Unqiue Plastique

Nice meeting Sam Cervantes, CEO of solidoodle - the low cost 3D...

instagrammy — Wed, 22 May 2013 09:47:05 -0400

Nice meeting Sam Cervantes, CEO of solidoodle - the low cost 3D printer which although it’s not the best model, has the best price and does enough to be useful… defo my choice

My interview with 3D Hubs creators Brian Garret and Bram de...

instagrammy — Fri, 10 May 2013 11:22:49 -0400

My interview with 3D Hubs creators Brian Garret and Bram de Zwart

This is the brilliant school Sea Perch project… a teenager...

instagrammy — Fri, 10 May 2013 06:57:44 -0400

This is the brilliant school Sea Perch project… a teenager lunch club to make robotic submarines

mongolito404: Battery pack http://thingiverse.com/thing:5079...

instagrammy — Fri, 03 May 2013 08:15:05 -0400

mongolito404:

Battery pack http://thingiverse.com/thing:5079 #RepRap

Vid of iMakr Store opening party in London featuring @makerbot...

instagrammy — Fri, 03 May 2013 07:23:33 -0400

Vid of iMakr Store opening party in London featuring @makerbot @cubify @leapfrog_3D @PP3DP @solidoodle3D

Catching-up with @bartV and @blendernation about the new...

instagrammy — Wed, 01 May 2013 12:18:36 -0400

Catching-up with @bartV and @blendernation about the new #3Dprinting features in Blender 2.6.7

instagrammy: The new prototype - pink plastic spikes. They’re...

instagrammy — Wed, 01 May 2013 06:51:07 -0400

instagrammy:

The new prototype - pink plastic spikes. They’re super sharp too

Pink spikes prototype arrives

Raspberry Pi powered 3D Printer | Y-Axis Magazine

instagrammy — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:30:14 -0400

Raspberry Pi powered 3D Printer | Y-Axis Magazine:

This is my article for @yaxismag on 3D printing with a Raspberry Pi, Shapeways and what’s coming in Blender 2.6.7

My chat with Sarah Blood @theRealNeonGirl as she talks about her...

instagrammy — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 10:48:24 -0400

My chat with Sarah Blood @theRealNeonGirl as she talks about her remarkable work in neon, argon, clay and cake… brilliant stuff

Highlights of the Newcastle Maker Faire part 2: organic...

instagrammy — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 08:02:00 -0400

Highlights of the Newcastle Maker Faire part 2: organic plastics, battling robots, robotic pole dancers, a Mars Rover and a Stormtrooper…

Part 1 - my visit to the Newcastle Maker Faire… including...

instagrammy — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 06:43:04 -0400

Part 1 - my visit to the Newcastle Maker Faire… including an interview with Stephen Gray of http://www.shapeways.com/shops/mygadgetlife

This is Molly (@hippiegunnat) talking about combining a...

instagrammy — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 15:01:19 -0400

This is Molly (@hippiegunnat) talking about combining a #RaspberryPi with a RepRap 3D printer - genius!

Posting my vid of three artists trying out my neckbangle...

instagrammy — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 11:40:34 -0400

Posting my vid of three artists trying out my neckbangle prototypes at the Maker Faire… they made them look awesome ;)

Quick vid of my neckbangles… and me being over excited as...

instagrammy — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:22:11 -0400

Quick vid of my neckbangles… and me being over excited as I rush off to Newcastle to meet @bartv & @shapeways

The first prototypes come back from @shapeways… here they...

instagrammy — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 07:44:05 -0400

The first prototypes come back from @shapeways… here they are on my tumblr

Developing a new product family quickly using @blender

instagrammy — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 08:51:52 -0400

My blog’s been pretty quiet of late as I got ready for @shapeways at the Maker Faire http://bit.ly/10z8u4V And here’s why…

As you know I’m really into designing typographic cufflinks… but I’ve also been working on something a bit more accessible to a wider audience (who aren’t type geeks or cufflink wearers, which is a pretty small audience to be fair).

Introducing the “Neckbangle” (I wasn’t sure what it was, it’s not a necklace, it might be a choker, it’s like a bangle hence the new product framily name is neckbangle).

