According to the Chinese horoscope 2012 is the year of the Dragon.

In honor of that we have scanned a bronze Dragon statue... and thought we share it with you!

Have fun printing it!

This tool is useful for marking the center of a square, cylinder and rectancular objects

This Mk7 replacement features a spring-tensioned, quick-release 623 bearing idler, and shouldn't interfere with dualstrusion. The back is also open to make it easy to clean the teeth of the drive gear.

I don't have an actual Mk7, but it seems like it will work from my test assembly with parts I had lying around, including a Mk5 gear with the wrong size hole for the stepper and 3mm filament.

Clearance on the head of the idler screw might be a problem. If so, the screw may have to be replaced with some other type of 3mm shaft. A piece of 3mm filament should work.

This thing will hold a laser module pointed in a certain direction.

I use two of them mounted on adjacent sides of my 3D printer, to ensure that the build platform is level. I first take the platform to the home position (the one it assumes while it waits for the extruder to heat up). Then I move both lasers so that they meet exactly at the platform's corner, and it's only one bright dot, not two. Then I move the platform around. If it's level, I see only a single dot all the time.

I always thought the original looked like a face. So I made it into a face in C4D and buttoned it back up with Netfabb Cloud Services.

This is an idler pulley for using Synchromesh Cable from SDP/SI ( sdp-si.com/eStore/PartDetail.asp?Opener=Group&PartID=84751&GroupID=768 ) in place of belts for linear motion on RepRap style printers. You can see a video of my Prusa printing with these cables here:

youtu.be/0GMzYMI6rf8

Using this cable and non-printed pulleys gives zero backlash for me and is a nice upgrade from T5 or XL belts. It's also fairly cheap and very lightweight.

Paste extruder based on the Moineau pump principle.

The pump geometry is based on thingiverse.com/thing:7958

Should work as a plug-in replacement for a hot plastic extruder in a 3D printer. However, I have NOT used this to actually print anything. I'm just publishing it in case someone else wants to try it out. (I think it's ready for printing a very small pizza without toppings, but beyond that I cannot say.)

Almost everything is parametrized and adjustable from the SCAD file. However, the resulting design should be evaluated to see if it is still sane after adjustment, since not all of the features are automatically calculated. Particularly the flange and driveshaft diameters must be adjusted by hand to match the other measurements.

See it in action: youtu.be/OHQiKuQvuEU

Note: obviously it is impossible to build an object from material that flows on it's own - the object would not hold it's shape. So in practice the material has to either be pulled into the extruder by a negative pressure (impossible with PLA printed pump parts) or pushed into the extruder by a positive pressure. In either case the motor axle has to be sealed, or it would either relieve the negative pressure or allow the material to flow up and out from the inlet block.

This is a work in progress. the goal is to build tslot and accessories.

Recently we discoverd a really nice technique that makes wood flexible. This is so cool we want to share it with you!

We designed wooden booklets that use this feature. They’re made from a beautiful birch plywood and are finished with a clear varnish. The hard wooden cover can be opened fully to the back side for comfortable holding. A tiny clamp inside, made from the same material, holds a standard A7 writing block.

The booklets come in a horizontal and vertical version.
Actually they not only look cool, it shows exactly what we think digital production is all about. By using manufacturing techniques like this it is possible to make all product features in a single production step and in one material. This cuts down production effort and logistics and makes for a beautifully simple product. Because a laser cutter is a fairly common tool products like this could be manufactured locally, all over the world. By working from sheet materials the products can also be flat-packed, saving even more resources and costs on shipping.

For us this means we can make everything in-house and we don’t need to produce in big quantities to make it affordable. This is really the power of digital manufacturing and personal fabrication.

snijlab.nl

A HBP made from stripboard. The only trick is finding a supplier of large enough stripboard. I had to try it out before I sent boards out as prizes for the contest. thingiverse.com/thing:11497. Wouldn't be much of a prize if it didn't work. :) The PDF below is just my pathetic attempt to draw the solder connections I used to wire up the board.

Update: Made some measurements to help the designers out there. With three strips ganged together as in the PDF soldered in a long series trace across two stripboards the current at 12V is 10 amps cold and 8.2 amps hot. That gives you 120 Watts cold and 98 watts hot. So that means that the total resistance cold is 1.2 ohms, and individual strips have a resistance of 0.13 ohms. To calc. that I had to assume that the two wide buss strips were equivalent to 3 ganged central strips. So 0.13 per strip and about .04 ohms for each of the two wide strips on the outside.

