gCreate goes big with two new 3D printers

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gCreate has introduced the next big thing in 3D printing. Meet the gMax 1.5+ and 1.5 XT+. 

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Last fall, Brooklyn-based startup gCreate unveiled a pair of 3D printers in their gMax line: the gMax 1.5 and gMax 1.5 XT. Despite already having one of the larger build volumes on the market, the team has decided to once again improve upon its capacity by increasing the printable height by nearly two inches.

The newly-revealed gMax 1.5+ and gMax 1.5 XT+ boast volumes of 16’’ x 16’’ x 12’’ and 16’’ x 16’’ x 21’’, respectively, and feature interchangeable bed plates and extruders that enable print jobs in a variety of materials including PLA, ABS, Ninja Flex, Carbon Fiber, water soluble PVA, WoodFill, Bronzefill and stainless steel, among many others.

Like the rest of its family members, both the 1.5+ and 1.5 XT+ are embedded with an Arduino Mega 2560 (ATmega2560) along with a RAMPS 1.4 shield and run Marlin firmware. All gMax machines are comprised of 80/20 aluminum frames in either black anodized or natural silver. Additionally, each kit ships with 3D-printed plastic parts in four different colors: red, yellow, blue or carbon fiber.

Aside from that, it boasts a redesigned LCD screen with an integrated USB connector, better wire management and 2D pen plotting capabilities. By using 8mm four-start precision stainless steel screws, gCreate has also drastically increased its Z-axis speeds while maintaining a minimum of 80 micron layer heights.

Since coming to scene in 2013 with a successful Kickstarter campaign, the team led by Anna Lee and Gordon LaPlante has taken into consideration a vast amount of feedback from its users in order to enhance the overall 3D printing experience. Some of these improvements include its all-aluminum carriage for hassle-free calibration and bed swapping, as well as a metal X-axis extruder plate for simplified leveling and tool head changing.

• Printer size: 28.5” x 24” x 21.5”
• Build volume: 16″ x 16″ x 12″ (1.5+); 16″ x 16″ x 21″ (1.5 XT+)
• Nozzle diameter: 0.5mm J-Head Mk V-BV
• Layer thickness: 80-360 micron
• Power supply: 120V/240V 300W Micro ATX
• Connectivity: USB, SD card, OctoPrint and MatterControl
• Software: Compatible with all major slicing engines and host software (slic3r, Simplify3D, Cura, Printrun, MatterHackers)

Both printers are now available and will ship fully-assembled, calibrated and tested. The gMax 1.5+ starts at $2,495, while the 1.5 XT+ at $2,995.

Student makes a 3D-printed, voice-controlled robotic arm

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A 17-year-old Maker has created a voice-controlled robotic arm with the help of 3D printing and Arduino.

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You know, the Maker Movement just keeps on amazing us. It goes to show that, with nothing more than some low-cost hardware, a 3D printer and a little ingenuity, an idea can go on to have a life-changing, lasting effect on the world. Take 17-year-old Nilay Mehta, for instance.

The Irvine, California-based high school student has developed an inexpensive, 3D-printed robotic arm programmed to mimic the movements of a human hand, such as pinching, grabbing or holding a utensil. Using voice commands through a small, two prong microphone attached to the limb, the hand carries out specific actions at the request of its wearer.

“You can say ‘spoon’ and the hand will make a shape that will be able to hold a spoon,” Mehta explains.

In terms of hardware, the award-winning project is comprised of an Arduino, a set of servo motors, sEMG electrodes, a Bluetooth module and an EasyVR shield.

“With the software side of the project, I split up the different components for EMG (for muscle control) and voice control. In order to maximize my efficiency, I split up the project into several smaller projects and combined each segment one by one. I first worked with the EMG side and determined that a conditional statement between three variables gave the most accurate results.” the Maker writes.

This project is only one of countless examples that demonstrate the pivotal role 3D printing continues to play in making prosthetics accessible to those in need — all at a fraction of the cost of its high-end counterparts. Compared to the $3,000 to $30,000 families used to have shell out for an artificial limb, resources originating from the Maker Movement have allowed Mehta to bring his idea to life for under $260.

“For kids who are growing, they have to change their prosthetics every six to eight months,” Mehta adds. By using inexpensive 3D-printed components, the robotic arm can be resized without having to dig deep into wallets. Looking ahead, the student hopes to revamp its design so that it would be more functional.

