An Entire 3D Printed City?

Modelers must love 3D printers, especially those with decent resolution that make small plastic parts with fine details.  How about a model of an entire city done with a 3D Printer?
That’s what architectural firm Mitekgruppen did for Stockholm:

A 48 square meter model of Stockholm…
A Stratasys 3D Printer was used to create over 10,000 replica buildings for the model.
Are any of you gentle readers using 3D printers for modeling or architectural work?  This would’ve been awesome back when I was building a big HO train layout.… Read the rest

What If Dyson Made CNC Routers Instead of Vacuum Cleaners?

Here’s a cool CNC Router made by Michael Warren who is the James Dyson Fellow at the Royal College of Art’s InnovationRCA.  It’s a portable CNC Router and his web site is Grow CNC.
Check out the video (can’t go wrong with Johnny Cash on the soundtrack):… Read the rest

Tale of Two Engines: Giant Crankshaft and World’s Smallest V12

Two great videos for machinists and engine lovers.
First, this big brute.  Marine or industrial crankshaft of some kind:

In contrast is this “World’s Smallest V12″:

The creator is a retired Spanish naval machinist.… Read the rest

Desktop Manufacturing is Here With Two Amazing Announcements

First announcement:  Staples will be selling 3D Printers from their website, and soon right in the store.  They’ll be offering the Cube 3D Printer for $1299.

Staples will be selling the Cube 3D Printer for $1299…
Second announcement:  The world’s first completely 3D printed gun was shown.  There are only 2 non-3D printed parts: a nail used as a firing pin and a six ounce piece of steel put into the gun to make it show up on airport metal detectors.
Forbes got the scoop on the Liberator 3D printed gun…
Check out Forbes for more photos and details.… Read the rest

G-Wizard Customer Fox Engineering Builds Custom Fuel Injection Systems for Hot Rodders

I got a nice note from Josh Bentley recently, talking about how he used G-Wizard and his Industrial Hobbies CNC Mill to do some amazing fuel injection work for his company Fox Engineering. Here are some samples:

502 Cubic Inch Big Block Chevy in a Steel Deuce Hot Rod…

Cross Ram Fuel Injection Setup for a Small Block Chevy…

Custom Injection Setup on a Hemi…

Custom Fox Injection on a Lamborghini V12 in a T-Bucket Roadster:  Gotta Be a Wild Ride!
That Lambo V12 in the T-Bucket roadster is a real kick, isn’t it?… Read the rest

Hexapod Robotic CNC Router Walks to the Site of the Work to Be Done

This is a cool little Hexapod robot I came across:

The resolution on the 3D face looks pretty darned good.  I’m imagining combining this sort of technology with sensors that let it precisely locate itself via some optics.  You’d have a ‘bot that you could turn loose to carve large areas with 3D relief carvings, drill holes, extrude plastic ala 3D printing, or whatever the job called for.  It could even run a plasma torch or Mig welding gun for metal projects.  Or, how about an airbrush attachment so it could pain murals and signs?… Read the rest

CNC’ing the World’s Ultimate Pizza Cutter

I’ve recently written that there’s always a market for the very best of any product type and this story from Tormach’s blog is a great example.  Imagine what the world’s ultimate pizza cutter would be and you’ve got to come pretty close to Frankie Flood’s art:

I love the idea of the course he describes where each student makes their own 3D printer.  Check the Tormach article for more information or click on Frankie’s Logo above to go to his web site.… Read the rest

Machining a Titanium AR-15 Lower Receiver on a Hobby Mill

We featured Kingjamez’ video on making an aluminum AR-15 lower receiver on a small hobby mill (Sieg X3) quite a while back.  He used our G-Wizard Feeds and Speeds successfully, and I was tickled to get a note from him recently about his use of G-Wizard for this project:
Just wanted to write and say thanks for GWizard. I’m a hobbiest (you featured my youtube video of my CNC’d AR-15 a couple years ago) and have a tiny CNC Mill, but thanks to GWizard my first efforts at machining 6AL-4V titanium went flawlessly.… Read the rest

