Events Archives | Page 2 of 2 | re:3D | Life-Sized Affordable 3D Printing

You’re Invited: 3D Printing @ Sea!

Recently, one of our customers (and owner of Cruise Planners) invited us to support a 3D printing cruise. We are honored to participate and can’t wait to spend three days with you during this exclusive experience!

About the Event

3D at Sea is the first of it’s kind 3D Printing Workshop and Seminar at Sea. This Workshop will feature 3D Printing Experts both teaching and speaking on a variety of relevant topics. There will also be opportunities for community impact work in Cozumel, in addition to general fun and networking!

Whose Invited

Anyone with a passion for 3D printing is welcome to join us on the Carnival Liberty out of Galveston on 10/8/16! Pam, the organizer, is also accepting applications to speak or teach a class until May 5th. You can share your interest on Facebook at: www.facebook.com/3datsea/ or email Pam directly at: pam.stewart@cruiseplanners.com.

See you soon?!

Samantha snabes

Blog Post Author

Made in America- Artist Micah Ganske

Over the past three years we’ve had the honor to connect with Micah Ganske, a New York based artist whose work challenges the frontiers of creativity & 3D printing. We first met Micah when he helped bring Gigabot to life in our 2013 Kickstarter campaign and we delivered the first Gigabot in North America to him live from the NYC World Makerfaire that fall.

Over the next several months, Micah blew our minds as he shared his vision for a large-scale art series titled “The Future is Always Tomorrow”, which was displayed during a solo exhibition at 101/Exhibit gallery in Los Angeles.

Two and a half years later, Micah continues to stun us with his human-scale gallery pieces. Last May, Morgan had the pleasure of witnessing his Augmented Virtual Reality work firsthand in San Francisco, which she described in this blog and is depicted in the video below:

A few months later, Tammie, Mike, and the rest of the team also had the privilege to meet up with Micah in Seattle where we printed his acclaimed wormhole design live at the Seattle Art Faire. Micah was a huge hit and Mike captured some of the highlights in his blog on the event.

We’re not the only fans of Micah’s talent. Recently he was featured in this video by Alex Amoling describing his creative process:

He’s also been highlighted by influencers including Adafruit and in multiple publications such as this feature in Nylon:

https://www.instagram.com/p/-tfWcPJ3Lx/?utm_source=ig_embed

In addition to producing gallery pieces, Micah’s found time to have fun with his Gigabot. This Halloween he spooked our team with the most realistic 3D printed sculpture we’ve witnessed to date, albeit an incredibly creepy siamese head.

https://www.instagram.com/p/9Wfwarp3Ij/?taken-by=micahganske

As for the future, you will have to ask Micah what he has in store.

Last spring he backed our Open Gigabot Campaign which will provide him a second large-scale 3D printer. Whatever he makes next is sure to impress!

https://www.instagram.com/p/9ePMbhJ3J3/?taken-by=micahganske

Want more? You can view Micah’s work and contact him through his website at: http://www.micahganske.com/

Happy Printing!

Samantha snabes

Blog Post Author

3d printing america art customers Events gigabot micahganske

re:3D & SXSW 2016!

It’s almost here! That time of year where Austin embraces global creatives during the two week whirlwind we call SXSW. We love being so close to the action and can’t wait to see you out and about. If you’re in the area, please stop by any of the events below to say hi!

SXSW Create

Dates/times: March 11-13th, 11am-6pm
Location: Palmer Events Center
Cost: Free!!
Website: SX Create, They also have a SX Create Facebook event as a handy way to share the event.
Description: Exciting hands-on pavilion as well as a number of wonderful STEM sessions. Gigabot Generation 3.0 and OpenGb will be printing live for onlookers while the re:3D team gives high-fives.

News & Schmooze: A SXSW Media Mixer for Startups and Investors

Dates/times: March 11, 5:30pm
Location: Capital Factory
Description: We’re bringing Gigabot to print live at this invite only event hosted by our friends at Own Local! The re:3D gang will be out in full force while Jeric presents our mission and product!

