40 Of The Coolest Things People Have Created Using A 3D Printer

One cool aspect of the future of tech is our access to 3D printing. While some are thinking of how to use 3D printing to build houses or print edible food, others are using it to create medical miracles. One subreddit aptly named 3Dprinting , follows and shares all these innovative creations so that “makers of all skill levels and walks of life can learn about and discuss 3D printing.” Scroll below to check out some cool 3D-printed items and the amazing progress technology has made.

#1 I Recently Had A Full Head Mri. Using Free Software I Was Able To Pluck My Brain Out And Turn It Into A Desk Light

#2 Who Ever Designed This Thing I Printed It… I Have Never Been So Horrified And In Love At The Same Time!!

#3 (Oc) I Made The Jetpacks For My Light-Year Suit Everything Is 3D Printed!

#4 I Hate Flossing, But Flossers Are A Waste Of Plastic, So I 3D Printed A Reusable One!

#5 I Found A Mini Nuclear Power Plant On Thingiverse And Modified It To Fit On My Humidifier

#6 Proof That Perseverance Pays Off…my Full Iron Man Suit, Printed In Many, Many Pieces On My Tiny Up Mini Over 6 Months

#7 Just Had To Do It, I Couldn’t Resist

#8 When A Failed Print Is Still A Happy Little Mistake

#9 I Made These Spikes To Stop “Helpful” People From Grabbing Me Without Consent

#10 A Redditor Has Built Me A New Finger After Insurance Turned Me Down For One. They Took An Existing Design And Customized It With My Feedback And Made Me Whole Again. It Should Be Known That Limb Labs Wanted 15 To 20 Thousand Dollars For One

#11 My 8 Year Old Asked For A Nintendo Switch For Christmas. Prusa I3 Mk3s To The Rescue! We Did Buy Her An Actual Switch, But She Must Endure This First

#12 One Lid To Rule Them All

#13 Bastard Broke Into The Wrong Goddamn Rec Room

#14 My Partner Keeps Buying Plants So I Have To Keep Designing Plant Pots. Here’s One Of My Latest Ones

#15 Broke My Arm, Got A 3D Printed Cast

#16 Just Finished My Arkham Knight Cosplay! Fully 3D Printed And Painted, This Was So Much Fun To Do!

#17 A Loggerhead Turtle Got Into A Boating Accident, Resulting In The Loss Of A Majority Of Its Lower Beak. Scientists Gave It A New 3D Printed Titanium Beak. It Looks So Badass. He Is Now A Cyborg Turtle

#18 After Three Failed Attempts, I Present To You: Invisiball In Spectrum

#19 I Made A ‘Toothpaste Mover’ So You Can Push Toothpaste From One Costco-Sized Tube Into A Lil Travel Tube ???

#20 My New Favourite 3D Print

#21 Simple Design For A 7 Year Anniversary Present. The Pennies Are Dated With Years That Are Significant To Us

#22 My Dad 3D Printed A Lever To Replace His Light Switch

#23 Designed A Custom Duck Hunt Display For These Nerf Guns That I Printed Zapper Shells For

#24 Inserts For My Travel Tool Box

#25 Was Born Without An Arm So I Built Myself My Own Eletronic 3D Printed Arm. This Is Me Holding An Egg

#26 I May Have A slight Addiction To Printing Covers For My Bionic Arm

#27 Finally Finished The Wife’s Fully Motorised Mk49 Rescue Suit 3D Printed On Ender 5 Plus Bondtech Ddx Direct Drive

#28 My Wife’s 10 Year Old Brother Got A 3D Printer For Christmas. I Joked That He Can Build Me A Playstation. Every Day I’ve Been Asking Him When It’ll Be Ready. Today He Brought Me This. Best Present Ever

#29 S̵t̵e̵a̵l̵ ̵t̵h̵e̵ ̵k̵e̵y̵s̵

#30 Don’t Feed Spray Paint After Midnight

#31 I Made This Guitar For My Son’s Birthday

I have a few small things to finish it but it’s essentially finished. Printed in PETG on my X1C and I used stone coat epoxy with miraclekoo resin dye. The pickups are fender noiseless n4.

#32 I’m Working On A 3D Printable Model Of Bmo From Adventure Time With Accurate Internals!

#33 3D Printed Clip-On Temperature Indicator For The Shower Pipe To Show When It’s Warm Or Too Hot. I’m Disabled So I Can’t Always Tell Temperature With My Hand, And I Didn’t Want To Use One Of Those LED Showerheads Because Electricity + Water = Bad

#34 Where The Sidewalk Ends

#35 Finished Printing The Oof Stones

#36 My Step-Son’s Soccer Team Won First In A Tournament But They Didn’t Get A Trophy So I Designed And Printed Him One

#37 I Modeled, Printed, And Painted This Little House To Express My Frustration With The Housing Market

#38 Moon Lamp

#39 Me And My Son 3D Printed A Life Size Battle Droid. Turns Out They Were Quite Big

#40 I 3D Printed The City Of Denver

Shanilou Perera

Shanilou has always loved reading and learning about the world we live in. While she enjoys fictional books and stories just as much, since childhood she was especially fascinated by encyclopaedias and strangely enough, self-help books. As a kid, she spent most of her time consuming as much knowledge as she could get her hands on and could always be found at the library. Now, she still enjoys finding out about all the amazing things that surround us in our day-to-day lives and is blessed to be able to write about them to share with the whole world as a profession.

