3D Printers and Printing

Happy Time Lapse Thursday! Today for our Time Lapse Thursday video, we wanted to showcase a file that one of our Afiniacs sent us. This file was supplied by Wri3d.com. It was created and inspired by the work of Peter Reynolds. We printed this file twice. First, we wanted to see what its full dimensions could be on the Afinia H-Series 3D Printer. We used that information to create the second print. The second time we printed, we decided to have a bit of fun with the “pause and print” feature to get the layers. We like how it turned out the second time, but we still really enjoy the [Read more…]

Happy Time Lapse Thursday! We thought an educational video would be timely and appropriate for today’s Time Lapse Thursday. This was the second time we printed the Continental United States by anewsome, and it seemed to work out better the second time. The first file we printed pretty much the way the file loaded on our platform, and we had a hard time separating it from the platform due to it’s fine detail, and shallow build area. The second time we printed it, we bumped up the Z resolution to make it a bit taller. This alteration added more stability, and mass to the print; resulting in a better looking [Read more…]

Dr. Chris Williams, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor at Virginia Tech’s College of Engineering in the Department of Engineering Education. Dr. Williams also directs the DREAMSLab at Virginia Tech (Design, Research and Education for additive manufacturing Systems), which contains eight different 3D printers representing five different 3D printing technologies. A strong proponent of additive manufacturing and 3D printing, Dr. Williams was interested in developing a way for K-12 STEM teachers to bring the technology to their schools. As part of its outreach program, the DREAMSLab holds 3D printing workshops for K-12 STEM teachers at the National Science Foundation (NSF) center for e-design’s Research Experience for Teachers (RET). During the week-long [Read more…]

Erin Wincek: A Librarian’s 3D Printing Journey Erin Wincek has one foot planted in the library’s tradition of community service, and the other in high-tech. What makes her especially interesting is how she blends the two and her resulting impact on her region. My journey began when I was listening to NPR. I was in the car with my kids and a story came on about 3D printing. I had never heard of such a thing. Time literally stopped and I was transfixed by the possibilities. From then on, I read anything I could find about the subject and talked to anyone who would listen. I still had not seen [Read more…]

Welcome to another edition of Time Lapse Thursday! This week we decided to have a little fun with what we printed. We chose to print some things that all ages would smile at, and yet are still functional. We printed some Zookins – Animal Napkin Rings created by gwygonik. Feel free to use these for your every day dinner setting, or a cute little surprise for your kids at dinner. They also double real nice as distractions on your desk during those long conference calls. Any way you choose to use them, they are cute, durable, and certainly a conversation piece! We printed our files at Z Layer Resolution : [Read more…]

For Immediate Release AFINIA Desktop 3D Printers and Supplies Now Available Chanhassen, MN – August 2, 2013 –AFINIA’s award-winning H479 desktop 3D printer and supplies are now being sold online by Best Buy, CDW, STAPLES Canada, Tiger Direct and B&H Photo Video. 3D printers apply very thin layers of ABS or PLA plastic in precise patterns, which are stacked and fused together to form 3D objects. The AFINIA 3D printer has rapidly become one of the most well-known products in the desktop 3d printing space because of its ease-of-use, low price point, and remarkable output resolution. “We are pleased that these nationally-recognized companies have selected AFINIA 3D printers to be [Read more…]

Happy Time Lapse Thursday! This week, we’re going a little throwback – to a time when Geeks ruled the social atmosphere (and world). A long time ago, in a galaxy far away… This week, we printed something that all Star Wars fans should be able to recognize, a TIE Interceptor. This fictional spacecraft first made its appearance on the silver screen in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. We thought it was only fitting to post this print during Geek Week on Youtube. Our print was printed in sections and assembled to make it whole. The body was designed by DavidHanwell and the stand by henriksson19. It’s important to [Read more…]

Happy Time Lapse Thursday! This week we’re highlighting the H-Series’s new capability for pausing the print and swapping out the filament. We chose to print a Knot Vortex designed by SteedMaker, and printed it on glass. This object was printed with a normal quality setting and the printer still turns out this amazingly detailed object. The whole print took about 9 hours to complete printing, and this is including the time for the 2 filament swaps. It turned out to be a nice piece that everyone here at the office comments on when they walk past. Our file was printed at: Z Layer Resolution : 0.20mm Fill: Loose Material: ABS [Read more…]

Happy Time Lapse Thursday! This week we wanted to show off the fine detail capability of the Afinia H-Series printer. To do this we chose to print a Customized Artistic Bowl designed by rhuff. This object was printed with a normal quality setting and the printer still turns out this amazingly detailed, fragile looking, decretive vase that would be a unique centerpiece for any desk or coffee table in your home or office. Our file was printed at: Z Layer Resolution : 0.20mm Fill: Loose Material: ABS Quality: Normal With Raft Final Print Size: 89.92 x 125.75 x 85.31mm Printed on Glass Printing this on glass made it very easy [Read more…]

Welcome to Time Lapse Thursday! This week we wanted to print something that would showcase the H-series ability to print finer detail. This video is one of five designs by pmoews that are not only beautiful objects that can sit on your desk, but they can function to organize your work area. Go ahead and spruce up your office with these interesting pencil holders… Happy Printing! [Read more…]