[h/t Daily Dot]

Maker 3D prints the world’s tiniest working circular saw

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Lance Abernethy has 3D printed a fully-functional saw that’s no larger than your thumbnail.

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Last year, Lance Abernethy 3D printed a mini, fully-functional cordless drill. But why stop there? The New Zealand-based Maker has now added another tiny tool to his collection: a fingernail-sized circular saw.

Abernethy designed each of the saw’s four components — two body pieces, a saw guard and a blade holder — using Onshape CAD software and printed them out on his ATmega2560 driven Ultimaker 2 machine. The itty bitty parts were made of PLA at a layer height of 21-40 microns and shell thickness of 0.5mm. The printing process itself took just under an hour to complete.

Not unlike its brethren, the circular saw is powered by a small hearing aid battery and starts working at the press of a button its handle.

While the wee saw may not be powerful enough to cut through anything (other than tearing a piece of paper, maybe), the Maker does hope to make another iteration that has a bit more oomph to rip through small pieces of wood, in addition to creating other equipment that would fit inside his miniature toolbox (or what he calls “little brief cases”).

[h/t 3DPrint.com]

Creating a 3D-printed, Arduino-powered rubber band sentry gun

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Thanks to this Maker’s project, you’ll never have to fling rubber bands with your fingers again.

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If you’ve ever flung a rubber band into your sibling’s back or launched one across a classroom, then you’re sure to love this 3D-printed project from Kevin Thomas. Up until now, there’s only a been a handful of ways to fire one: the index finger, the thumb, the combination of the two, and then of course, the tip of a pencil. That may all change thanks to what the 20-year-old Maker calls the Rubber Band Sentry Gun. 

Traditionally speaking, a sentry gun is a firearm that automatically aims and shoots at targets that it detects via sensors. In this case, Thomas used this model as the foundation for a fully-functional rubber band version. After stumbling upon a design on Thingiverse for an Automatic Rubber Band Blaster, the Maker was inspired to devise a mechanism that would be entirely automated.

In order to accomplish this, he employed an Arduino Mega (ATmega2560) as the brains of the gadget along with a pair of servo motors, a micro servo 180° for its tilt, another normally sized one for the pan, and a 360° servo motor to actually fire the band. The project, which took about three days to complete, is capable of shooting 24 rubber bands in succession, though he tells 3DPrint.com that it can easily be adapted with a larger barrel to fire up to 30.

Thomas used a software package created by Project Sentry Gun in order to control his device, enabling it to find and shoot any moving target. Meaning, no more having to prep your fingers, locate your sibling or friend, and then hope to launch it further enough to hit them! As for the 3D printing portion of the project, the Maker designed the unit with Cubify Invent and printed it with his AVR powered bq Witbox.

Okay, now you have to see this thing in action! Want to make one yourself? Head over to its Thingiverse page to get started.

Young Maker creates a portable, 3D-printed game console

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One 14-year-old Maker has built a portable, multi-purpose gaming console based on Raspberry Pi.

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Evident by the recent success of Arduboy, not to mention a number of other projects, do-it-yourself gaming has surely risen in popularity over the years. Take for instance, 14-year-old Maker Rasmus Hauschild, who has developed a portable, multi-purpose Raspberry Pi console.

The Maker created a vast majority of the homebrew system’s components, along with its four action buttons, in Autodesk 123D Design, and then 3D printed them out on an Ultimaker 2. In total, the print job required just shy of 210 hours and called for roughly 1,000 feet of filament.

The console itself is comprised of a 3.5” TFT screen with a resolution of 480 x 320, a 6000mAh rechargeable Li-ion battery, two MP3 speakers taken out of a broken Nintendo DS Lite, an analog volume slider from a pair of old headphones, as well as a built-in controller with tactile switches and an analog thumb stick.

Users can expect anywhere from four to five hours of play time on a single charge, which is plenty for even the longest of car rides. When depleted, an Adafruit PowerBoost 1000C juices the battery up in about five to six hours. Additionally, since he used a cheap composite backup camera screen, the Maker does note that the console calls for 12V to operate out of the box, or can be configured to work with 5V.

In terms of hardware, the system is based on a Raspberry Pi running Retropie OS. This allows it to emulate games dating back to 1977 through 2003. It has both Raspbian and Kodi installed, too.

