MyOpen3D

Squeaking in just before the holidays is a stylish Octagonal Candle Holder by your favorite Seattle-based open hardware company, MyOpen3D! All you'll need to make one of these beauties is some 3mm plywood, a laser cutter, this link to the candle holder's Thingiverse page https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2729105 , and you're all set! (And then, of course, a candle to use with it. We designed it so that candles the diameter of a tealight work best.)

As you can see in the accompanying picture, we've also added a dark stain and some decorative paper to ours, giving it a nice contrast-y look. Of course, we encourage everyone to get creative and try something different with their builds, but most important of all, please take a picture and tag us in it. We'd love to see what awesome variations our community can produce with this free and open design!

Until next year, happy holidays from MyOpen3D!

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MyOpen3D is proud to present our latest open source educational electronics kit, the Desktop Guardian! Debuting at 2017’s Seattle Mini Maker Faire, the Desktop Guardian is an automated rubber band cannon built from laser cut plywood and 3D printed parts, and is powered by an Arduino Nano, an ultrasonic “sonar” sensor, and of course, rubber bands! MyOpen3D will be selling a pre-packaged kit for those attending , but as a fully open source project we’ll also be releasing full design files and build instructions on Thingiverse (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2533083)!

This kit is intended for children (aged 10+) and adults of all skill levels. We of course encourage all builders to tinker with the hardware design and the included Arduino sketch to adjust or broaden the Guardian’s basic functionality!

If you need assistance in assembly or if you would like help modify and/or change its functionality—particularly if you are located in the Seattle, Washington area—MyOpen3D encourages you to attend one of our workshops based on this kit! Please contact us to find dates for existing workshops or to schedule your own!

Also, be sure to follow us for more fun maker-y videos on 3D printing, CNC milling, basic electronics and engineering!

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A handful of filament brands have recently begun producing metallic PLA blends, combining (for example) 40% copper or aluminum dust with 60% PLA. While they make objects with an interesting surface sheen, their overall print quality suffers a bit. This is especially problematic with overhangs and bridges, likely due to the filament holding heat a little longer and weighing a fraction more than normal PLA would.

In addition, the particles break up the molecular strength of the plastic bonding to itself, making prints more brittle than with the usual PLA. That being said however, the visual effect may still be worth it in certain situations and for certain needs.

The most frequent question I receive at the maker space about these filaments is, “does the metal make it stronger?” and my answer is always the same: “No, don’t go to metal blends for strength. It’s purely for visual effect. But, it is a cool visual effect.”

We’ve also read a bit about printers buffing this material to get even more of a shine. Unfortunately, all the buffing techniques we have tried have resulted in just smudging the plastic and reducing its shine, ultimately making it look not that great in the end. While we’ll keep testing various methods to improve finish and quality, the dragon pictured above is right off the print plate with no post-processing and it looks great as is. (Though, it should be noted that the tail has already broken off due to the extra brittleness of metallic filament blends.)

There’s been some talk that this year’s Black Friday deals aren’t as great as they once were (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/26/technology/personaltech/black-friday-deal-or-dud-how-to-shop-smart-this-holiday-season.html). A big part of the reason why is price manipulation by retailers, where items are made more expensive a little while before the sales season, only to be brought back down to a “normal price” when it begins, conveying the illusion of price slashing.

In the spirit of actually giving customers a deal this holiday season, AND making sure that anyone who purchases a 3D printer from us knows its ins and outs, we’re offering our DIY Prusa i3+ kit and our 3D Printing 101 class as a bundle at $116 off of the standard price.

We know what great gifts our printers make and how rewarding an investment it is to learn about them. As such, there was little doubt that we’d do something like this for the holidays to get the word out to anyone interested in picking up a kit for either themselves or that special tech nerd or creative maker in their lives. So, this holiday season, give the gift that keeps on giving (or in this case, "keeps on printing,") in a MyOpen3D DIY kit and class bundle at $116 off the actual standard price!

This special discounted bundle will be available until Friday, December 2, and only while supplies last. Be sure to jump on it soon to secure one in time for Christmas!

Please enquire via email at [email protected], or stop on by the S**o Makerspace, where all purchases, pickups, and our classes are held!

When someone asks about the strength of the flexible materials our 3D printer can print with, I often hand them the TPU tank tread we made a while back and encourage them to try to break it. TPU at that thinness feels deceptively light and fragile, and really does feel like it will come apart with just a bit of stretch. No doubt, they’re usually quite surprised (and even nervous) when I ask them to try to pull it apart.

Having done this more than a few times, I’ve become very confident of the outcome, and am usually rewarded by people’s amazement when they try—and fail!—at breaking this thin band of TPU. However, it’s still early days for our company, and so it’s not often that we find someone who is both interested in the details of 3D printing as well as, oh, say, weightlifting and *being really, really strong.*

Late last month at the Renton Comic Con, the amazement was all ours because, well… we met one of those rare people.

At a trade show booth like ours, crowds sometimes gather, making this little demonstration a particularly effective one to do. This is usually best when you can pass the TPU band around to give everyone a shot at breaking it. You can imagine our nervousness when we passed the tread to a gentleman cosplaying as Street Fighter’s Ryu, however. Not only was his costume spot on, but he had the muscle to back it up. See the picture below; check the guns on that guy!

At first, I hesitated, feeling it was too risky. Did we finally bite off more than our TPU could chew? If so, this would be the last time we could get away with this demo, and it wouldn’t end well for our tank tread! Still, we were locked in and we couldn’t back out now.

“No way out but through, I guess…”

Fully committed, we handed the tank tread over, and after a tense hand-to-hand battle between our TPU band and Ryu spanning multiple rounds, we finally determined who the toughest warrior in the world is. Despite our ox-strong friend quite literally pulling, twisting, and stretching the TPU between the combined might of his hands AND feet, the band stayed intact.

Yes, TPU WINS!

The tread, at only 1/8 inch thick, sure did stretch and flex, but it never broke. When returned to us, we were surprised to find that it showed no sigh of wear or even warp—it quietly and quickly bounced back to its original shape and length! If anything, it appeared to do more damage to the skin of Ryu’s hands than anything.

Thoroughly vindicated, we’re now confident we can keep this demonstration going for years to come, and that TPU really is one of the most hardy, reliable filaments we can print in. Who says 3D prints can’t be durable? Well, we definitely know at least one person who won’t be saying that any time soon!

MyOpen3D will be hanging out and participating at Renton’s inaugural comic convention, Renton ComiCon (http://www.rentoncomicon.com/location.html), on October 28 - 30. Swing by to see us showing off and demoing our printers, and if you’re feeling like it, pick up a kit as well!

We’ll also be hosting a panel on Friday, October 28, at 2:00 PM on the basics of 3D Printing and its application to fun, geeky activities like cosplaying and role playing games.

The convention will be at the Red Lion Hotel in Renton (naturally), and tickets can be purchased from their website (http://www.rentoncomicon.com/tickets.html), or from the Red Lion Hotel lobby starting at 9:00 AM on Friday.

Come check out MyOpen3D at the S**O MakerSpace booth this weekend at the Seattle Mini Maker Faire! We will have kits for the Prusa i3+ for sale, as well as freebies and examples of the type of quality you can expect from our printers.

Tickets at the door are $21 for adults, $18 for students, and $12 for kids!