Capital Factory - “Austin Goes Global” Pitch

Dates/times: March 11, 3-5pm
Location: The Hilton Startup Village
Website: http://schedule.sxsw.com/2016/events/event_PP58415
Description: Capital Factory will spotlight several startup and early stage companies already having big impact across borders, and several more on the threshold pondering what to do next…where to go…how to do it? In this conversation Katy will share re:3D’s reach.

IEEE Tech for Humanity Official SXSW Party 2016

Dates/times: March 13th, 8-10 pm
Location- The Driskill
Website: http://www.cvent.com/events/ieee-tech-for-humanity-official-sxsw-party-2016/event-summary-fcfd9489c2a54a739252ae5356e427ce.aspx
Description-Party like an engineer with IEEE and world-renowned technologists & body computing brainiacs! Join us at The Driskill with Gigabot and the re:3D team to let loose with a few drinks at the open bar and enjoy great music!

SXSW Hardware House - Hardware on Kickstarter

Dates/times: March 14, 9:30-10:30am
Location: Courtyard Marriot
Website: http://schedule.sxsw.com/2016/events/event_PP58037
Description: The exhilaration of the pitch isn’t just for Venture Capitalists anymore! Consumers, geeks and fans are tuning in each week for shows like Shark Tank (and others). How do inventors take a great idea to the airwaves and stay on task to become a great company? What are the pros and cons? Why are so many people watching and how do you capitalize on it? In this session Katy will explore how hardware innovation and entrepreneurship is being showcased and celebrated on prime time and how to make the most of it if you decide to go on the air.

Hubs/RE:3D / Draught House Pub 3D Printing Meetup

Dates/Times: March 14th 12-2pm
Location: The Draught House Pub
Description: Come meet Hubs, re:3D communities and other 3D printing enthusiasts in a laid back environment on March 14th! This is a great opportunity to share your love of 3D Printing and see 3D Printers live. Feel free to bring your best prints and ideas!
Want more? After March 14th Gigabot and the team are super flexible if you’d like to request their presence:)
Email: info@re3d.org

Samantha snabes

Blog Post Author

3d printing Austin customers Education engineering Events gigabot Open Source SXSW

2016: Stories Made in America

Over the past 3 years our company and community have seen a ton of changes. Through a shared vision to make industrial 3D printing more accessible, our team rallied from multiple locations across the US, scaled our idea in Chile, and later established headquarters in Texas. Since launching in Santiago, we’ve opened two offices in Houston & Austin, which is complemented by a remote sales presence in San Francisco. Although our team is centralizing operations in the USA, re:3D remains thankful to our Chilean roots and the $40K in funding that gave us the opportunity to make an idea a reality.

Our Austin office is christened by Mike's 3D printed guardian squirrel

We also recognize that through our 2 crowdfunding campaigns that Gigabot’s reach has expanded to new frontiers around the world. We will always attribute our 2013 Kickstarter success to the thoughtful insight, organization, and advertising enabled through the Start-Up Chile program. However, since leaving Santiago after 7 months, customers and suppliers throughout both North America & South America have emerged in Texas and beyond.

With this in mind, we’ve invested considerable effort into analyzing how our community and resources have evolved over three years. For example, you can view a breakdown of where our customers are located in the map on our website. In our examination of where re:3D has impact, we’ve discovered that over 80% of the materials we source for Gigabot, 100% of our labor, and 78% of Gigabots in the field are in North or South America.

In 2014 & 2015 we also sent out surveys to our community, interviewed over 50 customers in person and attended events throughout the US that allowed us to engage with up to 500,000 people to hear your thoughts on human-scale 3D printing. Undeniably the biggest request of all of our road-trips was that we share stories of our personal adventures printing huge and those of the 300+ Gigabots worldwide. We’ve also had a strong demand for a more robust forum, which Mike is hoping to launch next month- more to come!