So 4 ganged together should give about 0.13/4 * 9 = .3 ohms + 2*0.04 = .38 ohms per board or .38*2 = .76 ohms for a prusa bed giving 16 amps cold and 189 watts at 12V.

5 ganged together would be .13/5*7 = .182 ohms +2*.04 = .262 per board and .52 ohms total for the heated bed. Giving 23 amps at 12 V and 275 watts.

6 ganged might be "OK" for 5V at about .3 ohm and 17 amps (5V) but it might not get that hot at only 85 watts. (I'm thinking at 5 or 6 you will probably want to think about pairing the bus strips on the sides with a couple normal strips to keep the heat even across the board.

7 ganged would probably work pretty well at 5V at about .22 ohms 23 amps and 115 watts. (same here use 2 or 3 strips ganged with the wide bus on the side. )

Well, that was quite an extrapolation so don't trust the numbers too much way up in the 5,6,7 gang calculations.

Please offer any suggestions to simplifying the files if needed.

More of the polar zonohedra series.

Many bracelets exist already here on thingiverse (one of my favorites is MakeALot's: thingiverse.com/thing:7354), but most are rigid shapes. This design bends smoothly around the wrist and clasps in a secure, yet smooth and unobtrusive way. The intent is also to show how any bas relief design can be turned into a unique flexible bracelet. The pattern shown here is simply a pleasing combination of sinusoids.

There are several levels of personalization available, depending on how much effort you want to put in. The easiest is to scale the file to fit your wrist (the current design has a circumference of 17.1cm with two pieces). Any number can be joined to form a larger circle. By adding M1 commands to the Gcode you can switch colors at different heights to highlight certain features (as shown). And finally, you can modify the OpenSCAD file to turn your own design into a segmented, flexible bracelet.

This OpenSCAD script will generate a plain wedding band style ring.
Most parameters are user selectable such as the ring profile shapes.
This would be ideal as the basis for a wedding ring...

Potentially very useful when combined with the following:
Ring metal cost calculator thingiverse.com/thing:12589
Ring Size System Coversion thingiverse.com/thing:12689
for creating and costing a custom wedding band or other such tomfoolery.

Todo:
implement engraving

Warning:
Let the right one in

Changes from previous versions:
1.2
- Made higher resolution shapes by increasing rotate extrude $fn from 50 to 100 and shape $fn from 20 to 40
- Implemented half chamfered rectangle
1.1
- Fixed issue whereby rounded rectangle shape CS appeared slightly translated in Y direction
- Fixed issue whereby half ellipse was never shown and normal ellipse was shown twice instead
1.0
- First version based on Ring_band_creation_script_v0.10.scad
- Added more cross sections (cs_half_pill, cs_reverse_hemi_ellipse, cs_reverse_rounded_hemi_ellipse)

Ring profiles available:
pill, ellipse, hemi_ellipse, rounded_hemi_ellipse, rectangle, scallopped_rectangle, rounded_scallopped_rectangle, rounded_rectangle, chamfered_rectangle, half_pill, reverse_hemi_ellipse, reverse_rounded_hemi_ellipse

Designed to be 100% printable.

This is marked as a work in progress because:
It has not been tested with ABS.
The Elastic based spring is untested.
When I printed the one pictured I found some small clearance issues. All of those issues have been fixed.

Video youtube.com/watch?v=qOLgTgvXPc8

The box measures 100mm x 100mm x 100mm

The Spring
youtube.com/watch?v=GhlY8ZkFTvE
The spring shown in the video is "Spring_1.stl" it is printed in PLA with infill turned OFF.

I have also included a few different versions that should work in ABS. They do not work in PLA because they end up breaking when printed thicker than one filament wide.

"Spring_2.stl" is thin walled as to be able to printed with infill turned ON.

"Spring_2.1.stl is similar to Spring_2.stl but skeinforge should do a better job slicing it.

"Spring_2.2.stl is my final attempt to get skeinforge to print this in one continuous thread as opposed to jumping around all over the place.

