3D Printing A Glucometer Case

For one family affected by type one diabetes, a glucose monitor was posing an unusual problem: The monitor connected to a cell phone, allowing the phone to communicate glucose levels to a remote device. However, the monitor cord fell out of the cell phone during things like sports practice. 3D printing offered a unique solution. A cell phone case, designed to hold the cord in place. Whenever the phone is upgraded, the case can be reprinted to reflect the new dimensions.

Even if the case is broken, it can easily be reprinted. However, for the young patient, one of the most exciting aspects of the new case is a different aspect of the customizability. The current case is orange, his favorite colour.

Source

- Jane (8th grade)

Derby's 3D printed dog prosthetics

Recently a dog named Derby was adopted.  (Update 1.31.15: We just learned at the 3DPW Expo that the owner of Derby was Tara Anderson, who happens to be an employee of 3D Systems!)  He is unusual because he was born with deformed front legs. The owners have tried many things to help the dog, like giving it wheels.  But his movements was still limited and, because of the angle of the dog, it was not good for the dog's spine.

Using 3D scanning, legs were made to fit especially onto the dogs joints, giving him the ability to run.  They had a very interesting design - loops rather than pegs, so the dog's legs would not sink into the dirt. 3D scanning made it possible to build these prosthetics quickly, without time-intensive hand fitting.

Read more here.

Watch the video here or below.

Avi Reichental's TED talk published

Avi Reichental of 3D Systems gave a TED talk back in March 2014.  It was recently posted for our viewing pleasure.  If you enjoy 3D printing, please do yourself a favor and watch it. :)

3D printing is not going to catapult us into the future, but rather it's going to connect us with our heritage; and it's going to usher in a new era of localized, distributed manufacturing that is actually based on digital fabrication.

In this video you can see the first object ever 3D printed in 1983 by Chuck Hull.  Also, hear about the incredible story of 3D System's challenge to print Amanda Boxtel's a custom-fit and more feminine EKSO Bionics exoskeleton.  He even talks about kids and new tools such as haptics!

Of course my favorite Avi quote is "With 3D printing, complexity is free."

Buttercup the Duck Gets a New "Swim Foot"!

This is a fabulous, heartwarming application of 3D printing.   We've been following Buttercup's story for a while now, and this week there was announced an exciting new development!  Buttercup's "dad," Mike, from the Feathered Angels Waterfowl Sanctuary has developed a new "swim foot."  This foot has little trap doors that open when he moves his foot forward to allow water to pass through, then close when he kicks to maximize thrust.  Brilliant!

You can read more (and see more pictures!) on Buttercup's Facebook page!

NASA, NIH, Smithsonian post free 3D files

NASA

US Government agencies such as NASA, The Smithsonian, and the NIH have started to create their own collections of 3D objects!

NASA's model collection is mostly contains models of their satellites however it also contains some of things like space suites, shuttles, and a martian crater. Unfortunately, most of these models are not printable. NASA has conveniently separated the printable models on this page.

The Smithsonian museum has also started uploading 3D models of items from their collection to their Smithonian X3D website. Though many of these models look amazing many also look unprintable so be warned before you try to print them.

The NIH has taken a different approach to 3D model collection by making a Thingiverse like website for medically accurate 3D models. As you might expect, many of these 3D models of proteins and cells are scientifically accurate but likely un-printable. (Especially on our classroom 3D printers.)

NIH

UPDATE 7/4/15:  There are more model repositories that have been brought to our attention.  Here is a running list:

• HHMI Biointeractives (small, but hopefully growing) 

-Abe (entering 8th grade)

Checking out a Statasys uPrint SE Plus system and a Radiolab skull

This summer, I have the pleasure of working as an educational consultant at the Advanced Light Source, basically working to expand the cool experience my students had in order to bring a similar experience to more classrooms. One of the "perks" of such an assignment is having access to higher-end tools, including a Stratasys uPrint SE Plus system.

My first few days there, I was asked to familiarize myself with its workflow.  It is refreshingly simple and very similar to working with my consumer-level printers (minus the mechanical issues of filament tangling, print not sticking to bed, etc). It is actually quite incredible in its simplicity and reliability.

The first item I chose to print was a model of a Taung Child Skull, featured in a recent Radiolab podcast and available on Thingiverse.  Radiolab worked with MakerBot and the Field Museum in Chicago to scan the original skull.

This is is just one of the many exciting models to be made freely available through the increasingly availability of scanner and consumer 3D printers.  In fact, you may want to check out the Smithsonian's entire X 3D collection!

