Laser cut cardboard audio sampler
Geez, some people have such great ideas.
This post over at GetLoFi.com highlighting an audio sampler made from laser cut cardboard and silk-screened conductive paint got me thinking… has anyone developed an electrically conductive glaze? Seems pretty simple — an iron rich glaze, maybe with some silver? Then you could run low voltage through it to light LED’s, run speakers, attach motion sensors, etc. Man, I’m salivating. Let’s fabricate this idea!
Posted by Forrest
I recently came across another free software tool for CAD/3d design. The software is called CoCreate by PTC, which offers both a commercial and a free personal version. The interface looks pretty straight forward and the software on the whole reminds me of another tool in this category called Alibre Design. Both tools seems to take a similar approach, offering a free application to attract people into the 3d market, while maintaining a more traditional CAD-like approach. I find this approach to be less intuitive than other tools that do not follow so closely to the CAD tradition, such as Rhino, Form Z, and Google’s SketchUp, which is, technically, more of a visualization tool than a true modeling program.
In any case, both CoCreate and Alibre Design Xpress have the potential to be good, free tools, attracting new comers to the 3d fabrication arena.
Posted by Chad
This past week I ran across a site for a new 3d printer that uses standard office paper as its consumable media. How cool is that? The resolution looks pretty good, and given that they are advertising the cost of consumables (paper, cutting blades) at 40 times less expensive than other 3d printers, this could be revolutionary. The basic premise is simple. Like other fabrication technologies, the MCOR Matrix software slices the model into layers which, in this case, are the thickness of 20lb. office paper. It then cuts the profile of each layer out of the paper and uses a PVA-based adhesive to bond the layers together. From reading the FAQ, it sounds like the adhesive is applied much like an inkjet printer.
While this printer is still in development, it appears that it is close to coming to the market, unlike some other alternative fabricating technologies.
We have tried to break the current trend of system manufactures that follow the 2D printer market who on the one hand offer machines with ever reducing capital cost while on the other making 40-50% revenue on materials. The core material for the Mcor Matrix is paper (which is purchased by the end user) with the blade and adhesive supplied by Mcor Technologies at a volume discounted prices. The total cost of ownership, factoring in the consumables makes our system the best value for money in real costs.
MCOR Matrix
Posted by Chad
Here is a link to Eric Dyer (teaches animation at the University of Maryland Baltimore) I met at MICA who is using our 3-D printer combined to create objects that are self animating…kind of like a zoetrope, the images are created using Maya, then brought into Rhino and printed on our Z-Corp printer at MICA. Check it out at:
userpages.umbc.edu/~dyer/…
(click on the link next to “bellows”)
Posted by David
For both future use (at the proposed workshop, fall 2009) and probably here and there during this whole this project here are some links to the Art Tech Center and the tools that I can make available to you at MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art):
www.mica.edu/tss/printing…
www.mica.edu/tss/printing…
there is also a Roland GX-300 vinyl cutter that is available
Each link talks about the software and file type that works with the machines, and vector files (Illustrator) are used for the vinyl cutter) At this point I’ve been trained in on both the vinyl cutter and laser cutters, posts about future materials testing on these machines and applications for the 3-D printer will be upcoming…
(thanks for the prompt Forrest)
Posted by David
