3D printing can be used to make fun things, funner.  Like slot cars, sure they can hug the track with terrifying speed and a power to weight ratio similar to putting a cheetah's strength into a hummingbird's body but they sometimes lack personality, say the personality of a 70's Hollywood car chase, with saggy suspension, sloppy handling and a certain clumsy swagger... Enter Chase-Cars, that uses Shapeways 3D printing to help make slot cars with that special 70's style, handling and swagger.

Modern slot cars have magnets to hold them down and powerful motors so they do enormous speeds, but that doesn't make them more fun.  I've designed a chassis for a 1:32 scale slot car so 1970s American cars handle like they did in the movies, not like a racing car.

Shapeways 3D printed (Nylon) Strong & Flexible White is used for the chassis parts, everything for one complete chassis is made in one go during the SLS process then I can break them out and assemble them together with metal pins or nylon bearings where needed.  The whole lot is incredibly tough, resistant to the heat of the motor and it allows me to make a complicated chassis without any production tooling costs.  It also means I can improve the design as I go along with none of the implications of regular production tooling.

I've worked hard to cram all the parts I need into one compact block to keep my costs down, and Shapeways' easy website means I can upload different models and easily see the cost difference.  While there's no cost benefit to ordering more than one, Shapeways allows me to group several together which minimises their work and gets me a lower cost.

This is just a hobby alongside my regular job and of course it can't compete with the major manufacturers but I've sold these kits to people in Germany, France, Finland, Norway, Italy, Portugal, the West Indies and of course America.

Onto the video!  You can have a look here at an overview of the chassis and the unique bodyshells I also offer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkEqMMqsi-I

Pretty Graffiti has designed a 3D Printed Stand for the OP-1 Synthesizer to raise it up and put it on the perfect angle for performance.

Earlier this year the designers of the OP-1, Teenage Engineering released the 3D files for accessories for the synthesizer when they could not find an affordable distribution channel for their international community.  This was the first time we have seen a manufacturer releasing 3D printable files so that their users could 3D print their accessories, either with a desktop 3D printer or via a 3D printing service such as Shapeways.  Now we see Pretty Graffiti may be the first user to carry on the momentum of adding value to the synthesizer, without Teenage Engineering investing in design time or manufacturing.  

GoPro users have already been taking this tack for a while now with around 80 GoPro related products in the Shapeways gallery with everything from 3D Printed GoPro Nerf Mounts to a 3D Printed GoPro Kite Mount.

I am sure this is the very first ripple of a tidal wave of 3D printed products we will see on Shapeways that add value to an existing product with little or no investment by the original manufacturer.  When manufacturers do get on board and start making 3D printed parts available we will see the same speed of innovation and product diversity as we already see happening within the Shapeways community.

Who do you think will be the first manufacturers to really take the opportunity and run with it?  How can we help them to understand it is in their best interest to start releasing accessories to be 3D printed on demand?  

Following on from the previous post where we looked at The 10 Most Favorited 3D Printed Products of 2012 on Shapeways which reflects the love given to products from within the Shapeways community, this time we are going to look at the 10 Most Viewed 3D Printed Products of 2012 on Shapeways.  This one was a VERY close race and you will see some products that you have already seen in the previous list of the 10 most favorited 3D printed products.

Again, starting at number 10 and working our way down the 3D printed products with the most views according to Google Analytics. 

Super Mario Mobius Strip Design by joabaldwin

GLaDOS ring Design by QUATRO

A Little Sad Keanu Reeves Design by neuralfirings

2012 has been a massive year for 3D printing and the Shapeways community.  We have seen many of your products go viral and get a lot of love from the internet.  Following are the 10 most favorited 3D printed products of 2012.  This does not mean they are the most sold or viewed items, simply the products that have been given the most love from the Shapeways community, either by being favorited, or added to a wishlist.  What was your favorite 3D printed product of 2012?  Did it make the list?

Here they are starting at number 10.

The Nocturnal Watch by Whystler

The GLaDOS ring by QUATRO

Propeller Propulsion for Theo Jansen's Strandbeest

Twisty puzzle superstar Oskar van Deventer has done it again with the 3D printed Cheese Block puzzle. A deceptively simple concept that quickly starts to look harder and harder to solve.  Oskar has been designing 3D printed twisty puzzles since 1978 including the Over the Top Cube which is now in the Guinness Book of records as the highest order Rubik's cube.  Order 3D-printed do-it-yourself puzzle kits from Shapeways or contact Oskar directly if you want to buy a fully dyed, assembled and stickered puzzle.

There is little more rewarding then giving a loved one something that you have made especially for them. The value of the item far exceeds the sum of it's parts, as the act of making embeds meaning into the object far beyond a mass produced item, or a unique item you may have chosen from as artist or craftsperson. Your participation in the item adds a level of depth to the story and meaning behind the gift, that simply cannot been bought.  The item becomes priceless, not in a Mastercard advertisement kind of way, but the item is embedded with genuine meaning.