The Taung Skull (named such because it was discovered in 1924 in Taung, South Africa) is a fossilized skull of a young member of the Australopithecus africanus species, in intermediate between apes and humans, and considered the first evidence of bipedal walking.  It is thought to be about  2.8 million years old.  The Taung Child was originally thought to be about six years old, but more recent investigations place the age more likely at 3 or 4 years.  It has been hypothesized that the child was killed by a large predatory bird based on scratches in the eye sockets.

I am looking forward to sharing both the story and the model with my students.

Here is the uPrint.  Perhaps my favorite feature is the auto-shutoff. After you start a print, you can instruct it to power down at its completion.  Quite helpful when you are printing 24+ hours!

The software is very intuitive.  And you can easily add STLs to the "pack," printing multiple files at once.  There is also the ability to auto-orient, which is nice. The support material, like most machines, is auto-generated.

You can see from the image below that this was a 16 hour print.

click to enlarge

The printer itself is highly independent.  It reminds me of a washing machine!  One aspect I found interesting is that whenever it switches between support and material (it's PLA) and printed material (it's ABS) the nozzle returns to the back left corner, scraping over a steel brush to (I presume) clean itself.

Here is the final print out of the machine:

Next, the print needs to go into the chemical bath to dissolve away the support material. Though the exact material is proprietary, it is likely some sort of caustic soda (sodium hydroxide).  Whatever it is, it is quite basic, kept at 70 degrees Celsius, and is agitated. To put this in time perspective, this print was in the dissolving bath for 7 hours!

Final Skull Print

There are a couple of interesting differences between this prosumer machine and the one we have in our classroom. The filament basically loads and unloads itself.  There is a pretty intense cartridge and included RFID tag that tracks everything (lower right).

And finally, the printing actually takes place on these disposable plastic print beds.  Apparently, you are supposed to use a fresh one for each print. I am curious if this is absolutely necessary or a nice revenue generator...

Maintaining this machine is not cheap.  Our 1 kg filament rolls cost about $35 - $45.   The uPrint's 1 kg rolls go for about $200 a piece!




Moving forward, I will be using the uPrint to print tomographic data sets, like our eggshell or this grapevine - so cool!

3D Printer Test

The recent Maker Faire provided our Maker Club an opportunity to meet and collaborate with the leading 3D Printer manufacturers in the world. We saw this as an opportunity to test their print quality on a hard challenge.

When we were at the ALS (read about it here), we scanned an eggshell and created an STL file with the data.  We asked several 3D-printer manufacturers to print the eggshell blown up about a thousand times.

The companies were excited to help out.  We had the eggshells printed on, from left to right (starting with the top row): the UP Plus 2, Cube 2, Afinia, Ultimaker 2, Printr Bot Simple Metal (using Microsoft's new slicer), RoBo 3D, MakerBot Dual, Form 1, and a Printr Bot Simple Metal (using Slic3r).

We were very impressed by the results -- they were far better than we could obtain from our old printers.

The Printrbot Simple metal has the best value for it's price. I recommend using the Microsoft slicer with it because Slic3r isn't the best at closing holes in the data. The Printrbot also has the standard 100 micron resolution.

For the best quality that isn't SLA, I would rank the Afinia and the UP Plus 2 at the top. They both have outstanding XY quality and have no excess bridges like the Cube 2. They are very similar in price, with each costing about $1,600. If you want a mid-ranged consumer 3-D printer, I would definitely recommend one of these.

The Type A machine is almost as good as the Afinia but it creates more bridges. I don' think the bridges would be a problem for less complicated prints, but for something in our experiments, it produced a lesser quality print than similar printers.

The Form 1 has the best quality. You can only barely see the layers because SLA printer's levels bond more closely together.  One downside to the Form 1 is that its post processing takes an extra 30 minutes to finish the job. The post-processing includes dipping it in rubbing alcohol, so it isn't the best for schools (at least yet). The other downsides are its cost ($3299) and supports. The supports leave marks on the bottom of your print but you can scrape them off very easily.  Bottom line: if you are looking for stunning quality, it is hard to beat on the consumer market.

Of course, our experiment was not perfect. We did not always control for slicing software, type of filament, etc. but we think it gave us some pretty interesting results anyway.

On the whole, we were grateful to the manufacturers and very happy with the results of this challenging test. If you are a printer manufacture and would like a full review of your product, email us.

3D Printed NAILS?!

Wow!  This certainly is something I hadn't considered - 3D printed nail art?!  TheLaserGirls shop on Shapeways offers a variety of 3D options -  $30 gets you your own set!  Created by NYC-based digital artists Sarah C. Awad and Dhemerae Ford, these nails did not originally start out so mainstream - you can see some of their more dramatic designs on their Instagram account or their Tumblr.  They even have some nails printed in brass!