Katy & Patrick Launch OpenGB live on Kickstarter at SXSW Create in March

Sam reunites w/Start-Up Chile Alums & Staff after speaking on their SXSW panel

Ernie travels w/Gigabot to share his insights at SXSW, the Austin Mini Makerfaire and UBM Minnesota

Lara pitches at the National Hardware Cup Semi-Finals in Austin

Matthew tours the US teaching onsite classes to Gigabot customers such the Boy Scouts at E-Motion

Tammie, Mike, & Customer Micah exhibit w/Gigabot at the Seattle Art Faire

Katy preps for her talk at DoUSA in California. Credit: Justin Tyler Close

Mike’s 3D printed bench is featured at the Big Medium East Austin Studio Tour (self-driving car for scale:)

Matthew publishes our 1st peer reviewed paper on filament grip

As we’re still proudly bootstrapping, it struck us that we have an enormous opportunity to immediately leverage the dense community around us to photograph, video, and document the customers we encounter. We’ve devised a list of questions to capture information we’re told you want to hear:

Longest print
Biggest print
Application/ reason for printing huge
Materials tested
Favorite print
Challenges, feedback and requests
Cost and Time Savings
Your Gigabot Workspace
Your workflow

We hope this is only the beginning of building stronger relationships with all of our customers personally. We aspire to eventually meet all our customers, and are focusing first on sharing the stories of those closest to our operations first. We’re hoping to socially engineer affordable ways to ultimately canvas the globe, but for the short term we’d like to intentionally focus locally.

With this in mind, we’re pleased to announce our Made in America campaign. Each week, beginning next week, you can anticipate a blog, video and photographs that share the experiences of pioneers like you, who #dreambigprinthuge as we hit the road to engage with our American clientele.

To ensure we are fulfilling your requests for more curated content, we’d love your input. What questions would you like us to ask customers? Who would you like us to visit? Are there any National Parks we should check out enroute? We welcome your suggestions at marketing@re3d.org as we embark on an adventure to explore what’s being #madeinamerica on Gigabot.

Happy Printing!
~Samantha & Katy

3dprinting america Austin customers Events gigabot madeinamerica roadtrip

re: thinking Buoyancy – Hanging 10 on a 4pc PLA Surfboard

The Big Idea

Like most start-ups intent on exploring the intersection of tech and sheer awesomeness, the vision to 3D print a surfboard was cast over beer, at a co-working space (Capital Factory), subsequent to a lack of sleep. Disregard the fact the nobody physically present at our Q2 re:treat had actually surfed, we were still proudly penny-pinching, and had few Gigabots available for extended personal print marathons. Instead, Marketing Co-Leads Katy and I corroborated with our Gigabot Ambassadors Rebecca, Morgan and Todd to develop a list of “use cases” to demonstrate functional 3D printing to be executed by a cadre of summer interns. Buoyancy made the shortlist, and a surfboard was an obvious case study.

Our leadership team cultivated job descriptions, which Katy hosted under a tab she designed at re3d.org/careers. The response to our unpaid internship postings were higher than anticipated, and ultimately we selected Akshay as our 2015 Design Intern focused on 3D Printing a surfboard. Despite still being in High School, his confidence, professionalism and experience modeling through his high school FIRST Robotics team convinced me he was up for the challenge. He also had a glowing recommendation from his coach Norman.

The Design

Within just a couple weeks of on-boarding and conducting research on surfboard 3D printing, Akshay presented his concept. He had identified others who had been successful including a Father & Son, as well as professional 3D printed surfboard companies. Those that have gone before had done an amazing job curating surfboard designs that truly exhibit the benefits of 3D printing, whether it be enabling custom designs or geometries not easily produced in traditional manufacturing. However, due to the small volume of many affordable printers, we noticed multiple parts were required to later be stitched together like a jigsaw puzzle or they depended on expensive SLS printers to produce a monocoque body.

Knowing that we had the benefit of leveraging one of the largest affordable industrial printers at our disposal, we set out with Akshay to investigate if we could make a FFF (Fused Filament Fabrication) design in the fewest pieces possible. We also wanted to challenge notions of material strength. Akshay’ s research unveiled that our desktop 3D printing peers used ABS, a plastic despised by many for its stinky smell during printing, but stronger than it’s as readily accessible counterpart PLA. Being bootstrapped, we work from a small office, so we decided to use PLA to print our board to see if the sweet smelling, accessible filament could support the weight of a human in the ocean repeatedly, thus challenging the assumptions of PLA’s limited value in functional, life-sized 3D prints. You see, we didn’t choose PLA because we thought it SHOULD be the material of choice, rather we wondered if it COULD be used in a functional application.

And if it worked (even limitedly), we wondered…..what other applications would you and other members of the open-source community cultivate that could expand on our buoyancy experiment?

