Things we Make: Altgeld Hall

In recent months, our Lab has received lots of requests to make things for various units across our campus. Most recently, the Illinois Geometry Lab asked us to print 20 copies (Orange & Blue) of Altgeld Hall. This is one of the most iconic buildings on our campus. If you would like your own copy of Altgeld Hall, just stop by our lab and we can print one for you! If you have models of other buildings that you would like to print, we'd love to add them to our collection as well.

Make your own Christmas Gifts!

Christmas is the season of giving. The things that we give to our friends and family during the holiday season are typically bought in a store and manufactured in a distant land. 3D Printing disrupts this pattern by empowering individuals to make (rather than buy) gifts. There is no need to go to a store since the manufacturing can now be done on your desktop!

As an example of this self-manufactured gifts, one of our Makers printed this giant Lego figurine (designed by Skimbal) for his son. This figurine is composed of seven different parts, which are printed in blue, red and yellow. Just like a real Lego, the head, hands, and legs have full range of motion and can be disassembled. The finished product is shown inside one of the MakerLab's Replicator 2 printers to add a dramatic background!

If you had a 3D printer, what would you make as a gift? If you don't own a 3D printer, no problem. You can stop by and use one of ours. The MakerLab is currently closed for the Holidays but will reopen on Tuesday, January 21.

"Make" it a Merry Christmas by Making Ornaments at the Lab

Come by the lab and make some programmable LED lit ornaments and pick up the block I ornaments to show your Illini spirit this christmas . Or you can pick any ornament from this list and make away merrily Tuesday, December 17, from 2:00 to 6:30 is the last chance to make ornaments before we close for winter break.

A limited number of Block I ornaments(orange color) are pre-printed and available to purchase for $1 each. if you need significant quantities, drop us a line at UIMakerLab AT illinois DOT edu, , so that we can have them ready for you tomorrow.

Mark Rivera gets Scanned & Printed

Last Friday, WAND (Decatur, IL) news reporter, Mark Rivera stopped by the MakerLab to learn about 3D printing. During his visit Mark was scanned using our new Sense handheld 3D scanner (made by 3D Systems). Here is a photo of Mark with his digital image on the screens in the background.

After the scan was complete, we sliced it using MakerWare and then printed it out on one of our MakerBot 3D printers. Here is a photo of the completed print.

We then sent Mark his "Mini-Me." Here is a photo of Mark and his 3D printed figurine taken in the WAND news office. This photo is also shown on his Facebook account, in case you would like to send Mark a comment.

Mark's story about his visit to our Lab will be airing on Thursday morning (December 12) between 6:30 and 7:00am on WAND TV (Channel 17, NBC). So please tune in!

Things we Make: Thor's Hammer

Thor: The Dark World, is a current box office smash and a favorite film for many in our Lab. Thus, in anticipation of its release, we printed our very own Mjölnir (Thor's Hammer). This hammer was designed by Skimbal and downloaded from Thingiverse.

This is a two-part print. The head of the hammer was printed using silver PLA and took over 17 hours!

The shaft of the hammer was printed on another machine, which was loaded with brown PLA. This print took about 6 hours.

Once both prints were completed, all that was left was to slide the shaft into the head. and presto, we have a hammer!

If you would like your very own Thor's hammer, just stop by the MakerLab. We are open Monday to Friday.

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3D Printed Wooden Objects!

One of the questions that visitors to our Lab often ask is: "What types of materials can be 3D printed?" Most are surprised to hear that 3D printers can print a wide range of materials, including plastics, metals, ceramics, paper, food, and even biomaterials. However, most desktop 3D printers have been traditionally limited to various types of thermoplastics. For example, the MakerBot Replicator 2 printers used in our Lab mainly make objects out of PLA, which is a corn-based polymer. Although this material can be used to print a variety of both fun and useful objects, an expanded array of materials are in the process of development. We have begun to experiment with new materials. For example, we recently acquired a wood-based polymer called Laywoo from Inventables. This new material is fed through our printers just like plastic but produces objects that look like they were carved from wood! The photos below show a spool of this material and a wooden gnome that was printed from this material.

If you would like to print something out of wood (or plastic), stop by our Lab!