For Rasmus, the controller proved to be the most challenging part of the project, namely the thumb stick. This led him to use a Teensy 2.0 (ATmega32U4) to convert the controls from the gamepad into digital format since the Raspberry Pi seemed to have a difficult time understanding analog right away.

“If I had been a master programmer I could probably have gotten away with buying an ADC (analog to digital converter) and then writing a driver for it myself. But that did not work for me. So I did some research on the Internet, and found that the Arduino could convert analog signals to digital, but since the Arduino was way too big to ever fit in my design I decided to go with an Arduino ‘clone’ called the Teensy, because of the much smaller footprint,” Rasmus writes.

Aside from serving as a Game Boy alternative, the console can also be used as a media device, since Kodi and Raspbian are already loaded. Admittedly, Rasmus says that the screen is a bit too small for browsing the web, but when it comes to watching movies, it works just fine. Alternatively, it can be connected to a TV via HDMI.

Want to make one of your own? Check out his project on Thingiverse here.

Maker transforms a vintage toolbox into a portable 3D printer

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This vintage toolbox contains a fully-functional 3D printer along with the filament, spool holder and a power supply.

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A hammer. A screwdriver. A wrench. A pair of pliers. Those are things you’d typically find in any handyman or DIYer’s toolbox. A 3D printer? Not likely. However, if it’s up to one Florida-based bearings company, that may soon change.

That’s because Chad Bridgewater of Boca Bearings recently upcycled a vintage “Blower Repair Kit” toolbox by outfitting it with its very own portable and collapsible 3D printer. While there have been several attempts to create an on-the-go additive manufacturing machine inside a suitcase, this is certainly a first. Not to mention, it will certainly look a whole lot better sitting on a workbench.

“One of the main features that makes this toolbox a good candidate for a printer over other toolboxes is its fold-down front. A spectator is able to view the print from both the top and the front while also allowing extra room for the print bed,” its creators write.

To start, Bridgewater devised a series of mockups to determine what the end result would look like. He employed a 6” x 9” piece of ABS plastic that would serve as his print bed. While prototyping the machine, he decided that the the X and Y-axis would be used to command the bed, while the hotend would be controlled by the Z-axis. Knowing this, he crafted a crude model of the X and Y-axis with parts that he had lying around his studio, and fitted the bed with some linear bearings, a precision cut drill rod and other recycled 3D-printed pieces from previous builds. Once the X and Y-axis were in place, the Maker was able to figure out where the stepper motors might be mounted.

Using the measurements based on his rough draft, Bridgewater began the process of 3D modeling his working model with the help of Rhino. During this stage, he used the program to tighten the tolerances of his design as well.

With a final 3D model of the working assembly, the Maker began the fabrication phase of the project. For this, the majority of the components for the 3D printer were built by hand and welded using measurements referenced from the Rhino model, or were 3D-printed altogether using the actual CAD data and his shop’s AVR based MakerBot Replicator 2. To ensure that the 3D prints were ready to be used as final, fully-functioning parts, Bridgewater put them on the buffer and cleaned them up with some dish soap and a toothbrush. He then sprayed the frame with Harley Black Crinkle from Powder By the Pound, and proceeded to wash and wax the box before installing its components.

“For the bed I used two pieces of aluminum. The top sheet will be the print bed and will be supported by 4 springs that are attached to a piece of aluminum below that. I used my 1930’s Delta bandsaw to cut them out and my early Hamilton and Delta drill presses for the mounts. To make sure all the holes lined up, I used a divider to mark the holes at an equal distance. I then taped both sheets together and drilled them at the same time,” he explains.

From there, Bridgewater put the printer through a rigorous testing process. Once all of the parts had been cleaned, he finalized the assembly by wiring all of the necessary electronics, which were driven by an Arduino Mega (ATmega2560) and running Marlin firmware.

Beyond that, the Maker installed a 3D printer power supply from Lulzbot, and made a small hole in the side of the toolbox so the power cord could remain plugged in even if the box was closed. After a few minor tweaks, final calibrations and test prints, it was good to go! Interested? You can find an exhaustive breakdown of the multi-step build on Boca Bearings’ blog here.

Report: Desktop 3D printer shipments doubled in Q1 2015

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Global shipments of sub-$5,000 personal 3D printers rose by 24% in Q1 2015, resulting in a 114% year-on-year increase.