To develop the initial concept, Akshay paired up with our Summer Stand-up Paddleboard Design Intern Evan, who was also exploring the possibility of supporting a load on water. During Katy’s Thursday Design meetings they evaluated each other’s models in Solidworks, discussed stress points, and analyzed the best way to join components. They also ran a series of experiments to deduce not only if PLA floated, but also if it could be water tight. While they initially pursued similar concepts involving a series of rods conjoining dense pieces, they later opted for separate methods. The stand-up paddleboard included a series of hollow segments, filled with Great Stuff, bound with Gorilla Glue, and fiber wrapped. The surfboard, Akshay decided, would be four, 6% honeycomb-filled segments held together by a series of 50% infill 3D printed bricks. Like Evan, his instrument of choice for sealant included copious amounts of Gorilla Glue.

This was our first foray into a “formalized” summer intern program and the weeks flew by. We learned a ton about setting deadlines, procurement delays, accounting for R&D or marketing inventory in our budgeting & bookkeeping, and how to better mitigate bottlenecks in Gigabot availability for multiple, multi-day crazy prints.

As June turned to July, the scaled-models and sketches transformed to full-scale experiments. Katy’s design meetings became increasingly important as the group collected feedback from the team and data from real-world tests which influenced model adjustments.

Fin Design

Throughout the summer, the surfboard fin underwent as significant an evolution as our scaling team using input from experts, the open source community, and our own failures. Askhay’s first design included two tabs to be glued into the frame, which floated and appeared to have the infill & form required to be successful based on our initial tests. However, after delving into the minutia of surfboard design, Akshay discovered that most fins are supported via a T-slot in the surfboard body. For this reason, he later designed a fin to be inserted into a groove. Unfortunately, we later learned we needed screws holes on either side to mount into the T- nuts. Mike responded to the challenge and mocked the final design, which included the re:3D logo as well as fixtures for the screws to mount into Akshay’s conceived T-nut slot. Mike also suggested that the fin be printed in black to complement Akshay’s silver board.

Final Construction

By the time the 1.5 long week print was ready for the final piece, July had morphed into August and Akshay had to return to high school. A couple of weeks into September we attempted to resume the project and he modeled the 4th piece using feedback I relayed remotely. Despite my best efforts, the measurements provided were a little off and the 4th piece wouldn’t align. Both Jeric and Mike supported a redesign and during a long weekend, Mike ultimately generated the final component to Akshay’s vision as well as some much needed “deckholes” our research revealed was required for a surfboard leash, which we purchased from SUP ATX as we figured the extra length on stand-up paddleboard leashes offered might be needed later. With the body complete, we encountered a new set of challenges. During a commute between our Houston and Austin offices, our almost finished 3d printed surfboard took a tumble on our high-strength 3D printed bicycle designed by Patrick, leaving a rather impressive hole. Determined to make it work, I filled the crevice with silicon prior to using Bondo to level the uneven Gorilla Glue texture.

Jeric did a stellar job capturing a time-lapse of the final piece!

The Test

While touring an untested BETA experiment 7000 miles might sound crazy, for our team it made perfect sense. We had won 2nd place at Websummit last year for pitching our vision to 3D print from trash and 1st at their US event, Collision which granted us free passes for our team to return to Ireland. It therefore seemed natural to transport a untested ambitious print across the sea in front of thousands of media & startups in the name of challenging assumptions around 3D printing. Upon reflection on the flight to Ireland, it became evident that our success to date and win at Collision, was truly a testament to community support. For this reason, we decided it would be an honor to recruit as many stickers as possible from Web Summit attendees willing to affix their brand to our untested experiment. We humbly collected 150+ logos, including StickerMule, a popular vendor.

Katy poses with a sticker she collected at the START exhibit on Day 3

Matthew poses with a start-up as he walked around collecting stickers.

We weren’t the only ones who dressed up for the event!

Shaun the Sheep

If you followed us or Web Summit/Surf Summit on social media in the past month, you might be a little confused by the multiple references to sheep, Shaun, Gigabot, Irish shepherdesses, and surfing sheep.

