3D Printing For All

Slowly but surely 3D printing is seeping into mass media with great hysteria and I think the average Joe is beginning to sit up and take notice of what is said to be a technological revolution. Some pundits reckon its as significant as the personal computer. I'm not convinced yet but one thing is for sure since I've been making 3D printed parts for the past 7 or 8 years the cost of equipment and materials have been dropping as expected and quality and reliability seems decent for such a new technology.

It could be said the first real consumer friendly mass market (ish) desktop 3D printer that was released last year was the 3D Systems Cube and more recently the larger platform multi head CubeX.

There are other desktop printers such as the Makerbot Replicator http://store.makerbot.com/replicator.html but these are more tunable and dedicated for the hobbyist or modelmaker. The Cube seems to be a 3D printer for Dummies, easy to use and not too much in there to confuse. More significantly the Cube "looks" like a home consumer product, the other home desktop printers resemble something thats cobbled together in your garage with bits of old doors and 1990's pc parts.

I saw the Cube in action at Euromold 2012 in Frankfurt where they were demonstrating and selling them along with quirky 3D printed products. The Cube was practically all sold out with a special show price of around 1000 yoyo's. There was a real buzz and excitement around the stand being marshalled by a Dutch crew with extremely strong american accents (I enquired what part of the states were they from, Ha!). You can normally purchase them online for 1569 dollars and materials cost 52 dollars per cartridge with either PLA or ABS being the material choices with a range of 16 colours available. The Cube essentially uses an established technology traditionally known as Fused Deposition Modelling or FDM. Up to recently an FDM machine of similar quality (albeit more for the industrial market) would cost around 10,000 euro at least. Theoretically in another few years we'll see 3D printers in Argos for pennys.

3D Systems consumer product website is www.cubify.com where you can purchase the machines or get yourself 3D "plans" (as people seem to call them, STL files to engineers) to print at home or uniquely designed 3D printed products from designers. I purchased a 3D printed IPhone cover, Macedonia, which is from Freshfiber http://www.freshfiber.com/home/. The mesh design could only be manufactured using 3D printing and has a nice protective bounce to the back of it.

Looking forward to getting my hands on my own Cube and giving it a go.

Classic British Aircraft

I've been keenly watching the tv documentary series on Discovery "Classic British Aircraft" narrated by none other than Harry Enfield. He's actually a good narrater but I'm always expecting him to slip into the Mr Cholmondeley-Warner characters but he somehow manages to restrain himself quite well.

Its a nostalgic history of ,as the title suggests, romantic old aircraft designed and built in Britain dating back to mostly the 30's/40's and 50's.  The coolest sections are seeing the now mostly elderly gentlemen who would have maintained and flew these aircraft restoring them and getting them flying again. It seems a mammoth task getting old bits and pieces from all over the place and manging to rebuild them ready to fly...very impressive and makes me all misty eyed for some reason. There are some of my all time favourite aircraft on show, the first British Jet Fighter, the Gloster Meteor and the elegant De Havilland Dragon Rapide...jolly good.

AT-AT Foot

This model was a movie prop for the very cool AT-AT walker in The Empire Strikes Back (the best Star Wars in my opinion). Constructed by the ILM model shop in 1980 to generate footprints for the scene where Luke dives away from his crashed Snowspeeder, the scene needed to be dressed with footprints leading up to the stomping of the Snowspeeder. Constructed of resin with a sturdy handle, it measures 9 in. in diameter. One of the “toes” is broken and held with gaffer tape, another is missing but could easily be refabricated to round out the display.  It was sold for 2360 dollars in 2009 in a hollywood auction. A very nice paperweight indeed.

Remote Controlled Kites

Ok this is new to me and actually a great idea when you see them. They are basically kites that you can fly like a remote controlled plane or helicopter. They are from a Singapore based company, Go Fly Kite, and are designed to be easier to fly, crash resistant and cheaper than your standard remote controlled plane. They also have a full set of coloured LED's so you can fly at night...nice. They do cost a good few hundred dollars but parts are cheap to replace when you do crash and burn or the dog chews it up. Check out the clip here of a group of them flying at night, very close encounters of the third kind (except for the soundtrack...turn it down)

http://vimeo.com/21581241

http://www.goflykite.com

My Very First EV Charging Point

I'm always tickled pink to see the predicted future from the near past coming to reality. One of my favourite movies 2010 based on Arthur C. Clarkes novel had a scene in it when the main character Heywood Floyd is jogging along when what looks like an electric car goes whirring by him. That image always stuck with me for some reason. With the introduction of EV's (Electric Vehicle's) coming along nicely it seems like in relation to land based transport 2010 was actually fairly accurate, (The whole Spaceship-Saturn-Europa thing less so). So what got me excited a few weeks ago was my first look at an ESB charging point for EV's up close. I was getting my usual chicken  sandwich and cappacino at a local Topaz service station and there it was in all its glory,  a very slick hi-tech looking charging point around the back of the station. It looked a little neglected at this stage but i'm hoping we'll all be plugging-in in the near future. Pumping in expensive dirty liquid is soooo 20th century anyway. We all know EV's are a little slow to charge, range anxiety ensues, blah blah and I'm sure it'll be seen as very quaint in the future but for now its all very exciting (for the science fiction geek in me).

http://www.esb.ie/electric-cars/electric-car-charging/electric-car-charge-point-types.jsp

The Laces Issue

This nifty little device caught my attention a couple of years ago. It basically pulls laces together by a ratchet action using just a finger which tightens and locks them in place. Personally, having a weakness in my right hand from a spinal injury, this little gadget would solve my lacing issues. My problem is that the only laces I have trouble with are my shiny shoes, i.e. short and skinny laces. This is fine for runners but would look too bulky on a shoe and worst of all like a disability aid. I normally stick with my Vans, Velcro or slip-on ankle boots to avoid the laces issue completly. Anyway tis a good idea that works. 

http://www.lace-amatic.com/

Star Wars, Kenner and Regrets

Being a Star Wars obsessed (and spoilt) boy I had the vast majority of figures from Kenner (around 70) and a good amount of vehicles and ships. I spent many an hour playing with them and completly loved every minute of it. Then one day in 1987 I decided to sell all of my Star Wars stuff to the local kids. It all went for something like 30 quid, and I've had to live with this moment of madness for the rest of my life. Now I NEED to get it all back (early midlife crisis). So instead of a Porsche I can see me scouring ebay for the next few years righting that wrong and finding that elusive Jawa with the vinyl cape (2000 dollars) or Yak Face, the final Kenner figure in 1985 (1000 dollars) or the ultimate "Telescoping Lightsaber" Darth Vader, 1978 (6000 dollars).  Nothing beats the smell of a 1983 Stormtrooper Kenner Star Wars figure fresh out of its packet.