Following a successful career in medicine, Winston has become a recognisable TV personality presenting shows such as the BBC’s Human Body and Child of Our Time. Now a member of the House of Lords, Winston speaks often about science and education which sit at the core of what we do

It was an honour to have such a successful visitor among us while we tinkered away at our robot arms. The kids had a great time chatting to him too and we even got a group photo!

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We’ve been following Adidas’ concept for a trainer that combined two of the brand’s recent technologies. Their most recent concept trainer features an upper made using waste plastic filtered out of the oceans and a 3D-printed midsole created from recycled fishing nets.

Not only is this invention doing good for the planet, but it looks totally comfortable and unique!

This eco friendly trainer is part of Adidas’ ongoing partnership with Parley for the Oceans, an initiative that encourages creatives to repurpose ocean waste and raise awareness of the growing issue. Adidas have demonstrated an interest in backing this cause before having revealed a sports shoe made entirely from ocean waste last year.

We are actually seeing more sports brands adopting 3D printing technology in recent times. Could 2016 be the year of 3D printed shoes for the masses? We’d love to run our next Brighton marathon in these bad boys!

(via: http://www.adidas-group.com/en/media/news-archive/press-releases/2015/adidas-and-parley-oceans-stop-industrys-waiting-game/)

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This is a list made for general users and not industrial scale operations, so we’ve tried to look at printers that are affordable for most budgets.

MakerClub robotics projects are infinitely more fun and allow for limitless customisation options when you have your own 3D printer and you may be surprised as to what you can get these days for relatively little money…

The First Timer

So, you think 3D printing is awesome do you? Want to get involved but don’t know where to start? Well, it’s your lucky day, because over the last 5 years there has been a flood of accessible and affordable printers that work straight out of the box.

Well, we say straight out of the box, but you need to remember that this technology is still new, so whatever printer you go for, no matter how shiny, you’ll still have to deal with occasional nozzle jams and calibration malfunctions.

Most of these can be easily fixed and it’s kind of, part of the charm for many makers. That said, it’s best to go for a brand that already has a nice big community, so if anything does go wrong (and it will!) you can be sure that someone’s done a forum post about it.

We would recommend either the Micro 3D or the XYZ printing range. You may not get the most crisp print from either of these, but they are easy to use and have a large support base.

One of the cons with XYZ is that they use their own proprietary filament, which ties you into them, rather than the open source scene. On the plus side, you know that you’ll be getting high quality ABS or PLA (most of their machines can print in both). Out of all the XYZ machines, go for the Da Vinchi 2.0 for the best print experience. These machines cost around the $600 mark.  

The Micro 3D has been made for the casual new 3D printer owner and the cost reflects that, you can pick one of these up for 350 bucks! That’s crazy money! And the print isn’t that bad, plus the software you get with the machine is really easy to use. On the flipside, the printer bed is very small, so you won’t be building massive prints anytime soon.

The Teacher / Educator

3D printing is an amazing educational tool. At MakerClub, we have bet our livelihoods that it will play a key part in how people learn over the next 10 years. Whether it’s for schools or the home learner, you want a machine that is sturdy, affordable and fast. Plus, you’d like a community of other educators to give you tips on its use. 3D printing can be used to bring lots of different subjects to life, but it’s especially good at STEM subjects.

We thought long and hard about this one, but we’ve decided to settle on the Printrbot Play. This recently won the education award at MAKE magazine.

It has a premium full metal build and you can buy it pre-built, or if you want a challenge, in its component parts, so you and your students can put it together yourself! There’s a ton of great instructions for this available online.

This prints in a great quality and frankly, this printer could have been picked for any one of these categories, but for education, this is the one to go for. This printer uses both PLA and ABS for its material and it can use all 3rd party filament  providers, making it more economical.       

The Professional Maker

For those that work in small startups or maybe run product design firms, you’re going to need something a little more heavy duty. Your prototypes may have more complex designs or could need to withstand greater forces. You want a machine that will print to the highest specifications and produce demo models that are good enough to show to clients.

There is two printers that we recommend. Firstly the Zortrax, we’ve been using this printer in our office for the last year and we love it. All our robotics designs have been prototyped on this and it greats great prints 90% of the time and for 3D printing, 90% is pretty epic! You get a really good level of detail, although the software that comes with Zortrax can be pretty clunky.

Once again, they have proprietary material to print with, but it’s actually not that expensive when compared to 3rd party, the price difference is pretty negligible. We’ve had a few problems with the print bed, but have received good customer support. Big thumbs up from us.

Secondly, we have the Form 2, this is a high end printer that uses a process called Stereolithography, where a liquid polymer is hardened using a laser. It’s faster than any of the other printers here, plus you can create highly detailed prints. This comes at a hefty price, but if you’re looking for something that will print correctly every time and has exceptionally high quality – this is the one for you. Plus, it looks gorgeous!          

The Home Maker

If you’re already someone that tinkers in the garage, building cool stuff and wants to start getting into get into 3D printing, then congratulations, you will love 3D printing more than anyone!