The idea to 3D Print Shaun the Sheep was conceived by a female Sheppard & blanket maker named Suzanna of Zwartbles Ireland. Suzanna maintains an active community via social media (@ZwartblesIE) and during our flight over suggested #Gigabot could #3dprint a #sheep in #ireland. The initial Tweet inspired a lively conversation and I found myself Googling open-source sheep stls while flying past Iceland. When Katy & I landed, Matthew suggested this Wooly Sheep by pmoews to test out on Gigabot, which had been created using a 123D Catch, now ReCap Pro, scan of a garden ornament. Three days of continuous sheep printing and ewe puns soon began. Katy christened the first small-scale sheep as Dolly before making a larger 14 hour sheep. The downside of running large prints is that Gigabot has to work throughout the night. The 3rd shift security team had the pleasure of watching our biggest sheep complete and informed us one morning that they had named him Shaun. It wasn’t until later the next day that we learned Shaun referred to a popular show titled Shaun the Sheep. Shaun quickly garnered a small fan club, and we decided to take him to Sligo, Ireland for Surf Summit as the prize for the 1st surfer to successfully catch a wave on the surfboard.

Surf Summit: The Moment of Truth

As soon as Web Summit concluded, we crated Gigabot for the return to Texas, them scrambled to pack our bags, the surfboard, and sheep for the bus ride to Sligo, the host of Surf Summit. Surf Summit is an incredible post-summit event to cultivate friendships while experiencing the Irish countryside. As the video reveals, it was a breathtaking experience- our only regret being Matthew couldn’t attend in leu of a customer he committed to visiting in the UK. As complete surf novices, Surf Summit provided the perfect proving group for the surfboard test as several surf pros were in attendance to share their experience & wet suits!

Prior to surfing, we attended the kickoff festivities and allowed Shaun to circulate with the attendees before (he hoped) he would be gifted to a deserving surfer.

Session 1

The next morning we loaded the board, attached the fin, crossed our fingers for good luck and took off to Streedagh Beach. Upon arrival, we were greeted by a team of instructors from Surf World Bundoran, who helped us wax the board and taught birthday girl Katy & I to surf for our first time. The experience was unforgettable.

As our lesson concluded, SurfWorld Instructor Tony volunteered to take our stickered print out on the water. We grabbed our cameras and huddled with our new start-up friends from The Outdoor Journal to capture a mini photo shoot before take-off. The tension was palpable and we all lingered a moment discussing the project, for fear that the board was soon break or worse, sink, taking with it the evidence of so many peers who had supported the endeavor.

Tony proceeded with caution, first testing the buoyancy in shallow waters near the beach, then gradually paddling out further. After a few minutes, he headed out to see if he could catch a break. It wasn’t long before a series of rolling waves emerged and, as luck would have it, he was able to ride one in!

Tony’s bravery and success earned him the coveted Shaun the Sheep. Photo by Lorenzo at Outdoor Journal

After Tony broke the seal, two other brave instructors also offered to take the surfboard out, despite loosing a fin!

Session 2

Wanting to optimize our wave catching, we headed back to the hotel, then caught a cab to Strandhill beach to join another surf instruction course after lunch. There we met the crew at iSurfIreland who agreed to try her out and broke personal records in distance traveled (which complicated picture taking)! Four surfers tested the board, and gave us valuable improvement ideas.

Feedback

In total 7 instructors braved the board. The advice we received was pretty consistent:

The current board is too thick
- In the future it should be thinner and consideration should be given to reducing weight
The curve is not ideal
- The board should bow more at the top
We could have better leveraged the benefit of 3D printing
- The current design mirrors current manufacturing aesthetics and could have been sexier
- Surfers appreciate custom features (holds for cameras, grips, personalized lettering)
The absence of a durable fin made it hard to maneuver
- I should have printed the fin flat so it couldn’t delaminate, and/or used honeycomb for more density
A three or multiple fin design would be ideal
- Ours had only a single fin
Stickers made the board more slick, albeit cool!
Everyone seems optimistic that 3D printed has great potential in watersports, especially wakeboards and body boards

One Month Later

Currently the surfboard resides in our Austin office. What began as an idea, transformed into a internship, that took us 7000mi and introduced us to new friends around the world. As we reflect on the people we met through Akshay, sheep printing, sticker collecting, and trial by water we are struck by the creativity & vision that the community shared. We hope this is the first of many use cases that will expand our perspective on what is possible through affordable, life – size 3D printing. We welcome your ideas on where we go from here!