Vitamin Springs (alternate to printed spring)
If the printable spring seem like to much of a risk you can use one of the following.

Elastic band powered spring. Requires 4 elastic bands.
Included in plates marked "Elastic" as well as in the individual files

Or a metal 50mm (2") outside diameter spring with a length of 80mm (3.25")

File organization
100x100_ABS.zip Includes printing plates for a 100x100mm build surface with "Spring_2.2.stl" as the spring. (three plates)

100x100_Elastic.zip Includes printing plates for a 100x100mm build surface with "Elastic powered spring" as the spring. (three plates)

200x200_ABS_plate.stl Includes all the parts and "Spring_2.2.stl" as the spring on one plate.

200x200_Elastic_plate.stl Includes all the parts and "Elastic powered spring" as the spring on one plate.

200x200_PLA.zip Includes 1 plate containing all the parts except the spring. And "Spring_1.stl" which needs to be printed separately with Infill turned off.

Individual_parts.zip includes all the parts separately.

How it works
The crank handle is connected to a five to one gear reduction that moves a cam to release the lid and let "Jack" pop up after one to five turns of the handle.

Jack
I have not included a Jester for the box as most people will want to choose something personal to them.

The MK7 released and I was like, huh, why get rid of the 3mm filament? I have about 20LBs of the stuff and I want to keep using it. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to do dual extrusion with 3mm filament? The next day, Makerbot put the MK6 pluses on sale. Sometimes fortune smiles...

Here is my take on a Dual MK6 plus extruder.

Here are some salient points:

Nozzle spacing of 20mm (the smaller the spacing, the larger the build space you have left that is covered by both nozzles)
Bearing idler wheels
Fits through the upper opening on the cupcake
No springs needed for tensioning
No screw plunger to have release on you in the middle of a print.

NOTE:
You will need to drill a new metal retainer plate.

Video is up: flickr.com/photos/48982649@N07/6273051824/ You too can hear me sound like a dork.

NEXT STEPS:

Until I get my second EC I can't see what is going on with temperature migration across the heads, there is insulation between them but I'm not sure. The reason I care is because PVA has a lower melt temp than ABS.

Backlash is an ugly truth. The Lash module in Skeinforge produces Gcode that's even uglier. It's default settings are more likely to confuse you than correct your print. But breaking backlash down, one axis at a time can start to teach you more about your printer's capabilities.

The Lash module might not be something you employ all the time, but understanding how you can use it to improve a print is certainly worth knowing.

This is my submission to the MakerBot Robot Mascot Challenge!

A few comments:

Although I am no stranger to 3D modeling, this is my very first model intended to be 3D printed. I do not own a 3D printer of any sort and I have never 3D printed anything. That being said, I tried my best to research good design practices for FDM printing and I sure hope I did all-right!

Anyhoo, this little guy is customizable by having different parts printed in different colors. Also, he was designed to be able to be personalized by the producer being able to place his or her own model in the body to add personal flair. The feet articulate as do the head, arms and claws. Everything should snap together. The spool on his back is Mr. Maker's fuel supply! Take some 1.75mm filament and wind it on the spool (you may have to warm it to be more pliant) then thread the end through the top of his head.

Now he's ready to go!

I designed this in about 10 hours with Autodesk Inventor 2012.

(Many thanks to "techknight" for the advice on re-orienting the models in ReplicatorG!)

Also, I would LOVE to know how well this prints. I tried very hard to be mindful of the vertical slopes and tolerances but this being my first design for print, I don't really know for sure. If anybody prints this, I would GREATLY appreciate it if you could explain any issues. THANKS! :)

UPDATE!
I'm working on the Mark II version as well as an Experimental Mark III body that acts as a stylish enclosure for the Gen 4 electronics guts. I don't own the parts so it's a lot of guesswork at the moment...Along with a new segmented head so it can be wired up with lights or cameras or whatever you can fit in there! (The FOO and BAR lights on the console for example!)

The Mark II I'll be uploading soon. Unfortunately not soon enough for the contest, but it was always my goal to create a neat little gizmo that was hackable and modular for ultimate customization!

More to come!

Update: Name Change! As a nod to robotic lore, this little guy will now be known as R. Maker!

