Film & Filament night (Thursday, December 12)

On Thursday, December 12 (from 6pm to 9pm), the MakerLab will host its first Film & Filament night. We will be showing National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation on our big 70 inch HDTV and designing and printing objects linked to the movie's theme, such as Santa figurines and holiday ornaments. This is a totally free event and open to everyone on campus(only 20 spots, First come, first served) . We will also be providing free food. So please stop by for some pizza, popcorn, and plastic! Share the news

Ping Fu visits the MakerLab

Ping Fu, Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer at 3D Systems and a former researcher at the University of Illinois, recently visited the MakerLab. She was quite intrigued to hear about a 3D printing lab in a Business School. She brought along some examples of amazing 3D printed objects, such as a pink scarf that retains body heat and a customized multi-colored bracelet. She gave some valuable advice to our Guru's Ana and Ryan, and challenged us to look beyond the technology behind 3D printing which is increasingly becoming commoditized. Instead, she asked us to focus on helping students develop business models that are scalable. As it turns out, we are working on exactly that, by offering our new "Making Things" class next spring, where students will acquire the skills to create and market 3D printed objects. Here are some pictures of her visit.

MakerLab Featured in USA Today

The MakerLab was recently featured in a story in USA Today titled, "Universities Create 3D Printing Spaces but at Unequal Paces." This story identified the University of Illinois as a leader in the growing movement to establish 3D printing spaces on college campuses. As noted in this story, 3D printing provides a unique and valuable learning experience for college students and is quickly becoming an important factor in prospective students' search for the right college to attend. According to the story's author, Nenad Tadic, who is currently a student at Emory University, "Schools that don't offer the latest in 3D printing advancement — could be dismissed by prospective college students and parents." In addition to providing students access to a dozen 3D printers and two 3D scanners, the MakerLab also offers a number of educational initiatives, ranging from short tutorials on various 3D modeling software programs to a full semester class (Making Things) in which teams of students conceptualize, design, prototype, manufacture, and market a 3D printed object. Thus, the MakerLab is yet one more reason for prospective students to select the University of Illinois for their college education.

Join the Maker movement at Illinois. Subscribe to our blog RSS feed to be the first to hear about events, new tutorials, and other exciting news from the MakerLab.  Or Like our Facebook page to stay connected and follow us on Twitter.

Free Print Wednesdays

As a service focused towards makers who are new to the world of 3D printing, we are happy to announce Free Print Wednesdays!

Every Wednesday from 11 am to 1 pm, all prints (one hour or less) in the MakerLab are free of charge! In less than an hour you could print lots of cool and useful things such as one wrench, two iPhone cases, or three whistles.

We look forward to seeing you in the Lab on Wednesdays (or any other weekday)!

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.

Join the Maker movement at Illinois. Subscribe to our blog RSS feed to be the first to hear about events, new tutorials, and other exciting news from the MakerLab.  Or Like our Facebook page to stay connected and follow us on Twitter.

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!