Peter Kobrin design and 3D printed a spinning wheel for his wife. Spinning wheel was used to make yarn or thread from fiber (like raw wool) which were then woven into fabric. All parts are 3D printed except bearings, hooks and tubing. Parts are made on Prusa I3 in PLA. It is a great example of how you can use modern technology to recreate a device which was used in centuries past.
He will publish the designs when he is finished with the development.
Dave Hakkens developed a great set of open sourced DIY machines for recycling plastic. There are several machines including a 3d printing filament extruder. Every device is well documented with manuals, open sourced and uses simple and easy to find components. There is a shredder, extruder, injection molding machine and compression forming chamber.
here is the promotional video:
You can learn something about many types of plastics, which are everywhere! Like difference between thermoplastics and thermoset plastics:
3D printing filament extruder demo:
Here is a video explaining how you build it:
Here are some things you can make with recycled plastic, ranging from lamp shades to building blocs:
Project homepage where you can learn how to build each machine and about the plastics as a material:
Now, recycling plastics is great idea and useful skill to have, but will it decrease the usage of plastics in general? I do not have the data, but i have strong doubts that it will not. There is a something called Jevons paradox that notes that the more efficiently we use a resource, the rate of a consumption of that resource will increase. Think about it ....
Amos Dudley was low on money and he had some crooked teeth. He decided to make his own DIY orthodontic alignment trays with a help of 3d scanner, 3d printer and vacuum forming table and was successful in correcting his teeth.
Here is the process he followed from his project description:
The dentist assesses your teeth for suitability for the procedure. Old-school bracket braces can move your teeth in basically any direction or rotation, but plastic aligners can only exert tipping / rotational forces on the teeth. When you put pressure on the crown of a tooth, the crown moves in that direction, and the root moves in the opposite direction (this is known as Begg’s tipping principle). Without being bonded to the tooth, plastic aligners also can’t do extrusion (pulling the tooth down and away from the maxillary arch).
The teeth are 3D scanned. This used to be done by taking an impression, making a mold/casting, and then sending the cast to be accurately scanned. Now, there’s in-office tools like iTero that scan the teeth from within the mouth.
The 3D model (usually an STL file) is taken into some proprietary orthodontic software, where the teeth are separated into separate objects. A technician plans out a route for the teeth to travel over the course of the procedure, so that they move but dont intersect one another.
A series of models is created from the planned route, each representing a step in the motion.
These models are 3D printed with high accuracy.
Thermoplastic aligner material is vacuum formed over the 3D printed models.
The plastic is manually trimmed away and the edges are smoothed, to create a non-irritating aligner.
For 3d printed part he used his own extensive modification of MendelMax 2 the "Minimal Mendel", but he writes that SLA machine would do a much better job.
Nikodem from Poland made a very good tutorial on how to make a 3d printed snake robot. It actualy uses a worm equivalent movement , but hey snake sounds cooler :-)
Here is the build instruction video:
Detailed step-by-step guide and all the files can be found at:
Bruno made his own DIY powered hacksaw with many 3d printed parts. it is a low cost home tool which can even cut some metal. The total cost for the project is some 50 USD.
Bill Of Materials
6x – 608 Roller skate bearings
2x -100mm 8mm all thread rod.
5x - M8 bolts.
1x - 40mm M8 bolt
2x – 6mm ID. 15mm OD bearing (had these laying around) find what you can, modify the files as necessary.
1x - 60mm shaft (matches the bearings)
12x - wood screws
1x plank of wood. Approx. 300mm x 450m
3x Spacer wood 2x4 is what I used. ~ 50mmx100mm
1x – Geared Globe Motors Model number 409A502
1x – 19v PSU
1x – 5A switch
1x – Ikea $7 table leg, or 50mmx50mmx400mm chunk of wood.
Mancave developed this simple to build tumbler for smoothing 3d printed parts. It works best with metallic filaments like Bronzefill and simillar. It tumbles the part with small screws giving it shiny and smooth surface.
