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

Blog 1: Thingiverse

We need to search Thingiverse and explore some printed items witch satisfy these descriptions:

A) Something amazing/beautiful

This Gyrornament is such a cool deco that let me think of two ancient Chinese item; The first one is Hexagon Cap Bottle, a Yuanmingyuan precious pottery vase with a smaller one inside but cannot take out; The second one is the Universal instrument(maybe you can only see the picture), this structure can let the core layer sustain the same direction regardless of the outside direction and position change, which can easily use to navigation.

Still, I love this design because of its beautiful, interesting and amazing.

Highly recommend to watch this video!

B) Something funny or strange

This Strawberry Stem Remover is a good idea to invent tools to remove strawberry stem, because if we use our hands to do so, the strawberry will embed into our fingernail which is pretty uncomfortable and hard to clean. But this design is a little strange, because I think the manipulation is not comfortable and easy to slide. if this item cannot make people feel comfortable and convenient, people will not try to adapt it and change their habit.

C) Something useless

In fact I used this Cable Holder (Cable Clip) 2 years ago, just curious about its design and experience, but I feel very bad. First, a plate surface stuck on a projected item looks like strange and inconvenient; Second, the double side tape cannot perfectly connect the table and holder, because the holder is made by rubber, the tape can move on it; Third, if I want to remove the holder, the table will leave a black stain and hardly clean it. I prefer to simply use tape stick the cables directly on the table.

And I think the material should be soft, so normal hard plastic 3D printer may not available.

As to solve the problem of mass cables, maybe the second picture about Diagrid Bracelet can be a good idea. Using some soft elastic material to build that kind of structure which can be easily elongate and recover its original shape by itself.

There is a good TED about a kind of fantastic material: Skylar Tibbits: The emergence of "4D printing"

D) Something useful

One of the most inspiring things that 3D printing brings to an engineering student is printing gears of any shape, so we no longer concern much about the gear modulus and size, so the motion transmission design becomes much more easier, and it also reduces the limitation of products shape that standard gears bring to.

Look at these fantastic examples:

Nautilus Gears With Modified Bar

Gear Bearing

E) Something which surprised me

Watch this Escher's "Penrose stairs" carefully!

Out of all the prints I found, none of them really surprised me. I'm not entirely sure how the wood booklet one prints and I'm a bit surprised/confused that someone would print a ping pong ball. I also am still not sure how printing with supports looks like so I would be interested to see that, but not surprised by the outcome, since classmates have already explained how supports work.