This is a model for Makerbot's new experimental dualextrusion. It was designed by Elliot Cohen (ecohen) , Jon Monaghan (JonMonaghan), and Michael Curry (skimbal). It is a two color world in fabulous 3D! Once equipped with a Thingomatic armed with experimental Dual MK7s one can print the earth in two different colors.

My kids love the octopus, and kept asking for a starfish. This did the trick! I drew this in sketchup freehand. It took quite some time to get the surface right. Looks very topographic once printed. A great flat bottomed animal for the Makerbot. Perhaps a flounder is next up :)

Update: This prints really well if you scale it up as well, I've printed it so that it just fits on the build platform, takes a bit longer, but comes out great. Sort of neat that the ends of the feet tend to curl up a little due to the heating/cooling of the plastic.

Was very odd but overnight these things crawled up on a few rocks I'd left on the table...

Update 10/15/2011: if your original needs a companion, check out Squiggly version.

Spiral bevel gears (conical, helical), proof of concept

Look at :
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiral_bevel_gear
for some theory.
Actually my naming of these files is wrong, the gears ar not hypoid !
This means that the rotational axes of these two gears do cross through one point in space.

Gcode generated with netfabb-Ultimaker edition, Martijn's build-style, 0.15mm layer height.
Printed on my (standard) Ultimaker, speed 250%, fan on (great machine !)

NB: the teeth were decreased in size somewhat to account for the fact that Ultimaker/netfabb produces parts that are almost exactly 0.3mm too big in x- and y-direction (z-direction is fine). Simply scaling the parts up or down (too much) would render the teeth too small or too big, respectively.

NB 2: due to the nature of the ProE module I used the default Csys got rotated by the same angle that the teeth are pivoted, 45°. Rotate the STL (back) by the same angle and you should be fine.

For folks who like hooping, this is a generic hula hoop model.

We've used it to make earrings, bracelets, and even finger hoops, which can be a lot of fun!

This is a set of 17 rings from size 0 to 16. Each has the size of the ring inscribed into the ring. Print it yourself or get it printed for as low as $19.04 here shpws.me/3hka

added small which is 106x102mm platform which should be printable on smaller platforms.

Español
Bueno damas y caballeros, como ven esto es un alicate de punta, la idea es ser útil para trabajos de precisión, que no requiere mucha fuerza.

English
Well ladies and gentlemen, like you see this are a nose pliers, the idea is to be usefull for precision works, that doesn't require much force.

Theo Jansen warns us that the Strandbeests reproduce by seducing people to create them. I'm a victim, and this may be contagious.

abs jaw plate replacement for a bench vise

Recently on the OpenScad discussion alias, I was trying to explain how I could do my own lighting calculations if given half a chance. Altough it's not really a possibility for the current OpenScad renderer, I got to thinking. Even though I can't print in multiple colors (yet), I can certainly liven up my OpenScad renderings a bit.

This thing is a set of imaging routines for OpenScad.

The general principle is fairly straight forward. First you need an image to be converted to a format that OpenScad can understand. In the included .zip file, there is such an executable. Just run:
ImageConverter.exe imagename > name.scad

This will generate something that looks like:
imagename_triplets_array = [0,0,0, 1,2,3, 255,255,255];
imagename = image(width, height, imagename_triplets_array)

There is a new function here: image() which takes parameters necessary to just package up some stuff for later usage in functions.

The crux of the routines is actually: image_getpixel(img, x,y)

This will return a color value at that point in the image. Nice and handy.

But, when you're using images of varying sizes, you don't use pixel coordinates directly, you use normalized values (between 0..1)

So, there is another routine: image_gettexel(image, u, v)

In this case, the 'u' and 'v' values range from 0..1

That's handy when you're displaying on a bezier surface for example, or a sphere, or anything else that's parametrically defined. You just need to supply the parametric values, and when you go to draw a particular facet, change the color for that facet, and voila!! You've got texture mapping.

Just for kicks, there is a luminance() function. What good is that? Well, that allows you to turn an rgb value into a single grayscale value. If you can do that, then you can't be that far away from having a height map generated out of an image.

Put it all together and you can take a picture of yourself, convert to OpenScad form, generate a height map, create a mesh that matches the height field (need to do some work for that one), and print out a 3D relief of your face!! Poor man's scan/print if you will.