Happy Printing,

Samantha snabes

Blog Post Author

~Special Thanks to: our Intern Akshay, Coach Norman, Mike Battaglia, Jeric Bautista, the makers of Gorilla Glue, SUP ATX, WakeBoard Graphics Austin, Sail & Ski Austin, to the ENTIRE Web Summit/ Surf Summit Staff, all the StartUps that shared their stickers, The Outdoor Journal, The city of Sligo, IDA Ireland for the rad T shirts, isurfIreland, Surf World, and our staff who all had a hand in this crazy adventure!

~~We're still catching up on post-summit sleep. It's possible I missed a credit or left a typo. Feel free to submit additional pictures, corrections, comments, or questions to @samanthasnabes

3dprinting Austin Design Education Events gigabot intern surfboard websummit

My Great Big Gigabot Summer at re:3D

While applying for summer internships last spring, I did not imagine I would be as involved or as integrated into the company team as I was during my time at re:3D. This past summer, I got to explore and expand upon some of my own passions while taking on the role as the project lead for re:3D’s Great Big Gigabot Giveaway.

As I read the job description for film/social media intern position, I was excited that I would be able further explore my interest in creating videos. This is exactly what I did! This summer I worked with a video editing software called Adobe Premiere Pro CC for re:3D. Having prior experience with only Apple’s iMovie and Windows Movie Maker, I was eager to learn a more versatile software. My role as a summer intern soon evolved to specifically revolve around the second giveaway competition. re:3D was approaching the milestone of shipping out its 300th Gigabot, and the tradition of celebrating such a memorable moment is to give back to the community by giving away one of their industrial 3D printers to some with a vision to make a difference through 3D printing. You watch this year’s announcement video that I developed to announce the contest here.

I had the opportunity to work closely with Samantha and so many other amazing individuals through helping organize this competition. We recruited several amazing judges and in-kind sponsors, and I was astounded by the amount of support we got to help make this project possible. Even members of Tunapanda, the recipient of last year’s giveaway Gigabot, were happy to judge and sponsor this year’s competition. Check out all of this year’s judges and sponsors here if you haven’t already!

Out of all the things I experienced during my summer at re:3D, my favorite was probably being one of the first to see the applicant submissions for the competition. Even though the applicants were very diverse in their backgrounds and ideas, I realized that they all had one key aspect in common: the passion to positively influence their communities. One thing I wish I could go back and change about the competition structure is the length of the submission period. We had several people with great ideas start their applications, but not as many people complete them. It was awesome to see all the people who put forth the effort to create a video to enter into the contest. We also were honored to see the story posted on several industry blogs: 3Dprinting Industry, 3Dprint.com, and Techfortrade.

The purpose of the Great Big Gigabot Giveaway was to give back to the community by supporting an idea to impact society, and well, the 3D printing community certainly has a far reach. The recipient of the 300th Gigabot is Tochukwu, the man who is behind 3D Nigeria. This project plans to inspire a new generation of makers in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Tochukwu and his team of makers hope to unleash the creative potential of these individuals and create value for consumers.

A big congratulations again to the winner and the runners up, Ability Maker and The Creator Program. You can view the incredible ideas of the entrants in the winner announcement video here or below:

All-in-all, I learned a lot this summer at re:3D from being directly involved on a project I could call my own. More importantly, however, I can definitely say that the best take-away was meeting such extraordinary people and cultivating those relationships. Looking forward to working on another project with re:3D in the future!

Sanchana Vasikaran

Blog Post Author

@v_sanchana

3dprinting Austin award Education Events gigabot giveaway intern

How I 3D Printed RWBY’s Crescent Rose

For a long time, my best friend Mason has been bugging me to watch Rooster Teeth’s animated show RWBY. Don’t get me wrong, I love anime, but I was already watching too many shows, and kept putting it off. Then, one day, re:3D’s cosplay enthusiast Rebecca asked if there was some way we could print the Crescent Rose (the instantly recognizable, 6ft tall scythe from RWBY). I immediately said yes, which made me finally binge-watch volumes 1 and 2 of RWBY on Netflix. Much to Mason’s delight, I loved it! I was super excited to make the scythe, not just because of my inner fangirl, but for the creative challenge of creating a 6 foot tall 3 foot wide scythe!
Rebecca and I debated for many hours about how to go about the design for the scythe. As you all might know, the Crescent Rose has the ability to transform into a more compact gun. We discussed the viability of this option ,and ultimately decided that because of the plastic we would be using and the laws of physics, that we should pursue making the best possible scythe-version of the Crescent Rose, and not worry about it transforming.

