Yuriko Miyasaka's Blog on 3D Printing

For the “Real World” assignment, I visited the 2014 World Maker Faire at the New York Hall of Science in Queens, NY on Sunday September 21, 2014.

After getting off the 7 train at the 111th Street station, it was a short walk to the event location from there.  Since I was surrounded by small children on the train and during the walk to the event, I wondered if this so called Maker Faire was in fact an event targeted toward children.  Perhaps because of this bias I created before walking into the event, at first glance all I saw were a bunch of booths with small children working on arts and crafts projects and I wondered as I walked around, why on earth the professors of this class suggested that we attend this event…

After doing a full circle (or what felt like a full circle) and being disappointed at what I had seen thus far, I convinced myself to do another round given that I didn’t see many 3D printing booths despite my expectations based on what the professors had mentioned during class about the Maker Faire.  For some reason I completely missed the row of 3D printing booths during my initial round and the second round was what made my trip to the Maker Faire worthwhile.

The following were some of my favorite pieces from the event:

This was a 3D printed car in a frosted plastic material.  I was immediately drawn to all the minute details that were included in the tiny model.  As you can see in the photo, the printed model was about the size of a penny.  It was amazing to see how 3D printing allowed for such intricate details despite the model’s size.  The model even had movable doors that actually opened!

This was a 3D printed piece of jewelry.  Again I was drawn to its intricate details and I was amazed at the level of detail 3D printing can open up to a designer.  The piece was inspiring, as it made me want to attempt creating design files of this sort myself.

This was another model printed in plastic.  This was a fascinating piece as it was comprised of numerous interlocking gears and when you moved the outer circle, all the other gears moved and followed suit.  It was incredible to think that all the interconnected pieces were printed in position, already assembled as opposed to the gears being printed as separate pieces and then assembled together such as in traditional manufacturing.

Visiting the Maker Faire helped to make 3D printing come to life for me.  Until visiting this event, the only real-life interaction I had with 3D printing was during the very first class where a toy octopus was printed for demonstration purposes.  However, at the Maker Faire there were countless 3D printers in action at varying sizes busily printing different sized objects.  It was also filled with people who were passionate about the world of 3D printing.  It was quite an experience to interact with individuals who were “makers” who created objects because they genuinely enjoyed expressing their creativity.

In this studio exercise we further familiarized ourselves with 3D solid modeling techniques and explored how 3D printing output is done using various materials.

First, the following five forms were sketched on paper: a cookie cutter, a knob, a vase, a ring and a phrase.  Then, we designed all five forms in 3D space using SketchUp.  Using these design files, we researched methods for printing the forms in various materials.  At the conclusion of our research, we were required to create specification sheets for each form containing an image of the designed form, along with information on the printing method, cost, and turnaround time for production of the chosen material.  The five specification sheets are shown below and can also be downloaded as a PDF file by clicking on the following link: Spec Sheets.

Pictures of two printed models (cookie cutter and vase) are shown below.

Our first studio exercise for this class was to design and print building blocks.  The purpose of this exercise was to familiarize ourselves with basic 3D solid modeling techniques using SketchUp and to produce our very first 3D print.

First, each student was given a simple wooden block and we were required to take measurements of the block and make a sketch of the block drawn to scale.  Then, using the sketch as guidance we designed our blocks in 3D space using SketchUp.  The designing of the simple wooden block was a pretty simple task as the shapes primarily required the drawing of a few straight lines and using the push/pull function to give the shape its third dimension.

The original wooden block, a 2D image of the designed block in SketchUp, and the actual printed block using the 3D designed SketchUp file are shown below.

For the second part of this assignment, we were required to convert our design files into components, share them using a shared library and create a digital structure combining other blocks that other students designed.  We were allowed to use any number of blocks, unlimited copies of blocks and were free to scale up or down the sizes of the blocks to our liking.  The front and back image of the structure I built is shown below.

The second part of this exercise was an enjoyable one and it was helpful in familiarizing myself with how to maneuver SketchUp.  The most difficult part was getting a hang of moving objects in 3D design space and becoming proficient in successfully changing views to see where and how objects were positioned. Through this exercise I also learned of various convenient functions in SketchUp such as how the software will automatically sense that a user is trying to align certain objects and how it will suggest surfaces and points to lock said objects into place.