Biomechanics and Catapults

Last week I had a blast teaching 13 students from the Field Museum’s Digital Learning Department the basics of the 3D modeling program SketchUp. With the help of the Museum’s Fabrication Department and their two ShopBots, the students began designing and modeling catapults after only a couple hours of training.

 

Creating catapults is part of a two week summer program about Biomechanics from the Machine Inside Exhibit that is currently at the Field Museum. I had the chance to take a look at the exhibit before the class began, and it’s great! One of the best I’ve seen. It combines both physics and biology and has some fantastic examples of biomimicry. Biiomimicry is also part of our curriculum at DukeTIP . More on that coming soon.

           The catapults are being cut using a CNC mill this week and will be launched this Friday. You can check on their progress on their Facebook page or their WordPress page. For launch day, the students will continue to use their new SkecthUp skills to create 3D printed projectiles.

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3Doodler’s Total Domination

I felt like Ralphie’s dad when he finally received his “Major Award” when I finally got my 3Doodler in December. It was like “The soft glow of 3D Printing bliss gleaming in the palm of my hands!”
 

So the first thing I made was a Santa hat for my FoldableMe, also a great Kickstarter project. Ok, really the first thing I made was those squiggly blobs in the photo….

Once I got the hang of using the 3Doodler I wanted to put it to the ultimate test: the very first ever 3D Printer Cage Match held at Chicago’s Beauty Bar. I had missed the deadline for entry so I entered under the radar. The battle took place in a very low lit room with most of the light being provided by a disco ball. The challenge was to 3D print a siege weapon to then fire marshmallows at the slower competitors trying to build their weapons. The odds were stacked against myself and the 3Doodler. We were up against formidable odds: a SeeMeCnc Orion and Rostock Max, Rep Rap, Ord Bot, UP! Plus 2, and even a Shapeoko mill.

    

But the competition didn’t even stand a chance. Little did they know I now had the most portable, easiest setup, fastest warm up times, and fastest design to construction times of any 3D printer on the market. Also the cheapest with no 3D modeling skills required!

 

With the release of the latest Make: Ultimate Guide to 3D Printing and all of the new machines and products coming out at CES for 3D Printing, don’t count out the little guy the 3Doodler! It really provides the fastest way to go from idea to physical object, even though it might not be the prettiest object.

Download the stencil for the Desktop Catapult here. It will also be available on The 3Doodler web page too, where you can find a lot of other great designs. #Whatwillyoucreate?

Thank you to Simpleswitchlabs, SeeMeCNC, Inventables, and Beauty Bar

Paper Archiecture

Using the Flattery SketchUp Plugin I created a fordable model created out of 5 sheets of paper. You can cut them out using an old school method of a razor blade or you can cut them faster with a laser cutter. So from 3D to 2D and back to 3D!

    

Thanks to everyone who voted for this project in the past!

3D Scan Your Face!

Here is a quick tutorial and setup for scanning with the Xbox Kinect. Yes that is the video game system, a toy!  So for less than a $100 you can now scan your friends and anything else your heart desires.

First you need an Microsoft Xbox Kinect with USB adapter. You can buy one anywhere the Kinect purchased by it self comes with the USB adapter you can find plenty of used or refurbished ones on the market.

Next you will need a list of programs and installs to actually make the 3D scanning possible. Here it goes!

Kinect Software you will need to download and install 2 programs from here. Free

KinectRuntime and KinectSDK

The actual scanning software is ReconstructMe! Free

All of the rest of the programs are needed for post preduction of tghe actual scans for 3D printing.

MeshLab is for converting the original scan file from a .ply file to an .stl file. Free

The final program is used for cleanup of of the model for 3D printing. Netfabb can do basic trim and fill of any holes that may have occurred during the scan. Making the model “water tight” for 3D printing. Free

My head is downloadable at http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:21862 Thanks to Mike Moceri!

Also to make scanning a little easier print out a handle at http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:18125

Urban Invaders, coming to an empty lot near you!

Check out Urban Invaders!  Click here!

Happy Holidays!

Here are a few things that we were working on over the holidays.

Stocking holders created at MSI Chicago, Fab Lab for DS26. Laser cut acrylic.

Recyclable wrapping paper, thanks RedEye! It’s all about the details.

And a paper craft star.  Thanks Unfold Plugin.

X-men Knuckle Bump for X-mas!

Collect all three, before the end of the year.  A great last minute, FREE, X-mas gift for all.  They look great on the desk, on the Christmas tree, in a stocking, or helping out with holding the new phone you got for X-mas. Have fun folding and have a great holiday.  Princess, X-men, and Zombie.

Be careful you might poke your eye out!

Only for fun, any reproduction rights or copyrights belong to rzfolio.com & Robert Zylstra. See post below for ideas and finished Knuckle Bump.

Get your Zombie Knuckle Bump!

Here is a free downloadable image of Zombie Knuckle Bump.  It will be downloadable till Halloween.  Print on 40lb paper and have fun creating your own Zombie Knuckle Bump.  Don’t knuckle bump to much though, fingers have been known to fall off.  Send me pictures of what your Zombies Hands are up to.  Get them while they are slow!

Only for fun, any reproduction rights or copyrights belong to rzfolio.com & Robert Zylstra. See post below for ideas and finished Knuckle Bump.

Paper Art Gallery! Need Votes!

Please VOTE for my entry!  I designed and built this entire project in two days and I am excited about it.  I only found out about the competition two days ago.  I only have pretty much one day to collect a ton of votes.  I thank you in advance!  VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!

Click on the image to see the final project and please VOTE.  Thank You!

A blog post later on this project, hopefully with some good news with your help.

Knuckle Bump

Here is a sneak peek of a new small project that I am working on, a new hobby that I have picked up recently. Some people call it paper craft or paper toys?

Knuckle Bump! : Zombie

He can hold on to your stuff while you’re busy doing something else.  He will let you paint his nails or give him some ink.  He can also give you a knuckle bump whenever you need one.