Read more about the nails and the designers at the personalize blog.

7Th Graders Skype with Keith Murphy of Organovo!

** This post is still under construction, but I wanted to get the news up to share with all of you at 3D Printer World Expo, but it's been a busy week at school and there was no time to fine-tune (yet!).  Please check back soon. Feel free to follow us by email or Facebook! **

On Monday, January 27th, my 7th graders were able to Skype with Keith Murphy, CEO or Organovo.  I heard Keith talk at Inside 3D Printing in San Jose and kept thinking, "I wish my students could hear this!'  As you know, we are big fans of 3D printing and every year we spend time learning about cells.  After his talk, I tracked him down and asked him to take a photo (right). :)  And, as I do with pretty much everyone I meet who is working in professional fields in content areas that I teach, I asked if he would be willing to skype my classroom.  To my surprise and delight, he followed up and we were able to schedule a session!

My kids were excited and ready.  Keith Murphy explained the basics, and my students were surprised to learn that, contrary to what the media would like us to believe, we are nowhere close to printing whole organs.  He explained about the mini-livers and how they are used with drug testing. Then he took their questions.  There is always a moment a a teacher where you hold your breath and hope for the best, but the kids were awesome!  Some of their questions included:

How long does it take to print a blood vessel?

Where do you get the cells?

Are there any companies looking to 3D print skin to replace animal testing for cosmetics?


[more to come]

In this photo, Keith Murphy explains about collagen.

Afterwards, students say: [add]


To learn more about Organovo, here is a presentation by Sharon Presnell, Ph.D., Chief Technology Officer & EVP of Research & Development

at the 2013 Stem Cell Meeting on the Mesa.

Minecraft and 3D Printing

How to 3D Print something from a Minecraft single player world  
(A game that lets you create in a pixelated sandbox type of world)

OPTION 1:

Step 0: Have your minecraft creation ready in one of your worlds, and move your character as close as you can to it if possible.

Step 1:  Go to the Mineways site and download the program for Mac or PC. It's free.

Step 2: Run the Mineways application and click File > Open World > the single player world with what you want to print.

Step 3: Right-Click and drag a selection for the size of the file you wish to export.

Step 4: File > Export for whichever you like.

Step 5: Save the file and set your options.

Your model is saved! Print it.

OPTION 2:

There's also Printcraft, which allows you to create something in minecraft with a 40 by 40 square. When you push a button in minecraft, the command block behind it sends a signal to their website, which in turn translates your minecraft creation into a .stl file to download. It's entirely free and easy to use, all you need is the ip, (us1.printcraft.org) and a minecraft account, which is about $27 dollars right now.
How to import a Tinkercad model into Minecraft (post in progress)

Once you have made your model in Tinkercad, click design, just like when you download it to a .stl, but instead of Download for 3D Printing, select Download for Minecraft.  Now, for the next part you'll need McEdit, a FOSS (Free and Open Source) program for doing advanced of Minecraft worlds, which you can download here.  For the next part is different on Mac and Windows computers (If you're using Linux you should be able to do this yourself).

Mac:

          Unzip the folder on your desktop and run the program.  You will need to right click, and then click open, as the app is unsigned.  It will probably tell you to install XQuartz, and if so you can just click "continue", and follow the instructions on the web site that comes up.  The installer failed the first time for me, but on the second time it worked.  When you are done installing, open McEdit again.  It will take a while for anything to load, but after about ten seconds it should show up.  This time, it should open to a screen like this:

          [[Image to be Inserted Here]]

As you see, I already have a couple of world in it, like "Hidey Hole".  Yours will not have these.
Now is the time to create the minecraft world you haven't yet.
Next, you should click on "Load World".  It will look like this.

[[Second Image to be Inserted Here]]

Select the name of the world you want to put it into, then click load.

PC:

Our very own 3D printed prosthetic duck foot!

Got a fun package in the mail today:

Read more about Buttercup's story from high school hatchling to 3D-printed-mold-made-prosthetic-foot-recipient, and his subsequent duck fame on my previous blog post or Buttercup's FACEBOOK PAGE?!

Now Buttercup's owners are using Buttercup's fame to help other fowl in need of help.  To make  your own donation, visit http://featheredangels.org/.

Glow in the Dark Filament!