3D Printing Ideas That You Can Try Out Today

It’s no secret that 3D printing is poised to take the world by storm in the not-so-distant future. The technological progress achieved in just a few short years gives hope that one day the entire manufacturing industry will be revolutionised, turning every willing person into a designer and unleashing the creativity of the world at large. While we’re not quite there yet, the list of things that can already be brought to life is astounding.

But what exactly is 3D printing and how does it work ? The first 3D printer was developed in the early 1990s at MIT, who continue to be at the forefront of the 3D printing revolution today. Using an additive manufacturing technology, 3D printing allows for the creation of 3-dimensional objects from a standard Computer Aided Design file, or CAD for short. Different types of plastic are used as raw materials to be melted and turned into solid objects through successive layering. While not long ago 3D printing was restricted to development labs and big companies, now small businesses and even individual users can get in on the fun. With that in mind, let’s take a look at a few 3D printing ideas that are sure to make a splash in the years to come:

1. Bringing apps to life

Nowadays almost everyone has spent time perusing the myriad applications available for smartphones, tablets and laptops. What 3D printing can do is take the colorful characters from such apps and videogames and bring them into real life. Everything from dolls to action figures can be created with relative ease through intuitive and easy-to-use software programs. You can even opt to make an action figure of yourself, through the use of a 3D scanner that can capture an individual’s unique look and turn it into a fun figurine.

2. Designing automobiles

On the more serious side, even something as big as an automobile can be successfully built in this day and age using solely 3D printing methods. While big time car manufacturers have only dipped their toes in the water so far, a small American company named Locals Motors already has a fully functional car out. Called the Strati , this roadster is the world’s first 3D-printed car. With a sturdy frame and an eye-catching design, this prototype is indicative of the marvels that are soon to come.

3. Tools for sprucing up the office

It’s important to note that 3D printing isn’t just for large-scale projects. Indeed, there are plenty of ways to use 3D printers to design objects that can significantly improve the atmosphere and efficiency of a simple office setting. Everything from wall mounted cable keepers to modular desk organisers to snazzy lamps can be designed and created this way. Aside from fostering independence and encouraging self-sustainability, such products are also very easy to customise, allowing users to tinker with them until they fulfill their goals.

4. Jets, robots and beyond

While it may seem inconceivable to people unfamiliar with the technology, 3D printing has evolved in leaps and bounds ever since its conception just a few short decades ago. Already there have been several instances where the technology has proven sufficient for designing highly complex items that in the past would have required the use of industrial machinery. For instance, GE Aviation has successfully managed to created 3D-printed parts for its aircraft engine platform, which are lighter and more durable than what would’ve been achievable through conventional manufacturing. And MIT has recently unveiled the first line of hydraulically-powered robot bodies that require no assembly and use solid and liquid materials at the same time . With further developments on the horizon, it is only a matter of time before commercially-available 3D printers will be able to generate robots in a single step.

As you can see, the time of 3D printing is already upon us. The degree to which this technology is going to change our lives is as of yet hard to predict, but it will undoubtedly be one of the defining technological revolutions of this era. Embracing change may not always be the easiest thing to do, but 3D printing promises to improve and enrich life as we know it, which is why it deserves our full support and attention. Because when it comes to 3D printing, the sky’s the limit.

3D Printing

Bill Gordon

3D-Printed City Shells For Hermit Crabs by Aki Inomata

Japanese artist Aki Inomata combines architecture, cutting-edge 3D printing technology and hermit crabs together in one brilliant project, titled “Why Not Hand Over a “Shelter” to Hermit Crabs?” Inspired by the urban landscapes of the biggest cities in the world, Inomata used 3D printing to create elegant shells for the little hermit crabs, which change their shelters as soon as they grow out of their old ones. As they often borrow shells cast off by other species (like sea snails), Inomata decided to hand them beautiful new specially-made shelters instead.

The artist came up with this unique idea when she found out about a similar bit of behavior among humans; the location of the former French Embassy in Japan, which had been French land, became Japanese from October 2009 for the following fifty years, after which it will be returned to France. “ The same piece of land is peacefully transferred from one country to the other, ” writes Inomata. “ These kinds of things take place without our being aware of it. “

Be sure to click on the videos below, which will show not only the process of hermit crab shell 3D printing, but also the surreal spectacle of the crabs receiving their gifts.

More info: aki-inomata.com (h/t: spoon-tamago )

New York City

Windmill landscape

Thailand

Santorini, Greece

Port City

Greece

Why Not Hand Over a “Shelter” to Hermit Crabs?

Process:

Audra

University Students Make A 3D Printer That Prints Soil And Grass

The future means printing your own garden. Yes, that’s the idea behind printGreen designed by the students at University of Maribor. It’s a CNC machine (which means it’s entirely computer controlled) that prints using a mixture of grass seeds, soil and water. The images will sprout grass later on, making for some crazy green designs. As long as clay soil and small seeds are used, anyways – the former for better printing, the latter to fit through the nozzle!

The project was made by a student group headed by prof. Dušan Zidar of the University Of Maribor, Slovenia. The group was comprised of Maja Petek, Tina Zidanšek, Urška Skaza, Danica Rženičnik and Simon Tržan. The project website states that “Print Green transverses the term ‘think, before you print’ as the used motto and turns it into the slogan of an alternative modern society – “print, because it is green”.

More info: print-green.org | facebook (h/t: mymodernmet )

Watch it write its own name:

Martynas Klimas

Writes like a mad dervish, rolls to dodge responsibility, might have bitten the Moon once.