User:Ian Beavers

Introduction

Hello my name is Ian Beavers and I'm a senior at Penn State majoring in Agricultural Sciences with a focus on Food Science. I am also the web master for the 3D printing club at Penn State. I am currently taking a class called Edsign 497J so I can learn as much about 3D printing and the printers themselves as I can.

I'm currently working on the Gold printer with Pat Austin and Hamed

I will be posting blogs pertaining to the class and the work I've done in and outside of class.

BLOGS

Blog #1

1. "Something amazing and beautiful"

A puzzle that looks like its designed after a piece of coral

I thought this was a really cool puzzle with a very cool twist on an old design.

Amazing and Beautiful: Coral puzzle

To download this design click here.

2. "Something funny or strange"

A random animal bone

I chose this because I thought it was very odd to have a 3d replica of a random animal vertebrate just laying around.

Strange: Animal vertebra

here.

3. "Something useless"

A coffee cup sleeve with spinning gears

I like the idea here, but the gears are useless and I'm not sure it would really work as a cup sleeve either.

Useless: Coffee cup sleeve

To download this design click here.

4. "Something useful"

Mr. Door Stopper

A great idea and who doesn't need a door stopper from time to time?

Useful: Mr. Door Stopper

To download this design click here.

5. "Printable Raspberry Pi case"

A cool and printable case

I thought this was a very cool looking case without being to busy and complex to print out.

Printable Raspberry Pi Case

here.

Blog #2

One of the topics we have talked in class that has really interested me is the idea of recycling and reusing old "scrap" PLA (Polylactic acid)which is normally made from biodegradable starches from corn and other plants. I have heard about people making these recyclers and putting things like old water bottles and milk jugs in and extruding usable plastic filament that can be used to print out new things from the 3D printers. I find this to be an awesome idea and I hope the technology and brain power we have this semester will produce a fully functioning model! I also think it could open up new ways of thinking about and using 3D printed objects. For example if you have a plastic pulley or gear on a machine and it breaks you could either go buy a new one, make a new one using new material, or melt down the old one and remake the part. This would also let people have the ability to upgrade their 3D printers (or other equipment) whenever they wanted without requiring a ton of new material and would allow people to make their own colors of filament which could also open up a whole new market in customizable merchandise on demand. I could also see this being extremely useful in areas where it can be hard to find nice spools of PLA or where PLA isn't available at all. Someone could set up one of these recyclers and throw in old plastic trash and make good usable filament which can be then used whenever and wherever it is needed. I cannot wait to see the recycler our class produces this semester!

Blog #3

One of the best blog in my opinion is Crosby's I really like how clean his layout is. One of his blog topics really caught my eye as well. He talked about the 3D printing of foods and how fast the technology is changing. I'm studying to be a food scientist so this topic also really interests me and I think Crosby did a great job of summing up where we are with it right now!

Another blog I really liked was Quinn's I felt he also did a really good job with his layout and I also appreciated his explanations for his blog choices. The only improvement I can think of would be maybe to make the text size a little bigger for blog #2 and to finish blog #3 other than that keep up the great work!