All articles tagged with #3d printing
A Hackaday piece highlights RetroGameRevival’s release of the RGR ezBuff, a 3D-printed, open-source disk polisher that buffs scratches off optical discs. While it can revive disks, users must avoid aggressive polishing to prevent irreparable damage, a timely tool as physical media remains valuable with Sony stepping back from disc production.
Valve has uploaded a complete DIY package for the Steam Machine's front e-ink faceplate to GitHub, including 3D-printable CAD files, a hardware list, assembly guides, firmware for the ESP32, and setup instructions. After assembling, users can flash the firmware and connect via Bluetooth; Valve plans an official Steam app in the future, with an AppImage available from GitHub. The faceplate can display real-time hardware stats and custom images, enabling a personalized Steam Machine.
AMD engineer Jacob Terkelsen unveiled the Terk Box v1.1, a 3D-printed Mini-ITX PC packed with an RTX 5060, Ryzen 5 5500, 16GB RAM, and 512GB NVMe for around $1,000; it outperforms Valve's Steam Machine, but SteamOS GPU support means it currently runs Windows 11 or a Linux distro until NVIDIA support lands, with v1.1 adding rear ventilation to curb thermal throttling.
Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder and Columbia University found that adding a tiny amount (0.12%) of the seaweed-derived biopolymer sodium alginate to local clay and sand dramatically improves 3D printability and strength of earthen structures, enabling 33% faster printing and 25% higher load resistance. The approach allows onsite soil recycling, reduces reliance on concrete, and could spur discovery of other natural polymers to boost durability of 3D-printed earthen walls.
Reports indicate Apple’s iPhone Ultra 3D-printed hinge problems have been resolved after extensive durability testing, with the hinge suppliers moving the foldable into test production. If all goes smoothly, mass production could begin ahead of a September unveiling and quick sale, easing previous concerns about delays.
Vox analyzes Vladimir Putin’s $26 billion longevity program, detailing plans to replace organs with lab-made tissues and genetically engineered mini pigs, plus the use of cryo chambers, all spearheaded by Putin and his inner circle (including his daughter Maria Vorontsova). The piece frames how Russia’s autocratic system is funding a quest to extend life amid demographic decline and ongoing war, a bold but uncertain pursuit with broad implications for power and public health.
Bambuddy is an open-source, self-hosted alternative to Bambu Labs' cloud services that lets you manage one to forty printers entirely offline. After putting printers in LAN-only mode to disable cloud access and enabling Developer Mode for a machine API, Bambuddy provides full local control (slicing, printing, monitoring) on Linux, macOS, Windows, or Raspberry Pi. The project cites privacy concerns and AGPLv3 issues with the official software and offers a live sandbox demo for learning.
A buyer’s guide to five budget multi-color/multi-material 3D printers under $500 (Flashforge AD5X, Elegoo Centauri Carbon 2 Combo, Anycubic Kobra S1, Anycubic Kobra 3 V2 Combo, Creality High with CFS), highlighting their strengths and trade-offs (footprint, enclosure, noise, nozzle temps, firmware quirks) and the criteria used to judge them—usability, material capability, and setup simplicity—showing affordable multicolor printing is more accessible than ever.
MIT's CSAIL has turned Bill Freeman's 1985 three-sided zipper idea into a practical device: a 3D-printed, reversible Y-Zipper that links three flexible strips into a rigid, load-bearing triangle when zipped, with software-driven customization for length, bend, and motion modes, enabling rapid deployment in camping gear, medical devices, robotics, space, and disaster relief.
A maker is converting Space Cadet Pinball into a real pinball table using mostly 3D‑printed parts for the body and playfield components, with the flippers still needing work. Because the 1995 game lacks high‑resolution artwork, he’s seeking collaborators to create suitable art and print-ready assets via his YouTube page, even joking about paying contributors with playtime.
Tucci Hot Rods in Marcy, NY uses Artec Leo 3D scanners and 3D-printed parts to rapidly design and fabricate custom hot-rod components—like motor mounts and headlight covers—achieving precise fits and slashing the back-and-forth work from days to minutes on both vintage and modern builds.
In a Global Accessibility Awareness Day push, Xbox unveiled improved Adaptive Thumbstick Toppers with a stronger attachment and introduced a new Goal Post design, plus free downloadable 3D-printable files to customize toppers for compatible controllers. The company refreshed the Accessible Gaming page for easier navigation and added accessibility tags in Xbox storefronts to help players discover inclusive titles. Highlights across games include Forza Horizon 6’s accessibility features, Kiln’s remappable controls, Sea of Thieves’ ongoing accessibility work, and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7’s new adaptive and motion-control options, all accompanied by a Royal National Institute of Blind People study on gaming’s social and stress-relief benefits. Xbox frames this as an ongoing effort to make gaming more visible and discoverable for diverse players.
Polysynth reveals a multimaterial resin 3D printer with a carousel of up to eight small vats. The machine uses centrifugal spinning to fling uncured resin between dips, avoiding extra wash stages, and a precision servo locks the spinning portion to return the part to its original orientation within microns. It even showcases a resin capable of forming fully printed, multilayer PCBs and hints at dental applications. The system isn’t for sale yet and will require careful calibration and resin compatibility handling, but it could enable faster, more versatile home resin printing.
US researchers encapsulated the bioluminescent alga Pyrocystis lunula in a hydrogel and used 3D printing to create glowing shapes. Exposing the algae to a mildly acidic solution triggers light production for up to about 25 minutes, producing a cyan glow suitable for applications like glow devices or biosensors, though real-world use and the algae’s survivability under acidity remain challenges.
A Tomodachi Life enthusiast created a highly detailed 3D-printed Switch dock cover modeled after the Fresh Kingdom supermarket, with blueprints released on MakerWorld for others to print, plus a build video showing how the pieces fit together.