CNC Project Ideas: Super Custom CNC Products

Have you ever wanted to own your own CNC Business?
One of the first things you have to figure out is what to sell.  There’s a range of opportunities out there, but typically you want to choose your business strategy so it fits one of three styles:
1.  You’re building the absolute best product of its kind.
2.  You’re building the cheapest product of its kind.
3.  You’re building a product for a particular market niche that #1 and #2 do not serve very well.
I really like going after #1 just because the passion around doing the very best helps drive the marketing and is more fun for me too.  … Read the rest

Custom Aluminum Frame Fixture for Working on the Venerable Colt 1911

I came across this article on the 1911 Forum and it scratches two itches:
-  I’m a major 1911 fan–it’s my favorite handgun to shoot.
-  It’s always a treat to see a machinist go crazy and do something custom that mere mortals don’t have access to.  Fellow machinists: that’s one reason we like to be machinists, is it not?
For the full article, go to the link above.  Meanwhile, here’s a few “teaser” photos:

Milling.  Lotsa coolant swirling around–that’s a good thing…

Shiny fixture:  Cool Beans!

Here’s what it’s good for…

I’ve done a little trigger work on my 1911, but I’d love to build a full custom pistol some time, with all the CNC’d trimmings.… Read the rest

Moedls: An Inexpensive 3D Scanner on Kickstarter

I just signed up for Moedls, which is an inexpensive 3D Scanner project on Kickstarter.  It uses a turntable, a red laser, a green laser, and your phone’s camera to generate a 3D model of whatever you put on the 9″ turntable.  Cost to buy in early is as low as $199.  I went for the Early Backer Advanced Scanner for $249.  They need to raise $40,000 for the project to become a reality, so we’ll see how it goes.  The idea of an inexpensive 3D scanner seems very appealing.  I hope to get a chance to play with it.… Read the rest

Build a Mechanical Iris

G-Wizard customer Lepton Heavy Industries has a neat blog post out about building a mechanical iris.  I don’t know why, but these darned things have always fascinated me.
This particular project uses a laser cutter to make the iris out of Baltic Birch, and it is based on a ShopBot CNC Router article by Chris Schaie that has extensive details for constructing an iris.  He imports the DXF into Corel Draw and uses the latter to scale to size for his material:

As you can see, it’s a very nesting-intensive sort of project if you want to get full use of your material.  … Read the rest

Hebo: Automated Blacksmithing

I took a course in Blacksmithing at the local community college.  It was a lot of fun, but seemed like the furthest thing from CNC and automated manufacturing.  Seems that where there is a will, there is a way.  I give you the Hebo automated blacksmithing machine:

No need to worry about it replacing the artistry of blacksmithing, but it’s still a neat machine to watch in action.  There’s some interesting mechanisms at work here.
Love the old, “Money, money, money” soundtrack too!… Read the rest

Check Out Our New 3D Printing Category

I’ve just added another category to our blog:  3D Printing.  Categories are a way for you to dial in a bunch of articles that all share a common theme.  We range pretty far and wide here on CNCCookbook, so it is sometimes helpful to be able to focus in on one category or another.  You’ll find our current list of categories in the left hand navigation bar on our blog pages.
Our 3D Printing category already has a bunch of great articles in it:

Manufacturing is Cool Again: It’s About Time 
Have you noticed that manufacturing is cool again?  … Read the rest

Bartendro: A CNC Cocktail Mixing Barbot

Long time readers will know I am fascinated by Barbots–robotic bar tenders that can mix up cocktails.  I just saw Bartendro on Kickstarter and thought it was neat:

The biggest problem with a Barbot is how to measure out the drink ingredients.  You need a way to meter multiple ingredients (15 in Bartendro’s most complex and expensive incarnation) that is food safe and easily cleaned.  I’ve seen Barbots with various tipping mechanisms that try to pour the alcohol from a bottle the way a human bartender would.  I’ve also seen them that use a valve that is opened for a specific time interval.  … Read the rest