Rather than spend time printing springs for a project, I made this little mold to make them out of raw 3mm PLA filament. It measures 3/4" by 3" tall. Since there are no shear planes in this twisted filament, the springs it creates will be a lot tougher than anything printed.

I think this concept could be used to produce torsion springs as well as conical compression springs with different molds.

If you wrapped the filament around a dowel with the sides of the filament touching, you could make an extension spring instead of a compression spring.

Designed these for our #geekwedding. Three sided edge lit table centerpieces and matching cake topper design. We used a Silhouette Cameo to score the design onto the plastic sheet. More details at: billporter.info/?p=2153.

This is a prototype for a sensor that is intended to measure the width of plastic filament in real time as it goes into a 3d printing extruder. It is a proof of concept. The idea is that with a real-time width measurement the 3D printer could compensate the extruded flow for changes in filament width.

Prototype #2 is in progress, see thingiverse.com/thing:89044

Here are all the 3D printed parts for the RepRapPro Ltd version of Mendel. This is a three-head machine, so it will do colour and multi-material printing. But if you only want one colour, just leave off two extruders and drives, and the slave controller electronics...

Hey everbody,

Wanted to show you a little project I've been working on for some time - gcode.ws
As you might've guessed by the topic name - it's a GCode visualizer. And I guess at that point most of you are asking why the hell anyone would write another one.

Well, mainly because I haven't found a single one that would comply with my humble list of requirements. I mean, most of them allows me to.. well.. visualize GCode file and nothing else. But when I open gcode - it's not for my estetical pleasure, it's to check that there are no problems and to see effects that recent slicer configuration changes done or for any other of several reasons. And the ones I've seen so far doesn't allow me to do that stuff effectively.
So I decided to write one myself.

Feature list:
1) Visualize GCode in 2D, layer by layer
1.1) Show retracts and restarts
1.2) Show print/move/retract speeds
1.3) Display only part of layer/animate squence of layer printing
2) Analyze GCode
2.1) Print time, amount of plastic used, layer height, etc. for whole file and for single layer
2.2) Reference visualized part to GCode file (i.e. select a certain part of 2d visalization, switch to GCode view - it will highlight list of lines responsible for visualized piece)
3) Multiplatform, available online (but works offline too), works locally (doesn't upload you gcode anywhere or download anything but application itself)
4) 3D visualization (I don't know what for, it's dull and useless.. need to rewrite it to be like in repetier host)
5) And yeah, it's slow, memory hungry and only supports modern browsers like chrome and ff of latests versions (maybe safari 6 and ie10, haven't checked)
6) Totaly open source so you can use it as you like )
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Update 27 Nov 2012:
Lots of bug fixes, support for DC extruders (M101/M103), order of magnitude improvement in loading time for files with lots of Z movements (like Z-lifts)
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Update 28 January 2013
Lots of bugfixes. Support for upper layer "shadowing" and setting extrusion visual thickness.
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Update: spring 2013
Lots of things have changes. You can now use color differentiation based on flow rate, not speed. You can enable "extrusion width" emulation to see how well your infill should look. There is a highly experimental feature "error analysis" that is available at gcode.ws/?new
And it's migrated to another domain long time ago =)

What we call a G-clamp in these parts but some call a C-clamp for some inexplicable reason.
Originally intended as another camera clamp but looks too multipurpose for just that so I have listed it separately with two versions - with and without the utility lug on the side.
It is quite a complex shape for printing but came out cleanly so must have got something right :)

This is a lab jack, which is a height adjustable platform ideal for mounting optomechanical sub-assemblies, which require height adjustment.

This component is part of the open-source optics project, whose goal is to radically reduce the cost of scientific optical hardware: appropedia.org/Open_source_optics by the Michigan Tech's Open Sustainability Technology Research Group. mse.mtu.edu/MOST

This is part of a larger project to reduce the cost of scientific equipment using open-source hardware. Read more: mtu.academia.edu/JoshuaPearce/Papers/1935580/Building_Research_Equipment_with_Free_Open-Source_Hardware

In short, a fully printable, fully working padlock with a detachable shackle.

And no, this is not a joke lock, this has an actual working five-lever tumbler mechanism and only opens with the correct key (or by lockpicking).

See how it works: youtu.be/yzBI0HB2o-I

I wanted to implement a lock mechanism which is fully printable and relatively secure. The en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lever_tumbler_lock seemed like the best bet.

See it in action: youtu.be/Fzuhta2IQZ4

The model has three tumblers with 6 bitting positions for each. It's keyed [0, 3, 5].

Note! The derived Fully Printable Padlock thingiverse.com/thing:27205 contains an improved version of this mechanism.

Single walled low res hi quality cup, printed is 17min 12 sec...!

see also facebook.com/europerminutedesign

This is a set of herringbone gears using the SCAD Script from Triffid Hunter, but with settings for smaller Huxley (eMaker / RepRap Pro) extruders that use M6 hobbed bolts and a Nema14 motor

Enjoy perfect printing with Huxley.

Made for Day 2 of 30 days of Creativity #30DoC - 30daysofcreativity.com/

More on my blog - richrap.blogspot.com

Yet another one of these things to hold one end of the Y-axis belt for Prusa Mendel. It is designed to have a low profile and does not bend the belt.