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The 3D printer market more than doubled in size in the first quarter of 2015, according to a new report from London-based firm Context. Unit shipments of personal/desktop 3D printers priced under $5,000 mushroomed 114% year-over-year in the first three months of 2015 as more brands entered the fray and global channels for the technology expanded. As for a quarter-on-quarter comparison, shipments jumped 24%.

However, the industry remains heavily skewed towards the U.S. with 63% of global shipments going into North America during the quarter, Context’s data shows. Western Europe, the next largest region, was less than a third of the size with just 20% share.

Whereas the market’s three largest players, XYZPrinting, 3D Systems and Ultimaker, all experienced good YoY gains in Q1, Context reveals that another one of the market’s stalwarts, Stratasys, struggled. Nevertheless, the report shares that the industry was bolstered by the emergence of startup M3D, whose sub-$300 machine garnered more than $3.4 million on Kickstarter last year.

“The nascent area of desktop 3D printing continues its upward momentum and continues to see entrants across a wide spectrum of industries, with offerings from legacy additive manufacturing stalwarts to industry start-ups, to mature IT, manufacturing and tool companies all entering the space,” explained Chris Connery, Context VP Global Analysis and Research. “As many of these companies begin to outgrow their startup efforts, expanding their distribution networks around the globe is a necessary next step towards expanding market presence.”

Interested? You can find more information around the report here.

Voxel8 raises $12M to bring the world’s first electronics 3D printer to market

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Voxel8 enables designers and engineers to create freeform, 3D-printed circuits in place of conventional circuit boards.

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Traditionally, electronic circuit boards are manufactured in standard shapes. However, the team behind Voxel8 has unveiled a new 3D printing platform that brings together functional materials, hardware and software to give designers a once inconceivable way to integrate electronics into their projects.

While previous electronics printing efforts have involved either retrofitting existing machines or spitting out PCBs using inkjet printers, the Massachusetts-based company believes it has developed the world’s first 3D electronics printer. Traditionally speaking, most printers are built around FDM technology, which spits out single-material objects. However, as seen earlier this year at CES, Voxel8 will enable users to blend plastic, conductive ink and other embedded components into the same design. In other words, Makers will be able to create fully-functional electronic circuitry right into their gizmos and gadgets, ranging from quadcopters to phones to thumb drives.

And from the looks of things, it will become a reality sooner than you may think. That’s because the startup has raised $12 million to bring these revolutionary devices to the desks of engineers and designers worldwide. Braemar Energy Ventures and ARCH Venture Partners led the Series A round, joined by Autodesk, through its Spark Investment Fund, and In-Q-Tel

“The Voxel8 3D printing platform is disrupting the traditional design and manufacture of electronic devices,” said Clinton Bybee, co-founder and managing director at ARCH Venture Partners. “Not only does the Voxel8 3D printer enable the design of entirely new devices, it also circumvents the need for traditional tooling, inventory and supply chains.”.

The innovative printer, which was founded by Dr. Jennifer A. Lewis in partnership with Autodesk, boasts interchangeable cartridges that can print out objects in both PLA plastic and conductive silver ink. The team reveals that this ink is five thousand times more conductive than other pastes and filaments currently used in 3D printing, and indeed, carries higher currents capable of supplying power to small electric motors and actuators.

The ink is specifically designed so that it can be deposited by a 250 micron nozzle, dried in just five minutes at room temperature and used to reliably interconnect TQFP integrated circuits. In fact, it will enable users to easily wire together chips and other electronic components within their 3D-printed objects, making way for a degree of creative freedom that is simply not possible through standard manufacturing methods.

Embodying a C-shaped design, Voxel8 offers users optimal transparency into the device as their parts are being constructed. On the hardware side, the platform is driven by a RAMBo 1.3 (ATmega2560/ATmega32U2). Beyond that, it is equipped with a 4.3-inch touchscreen, USB and Wi-Fi connectivity, as well as a highly-repeatable kinematically coupled bed that uses magnets to ensure precision as a Maker manually inserts the components of interest, then continues printing the part right where it left off.

The printer has a layer resolution of 200 microns, and can even create objects up to 4” x 6″ x 4” in size. Through its collaboration with Autodesk, Voxel8 paves the way for entirely new form factors with Project Wire, a Spark-powered tool that helps design 3D printable electronic devices. What’s more, its unique software lets the machine know when it’s time to insert a component and will pause to allow the users to manually do so.