Designing a gift using on demand 3D printing with Shapeways may not mean you are hand forging every atom in the item, but the thought and emotion behind your design, the time spent 3D modeling (if you can), along with any post production you do increases the social value of your gift.

There are many beautiful stories in the Shapeways forums of people 3D printing gifts for loved ones. One of the most recent stories to capture our hearts at Shapeways is an age old story:

• Boy meets girl 
• Boy falls in love with girl
• Girl mentions she loves a pendant that is no longer for sale (the impossible mission is set) 
• Boy becomes the hero, locks his mission into his sights and decides he must design, 3D print and assemble the pendant to give to her (in 2012 the hero fabricates the Holy Grail) 
• Not knowing how to 3D model so well he enlists the help of a designer from the Shapeways forums (cutting the Gordian Knot with a little help from 3D superstar Kevin Wei)
• Shapeways 3D prints the design in Sterling Silver and sends it to our hero's door where he then has a crash course in setting jewels as he glues 150 Swarovski Crystals into the pendant
• Once complete he packages up the pendant and sends it across the ocean, nervously anticipating how she will receive the gift he has invested with so much time and energy.

Oh well, right now it's being transported... so I don't know yet whether she likes it. But honestly, when I send it off... it felt like I was sending a piece of myself... the amount of work and dedication that goes into making this... really made it the most special gift I have ever given somebody.

To help you make the most of the current discount on Stainless Steel we wanted to share some of the all time most popular products 3D printed in Stainless Steel.  Of course if there is nothing that tickles your fancy you can also (quickly) design your own as long as you get your order in before the December 31st at 04:59 GMT. Enter code jv9dv at checkout where it says "Promo Code" (not "Apply Credit").

A favorite in the Shapeways office, especially on Friday afternoon, the Klein Bottle Opener.

One of the most popular items of all time on Shapeways, the Thorn Dice Set with Decader.

We see waves and waves of the Explorers Ring - U3 Version rolling out of the Shapeways 3D printers.

With MILLIONS of views on YouTube, we had to include the Twin Rail Mobius can-take-a-ball - Pendant

3D Printing is not always about the new, sometimes it is about repair the old, like a (very) personal favorite of mine, Repair Part for a Bugaboo.

If you are designing something new to be 3D printed in Stainless Steel, be sure to pay close attention to the design guidelines for stainless steel. A few of the most important things to keep in mind: 

• Your design must have a minimum thickness of 3mm.
• The entire part must be bigger than 3x3x3mm and smaller than 750x381x381mm.
• No interlocking or moving parts.

Check out these amazing hand painted 3D printed miniatures by TurtleWorks.

Each miniature is 3D printed with Shapeways white Nylon (WSF) than laboriously hand painted with an amazing level of detail.

Take a look at TurtleWorks shop on Shapeways that does not contain any turtles, but does contain many more 3D printed miniatures that you can order in the material of your choice then customize by hand painting for yourself.  We also have an entire gallery of 3D printed miniatures on Shapeways, if any of your models are suitable to be included in this category, be surte to assign them in your product page.

We have seen a lot of 3D printed Transfomer accessories and even whole pieces in the Shapeways gallery but every now and then we see small replacement parts being 3D printed.  

On Shawn and Graham's Macross World site there is a discussion in the forums about replacing parts for the YF-19 using Shapeways 3D printing.  One of the members, VF5SS on Macross World and Shapeways has modeled a replacement part for a particular section of the YF-19 that was prone to failure.  He uploaded a video to YouTube and has made the 3D printed part available in his Shapeways shop so others can repair their's with the same solution.

What other 3D printed replacement parts will we start to see emerging in the Shapeways gallery, especially for collectible items where replacement parts are no longer available and in the past collectors had to cannibalize other broken units to get the part they are looking for.  The problem here is that there is often a faulty component such as the case with the YF-19 that always fails in the same location making it sometimes impossible to find a replacement part.  3D printing to the rescue...

Check out this 3D printed iPhone case by Spaho Design, that is not only incredibly easy to fit, but also features a socially awkward penguin, surely there is something in this product each of us can relate to?

Many complained that iphone cases out there are really hard to put on and take off. Horror stories; girls breaking their nails, guys getting really mad and slamming their phones, just, really crazy stuff. So I decided to put an end to this madness by inventing an extremely simple way to fit the case around your iphone 5. 

As we prepare ourselves for the holidays starting this weekend we are going to take a look at some of the holiday themed 3D printed products in the Shapeways gallery.

Angular Holiday Ornament

Holiday Spiral Torus 

Islamic star ball with 6-pointed stars

Dreidel (small version)

africa #ceramic

Happy Holidays everyone....  We will still be 3D printing your designs (almost) every day.   

it's a Zombie Santa Claus Christmas tree ornament!

I haven't been able to find any in stores, and it seems mind-numbingly obvious that this is what people really want on their tree. A limited time offer, this model is available THIS YEAR ONLY. A perfect, unique gift for zombie and tech enthusiasts. Digitally sculpted from scratch, this is not a modification of any existing design.