At any rate, it's not complete, and you'll find that you use images of any significant size, your machine will crawl for literally hours.

But, if you go back and look at the various font libraries, where you're typically generating 'images' that are 16x12 or something small like that, then suddenly life becomes way easy.

If I were into actually contributing to the codebase of OpenScad, rather than just commenting on it, I would suggest that making the array lookups really fast to enable stuff like this without making the machine crawl, would be a very good investment.

UPDATE: 21092011
Added blog entry: williamaadams.wordpress.com/2011/09/21/openscad-texture-mapping/

our 3D printers are now such high resolution we need higher resolution 3D models so we don't see the facets when we print.

Take a Stanford Bunny. Decimate It. Subdivide It. Repeat. Repeat. Export to STL.

You should have almost all the detail but almost none of the visible 3D model facets in your print.

NOTE the before and after screenshots from Blender where you can see how the 3D model improved.

enjoy.

UPDATE 2011-09-18: I uploaded the FLATFOOT versions which should skein a bit easier. choose high res or super high res if you really want to make a big print.

(Note: There's now a better, tapered version: thingiverse.com/thing:12348)

I was ashamed Thingiverse. So ashamed. I presented the Mighty Bottle Opener as the pocket equivalent to Starno's Coin-Op. It wasn't. It isn't. I just wasn't able to find a reliable way to protect the plastic.

It works really well if printed in PLA, but for the vast majority of users it's an annoying chewed-up mess.

WELL NO MORE! After months of self recrimination, I went back to the drawing board, and have come back with a beefier "church key" design.

Two things that make me confident in this design:
1 - I've used it to open several bottles with ease. (Gasp!)
2 - I took the time to make the model fully parametric. If it's not strong enough for you, you can make it 10 inches thick! (not recommended)

Another benefit to the parametric model is that it can be adjusted to fit the coin of your choice. (See the attached image for some of what can be specified. When I say "fully parametric" I mean FULLY)

Mighty Opener: thingiverse.com/thing:9350
Starno's Coin-Op: thingiverse.com/thing:1842

UPDATE: I've added the ability to sexify the opener with a makerbot M. Just set the "UseBadge" flag in the scad. if you'd like to use an M in your own OpenSCAD part, I've broken out the module I used to draw my M into its own thing: thingiverse.com/thing:11105

UPDATE #2: These things make great gifts. With a little tweaking you can print a custom design instead of the M. I've detailed the process here: brettbeauregard.com/blog/2011/09/making-a-custom-bottle-opener/

Superstition

Some hold that when confronted with unfortunate events, or just when these are mentioned or suggested, a person wanting to avoid that fate could resort to the sign of the horns to ward off bad luck. It is a more vulgar equivalent of knocking on wood. Interestingly, superstitious ones can alternatively "touch iron" (tocca ferro) or touch their noses, which are not considered as vulgar alternatives, or (for males) grab their testicles (the left one with the right hand in Argentina, a country very influenced by the Italian culture), which is considered very vulgar, but is perhaps the most commonplace of the three. In Peru it is shown usually by saying contra (against). In Dominican Republic is usually used the expression zafa as a protection against curses commonly known as fukú, as well when a mention is made of someone or something believed to be involved with a curse. All of these gestures are meant to somehow conjure some supernatural power to protect the performer of the gesture. This sign may be used (e.g. in Cuba, Brazil and in Italy) to indicate a man whose wife is unfaithful (probably in the very widespread traditional association of horns with a cuckold), and as with superstitions, gestures to avert harm such as knocking on wood or saying "solavaya" are commonplace.

Such gestures are typically used when a black cat crosses one's path, when seeing a hearse (whether or not it is loaded), or when encountering any situation, object or person believed to bring about bad luck. It was once thought to prevent or distract the effects of the evil eye, that is of intentional or directed curses. Historically the gesture was pointed at people suspected of being witches.

In Italy, pointing the index and little finger at someone is a common curse as well as an accusation of having an unfaithful wife. With fingers down, it is a common apotropaic gesture instead, by which superstitious people seek protection in unlucky situations (something like touching wood). Thus for example the President of the Italian Republic Giovanni Leone shocked the country when, while in Naples during an outbreak of cholera, he shook the hands of patients with one hand while with the other behind his back he made the corna. This act was well documented by the journalists and photographers who were right behind him, a fact that had escaped President Leone's mind in that moment. The gesture was interpreted as especially offensive for the patients.[1] It is much more common in southern Italy, and is typical in the popular culture of Naples, where President Leone was born.[2]

During an European Union meeting in 2002, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi did this gesture during a meeting picture. Asked why, he answered he did it "because it's fun".

