Category: Maker
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Create LEGO-compatible Angle Plates with LEGO.scad
In response to a comment here, I wrote the first OpenSCAD module for generating complex brick shapes using my LEGO.scad project. LEGO.scad is great for creating bricks and wings of all shapes and sizes, but it isn’t suitable for making complicated shapes like angle plates. LEGO sells 90º angle plates (pictured); the new module can…
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Today’s Functional Print: Baby Gate Support
In today’s “No, don’t go up there” news, I’ve printed a custom baby gate support. Based on a design by Thingiverse user Printed_Solid, this support allows a pressure gate to be used against a post without attaching a wall cup, which would leave a permanent screw hole. I updated the original design to have longer…
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Today’s Functional Print: Board Game Piece Bases
In today’s “do you think this is some sort of game?” news, I’ve designed and printed some boardgame piece bases. These were printed specifically for my son’s “Thomas and Friends Tracks and Trestles” game, which was missing two of its bases, but the design is customizable to fit almost any size gamepiece. The OpenSCAD script…
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Today’s Functional Print: Stove Knob
In today’s “customizable knob” news, I’ve designed and printed a customizable knob. When we moved into our current house, the knob to control the stovetop fan was missing: After six months of procrastinating and one hour of OpenSCAD, it now looks like this: Now I don’t have to turn on the fan with a pliers!…
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Today’s Functional Prints: Train Track Repair Edition
In today’s “I choo choo choose to fix broken toys instead of buying replacements” news, I repaired two train track components: The track connector is a Thingiverse design by mrbenbritton, and the filling station support is just a run-of-the-mill dowel.
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Today’s Functional Print: Coat Rack Pegs
In today’s “I finally unpacked my 3D printer” news, I printed some pegs for a coat rack to replace the original pegs that we lost during a cross-country move. The base of each peg is flared to ensure a tight fit into the hole, but it also has a hole in the bottom to allow…
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LEGO Gender Equality
At the suggestion of Thingiverse user MrZaius, I’ve added support for female dual-sided bricks to my LEGO-compatible brick OpenSCAD library. The library already had support for male dual-sided bricks, so this is great progress towards eliminating the gender dual-sidedness gap. Female dual-sided bricks are twice as tall as their equivalent single-sided brick in order to…
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Published Again: WOOD Meets Plastic
The backhoe that I printed in plastic last year is featured in the May 2015 edition of WOOD Magazine. To complete the circle of irony, all of my future woodworking projects will be published in Plastics News.
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Print your own LEGO-compatible bricks
Given that I have a 3D printer and a five-year-old son, it was inevitable that I would eventually print some LEGO-compatible bricks.1 I knew that bricks were a popular “look what I can print” demo, but after I tried out a few of the popular printable LEGO-compatible models [1] [2], I found that none of…
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Today’s Functional Print: Letter Cookie Cutters
In today’s “delicious but still functional” news, I printed a set of letter cookie cutters as part of a Christmas present for my sister’s family. The theme for our family’s gift exchange this year was “locally made gifts,” and it doesn’t get any more local than my own desktop. I printed the cutters in T-Glase,…
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Today’s Functional Print, Failure Edition: Vacuum Cleaner Wheel
In today’s “I wheely love printing” news, I tried and failed to print a replacement wheel for a Kenmore Whispertone 12.0 vacuum cleaner. The original wheel’s clip had broken, causing the wheel to come unattached from the vacuum canister: Replacement wheels can be bought for $9 plus shipping, but why pay almost ten dollars when…
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Today’s Functional Print, CHRISTMAS EDITION: Christmas Tree Feet
In today’s appropriately festive 3D printer news, I’ve printed replacement feet for some ornamental Christmas trees: These feet took a while to design — the organic shapes and border ridges were new concepts to me in OpenSCAD, but I was able to settle on a design that could be printed without supports. Spot the original,…
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Today’s Functional Print: Wire Cube Plastic Connector
In today’s “hey, that’s actually useful” news, I’ve printed a connector for assembling wire cube shelving. The shelves are shipped as a stack of identical wire squares that come together with round plastic connectors, allowing you to build customized shelves, like this one: We bought some at a garage sale, but we were two connectors…
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Today’s Functional Print: Christmas Light Clips
In today’s “’tis the season to be printing” news, I’ve printed replacement Christmas light clips. They took about half an hour to model in OpenSCAD, and each one can print in only three minutes. Their exact design appears to be unique to the decoration that they came from, but these very similar clips sell for…
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Today’s Functional Print: Cootie Eyes
In today’s “is he posting about Cootie again?” news, I’ve printed replacement eyes for our Cootie game. The eyes are tiny and get lost really easily, so they are a natural candidate for replenishment. These eyes are so small that I had to dial the print speed down to 3 millimeters per second (from 30…
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Today’s Functional Print: Cootie Legs
In today’s “does that really count as functional” news, I’ve printed replacement legs for our Cootie game. You can’t buy replacement parts for Cootie, so the retail value of these legs is literally priceless. These legs are low-polygon because I’m not yet experienced enough in OpenSCAD to replicate organic shapes. I generated these legs by…
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Today’s Functional Print: Train Valve Gear
In today’s “how did I ever live without a 3D printer” news, I’ve saved a decades-old toy train from the trash heap by printing a new valve gear for its left side of its wheels. The train is a 1986 model New Bright toy train, and it was destined to encircle our Christmas tree, but…
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Today’s Functional Print: Oven Handle Hooks
In today’s “how did I live without this” news, I printed s-hooks sized exactly to my oven handle. I modeled them in OpenSCAD in about 30 minutes, they each printed in twenty-six minutes, and the pair has an approximate retail value of $2.85. Cha-ching! The SketchUp model and SCAD file are (of course) available on…
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Today’s Functional Print: Shop-Vac Adapter
In today’s “printing meets programming meets woodworking” news, I’ve printed an adapter that allows me to hook up my Shop-Vac hose (1 1/4″ diameter) to my planer’s dust port (4″ diameter). The adapter was designed in OpenSCAD using a module I wrote that can create adapters between two hoses of any size. This print was…
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Today’s Functional Print: Drawer Hardware
In today’s “we’re living in the future” news, I bought a dresser for only ten dollars because none of the drawers slid smoothly, and I printed replacement drawer slides, returning the dresser to a fully functional state. (The original slides that came with the dresser were all broken for unknown reasons.) The hardware I printed…