So, I threw myself into research. I spent many hours pausing the show and sketching, as well as staring at various other interpretations of the scythe on google images. I finally decided on a plan of action, and started modeling the scythe in Onshape, a beta CAD software.

When using a 3d printer, it’s important to keep in mind how your piece is going to be printed. 3D printers start to print from a base layer up, and use supports for overhanging parts. Therefore, I modeled most of the scythe to be easily printed from a flat bottom. Although I could have modeled the piece completely true to the show, I gave up some minor design features so that my prints would be faster and use as little supports as needed. The Gigabot, because of its large print size of 8 cubic feet, allowed me to make the individual pieces much larger and easily create a life sized model of the scythe.

I made the model into 11 different pieces that could be assembled after they were pulled off the printer. I then printed these pieces using PLA on a Gigabot. I used different infills and layers for different pieces, 2-3 layers depending on how much strength I was going to need from that piece and ranged 5-20% infill depending on if I need the piece to be light or not. I usually heat the plastic at around 195-200 degrees Fahrenheit.

When assembling plastic pieces, together keep in mind in order in which you want to paint your piece, and the different bond strength of the glues or tapes you are using. For the Crescent Rose, I mainly used just basic Gorilla Glue super glue. For more stress intensive pieces, I used Gorilla Glue epoxy and clear caulk to give joints a more uniform look.

After we had finished printing all the pieces, the next step was to remove all the support material. Then, I sanded down and fixed the smaller print errors such as place where there is a slight over-extrusion on corners or small print-shifts. Finally, I started painting! A timelapse of the process is available below.

I used a basic white primer spray paint that sticks to plastic. This created a good base layer on the models that I could paint other layers of spray paints and acrylic on top of. For the majority of the scythe, I used red and chrome spray paints and then used black and red acrylics and a paint brush to finish detailing.

My Crescent Rose actually ended up being a little too big, finishing at 6’10” tall and 4’4” wide. I had the outstanding luck to get to bring my scythe to the Rooster Teeth offices and, who should happen to walk by but the voice of Ruby, the very character who wields the Crescent Rose– Lindsey Jones!

Everything was not all roses and sunshine though. I had some large problems throughout the course of making this scythe. Some pieces ended up being more fragile than I would have wanted, and broke a few times. The overall size and shape of the scythe creates its own unique problem. Even though the material is fairly lightweight, the scythe acts as a natural lever where the fulcrum is where the staff meets the blade, causing a large amount of pressure and tension right at the joint. My solution to this problem was more gorilla glue and wooden and metal rods drilled into the plastic and hammered through to help support the weight.

Another huge problem that occurred during the print of one of the pieces completely failed on us. The head of the Gigabot extruder got clogged 48 hours into the 55 hour print. Fortunately, when a print fails, the print usually has a flat layer at the point of failure. I was able to measure the print, and edit my model accordingly so, so I could print only what was missing. The end result looks just like a filament swap mid-print. I credit the ease of this fix to the great usability of OnShape.

Finally, the last and probably worst problem I ran into was the Texas Summer Sun… This is a problem that is unique to people in the south who use 3D printers. Even though the plastic melts at roughly 200 degrees fahrenheit, your print will warp if left in your car or your backyard too long. This happened on the largest piece of the scythe and caused my really nice print fix to be extremely noticeable. I had to reheat my piece and to try and warp it back to a usable condition– with limited success. I decided at the end that the condition of the piece after I re-warped it was good enough to merit not reprinting 55 hours worth of plastic.

In order to save you some work modeling, I posted the files on Onshape so that you can print RWBY’s Crescent Rose too!