European and North American popular culture

Music history and acoustics

Daniel Speer (1636–1707) calls this sign "zwey quehr Finger" and designates it as a measure of the distance between adjacent positions on a tenor trombone. Literally "athwart two fingers" this primitive measure may rank along with the cubit in its antiquity. Michael Praetorius (1571–1621) uses this term in his Syntagma Musicum III to describe the pitch difference between "Choir tone (Chorton)" and "Chamber tone (Kammerton)." To find the difference between Chorton and Kammerton, one must lower the slide on a tenor trombone made in Nürnberg the distance of "zwey quehr Finger" which is one-half step; zwei quer Finger is German for "two across fingers".

Contemporary use by musicians and fans

The 1969 back album cover for Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls on Mercury Records by Chicago-based psychedelic-occult rock band Coven, led by singer Jinx Dawson, pictured Coven band members giving the "sign of the horns" correctly and included a Black Mass poster showing members at a ritual making the sign. Starting in early 1968, Coven concerts always began and ended with Jinx giving the sign on stage. Incidentally, the band also recorded a song called "Black Sabbath" on their 1969 album, and one of the band members is named Oz Osborne, not to be confused with Ozzy Osbourne of Black Sabbath.

On the cover of The Beatles' Yellow Submarine album (1969), the cartoon of John Lennon's right hand is making the sign above Paul McCartney's head. For many fans, this was one of the many "Paul is dead" clues. Some may think it is possible that the cartoonist misrepresented the sign for "I love you", which is very similar and more in keeping with the band's public message and image. However, the 1969 cartoon is based on many photos of John Lennon making the hand sign in 1967. One of these photos of Lennon doing the hand sign appears on the cover of a Beatles single release shortly after, making it the first time the hand sign appears on a rock release.

Beginning in the early 1970s, the horns were known to some as the "P-Funk sign" to fans of Parliament-Funkadelic. It was used by George Clinton and Bootsy Collins as the password to the Mothership,[3] a central element in Parliament's science-fiction mythology, and fans used it in return to show their enthusiasm for the band. Collins is depicted showing the P-Funk sign on the cover of his 1977 album Ahh... The Name Is Bootsy, Baby!

Frank Zappa can be seen making the gesture in the 1977 film Baby Snakes.

Music fans sometimes brandish this sign, often accompanied by headbanging, to signify that they enjoy the music they are listening to, mostly when the music is of the rock or metal genre.

Heavy metal subculture
It also has a variety of meanings in heavy metal subcultures, where it is known by a variety of terms, most commonly maloik, metal sign, horns, Leviathan Horns or metal horns, among others.

A March 31, 1985 article in Circus by Ben Liemer states that Gene Simmons of Kiss was influenced by Blackie Lawless of W.A.S.P. in 1977 after watching Sister perform in Los Angeles. Blackie had come across a hand salute known as the corna in an occult book and had started using it during live performances.

Simmons appears to be making the sign with his left hand on the cover of the 1977 Kiss album Love Gun. Simmons has later claimed—noticeably in the special features segment "Satan's Top 40" in the movie Little Nicky—that he plays his bass with his plectrum in his middle two fingers so when he raises his hand, he automatically draws the horns.

Steven Tyler, during the pre-ride film for Rock 'n' Roller Coaster Starring Aerosmith displays a sign of the horns on his forehead during the movie, along with the line "Wait a minute, I love that idea!"

Ronnie James Dio was known for popularizing the sign of the horns in heavy metal.[4][5] His Italian aunty used it to ward off the evil eye (which is known as malocchio). Dio began using the sign soon after joining (1979) the metal band Black Sabbath. The previous singer in the band, Ozzy Osbourne, was rather well known at using the "peace" sign at concerts, raising the index and middle finger in the form of a V. Dio, in an attempt to connect with the fans, wanted to similarly use a hand gesture. However, not wanting to copy Osbourne, he chose to use the sign his grandmother always made.[6] The horns became famous in metal concerts very soon after Black Sabbath's first tour with Dio. The sign would later be appropriated by heavy metal fans under the name "maloik", a corruption of the original malocchio.