Here is the build and operation video:
Here is the video of Coperfill skull being processed and polished:
Someone note in the comments that this is a CNC router. So, what is a different between CNC mill and CNC router?
"A CNC router will usually have a large X and Y range and short Z... A router will typically be able to do soft materials like wood, plastic, and maybe aluminum... But overall, it won't have the most rigid structure (like this one which is 3d printed)
A CNC Mill will have a relatively smaller X and Y with a larger Z than a router... A mill will be able to cut hard materials like steel... And thus will have a very rigid structure so that it can accurately cut those materials." More info at:
David has developed his own 3d printer with almost all parts that are custom made including electronics and software. Kudos David!
It is wrapped into a nice bubble enclosure:
Short project description:
David tells us how he designed his rPrint 3D printer, the printer for pirates! A university project he has been working on for the last 9 months. Everything is custom, including the world's lightest weight direct drive extruder head, Sarrus linkage build plate, linear rail guides, and his awesome bubble enclosure. Not to mention his own custom controller, gcode interpreter, and highly optimised C++ string libraries.
Very detail video worth watching f you are deep into 3d printeting mechanics and electronics:
Air heat exchanger is a useful ventilation system part that will enable you to save energy while maintaining a good air flow in your enclosed space. It uses the outgoing air form the heated space to warm the cold air that is going from outside. Heat is thereby recovered and energy consumption for heating decreased. They are mostly used in passive or low-energy houses or buildings, but they can be used in most insulated spaces. There are also applications where you can cool the air coming in. The entire system is also called Heat Recovery Ventilation (HRV). You maintain air flow which improves indoor air quality, reduces bacteria and mold buildup, stabilizes the moisture but you don't need to open the windows and still keep some 70-80% of heat that would normally be wasted.
Yvo de Haas developed a small DIY 3d printable version that he implemented in his house with excellent results. The heat exchanger itself is printed in PLA while tubing is standard PVC with standard 60mm fans to drive the air. The electric fans can be noisy but they can be easily replaced with quieter ones.
He developed two versions of this DIY HRV: one that is partialy 3d printed and one that is fully 3d printed.
Here is what Yvo writes about the fully 3d printed unit tech specs:
The completely 3D printed version is, as the name suggests, completely 3D printed. To make it I modified my Ultimaker with an E3D V6 with 0.25mm nozzle.
The walls of the exchanger are 0.3mm thick. The outside dimensions of the exchanger are 15x8x7cm but it has an internal surface area of around 1000cm² (1/10th of a square meter or about a square foot). It is printed in PLA and takes around 10 hours to print at 0.16mm layer thickness.
With special adapters it can fit 60mm fans and all the other adapters I have designed special adapters were printed to connect the 60mm fans to the 3D printed exchanger.
Fully 3d printed heat exchanger element. Here is where the magic happens.
Heat exchanger installed on the window with fan ventilators attached.
Yvo measured and logged the temperature data:
The 4 temperatures (unit does not matter):
Hot in (the warmer air that enters the hot side of the exchanger)
Hot out (the warmer air that exits the cool side of the exchanger)
Cool in (the cooler air that enters the cool side of the exchanger)
Cool out (the cooler air that exits the hot side of the exchanger)
Does it work?
The answer, YES. After running for over 8 hours while I was at work, the air was a lot fresher. Usually when I come home there is a certain staleness to the air, but now I came home to nothing. Just nice air. I had the logger running for the entire time. The test started around 8 o'clock, every number on the X is 6 seconds. There are 3 zones of interest.
0-3000: Here the air outside is slowly heating up. Temperatures around this point are: HI: 17°C, HO: 10°C, CI: 6°C, CO: 14.5°C, giving 63.6% for the hot flow and 77.3% for the cool flow, averaging 70.5%.
3000-4000: Here the sun hits the window and there is a spike in temperature. No useful data can be gathered from this time.
4000-6000: The air outside is slowly cooling. Temperatures around this point are: HI: 17°C, HO: 12°C, CI: 8°C, CO: 15°C, giving 55.6% for the hot flow and 77.8% for the cool flow, averaging 66.7%.