Interested in printing your own novel 3D electronic devices? Voxel8 has already received preorders from R&D departments of several large companies throughout the aerospace, automotive, defense, medical and apparel industries. The first batch of units are expected to begin shipping later this year. In the meantime, head on over to Voxel8’s official page to learn more.

Building a 3D-printed, Arduino-powered robotic DJ

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This robotic DJ may be able to scratch vinyl records better than you. 

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Texas A&M student Rico Balakit has come up with a slick idea quite literally from scratch. The Maker has created a 3D-printed, robotic device capable of controlling a crossfader with Jazzy Jeff and Grandmaster Flash-like precision.

For those unfamiliar with the DJ technique that dates back to the mid-1970s, scratching (sometimes referred to as scrubbing) is used to produce distinctive sounds by moving a vinyl record back and forth on a turntable while manipulating the crossfader on a mixer — a task in which Balakit wanted to automate. The aptly named ScratchBot was synchronized with Traktor, while an Arduino Mega (ATmega2560) was tasked with keeping the tempo of the song being played.

“Traktor uses MIDI standards, so it was pretty easy to figure out that I’d need to interface with MIDI and process it. To start, I installed loopMIDI, which creates a virtual MIDI port Traktor can output to, and Hairless MIDI, which converts that MIDI into some serial stuff thingies the Arduino can handle,” Balakit writes. “Then, to get it to actually sync with a song, on the beat, I used the ‘Beat Phase’ MIDI-Out on Traktor to get it to reset the counter to zero when the beat-phase value for a beat having passed is received.”

The Maker wanted the Arduino-based robotic DJ to perform in two different modes: one where pushbuttons are assigned to pre-programmed scratch routines, another where it employs music loops and random patterns.

The system itself consists of two mechanisms. The first, a simple crank powered by a single servo and attached to the mixer that gates a crossfader. The second, a swinging arm enabled by a pair of servos. One servo pivots directly over the turntable’s axis of rotation and controls the scratching motion, while the other commands the arm whenever it’s pushing down on the vinyl record.

Intrigued? Head over to ScratchBot’s detailed project page to see a step-by-step breakdown of the build. In the meantime, watch in action below!

[h/t 3DPrint.com]

This 3D-printed, two-story villa was built in three hours

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Is 3D printing the future of homebuilding? 

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If you thought 3D printing a fully-functioning electric vehicle in two days was fast, brace yourselves: one Chinese company has built an entire two-story villa in less than three hours. Hours! Ask anyone who has ever constructed or renovated a home and they will tell you that the dragged-out process can take anywhere from weeks to months, maybe even years. Not for long.

The Zhuoda Group’s revolutionary abode popped up in Xian, China and is comprised of six individually 3D-printed modules (living room, kitchen, bedroom and so forth) interlocked together like a series of LEGO blocks. The company completed approximately 90% of the construction in an off-site factory before shipping the pieces to its final resting ground, where some people were on hand to witness the last installation steps.

While construction of the villa took roughly three hours to complete, the entire project calls for roughly 10 days from start to finish. Yet, when compared to the typical six months required for traditional means of construction, that’s nothing. This efficient and timesaving process dramatically reduces construction costs to anywhere between $400-$480 (2,500-3,000 yuan) per square meter, which equates to approximately $81,000-$96,000 in total — a price that’ll surely drop as 3D printing continues to get cheaper.

Made out of secret materials, the modular house with a steel-framed structure is not only fireproof, but given its region’s susceptibility to earthquakes, has been designed to withstand the shaking of a magnitude-9 event. The Zhuoda Group has filed more than 22 patents for their next-gen technology and is keeping their top-secret material under wraps for now; however, the company’s vice president Tan BuYong has revealed that the new filament is sourced from industrial and agricultural waste and is free from harmful substances including formaldehyde, ammonia and radon.

After the structural framework was 3D-printed, the company applied decorative sheet textures to each module before final assembly. Homeowners will be able to choose from a variety of decorative textures, like wood and granite, and health-conscious folks can even embed herbs into the walls of the house for ‘built-in aromatherapy.’ The building is expected to last, even with normal wear and tear, for at least 150 years.

While this isn’t the first time a structure has been 3D-printed, it is definitely one of the most impressive. Earlier this year, a company in China developed a 3D-printed mansion and apartment, while another firm is currently working on the world’s first fully 3D-printed office. Safe to say, the future of additive manufacturing has arrived!

[Images: Xinhua]