of the leaves and letters. I was having trouble with the Boolean cut-outs in Revit, so I switched to FormIt 360 to finish the cut-outs. I then submitted the final design to iMaterialize for the final print in silver.
I printed a bunch of small gifts for my extended family this year. The one piece I designed myself was this Philadelphia Folk Fest inspired ornament for my sister and her husband. They have attended the Folk Fest religiously every year for the past 25 years!
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:607297
Smart phone cases and accessories are one of the most common categories on Thingiverse. Probably due to the fact that everyone has a smart phone and the fit even the smallest 3D printer bed. I had grand ideas of starting an entire line of architecturally inspired cases. This is as far as I got. So far, this is the most popular item I have posted on Thingiverse! http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:607343
Of course I had to print some accessories for costumes this year! we had a “little devil” and a cyborg. For the devil trident, I designed it in Fusion 360 in two halves with a channel in the middle. This allowed me to wire some LEDs so the tips look they are glowing. For the cyborg eye, I made it out of a Phantom of the Opera mask with half of a cherry tomato container glued over one eye. I then spray painted the whole thing silver. I created a red “bolt” with a single LED powered by a watch battery to go over the eye.
I posted my first “remix” on Thingiverse today. A cigar box ukulele based on two similar ukes that I found. The neck on this one is too big to fit on my Replicator2 bed. So, I redesigned the geared head so that it slots into the neck in this Soprano Ukulele. I had to completely remodel the neck and head in Fusion 360. However, I was able to reuse the geared tuners and bridge from one and the fretboard from another. If you would like to remix further, you can download the head, neck and sound hole files from my Autodesk 360 site. Although the action is a bit high and the scale length is a bit off – It still sounds pretty sweet! Check out the video below.