Full construction tutorial with heat exchange data charts can be found at:
This is a mechanical watch with tourbillon and going barrel. The watch has a Swiss lever escapement, embedded in the tourbillon. It is driven by a 3d-printed spring, and runs 35 Minutes (a wire retraction spring made from steel would perform better). My watch is running with less than 0.5 Seconds deviation within one Minute. The project demonstrates that the 3D-printing technology is developing. Compared with earlier generations of 3d-printers, the process works more reliable and more accurately. The watch is designed with Autodesk Fusion 360, and printed with Ultimaker 2.
It is truly a masterpiece and work of great craftsmanship:
You can get all the files and 3d print it yourself:
"DIY Dudes" made a DIY crossbow with aluminum rails and PVC pipe bow but the trigger mechanism is fully 3d printed. The trigger group is the most complex part of the crossbow and as video shows it is fully operational.
There is the video of the crossbow in action:
The files for the trigger mechanism were not released but you could reverse engineer them from the drawings.
Multistruder is a new Arduino controlled filament extruder that can enable you to make your filament directly from the pellets.
KS video:
Project description from the project page:
How is the Multistruder Different From Other Filament Extruders:
The Multistruder is designed to do be a multi purpose plastic extrusion tool. In other words it is designed to do more than just make filament. This is done by swapping out modular parts on the extruder (ex: Injection Molder (hint hint)). More details coming soon.
Open source and easily modable Arduino microcontroller "brain" making it very user friendly to control and configure and the ability to add various expansion modules to give you better extrusion performance.
Only need to interact with the Arduino brain. Then the Arduino sends those instructions to everything else.
TFT Full Color Touchscreen is included standard for easy realtime feedback and complete user friendly control of your extruder (Almost like using a phone)
All Metal Construction making for a durable extruder allowing for a long service life and less issues in the long run while still allowing ease of modability for the user.
Drive Motor Control allowing for precise control of extrusion speed.
Expansion Module support for spoolers, diameter control, etc. Whether you make your own or you buy them.
Multiple vertical mounting options.
The Multistruder comes 95% ready to go (as well as tested) out of the box all you have to do is install it in your work space, add plastic then your ready to extrude filament.
Vertical Space Saving design: estimated to take up about 15" H x 15" L 6" W
SOMETHING IS REQUIRED TO MEASURE DIAMETER OF FILAMENT EX. CALIPERS.
Specs Of Prototype ( Production version > Prototype version):
Extrusion Speed: <~3 feet per minute (extrusion speed will be tuned by controller to get filament diameter consistency).
1 Kg Spool: <~ 8 Hours
RPM: ~10 RPM
Torque: ~167 kg.cm
1.75mm extrusion cap (you can ask for 1.75mm or 3.00mm)
110 Watt Heater + 5 Watt Controller + 24 Watt Motor = so max = ~139 Watts. True wattage is alot less than 139 around 84 as the heater band is not always on
Spiritplumber developed a small DIY digital fabrication manufacturing cell in his closet. He has made and installed a 3D printer, hybrid tool (extruder / laser cutter / liquid printer) and organometallic filament maker.
Very cool setup Spiritplumber! :-)
Do you see a smoke detector surrounded by burn marks? :-) Lesson to be learned there ...
If you have few old DVD drives and an Arduino Uno you can make a simple laser engraver for some 15 USD. The supporting frame can be 3d printed or made from any material you can hack.
Here is the video of the same design with standard frame:
Someone on Instructables posted a full tutorial and files for nice Arduino controlled little transforming spider robot. It walks on its "legs" and drives on the wheels. Cool!
Joerg Sprave is master of crazy slingshots and archery devices. In his latest video he tests a large 3d printed arrow printed by Myminifactory and his big big rubber band crossbow pistol.
Bolt was tipped with a big metal nail and it penetrates a wooden target:
Here is a small tutorial links compilation that will grow in the future on how to make a simple and ultra cheap 3d printer or CNC from reclaimed or junk electronic and structural parts. Tutorials are very detailed and will help you to start with this technology, educate someone or save some parts form trash.