foolscap » Ponoko

Ponoko Project #3: Coasters

Douglas — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 21:10:33 +0000

We’re on a roll now. This one will be made out of thick, dense, black felt.

Ponoko Project: Round 2

Douglas — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 16:14:48 +0000

The tolerance advice posted at ponoko.com doesn’t apply for all situations. It’s slightly off when dealing with very small inlays such as on my first project. They didn’t quite fit. After some careful caliper measurements, I’m trying again. This time with a a modified design and an inset/outset distance of 0.19mm.

First Ponoko Project

Douglas — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 18:25:47 +0000

Submitted my first design to Ponoko this weekend. It is a business card holder. Actually, two of them: one White with black inlay, the other a reverse. Notice the two logo cut-outs are different. The cut-outs in the upper instance are .2mm thinner than the official logo. The lower cut-outs are .2mm fatter. This is to compensate for the laser cutter’s kerf. The lower piece slides through the slot of the upper, providing a small shelf the width of a standard US business card. The white cut-out from the lower piece will be press-fit into the space left by the upper cut-out. It will then protrude above the upper edge of the black face. Well see! Should be here in a few days…

3D Prototyping Comes Home — Almost.

Douglas — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 04:01:42 +0000

Ever since reading Eric Drexler’s ground-breaking Engines of Creation over 20 years ago, I have yearned for its promise of at-home 3-dimensional object fabrication from a ‘vat’ of material. The molecular assembler is probably still a decade away but affordable 3D rapid prototyping (3D Printing) is just around the corner.

For some time now I’ve been following progress with the “RepRap Project” as well as the similar but less widely supported “Fab@Home Project“. While these are both immensely interesting — one day I would like to build one — for the time being a much more enticing new option has just surfaced: shapeways.com (also, just found a similar but less sophisticated US-based site: Ponoko.com)

For as long as I can remember, 3-dimensional shaping and thinking have been a strong suit of mine. From early-childhood soap carving to current-era marble stone sculpture, I have imagined my 3-dimensional daydreams coming to life. Always at the top of the class in Engineering Drawing — I especially enjoyed solving hidden line problems in orthographic projections — my fascination with solid geometry and computer-aided 3D design continues to grow exponentially. Perhaps one day I will find myself more actively exercising these talents and putting them to good use.

I’ve looked on with envy as 3D designer Bathsheba creates beautiful mathematical objects with direct-metal printing. I could do this! One day I would love to find my mathematical art on exhibit at one of the annual Bridges conference.

Ever since version 1.0, I’ve been an avid fan of Rhinocerous, one of the leading 3D modeling packages that is especially strong with non-uniform rational B-spline (NURB) design. Finding shapeways gives me the inspiration I needed to fire up Rhino and begin designing!

3D printing is here! More Design tools: Blender and PyTopMod

RepRap

Fab @ Home

Shapeways