So, when we received our new Cube, 3D Systems sent along some complimentary cartridges (in addition to what comes in the box).  One of the colors was Glow-in-the-Dark Neon Blue.  My students recently switched to that cartridge and I'll have to admit, it is pretty cool!  (Hard to photograph, though; it was truly a "shot in the dark"!)

Using an iPhone...

Using a better Nikon...

Get your 3D Printed Menurkey!

OK, so the final product is actually made of ceramic, but 3D printing was integral in its prototyping stage.  The original design was created using TinkerCAD, and prototypes printed by Makerbot.  There are even some related designs on Thingiverse, but in this case, I think the original is still the best!

The Menurkey is a menorah shaped like a turkey.  The brainchild behind the Menurkey is 4th grade Asher, "an inventor and aspiring video game designer who also loves to read and play golf."  He and his family put his project on Kickstarter in August, 2013, and it was funded almost 200%!  (You can still buy your own today, but it may arrive after the holiday.)

Why you may ask?  If you haven't already heard:

The reason Hanukkah and Thanksgiving will overlap this year is because the Jewish calendar repeats on a 19 year cycle, and Thanksgiving repeats on a 7 year cycle.  You would therefore expect them to coincide roughly every 19×7 = 133 years.  Which is correct – the last time it would have happened is 1861.  But Thanksgiving was only formally established by President Lincoln in 1863 (which is why it has never happened before).  It may not happen again because the Jewish calendar is very slowly getting out of sync with the solar calendar, at a rate of 4 days per 1000 years.  This means that while presently Hanukkah can be as early as 11/28, over the years the calendar will drift forward, such that the earliest Hanukkah can be is 11/29.  The last time Hanukkah falls on 11/28 is 2146 (which happens to be a Monday).  Therefore, 2013 is the only time Hanukkah will ever overlap with Thanksgiving.  Of course, if the Jewish calendar is never modified in any way, then it will slowly move forward through the Gregorian calendar, until it loops all the way back to where it is now. So, Hanukkah will again fall on Thursday, 11/28…in the year 79811.

You can read more about the Menurkey and the Menurkey Team on their website.  You can also like them on Facebook. :)

The gear works!

Who would have guessed?  A while back, a student printed this gear off of Thingiverse. When it printed, we all assumed it didn't work.  In theory, it should have worked, but we couldn't get the gears to move.

Fast forward a few weeks, and one of the kids was playing around with the 3D printed stuff and stuck an Allen wrench into the center of the gear and voilà - it worked!  Seems we just needed a little more torque than we were providing by hand.

3D Systems Buys The Sugar Lab

Big companies like acquiring smaller companies and the biggest players in the 3D printing field are 3D Systems and Stratasys.  For example, Stratasys recently acquired Makerbot.  Now, 3D Systems has purchased The Sugar Lab, a small start-up by Kyle and Liz von Hasseln, a husband and wife team from Los Angeles that specializes in 3D printing customized, multi-dimensional, edible confections in real sugar.

The Sugar Lab had already been using 3D Systems' own Color Jet Printing technology "to print on a sugar bed using different flavored edible binders that meet all food safety requirements."  See more Sugar Lab photos here.

The Sugar Lab, and now 3D Systems, is not the first company involved in the 3D printing of food.  Currently, NASA is funding a phase I six-month $125,000 study on 3D printing of foods.  And Hod Lipson and Evan Malone of the Cornell University Computational Synthesis Laboratory, was dabbling in food with the Fab@Home project since 2006.  And, let's not forget the grad student and his (attempted?) Burrit0bot.

UPDATE 9.19.13:  Yesterday I attended the Inside 3D Printing conference in San Jose, CA and was able to meet Kyle and Liz von Hasseln, as well as check out their new 3D Systems-inspired creation!

UPDATE 1.4.13:  Here is a recent TEDx talk by Kyle and LIz von Hasseln

Cortex: The 3D Printed Cast

Many people have experienced the traditional plaster cast - bulky, smelly, and itchy.  Well, Jake Evill, a recent design graduate from the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand, is set to change all that. (pun intended)

Evill has developed he prototype idea for Cortex, a revolutionary cast that is "fully ventilated, super light, shower friendly, hygienic, recyclable and stylish."