This guide is for Windows Users.

I am growing to love OpenSCAD as a creative tool for 3D design but I do find that it's text editor lacks many of the basic features that I appreciate when writing code... Namely:

Auto-Completion
Syntax Highlighting
Collapsible Outline levels
Line Numbering
Automatic Tabbing
Search and Replace
Block Tabbing using the tab key.

I was pleased to discover however that you don't need to put up with the standard text editor. There is a feature that allows you to conveniently use the text editor of your choice with OpenSCAD. My editor of choice is Notepad++ a fast well featured open source text editor. You can download it from notepad-plus-plus.org/

Notepad++ supports many different programming languages but not unfortunately OpenSCAD. It does however have the facility that allows you to create your own language file which I have included here.

This is definitely a work in progress as I have had to make a few compromises due to the limitations of Notepad++'s language editor. I dare say other more experienced coders opinions will differ as to how best to syntax code the OpenSCAD language.

I am currently working on adding auto-complete functionality to notepad++ as we speak. I have included a working though not complete file called openscad_removethisbitandcopy.xml. Currently most if not all functions will auto-complete, what is going to take me longer is adding call-tips to all the functions which would be nice though is not critical.

**** Edits *****
13/5/2012 Added extension type to openscad.xml so that Notepad++ will now automatically detect language when .scad files are opened. Thankyou CrazyJaw, saved me some time there.

This is a replacement for the RepRapPro Huxley "first print" power socket bracket. This fits on the opposite side of the Huxley. A small rocker switch fits in the top of the bracket and lines up with one of the legs on the power socket.

This is a Legacy version. For the latest one see here:

thingiverse.com/thing:50730

Here are all the 3D printed parts for the first RepRapPro Ltd version of Mendel. This is a three-head machine, so it will do colour and multi-material printing.

This is a parametric set of lens-gears for a follow focus.
Compatible with industry standard follow focus systems.
(Yes, these things cost an arm and a leg in shops.)

pitch: 0.8
#tooth: 97
all gears have the same outer but different inner diameters.
(You you need not adjust your follow focus when switching lenses.)

All gears have their nominal inner diameter labeled onto them in 3d letters.

60mm = 56-60mm
62mm = 59-62mm
65mm = 62-65mm
68mm = 64-70mm
70mm = 67-70mm

example lens-sizes for a few DSLR lenses:
Name ....................... lens gear size (filter size)

Panasonic 14-42 ............ 60mm
Canon FD 50mm f1.2 (nicht L) 62mm (52mm)
Canon FD 50mm f1.2L ........ 65mm (55mm)
Canon FD 35-70 f3.5-4.5 .... 62,5mm (52mm)
Sun FD 135mm f2.5 .......... 66,5mm (58mm)
Tamron FD 28mm f2.5 ........ 60mm (67mm)
Tamron SP 28-80mm f3.5-4.2 . 68mm (67mm)
Tamron SP 60-300mm f3.8-5.4 68mm (62mm)
RMC Tokina 70-210mm f3.5 ... 70mm (62mm)

Blog post:
marcuswolschon.blogspot.com/2011/07/parametric-lens-gear-set.html

Photos:
picasaweb.google.com/Marcus.Wolschon/201105_201106_geared_follow_focus?feat=directlink

Shapeways
shapeways.com/shops/marcuswolschon
(for the few people here without a 3d printer)

License is CC-BY-NC-SA
So you may make one yourself and improve the design but not sell the design or made parts and always give attribution.

Better Living with MakerBot, Episode 2
You probably all know this situation:
You're supposed to ref a soccer game in less than 1/2 an hour and you cannot find your whistle. You're screwed!

But from now on you're out of trouble: Fire up your trusty MakerBot and print a new whistle in 26 minutes!

This object prints the pea right inside the whistle. Since the pea is connected to the rest of the object only at one tiny point, it's quite easy to break it loose after printing with a small screw driver or tweezers.

I probably pushing luck a little bit with bridging the top layer. So far I printed the whistle twice without problems.

As always, I added the object as .obj file (wavefront), which can be imported into AOI and Blender.

The gcode file is the one I used to print the whistle on the image. The gcode file contains an experimental raft with additional "blobs" on the second (interface) layer.
You might want to generate your own gcode file with skeinforge settings, tested with your MakerBot. Be sure to setup Skeinforge to create an (almost) watertight object, since the whistle won't whistle if it's full of holes...

[Update]
I added a second version of the whistle. "Whistle_v2" is an attempt to fine tune the object a little bit. My brother (he's a pipe organ builder) gave me some tips how to optimize the whistles mouth. Whistle v2 should start whistle with less airflow than v1 and thus be (somewhat) less loud. I also downsized the pea a little bit and changed the shape of the lanyard loop.

Whistle v1 is still available for reference and also since it's more "tested"...

Since you blow the whistle with your mouth, be aware of possible problems concerning "food safety" of printed plastic. See the blog post "For foodies out there" ( blog.thingiverse.com/2009/09/13/for-foodies-out-there/ ) for more information.