The history of AdderFab

For those interested in more information about AdderFab and what led up to its creation there is a write-up on Open3DP.

AdderFab is the combined result of three separate Capstone student design teams over a span of over four years.   The original name of the project was P3P (personal 3D printer).

I have also created a picture set on flicker.

RepRap Mendel, Metrix Create: Space, & Engineering Discovery Days

It has been a little while since I last posted.  I have been busily working on getting the Solheim Rapid Prototyping Laboratory RepRap Mendel completed for the UW Engineering Discovery Days.  We got it working after several problems with our electronics and a lot of help from the people over at Metrix Create: Space.  Be sure to check out the pictures (here) of us working on it down there.

Here are some additional pictures of the Mendel and the first prints that we were able to get from it.

Now we are going to work on improving the print quality, repairing the electronics better and starting construction of a few more bots...

The end of another quarter and fun things from the lab...

As the quarter comes to an end I am reflecting back on all the cool things I did.  I am also looking forward to the projects that I have planned for next quarter.

Here are some of the highlights...

The plastic frog (lower left) was scanned then printed life-size and milled from foam bigger than life.

These heart rings are printed in glass...

A few da Vinci drawings made 3D...

This began as the following picture available under a Creative Commons License

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/captbrando/ / CC BY 2.0)

And next quarter I am planning to make my own 3D printer (a reprap Mendel), I also have plans to make a informational video for the clinic on campus.  Both very exciting, I almost can't wait but I am also glad to have a little break, even if I still have to work.

And just as a final note for all those who have always wondered "How many feet of toothpaste is in a tube of toothpaste?" (A question our professor has posed several times)

Approximately 15.5 feet of toothpaste in a tube... (At least with the size bead I was able to consistently make)

Reality, Blender, Video Clip, MeshLab, 3D Printer, Reality Agian

I just want to give an example of the doors that begin to open as we explore what it means to have 3D objects.  A while back I took a image of a Boy Scout patch

 and did a rendering of it in Blender (Open Source 3D tools, http://www.blender.org/)

This was animated as a opening to a video I did for the event.

 I realized that I should be able to export the model from Blender clean it up some and print it.
Here is the result of exporting the model and opening it in MeshLab (a free mesh editor, http://meshlab.sourceforge.net/)

I then took the .stl file the the lab and printed it using the Z-Corp printer and now have a real object again.

 

It is very cool to be able to take something real make it virtual (in this instance manually, but I am presently playing with scanners...) and then make it real again.  It won't be long before we have 3D copy machines.  You will have a compartment you place an object in and another compartment where the copy comes out...