3D printing

Long time, no blog.  But here's a quick thing I've been working on.  3D printing.  The process has been both easier and harder than I thought.  All my training and equipment is at techshop, either the one in SF or the Mid-peninsula shop.  The class at techshop got me up and printing really quickly.  I've been using PLA filament from radioshack, it prints nicely and is somewhat translucent.  The model is straight off the Makerbot Thingiverse, a free online source of digital files for 3D printing. All I did was upload the stl file into Cura, the software you use for setting up the print, and print it out on a Type A Machine.  The real challenge has been in trying to modify the 3D model.

So far I've taken into classes on both Inventor and Fusion 360.  It seems like both are more focused on larger scale designing, like you could collaborate and design production models or a car.  I can import the stl file but I haven't been able to modify it.  Tinkercad has been recommended as a program that might be easier to use.  If anyone has software recommendations I'd love to hear about them.

And here's a video of the 3D printer doing its thing.  It is printing a tentacle.  If you want to know more about this sort of thing I'll be doing a lecture at Costume College in LA on Friday the 31st.

3D printing tentacles

3D printing on Type A machine