Christopher Finke writes about software, woodworking, and other creative endeavors.

  • Print your own LEGO-compatible bricks

    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…

  • 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,…

  • 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…

  • I’m a Published Tipster

    The March 2015 issue of WOOD Magazine will feature a Shop Tip from yours truly: This tip was devised while I was building a cutting board/sink insert last year: Fame and Fortune, here I come!

  • 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,…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • 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…

  • Dies Irae: A Composition for Wind Ensemble

    In 1998, when I was 14, I wrote a song for wind ensemble: ten brass/woodwind parts and three for percussion. I just recently found the original sheet music (which I think I made using Finale 97), and I transcribed the entire thing again so that I could share it here. It’s called Dies Irae (“Day…

  • Today’s Functional Print: Guitar Strap Button

    In today’s “validating my 3D printer purchase” news, I’ve printed a replacement strap button for a child’s guitar. Designed in OpenSCAD in about ten minutes, it took eight minutes to print and has an approximate retail value of $2.62. The original remaining button (left) and the printed reproduction (right). The OpenSCAD script and STL file…

  • Meet Akisbot

    Akisbot is the Akismet mascot; he was originally designed by Dan Hauk, but this 3D version was modeled and printed by yours truly. Here’s Dan’s design that I used as a reference during fabrication: I designed the entire thing in OpenSCAD, and I’ve published all of the source files on GitHub, so you can print…

  • OpenSCAD is Awesome

    I’ve been getting into 3D printing, and until recently, I was using SketchUp to create all of the models for my 3D prints. However, whenever I needed to do anything even mildly involved, like align the center of a sphere with the center of the top of a cylinder (or even create a sphere in…

  • Printing Construction Equipment for Fun

    For Father’s Day, my wife and kids got me this “Construction-grade Backhoe Loader” kit from WOOD Magazine. The kit contains hardware and wheels; you build the rest of the backhoe yourself: I planned on doing this project with my sons (ages 5 and 3) until I realized that the fine detail woodworking involved would bore…

  • I saved a pair of sunglasses with a 3D printer

    My sister-in-law’s sunglasses lost an accent from one of the earpieces, leaving the left temple loose. Could I fix this?, she asked. Twenty minutes and 63 millimeters of plastic filament later, my purchase of an Orion Delta 3D printer was 100% validated. The accent on the print bed. The accent installed. With the temple opened.…

  • Quick and Dirty Command Line PHP

    I do 99% of my programming in PHP, and when I’m on the command line, I would rather use the PHP functions I know than look up the Bash functions I don’t, so I wrote this PHP script and saved it in my $PATH as an executable file named p. #!/usr/bin/env php <?php var_dump( call_user_func_array(…

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