How to extend the life of a kitchen appliance using Shapeways 3D printed ceramic parts.

When a small part for Shapeways community member Mitagaki's Panasonic Bread maker broke he looked everywhere for a replacement part.  The manufacturer no longer supported the model so what was a $5 replacement part became unobtainable and the $200 appliance was rendered worthless. 

Rather than throwing the entire appliance away, Mitagaki 3D modeled a copy of the broken ceramic part and then 3D printed it in ceramics with Shapeways. 

After successfully testing the 3D printed ceramic component he made a minor adjustment to the design and has now made the Panasonic SD-YD250 breadmaker replacement bobbin available for others to repair their appliance using Shapeways.

We found a squishy 3D printing material back in early 2012 that was not quite ready for us to use with our 3D printers so we found another flexible alternative that unfortunately was not up to our standards so we had to stop supporting the material when the trial ended.  

We are super excited to learn the original flexible material is finally ready and we are preparing our 3D printers so that we can offer it to everyone to 3D print.  

Do you want more flexible 3D printing for your designs?

We are hosting another class to Design for 3D Print with 123D Design and Shapeways.

This beginners class is an intro to 3D modeling with Autodesk 123D Design and 3D Printing with Shapeways.  

We will work step by step through some of the basic tools used to 3D model, how to construct basic forms using sketches, solid modelling, and basic patterns.  We will then upload our designs to Shapeways to get a taste of how to export your 3D model to 3D print.  

You do not need to have any experience with 3D printing or 3D modeling to participate in this class.  Bring your Mac or PC laptop your charger, and an external mouse and create an account on Shapeways prior to the event and download 123D Design we will be using in the class..  If you are interested in a broader overview of the materials, processes and some 3D printed case studies, take a look at the intro to design for 3D printing. 

Thu, Mar 28th, 2013 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm EDT at Shapeways HQ in NYC 

Sign up via Skillshare

Connecting to the Shapeways 3D Printing API the iOS Stand Creator is an app that makes it easy for anyone to customize a stand for their iPhone and 3D print it with Shapeways.

Usually when we think of iPhone apps we think of applications within the iPhone but this application makes it easy for anyone without 3D modeling skills to create a customized stand in just a few mouse clicks.  

What makes this app really interesting is that it uses 3D printing to make functional, not decorative items.  Most of the apps so far plugging into the Shapeways 3D Printing API on the Create page are making sculptural, cosmetic products or jewelry while there is a huge potential in making 3D Printing apps that connect things to things. 

If you want to 3D print a custom product but do not know how to 3D model the iOS Stand Creator App is a great way to get started, if you are a designer and/or developer interested in getting into the 3D printing app market this is a great example of how to make a customizable, functional product.  Take a look at some of the stands made so far that are now ready to 3D print.

Congrats to Kioròdesign and Archipelis.com. 

The Desktop Factory Competition launched in June 2012 challenged makers to design a cheap, open source method to turn plastic pellets (which sell for $10 kg) into filament suitable for a desktop 3D printer (that currently sells for $50 per kg).  83 Year old inventor Hugh Lyman developed the Lyman Filament Extruder II which for under $250 in parts can take standard plastic ABS pellets and squeeze them into filament.

The fact that this device is released as open source hardware means that others can modify and improve the mechanism to lower the cost and increase the efficiency, just as we have seen with the open source desktop 3D printers based on the RepRap.  

Not only will this result in a massive reduction in the cost of raw 3D printing media, but it is also a very small step away from being able to grind and reuse failed 3D prints to feed into fresh new filament, or perhaps adding conductive media into the hopper to create filament suitable for making basic elctronic circuitry, or any type of tweak to customize the base material.

The speed of innovation in the open source 3D printing world is making many of the large industrial 3D printer manufacturers appear to be moving in slow motion.  We are not seeing the same rate of innovation in machines nor materials and we at Shapeways would LOVE to have new materials to share, or have a way to drop the material cost by a factor of five or ten as we see made possible by innovations like the The Lyman Filament Extruder.  

Congratulations to Hugh Lyman who scored a giant $40,000 cheque for his invention and the respect of thousands of makers around the world.

via Time.com

This week for our weekend contest we challenge you to 3D Scan to 3D Print using Autodesk 123D Catch.

Take up to 40 photographs around an object with your iPhone, iPad or your camera and 123D Catch will take the photos and stitch them together in the cloud using photogrammetry to create a 3D object.  You may need to give the 3D file a little love to make it ready to 3D print then upload the file to Shapeways with the tag '123D Catch' and we will give our favorite entry a $25 Shapeways Gift Card.

Anyone who owns a desktop 3D printer knows that sometimes you need to replace some of the components to optimize performance.  In many cases you can simply 3D print a replacement part with your 3D printer which is an incredibly rewarding process of self sufficiency but when it is a critical component that stops the 3D printer from functioning properly it can quickly become frustrating dead end.  

Shapeways community member Schlem discovered the extruder gears that came with his Printbot Kit were warped and his 3D printer was not functioning properly.  Of course a non functioning 3D printer can not 3D print repair parts so he used Shapeways to 3D print his replacement parts in laser sintered Nylon.  By using Shapeways to 3D print the parts for his 3D printer he now has a more durable, higher resolution part that will make his desktop 3D printer more accurate and reliable.

He also made it possible to make the 3D printer even more awesome by designing the Skulltruder, adding a little gothic bling to what is essentially an engineering project.

If you have any 3D parts to share on Shapeways, be sure to tag them '3D Printer' and the type of 3D printer they are for so others can easily find them and repair their 3D printer too.

For the past few months we have been using Instagram to share images of the Shapeways team as we build out our factory in New York, play with new 3D printing processes, show off your designs at events around the world and give a glimpse behind the scenes at Shapeways.

If you are already using Instagram follow us @shapeways for a visual feed of our 3D printed world.  When you post images of your 3D prints on Instagram be sure to mention us @shapeways or hashtag #shapeways so we can see your 3D prints in the wild.  It is always inspiring for us to see your designs in context, especially if you are experimenting with any post processing of your 3D prints. 

3D printing pioneer Joshua Harker gives a presentation at TEDx Bringhampton University of how his career moved from artist to sculptor to engineer and back to artist again via 3D modeling to 3D print.  Joshua's Crania Anatomica Filigre has become one of the most recognizable '3D printed products' thanks to his hugely successful Kickstarter campaign that relaunched his career as an artist.

Take a listen to his inspiring presentation Making the Unmakeable - The 3rd Industrial Revolution.

DIYROCKETS and Sunglass.io have announced a partnership to launch the world’s first open source competition to create 3D printed rocket engines through collaborative design. 

The competition challenges makers, designers and space entrepreneurs to collaborate to create open source 3D printed rocket engine to serve the growing market for small payload delivery into low earth orbit.  The concept is for teams to work together to design and 3D model a working rocket engine in the software of their choice, using Sunglass.io as a collaboration tool to edit and update the 3D model.

The first prize is $5000 cold hard cash and a student prize of $2500 along with 3D printing courtesy of Shapeways.

Check out the full competition details for judging criteria and rules (no sending puppies into orbit or nuclear power unless you have the correct permits)

We have just raised the bar for Silver 3D printing at Shapeways with the introduction of Premium Silver.

Premium Silver is our 3D printed Sterling Silver taken to the next level with an incredibly smooth, glossy surface to give your designs a truly professional finish. We will be offering Premium Silver for a six week trial until Tuesday May the 14th, during which we will assess the pricing and design rules. If you love this new finish as much as we already do, we will keep it as a permanent material option on Shapeways.