I’m unveiling the files at RTX at the re:3D booth prior to our Panel today (Aug 8th) on 3D printing & cosplay. You can check out the panel at 1pm at the JW Marriott, Room 303.

You can find me on twitter @jacobelehmann to discuss the process in more detail.

Below are the sources I used to help me create my model.

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/rST5VxiZ_gE/maxresdefault.jpg
http://goo.gl/9XzVMq
http://goo.gl/SsO63J
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RWBY
http://goo.gl/r6x12t

Thanks for reading!

Jacob e lehmann

Blog Post Author

3d printing Austin Design Education Events intern internships onshape Open Source process

See You At SXSW?!

It’s seems like it was only yesterday since we launched Gigabot on Kickstarter at SXSW in 2013. Two years later, both our Austin and Houston teammates have returned to reflect on the past and look to the future with Gigabot, OpenGigabot, and a few surprise announcements. We’re also honored to be considered for a SXSW Innovation Award and can’t wait to share 3D printed prosthetic hands, board games, a huge Reddit Alien, giveaways and some crazy furniture with the friends we encounter in exhibit halls, tents, bars, hotels, and retail stores. If you plan to attend any of the events below, please say hi or share a Gigabot selfie online!

Here’s a list of where you can expect to find Gigabot and the re:3D gang:

What: SXSW Interactive Panel “Building a Startup Ecosystem from Zero”
- Where: Hilton Austin Downtown, Salon K , 500 E 4th St
- When : 3:30pm-4:30pm March 14
- Connect: #SXSW2015, #ChileAwake, @re_3D, @samanthasnabes, @startupchile
SXSW Create 3D Printing Meetup
- Where: West Pincer Terrace Long Center
- When : 11am-12pm March 14
- Connect: #SXSW2015, @CreateATX, #SXCreate, @re_3D, @chief_hacker, @Enablethefuture
SXSW Interactive Create Tent: e-NABLE Hand Pavilion Sponsored by
Hanger Clinic
- Where: The Long Center for the Performing Arts, 701 West Riverside Drive
- When : 11am-6pm March 13-15
- Connect: #SXSW2015, @CreateATX, #SXCreate, @re_3D, @chief_hacker, @patrick_finucane, #openGB, #Gigabot, #innovationawards
SXSW Interactive Gaming Festival
- Where: Palmer Event Center, 701 West Riverside Drive.
- When : 11am-6pm March 13-15
- Connect: #SXSW2015, @re_3D, @gerty, #Gigabot, #boardcraft, #necrovirus
Toy Joy/ Austin Rocks Live Gigabot 3D printing
- Where: 403 W 2^ND Street
- When : Open-close daily throughout SXSW
- Connect: #SXSW2015, @re_3D, @AustinRocksTX, @rpr_rebecca, #gigabot, @Toy_Joy
Google/ Capital Factory Next Wave Entrepreneurs Lounge
- Where: 1616 W Brazos, 16^th Floor
- When : 11am-6pm 13 March- 15 March
- Connect: #SXSW2015, @re_3D, @google, @capitalfactory, @GoogleForEntrep, @re3dtodd, #gigabot
OwnLocal and Knight Foundation 2nd annual News and Schmooze
- Where: Firehouse Lounge, 605 Brazos St, Austin
- When : 6pm -8pm 13 March
- Connect: #SXSW2015, @re_3D, #gigabot, @knightfdn, #ownlocal, @samanthasnabes
Speakeasy/ Falcon Ventures
- Where: Speakeasy, 412 N Congress Ave
- When : 6pm -8pm 13 March
- Connect: #SXSW2015, @re_3D, #gigabot, @falconventures, @MikeBattaglia
Reddit/ Daily Dot Meetup
- Where: JW Marriott Room 508 110 E 2nd St
- When : 3:30-4:30 15 March
- Connect: #SXSW2015, @re_3D, #gigabot, @reddit, @dailydot, @katyjeremko
SXSW Innovation Award
- Where: Hilton Downtown Austin, 6th floor
- When: 6pm-8pm 17 March
- Connect: #openGB, @re_3D, @patrick_finucane, @katyjeremko, @MikeBattaglia, #innovationawards, #sxsw2015

Want to invite Gigabot to your Film or Music Event? Contact info@re3d.org to chat!

Austin Events SXSW