Happy Time Lapse Thursday! This week we wanted to print something that would be a little difficult to print, but still interesting and has that WOW factor. You may have seen this before, but we chose to print a Ball in a Cage the Twists the design is created by stevemedwin. We decided to shake things up a bit and print it on a glass piece. The glass was prepped with a solution that helps the filament stick to the plate, and set to dry for a few minutes. Then off we went… Our file was printed at: Z Layer Resolution: 0.15mm Fill: Loose Material: ABS Quality: Fine With Raft [Read more…]

Welcome to our new weekly video series – Time Lapse Thursday! For our first video we thought we’d start out with something quick and fun to print. we found a Jigsaw Cube design created by TheSeend, and we realized it was a great place to start. The set up was quite easy, and It only took a few hours to print. I recommend this print for anyone that might be new to 3D printing, it’s a great file to try different printing techniques. Check out the video here: Time Lapse Thursday – JigSawCube Print Details Z Layer Resolution: 0.15mm Fill: Big Hole Material: ABS Quality: Fast No Raft Final Print [Read more…]

I received my printer tonight at around 8:30pm. I opened the box, followed the setup instructions and decided to do a quick test print. I downloaded a Dalek from Thingiverse and scaled it to one inch and hit Print. After unpack, setup, calibrating head height, loading and updating software, 15 minutes preheat and 22 minutes printing, the Dalek came off the printer at 10:15! Some minor cleanup, and it’s done. First print, and it was … Amazingly easy! [Read more…]

Thank you for your support of our teacher, students and school. The Target Range school community is fortunate to have innovative educators that bring practical experiences to our students. The 3D printer that you have supplied has increased our ability even more. Thank you very much. Partnerships are positive for education and I look forward to continuing our partnership with you. [Read more…]

Many thanks to Rich Brown of CNET for doing this review. Here’s a summary: The good: The Afinia H-Series 3D Printer (H479) strikes the right balance between ease of use and configurability. It also gets you printing faster than any other 3D printer we’ve tested so far. The bad: The H479 has a smaller build platform than its competitors, some elements of its software are confusing, and your objects will need some post-print TLC to look their best. The bottom line: No 3D printer is perfect yet, but the Afinia H-Series H479 3D printer is the most approachable model we’ve reviewed, and we’d recommend it to anyone serious about getting [Read more…]

Dr. Phil Metzger, Ph.D. is the Lead Research Physicist and founder of NASA’s Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations (GMRO) Lab, which is part of the Surface Systems Swamp Works (gotta love it). Here’s Phil’s explanation of what the GMRO does: “The GMRO Lab develops technologies primarily related to regolith – that is, excavation, conveyance, in and out of chemical processors, manufacturing and construction with regolith, site preparation, landing pad construction, prediction of rocket exhaust blast effects, etc.” It is the GMRO’s work that will make lunar 3D printing possible. Here’s Phil’s mind-expanding take on the motivation, challenges and possibilities. “The cost of a lunar mission is directly proportional to the [Read more…]

Your printer is by far the best on the market, hurry up and work with up! to get larger volume. [Read more…]

The Afinia looks more like the sum of the engineering process behind it than does the Form 1 — more industrial, less polished. By the time we had found Afinia the crowds were in full flow, so getting to speak to anyone proved impossible however we did get to take a look at the machines (essentially a re-badged Up!) and some of the parts. Afinia was also riding the wave of a prize win from Make: Magazine in the form of the ‘Best Overall Experience’ in the Ultimate Guide to 3D Printing. If the crowds on the stand are anything to go by this little FDM-style machine has legs. The [Read more…]

Steve Norris of www.NorrisLabs.com loves to make ‘Bots, so much so that he produces one every two months, photographs and writes about them in his blog. (Editor’s Note: Steve has about 20 of them detailed on his site.). As a Contributing Editor at Robot Magazine, he is continually challenging the status quo to create things that have never been seen before. As an example, one need go no farther than the hilarious RoboStool, the name of which, Steve quickly points out, is quite funny in its own right. So, where did the idea come from? I’m not really sure, but one day while waiting for my wife to finish shopping [Read more…]

I have used a couple of other 3D printers. Involved in some kickstarter projects as well for others. This one is the first 3D printer that has ‘just worked’ (almost see below) and I highly recommend it. I have printed in the 5 weeks I’ve had it an amazing amount of ABS. With the holiday season many folks received an ‘I made this’ gift. The problems I’ve had. 1) SD card had to be removed, reformated before it would actually work. 2) ABS printing doesn’t seem to ‘stick’ as well as I would like. I wonder if a bit more heat on the bed would be good. The greatest thing [Read more…]

This was a Christmas present for my husband, but it has been a lot of fun for both of us. The quality of the prints is very good, definitely good enough for small things and sturdy enough to give most things to our toddler. I’m glad we waiting a couple years for the technology to mature, but this printer is pretty user friendly. The setup for the printer once we received it was pretty simple. The only things that needed tweaking from shipping were the platform leveling, and entering the values from the included calibration print file after we printed it. So far most of what we’ve done is print [Read more…]