Here’s the basic concept - I built it using Blender (which is awesome for rapid development). It’s a contoured, spherical wrap around one-piece design. Styled to sit at the base of the throat…

This took about a day to work out the specifics… it’s an asymmetrical slice through a hollow sphere - which gives the base structure a close-fitting, natural look which should fit most female necks. It’s got a 76mm aperture at the back which allows it to hook on without too much trouble but not fall off. In theory anyway…

Then I took a couple of hours to experiment with the form and create two other versions… the ancient neckbangle (inspired by the metalwork styles of old Saxon / Roman jewellery)

And the Shoredtich neckbangle - a punk themed version:

Cutting holes in an asymmetric slice of a sphere ain’t easy… you really need to do it by eye, changing the slice angle by -1 degrees on the X axis, regular (ish) rotation increments around the Z axis and adjusting Y axis coordinates by instinct. Blender is awesome for that - the controls for rotation around the object’s origin mean you can quite literally click away in each axis until it looks right on the little control box, no complex movements necessary. Also, for each hole or spike, just <shift><d> duplicate the last one and move it again… easy really.

What’s next? Well I’ve got a few prototypes in plastic and steel coming, so gauge the sizes with some real women… then it’s a matter of working out how to attach pendants and, of course, mount typography on it.

I’ll keep you posted ;)

This retro gamer cufflink took minutes to make in Blender…...

instagrammy — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 07:28:27 -0400

This retro gamer cufflink took minutes to make in Blender… I took the STL of my type cufflinks, the STL of my pendant model and joined them. The result… geek chic

One for @bartv and the @shapeways team - new prototypes, more...

instagrammy — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 07:19:11 -0400

One for @bartv and the @shapeways team - new prototypes, more wine, learning the lessons of articulation, 0.2mm tolerances and materials

a whole load of typographic 3D printed cufflinks - finally put...

instagrammy — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 05:19:54 -0400

a whole load of typographic 3D printed cufflinks - finally put the vid on tumblr

Working with re-usable components for 3D print prototypes - @Blender3D tips

instagrammy — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 10:19:00 -0400

It’s been a long couple of weeks… I’m finally starting to think like a 3D print designer. Here’s the story…

I’ve been puzzling over creating a mechanism to act as a clasp/lock to open and close chains. A hoop / bar works fine, but I’m a natural tinkerer so I started thinking about making something that was more of a universal coupler - so it could connect two ends of a chain OR secure a pendant to a chain OR interchangable pendants / charms to chains and bracelets. Here’s my finished concept (waiting for @shapeways to deliver some test models back)

It’s a lock and key design, where the key can only pass through the lock at 90 degrees to its resting vertical position (below the H shape on 2 guide pins) - basically, once it’s connected in theory you can dance about the place or go base jumping (or whatever) and it can’t unlock. If it works, you’re looking at the two part connector that fastens chains, pendants and all kinds of jewellery components to each other, with all the innards of the mechanism exposed.

Then I started making my first one-print necklace… using a space invader motif:

It’s pretty rough at the moment, but a good working prototype to test material strength and how to compose an STL of many parts to work with Shapeways size and tolerance limits.

Then it hit me - why not take the bar off my type cufflinks and connect it to the space invader? I realised once I had a component that worked, if I made it as a stand alone STL from Blender I could re-use it.

Make your clean STL by selecting the bits you want to keep {ctrl-J} then enter Edit mode {tab} > select all vertices {A} > Remove doubles {press w and select from the menu} then back to view mode where you select File > export > STL.

Import multiple STLs into a new file and assemble all the bits you want. I took the Space Invaders, then the cufflink connector, made them into STLs and did just that…

Recognise the bits? (see posts on cufflinks below). It must have taken me about 2 minutes. That’s 5 new 3D printable items for sale on Shapeways in about 10 mins - efficiently re-using the items I’ve spent a week making. All I have to do is get my connector working, and I’ll be able to make everything - the type cufflinks and the invaders into pendants in about 20 mins… which feels really efficient.

One really important Blender tip is to us the P button (in Blender 2.6 & later) if you need to break apart a joined mesh. It’s a bit of a pain, because it breaks up all the linked surfaces, so a space invader breaks down into about 10 parts, but using the scene navigator window you can quickly work out what’s what and re-join them into usable parts. This was very useful when I accidentally made my necklace into one object, exported it as an STL then found it was too big to be printed - so I had to go back and make a couple of rotations to segments to get it into the right bounding box footprint to coloured plastic. It took about an hour of fiddling… I guess the lesson there is simple:

SAVE MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF YOUR COMPONENTS BEFORE YOU JOIN AND ASSEMBLE THEM.

I had been doing it… the one time I got too excited, boom!!!