Terry "Geezer" Butler of Black Sabbath can be seen "raising the horns" in a photograph taken in 1971. This would indicate that the "horns" and their association with metal occurred much earlier than either Gene Simmons or Ronnie James Dio suggests. The photograph is included in the CD booklet of the Symptom of the Universe: The Original Black Sabbath 1970–1978 compilation album.

From a 2001 interview with Ronnie James Dio on Metal-Rules.com:

"I want to ask you about something people have asked you about before but will no doubt continue to talk about, and that is the sign created by raising your index and little finger. Some call it the "evil eye." I would like to know if you were the first one to introduce this to the metal world and what this symbol represents to you?"

R.J. Dio – "I doubt very much if I would be the first one who ever did that. That's like saying I invented the wheel, I'm sure someone did that at some other point. I think you'd have to say that I made it fashionable. I used it so much and all the time and it had become my trademark until the Britney Spears audience decided to do it as well. So it kind of lost its meaning with that. But it was...I was in Sabbath at the time. It was symbol that I thought was reflective of what that band was supposed to be all about. It's NOT the devil's sign like we're here with the devil. It's an Italian thing I got from my Grandmother called the "Malocchio". It's to ward off the Evil Eye or to give the Evil Eye, depending on which way you do it. It's just a symbol but it had magical incantations and attitudes to it and I felt it worked very well with Sabbath. So I became very noted for it and then everybody else started to pick up on it and away it went. But I would never say I take credit for being the first to do it. I say because I did it so much that it became the symbol of rock and roll of some kind."[7]

Whatever the derivation may be, the sign eventually came to signify, variously, that the one gesturing is rocking him or herself, is encouraging the recipient of the gesture to rock, and/or that he/she emphatically appreciates the rocking that has already commenced.

Existing most often within the metal subculture is a variation in which both hands are used. All digits, with the exception of the little fingers, are closed and the hands are then brought together; thumb on thumb. This technique is often employed by Kirk Hammett of Metallica, Butch Walker and other musicians. A similar sign can be made by crossing the hands and extending both index fingers.

Another form used by the metal subculture (such as the Brazilian band Angra) is similar to the version depicted above, except that all digits except the index finger are closed and the hands are brought together with thumbs pointing in opposite directions. One form features the forearms crossed, the pinkies interlocked, and both thumbs and index fingers extended (sometimes referred to as the "Super Ozzy").

There is a two-person gesture known as the "rock lock", where a second person makes a hand with the second and third finger extended (rather than the first and fourth), and grabs the first person's metal gesture from the front in an interlocking fashion. The meaning is essentially an affirmation or reply to the original gesture made by the first person, something like a heavy metal high five. Another variation can include the second party forming a traditional "devil horns" sign and rotating it 90 degrees, interlocking at the knuckles.

Angus Young holds both his hands to the sides of his head with index fingers extended to create "Metal Horns".

Politics

A variation of the gesture, linking ring finger and thumb to give the hand the look of a "wolf", was adopted as the symbol of the Turkish nationalist political party Grey Wolves.

Sports

In baseball, the hand gesture is used by players to signal to other players how many outs there are; using this gesture signals that there are two outs. The signal is used because the space between the two fingers makes it easier for players far away to see the two fingers.

The sign has been used in professional wrestling. It was adopted in the early 1990s by Bret Hart in the WWF, with the two extended fingers standing for the initial of his surname. Later on, a variation was used by The Kliq, a backstage group composed of Shawn Michaels, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Sean Waltman and Triple H) adopted a variation of the horns to identify between them. Hall and Nash used the wolf-like variation after they moved to WCW and formed the nWo stable in 1996. WWE performer Edge also began using it prominently with his "Rated-R Superstar" moniker in the mid 2005s.

The sign is also used by some college and high school sports teams, such as the University of Texas and the University of South Florida, fans during athletic competitions. The fingers usually stand for a type of horn such as longhorn or a bull's horn. Students and fans of the NC State Wolfpack use this sign while the thumb, middle and ring finger move up and down like the howling of a wolf.