User:EvaVivu/Blog

Main | About Me | Class Blog

For this class we write weekly blogs on a variety of topics that have to do with 3D printing.

Blog 1: Thingiverse

We had to explore around on Thingiverse and find different items.

An item that is amazing/beautiful

Here is a beautiful vase with a vortex swirl theme to form it. I really liked this piece since it seems to be very smoothly designed. Source

An item that is funny or strange

I must admit I was having trouble finding something for this category. So I started typing in random words. One of them happened to be teeth and I saw this! I know what my pumpkin is going to look like next year! Source

An item that is useless

These scissors will definitely not cut through any paper. Even toddler scissors can at least cut a little. The idea is cute though. Source

An item that is useful

I thought this item was cool. It's kinda neat how the cup separates your toothbrush from your tooth paste, and it smiles at you! It would be something I would use at home. There are plenty of other useful things on thingiverse though. Source

Something which surprised you...

None of the things I found really surprised me. I have used thingiverse before so I am quite familiar with the site. It is always fun to find new things, so I decided to use another useful printed object. A video game controller joystick. It happens that joysticks can get over used and then don't run as smoothly, so a quick fix is to 3D print one! Source

Blog 2: Open Source Ecology

Open Source Ecology[1] is a site that offers anyone to take ideas and build technologies in an easy and economical way. Let me explain further. Marcin Jakubowski, a farmer who loved to construct, started this because of the expense of buying technologies. He wanted to build a tractor by himself that he would be able to repair. He also wanted to share this information with fellow people that were having the same economical problem. This is where open source ecology program started. It has grown exponentially since then and has become a global site. Even other cultures and spoken languages have worked their way into this site, as you can see in this video[2].

I think it is a wonderful idea and truly ingenious towards engineers that are eager to build things and solve problems but don't have the money (or the job) to do so, people who need some form of technology, and all others who just like to share their ideas. It is definitively an organized site that makes sure everything runs right with different people in charge[3]. I am sure if more people knew about this site they would use it more often. That is why I encourage anyone reading this blog to take a look at this site, it is truly fascinating.

An article was written about open source ecology and Marcin Jakubowski on the new yorker magazine[4]. I was going to talk more about this article and how it seems to somewhat worship the open source ecology project. But funny enough, the article in its entirety cannot be accessed through the new yorker magazine website without a paid subscription. I am sure there are other ways of finding this article, but is it truly worth searching all over the web? Maybe the new yorker can learn from Open Source Ecology in the 'Open' part of it. But, to be fair, they need to make money to pay for their writers somewhere.

If there was a similar project to this one a professor that would be interested is Dr. Scholtz from the Penn State Lehigh Valley campus. He is always looking to expand his knowledge and has even let student experiment and learn with the 3D printer at the Lehigh Valley campus. Now if I had to choose what my team would be I would like them to be international and willing to broaden their horizons, "think outside the box".

Blog 3: Article discussion

" We had to read an articleSourceand answer the following questions"

"Who created this design and when/where was it done?" The original design actually started by a woodworker, Richard Van As, in South Africa. He had lost some of his fingers in a wood shop incident and started designing a 'mechanical helping hand'. The woodworker found help to design this Robohand from Owen, a theatrical artist who makes mechanical limbs for puppets. With the two of them together they were able to make a Robohand prototype in November 2012.

"If you wanted to make one, where would you get it?" Thingiverse of course! SourceThe technology has grown much since the Robohand was posted on thingiverse for the first time (January 2013). I am lucky enough to have access to 3D printers at our dear University. And thanks to the open source of thingiverse it is possible to print without having to design it.

"How many news articles can you find which reference this technology?" Just typing in "robot hand 3D printer" there are already much more articles than I expectedSource. This is a great example of how much 3D printing has grown in the past few years and where it is heading with its open source technology. How many articles you ask? at least a whole page of google!