I fired up Poser Pro last night to see if I could get this scary doberman model into a format that I could eventually print. It only took me 4 hours to figure out that you can export Poser Pro files into .obj files which can then be converted to .stl files using Meshlab. You have to scale them up. They seem to look fine in ReplicatorG (the program you use to print to a Cupcake or eventually, the Thing-o-Matic). I also realized that I'm going to have to brush up on my soldering skills when the kit arrives. I read a post where it took a high school FIRST team more than 40 hours to build a Cupcake. Perhaps the 9 hours the creator of the Thing-o-Matic suggested is optimistic. In any event, this endeavor might be the deepest rabbit hole I've ventured into in a while.
I have recently soldered many things, all with perfect success. No cold joints, shorts, or anything. I'm Confident I could build a Thing-o-Matic in a good time.
Electronic assembly races? Gundam model assembly races?
I also realized that I'm going to have to brush up on my soldering skills when the kit arrives.
If the kit is mostly-assembled version then the amount of soldering is minimal. I'll go digging for the page I read on the Cupcake that mentioned this but it sounded like the entirety of the soldering was assembling four smallish boards that were all through-the-hole mounts for everything that needed attached. I'd be willing to bet that the high school team was assembling the "build everything from scratch" kit.
Instead, maybe you should print board games of your own design?
I don't see why who designed it is important. We wouldn't be printing an in-print game, so it'd be more like a Project Gutenberg for board games. Although, Dune isn't public domain, but it IS hard-to-find. Enough so that new prints would be cool, even if done in one-off form.
I've got some ideas for a skirmish game using print-on-demand models, so I may actually starting writing the crunch for that soon.
If you're going to use a 3D scanner to duplicate a model that already exists, you are better off cracking your own resin mold and making the dupes that way. I would think the real use case for the 3D printer would be to manufacture something you can picture in your mind but exists nowhere.
Casting a mold is a hassle and uses more resources than printing. However, you could print negatives for a plaster mold and just fit them into a homebrew injection former.
Homebrew injection former, powered by Arduino. I'm going to get on that.
Comic hero concept: Teen drinks out of TOM coffee mug, computer-thingees that are never really explained enter his bloodstream, giving him the proportionate strength and agility of a coffee mug.
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Electronic assembly races? Gundam model assembly races?
I've got some ideas for a skirmish game using print-on-demand models, so I may actually starting writing the crunch for that soon.
As far as hobbies go, this one is overwhelming. Building the ToM turned out to be a stretch for me. I pulled it off and learned a lot, but wow.
Next I'm building a CNC machine. The parts should be in by next weekend.
I printed a coffee cup yesterday.