Here are the basic steps involved in creating a Cortex cast:

Based on the scan data, computer software would determine the perfect design for your cast, providing more dense support in the area of the fracture.  Once on, the cast would close with fasteners that would later be removed using specialized tools, must like how plaster casts require a trip to the doctor for removal now.   The resulting cast would be about 3 millimeters thick and weigh less than 500 grams.

trabecular bone -
click image to see original location

Evill began his process with noticing that traditional casts are heavy and gross.  Then he looked around to see what kinds of alternatives existed.  He found none.  So, he decided to work on his own idea.  Evill began by researching the structure of bones, and was inspired by the trabecular (or spongy, or cancellous) bone that makes up the inside of long bones, providing structure without a lot of solid weight.  “It was this honeycomb structure that inspired the Cortex pattern because, as usual, nature has the best answers,” he said. “This natural shape embodied the qualities of being strong whilst light just like the bone it is protecting within.” (from Wired)

According to Wired, Evill used an Xbox Kinect to scan the arm for his prototype (Perhaps the same $80 scanner I was able to play with at this meetup event last weekend?  Lots of tutorials on how to do this: 1, 2, 3, or you can search tutorials on YouTube.) After cleaning up the scan, he sent the file off to Shapeways to be printed.

Some critics (what's wrong with you people?) complain that a 3D printed cast would take too long to print.

"At the moment, 3D printing of the cast takes around three hours whereas a plaster cast is three to nine minutes, but requires 24-72 hours to be fully set," says the designer. "With the improvement of 3D printing, we could see a big reduction in the time it takes to print in the future."

It's important to realize that the Cortex cast is only a concept now, but may easily be incorporated as the medical field gets more and more involved with 3D printing.

You can check out Evill's other work on his website, including Pola, a conceptual design for a virtual camera that create and then pushes (physical) images out from the side of your head.  I kid you not.

You can read more about Cortex at Wired & dezeen.

3D Printing a DUCK FOOT?!

So, you've probably heard of 3D printing already creating a new jaw for an elderly woman, fixing up a bald eagle's beak, and perhaps even one day making a prosthetic for this dog's snout (warning: kinda intense image)... but this one was news to me!

This week, Joel Graves, a 3-D printing engineer at NovaCopy, printed the prototype for a mold that will eventually be used to create a prosthetic foot for a DUCK!  Buttercup, the duck, was born in a high school science lab last year with a backward foot.

And, we here at BPC, love ducks - hatching them AND printing them!

His second owner, Mike Garey of Feathered Angels Waterfowl Sanctuary, consulted with a local veterinarian, who realized that it was best for the duck to have the foot amputated.  Then the duck needed time to heal.

In the meantime, Garey photographed the duck stump, combined the images using Autodesk, modeled the new foot after duck-sister-Minnie's left, then sent the design to Graves at Novacopy.  (Shoutout to Novacopy - as I understand it, the company is donating its services to help Buttercup!)  Once Garey receives the 3D-printed foot, it can be used to mold the new silicone foot.

For more information (OK, a LOT more detail, including pictures!), check out Buttercup's FACEBOOK PAGE?!  Here is Buttercup considering one of the silicone options...

(duck images courtesy of the Facebook page)

UPDATE 6/29/13:  CNET has a nice write-up on the story.  It's pretty fascinating to see how many news avenues have picked up this story.  Ducks, 3D printing, and philanthropy (philanaspy?) - what could be more compelling?

AND, Buttercup's foot is in the process of being molded!

Would you 3D Print Your Fetus?

So, I've noticed a somewhat bizarre trend lately with expectant moms.  They will often put their ultrasound pictures out on their desk next to the other family photos... some even have specialized ultrasound frames.  (Apparently, there is a whole market out there that I do not know about!)

Well, now those expectant parents can add a 3D model of their fetus right there with the pictures.

Japanese company Fasotec will make a miniature 3D replica of your fetus and hand it off to you in a lovely jewelry box, marketed as "The Shape of an Angel"  for about $1250 (as of 2012).  Yep.

Brazilian company will do this too, for about $200 for a full model of a fetus at 12 weeks, and about $300 for the face and arms of a fetus at 24 weeks.  This company does bring up a pretty legitimate reason - allowing visually impaired expectant parents to "see" their fetuses in a way ultrasounds cannot.  That's pretty cool.

Cornell is Cooking up Some Cool 3D Printers!

In this awesome video, researchers Hod Lipson and Jeffrey Lipton, from Cornell University, discuss some of the ideas that have come out of Fab@Home project.

They explain how food materials such as frostings were used first as support material but then quickly went to prime time.  After people's first taste (pun intended) of food printing, the experimentation quickly escalated.  First up?  Hydrocolloids - the same material used in the 3D printing of living tissues!

Quickly following, people discovered you could 3D print food made of pear jam, liquid turkey, brie, deep-friend corn... basically "anything you can push through a syringe" (Hod Lipson).

Even researchers admit that we "don't see new materials, but just new ways of combining them..." and that one day, they envision the 3D food printer being an appliance we couldn't imagine living without.