We’d recommend the Printrbot Simple Kit with Heated Bed. You get to build this yourself and as you’ve got a flare for the mechanical, this should be right up your street. Plus you’ll get to see how everything works, so if something goes wrong in a print, you’ll be able to to deduce the problem really quickly.

This printer uses ABS and PLA and costs a tiny $799. For this price, you’re getting one of the best little printers on the market, plus it’s sturdy enough to be picked up and moved around your workshop or to the local Makerfaire!

Whatever printer you decide to go for, you are embarking on an awesome creative journey and if you need help along the way, or want to add electronics to your 3D printed creations, so you can start creating your own robots, go check out our selection of MakerClub courses, they are the perfect jumping off point for any new 3D printer owner.

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Both ABS and PLA are thermoplastics, this means that when heated they become soft and malleable, but as soon as they cool down they become hard again. This is perfect for 3D printing, as when the plastic is extruded from the nozzle it needs to be soft, then as soon as it has been placed at the necessary position, it needs to harden immediately.   

PLA is fully biodegradable, being made from corn starch and other plant products, although it needs to be sent to a commercial compost facility rather than in your own home. This is great for the environment, but PLA has quite a low melting temperature, so objects that are printed using this plastic can start to melt in even moderately hot conditions. This makes it unsuitable for heavy duty printing, but prototyping should be fine.

ABS however, is much more hardy, having a much higher melting point, it is also more flexible and generally stronger. Because of this it can be machined after print, ie. sanded or cut and shaped. This makes it the preferred material for engineers and most product designers. Sadly, its fumes do smell and can make you ill if you do not have a room with ventilation.    

Filament is usually sold on spools that contain between 5 and 10 meters of the plastic in a long thin thread that is either 1.75mm or 2.85mm wide, the thickness depends on what brand of 3D printer you are using. Some 3D print brands use their own proprietary filament rather than the general open source stuff. They  claim that this is to stop bad prints through badly mixed plastic, some companies even encase the filament to make it more like standard ink cartridges on your normal 2D printer.

The basic ABS or PLA can be mixed with other powdered materials like wood or ceramic to get different textures, like bamboo or stone. Like most plastics it can come in thousands of different colours and in the case of PLA, some manufacturers have even added scents into the material, so you can print and deodorize your room at the same time! The amount of options is huge and the best thing to do is to have a play around and see what works for your specific project.

New materials to print with are being invented all the time, check out ‘Ninjaflex’ for more rubberised prints, play around and have fun with it!

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Once a computer model is created, it is then ‘sliced’ into hundreds or even thousands of layers, essentially turning a 3D shape into lots of 2D sheets. These 2D layers are then turned into‘G-code’, this is a set of coordinates that the computer uses to direct the 3D printer. The layers can then be printed on top of each other, until you have your desired shape.

3D printing is also known as ‘additive manufacturing’, this is because, unlike a wood carving for instance where you are taking bits away to create an object (reductive manufacturing), 3D printing doesn’t have any waste (technically!) as you are creating an object with exactly the amount of material you need.

There are multiple different kinds of 3D printing, such as;

Stereolithography (SLA)

: This uses a process called Photopolymerization. A liquid that has the property of hardening when exposed to certain kinds of light, called a photopolymer, is used as the basic source material.  A laser or UV projector is then used to harden the polymer, layer by layer, eventually creating a 3D object. SLA prints can be highly detailed with layers as thin as 25 microns, although the liquid is quite expensive and the prints can be brittle.

Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)/Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF)

: FDM is the the type of 3D printing that you will find in most makerspaces and people’s homes. It heats up a material, usually a form of plastic (most commonly ABS or PLA) then extrudes it from a nozzle, which moves back and forth according to the specified G-code, creating layer after layer of plastic and building up to create a 3D model. The material used in this process is generically called ‘filament’.

FDM/FFF material is quite cheap and the mechanics used are relatively easy to understand. This has led to an explosion of open source printers that have played a large role in making 3D printing something that consumers can now use in their homes. This prints might not have the detail of SLA, but they are often stronger and come in thousands of different colours and textures, like wood or ceramic.

Selective Laser Sintering (SLS):

There are a number of granular binding methods, but this is the most common.  SLS uses fine powdered material, usually a metal but also ceramic and glass, and fuses it all together using a high powered laser that scans over it one layer at a time.

This method is probably the most accurate and creates really strong prints, making it possible to actually develop end products with this rather than just prototypes. SLS has the ability to create intricate, almost impossible geometry, making it possible to create aerospace parts or surprisingly, a lot of art. SLS is the process favoured by the 3D printing house, Shapeways.

Laminate:

This isn’t used as often as other printing processes but is an interesting becuase it uses normal paper as the source material. The process cuts out this paper and then bonds it together using specialist adhesives and pressure. The main printer that uses this is the MCOR range. One of the main benefits of this type of printing is that it can create full colour prints.

There are other forms of 3D printing, but these are the main areas you’ll find in commercial and consumer printing. The time is takes to print a 3D object varies greatly between process and relies on size and type of object. The speed is getting faster all the time, but on an average FDM machine, you’ll be looking to print a 2 inch cube in about 30 minutes.

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