User:Med5342
Contents
Introduction
My name is Matt Digel and I am a Senior at The Pennsylvania State University majoring in Industrial Engineering. I intend on graduating in December 2014.
BLOGS
Weekly blogs are assigned by the professor and my answers to the prompts will be displayed here. These blogs will relate to 3D Printing and sometimes more specifically the RepRap printers
Blog Number One
The Prompt: Go to thingaverse and look for printable objects, which other people have actually printed finding designs which satisfy these descriptions in your mind:
A. Something amazing/beautiful
I have always found it amazing that the metal chainmail knights used to wear into battle could protect the wearer form the sharp blade of a sword. Now even more amazing is that the same loop within loop pattern can be made using 3D printing instead of by hand with steel wire. The STL file can be downloaded here.
B. Something funny or strange
C. Something useless
D. Something useful
E. The 'Best' printable Raspberry Pi case you can find At this point I don't know too much about Raspberry Pi holders, like what would make a good or a bad one, but what I do know is that this holder has 84 likes on Thingiverse and it looks very smooth, clean and put together. There were a few others that had around 50 likes who also had a nice color combination. My only worry is that these holders got likes for the way they look as opposed to their actual functionality. The STL file can be downloaded here.
Blog Number Two
The Prompt: Write about a topic (or two, or three) which interests you which we've discussed so far - or not discussed in detail yet.
This week I’ve found a problem in need of a solution in my bathroom. My roommates and I have trouble keeping our bathroom counter organized especially on the weekends. One thing that I think could help would be to have a toothbrush holder to reduce the clutter on the counter surface, while also adding something interesting to look at while your standing at the sink. I searched thingiverse for toothbrush holder designs with some good results but none that completely fulfilled my functional or aesthetic requirements, but definitely gave me some good ideas. I think it would be fun and an interesting learning experience to take this toothbrush holder idea from concept to design to physical product with one of our RepRap 3D printers. Though I do enjoy building the printers, I think my interest lies more in troubleshooting designs themselves and figuring out what can be printed, what can’t and going through the process of actually designing and creating something for everyday use. As it stands now, the specs for my toothbrush holder would be that it has to hold 4 toothbrushes and maybe the toothpaste tube as well. A design look that appeals to me is one that is tall and slender and kind of resembles an umbrella. The trick with a tall design would be figuring out if the toothbrush holder could be done in one print or would have to be broken up into two different parts. Either way the process necessary for product development with 3D printing is one I’d like to explore. To the right are some of the toothbrush holders I found on thingiverse.
Blog Number Three
The Prompt: Read some of your classmates blogs, find the best ones and suggest improvements to those who need it
Brandon Tunkel ‘s blog on digital rights management I found to be the most interesting and informational. He actually discussed a company I talked about during my show and tell called Authentise that plans on using a business model similar to Netflick, but instead applied to 3D printing. I liked reading about how the streaming DRM method they use is called SendShapes prevents users from saving the CAD file. It has gotten to the point where companies are having to send cease and desist orders to service bureaus to prevent the printing of trademarked figures and items so it seems that in some industries technology might be necessary.
Scott Milander ‘s blog on 3D printed kidney and how it can live up to four months I found to be very interesting. I had known previously from my research over the summer that companies like ONVO were printing human organs, but I hadn’t heard they could live for so long. I am still skeptical about their potential quality though. I find it hard to believe that science and unnatural processes could adequately create and replace such a personalized and unique part of the human body. Scott also had a very nice introduction that included a link to a page that gave a status report on the Rainbow printer that he is working on. This is something I should do with my Black Printer next week.
Crosby Owens’s blog on 3d scanners caught my eye. My question for him is if he has ever heard of the iPhone app called 123D Catch. I learned about it from a lecture given by the CEO of Dimensions, a 3D Scanning company based out of Baltimore. This app will create a 3D render of an object after you send it 40 pictures of the object from every angle possible. The Direct Demensions CEO had tried the app out on a statue head, by taking the pictures, creating the render and then printing it out on a Makerbot. I got to hold the printed statue head in my hand after his lecture at a conference this summer. Pretty cool if you ask me.
I also think Crosby’s discussion on food is interesting. Though I can agree that printing food will help to save food cost and waste, I have a hard time believing that the food from a 3D printer will be healthy or even appealing to customers by the time the technology is more advanced. Organic, and natural food companies and grocery stores are expanding and becoming more popular as we speak. People are beginning to be willing to pay more for healthier food. In my opinion, 3D printing food will never get paste printing deserts like chocolate.
Abbie Letts has by far the best blog 3. You can tell she read everyone’s blog for both week 1 and week 2 and genuinely thought that Brandon Tunkel had the best week 2 blog and Tom Stewart had the best week 1 blog. In addition she gives improvement comments to two classmates and then creates a whole new section for other posts she’d like to comment on.
Improvements: One thing that stuck out to me in a few blogs, specifically Brandon Tunkel 's, was that the introduction did not include very much information. I would have loved to learn a little bit more about him in his introduction. Right now it is only one sentence.
Also, after looking on the mailing list and comparing the names on that to the scrugmembers wiki homepage I found that Josh Beacham wasn’t on the wiki homepage. Or maybe he is just on the mailing list but not in the class?
