Date:  Oct 29, 2016

Yesterday, the kids’ weekly playdates meet is very geeky.

Why?

Because, we asked a friend to come and teach them about 3D printing.

This is Jay’s belated birthday present.  Only arrived yesterday.

I like it.

This is the mini version of the Fabrikator 3D printer.

This amazing printer cost about USD$180.  Very cheap but according to the 3D printing master, it is one of the more reliable machine.

My wife says, for beginners, learn using a cheap printer first.  When either me or Jay gets more experience and geeky, then, we can upgrade to a bigger one.

This keychain is printed from this printer.

Why I feel so amazing about this key chain.  Take a look at the video below.  There are holes and hinges in this key chain.  And at first thought, I was thinking, it is hard work to print so many small pieces and then fix them together….

But that is when Dani (the 3D printing instructor) corrected me.  The 3D printer are able to print out AS IT IS.  Means, it prints the hole, it prints the hinges, it prints everything in one go.

Dani also run some workshops at the Library @ Orchard.  He and his friends, a group of 3D enthusiasts has build a 3D printer and place it there too.

It is amazing.  The kids love it.

By the way, Dani is also a magician.  He not only shows how we can download already designed 3D models and then print it out using the printer (which is very easy), he also

He designed and printed this Raspberry Pi casing.  Very elegant and nice.

The kids are learning lots of things.  But I think they just want to see how it works.

Ok, let’s load up the filament and start printing.

Now, is this plastics?

Yes and No.  It is a bio-degradable plastics that is made out of either corn starch or sugar cane.  hahahahaha… that means, if you bury this in the soil, it will be bio-degraded.

Yeap!  Amazing, right?

Yeah!  The new 3D printer is working.

The first project is to print a dice.

Take a good look.  We can configure the 3D printer so that it does not need to fill up the dice.  Means, there will be hollows (space) in the dice, so that you do not need to use so much plastics to print.

The dice is coming to shape.

Yeap!  It is a dice all right.

The kids are amazed with this technology.

You know they have this in space craft?  When the parts need repair, they will use the 3D printer to print those parts.

It is a quick demo, so to save time or printing for the demo sessions, we use an average quality printing.  If you use higher grade printing, then, you will need more time.

The dice actually works.

Since it is Halloween.  Let’s print a purple pumpkin.

It turns out to be a great pumpkin.

You can removed the hat too.

Then, my geeky son immediately go construct a LED with a small battery.

Quite cool right.

And I placed it on top of my iMac.  hahahaha