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If you want to see the bleeding edge of 3D printing tech, you go to FormNext in Frankfurt, Germany. If you want to see the latest in consumer electronics, you go to CES in Las Vegas. If you want to see what it’s like to microwave your own head, you go to Open Sauce in San Mateo, California.
The decidedly quirky maker festival marked its fourth year a few weeks ago, bringing together inventors, makers, artists, cosplayers, YouTubers, and yes, a number of sponsors. Founded by science YouTuber William Osman, the festival has become a must-see event for the maker community.
I attended this year’s festival as an exhibitor, with my “freakishly large, 3D-printed fighting tops.” For full disclosure, Prusa Research sponsored my travel costs and also partnered with me on a contest hosted on Printables, where I provided the example model and was on the judging panel. Polymaker sent an insane amount of filament for printing the tops and arenas.
We received some amazing and creative entries; even YouTuber and maker Jeff Geerling stopped by to join in on the fun.
Besides the obvious 3D-printed robots, 3D-printed printers, and 3D-printed violins (see above), a lot of exhibits used 3D-printed parts as an easy method to prototype and manufacture their project. Here are a few gems we found on the show floor.
Positron 3D
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Even with a modest display, you still can't help but notice Positron 3D's amazing LDO Positron upside-down 3D printer. Designed to fit into a 1kg filament box, this printer can be folded down to 200 × 200 × 70 mm in size, making it easy to store or travel with.
PrusaWire
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Also from Positron, 3D printing enthusiast @joescalon brought his Prusawire R1 project to the show. For the full assembly guide and 3D configurator, go here.
Unlayered 3D
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Although still in the development phase, seeing Unlayered 3D's non-planar 5-axis 3D printer in action is very impressive. It defies the traditional FDM layered printing process with its tilting print head and rotating bed feature, eliminating the need for supports. This results in a stronger, smoother output.
Now, for the professionals.
Prusa Research: the INDX and Killer CORE One+
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Prusa Research’s booth was a hub of activity, with the new CORE One+ INDX on display, next to Prusa’s CORE One L, MK4S and XL machines. They also brought along several creators and their projects, such as a giant cardboard Core One+ (with a working touchscreen) photo booth and an axe-wielding CORE One bot that printed while it zipped around the venue.
Elegoo: emoji x Centauri Carbon 2
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Elegoo booth featured some amazing creations, like a functional “web harp” and a battle bot built by the University of Washington Advanced Robotics team using the Centauri Carbon 2 and Elegoo filaments. They had an emoji x Centauri Carbon 2 on display with many emoji-themed props for visitors to use for selfies.
Snapmaker brought their U1 toolchanger, which printed this mostly 3D-printed, fan-made Star Wars speeder bike, built with an electric scooter cleverly hidden underneath so it appears to float along the road. See it in action here.
The Snapmaker team also showed off the latest from the Full Spectrum project, which can mix four filaments into an unlimited color palette with no obvious layer lines by using subdivided layers. We’ll be checking that one out soon.
Three for UV
UV printing is an industrial technology just now landing on home users’ desktops in the form of somewhat affordable machines. It’s like a cross between 2D photo printing and resin 3D: it uses UV-cured ink to print photographic color on nearly any material you can place inside the machine’s compartment. This can be flat stickers and photos or “2.5D textures” that are generally limited to a few millimeters in height. Some machines are even venturing into full color 3D printing.
The tech is very new, with most machines still at the prototype stage or lurching its way through Kickstarter.
We are aware of five companies making the attempt to shrink these $50,000+ machines down to something a small business or garage-based entrepreneur can wrap their budgets around. Three of the companies were at Open Sauce: xTool, EufyMake, and Morpho.
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xTool had the largest visible presence of any of the sponsoring companies, with a huge display of hands-on stations in front of the outdoor stage, which it sponsored. The company brought out all its lasers and creator tools, with plenty of team members standing by to run demos. I was particularly interested in the new xTool O1 Omni, a four-in-one UV printer that can print on any material you can stuff in the print zone.
We’re waiting on a production-quality review unit for the Omni, which should be arriving soon. However, this one looks pretty good and is backed by xTool’s tremendous experience in similar categories. Machines start at $1,699 for a single UV head and go up to $3,969 for the works.
EufyMake: E1
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EufyMake, formerly known as AnkerMake, was the first company to get a desktop UV printer to market. Unfortunately, being first is not always best when it comes to technology, and the company had some supply chain issues when their Kickstarter was overwhelmingly successful. We reviewed the E1 last November.
Morpho
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Morpho is the dark horse in this race, with one of the best-looking machines we’ve seen. The unknown startup took a modest booth in the main hall and brought their founder and CEO, Brett Wang, to personally demo the unit. Wang comes from DJI, where he was the former VP of R&D and founder of the company’s camera division. If that sounds familiar, Bambu Lab’s CEO, Dr. Tao, headed up consumer drones for DJI before launching his own 3D printer company. We’re looking forward to reviewing this open-source UV printer as soon as it’s ready.
But this was Open Sauce, and though we love to see what's coming to our retail shelves, the real draw is the projects. From the experimental to the unexpected, they are all incredible creations.
Resin Printing in a Flash
Students from UC Berkeley showed off an experimental method of resin printing their department has worked on since 2017. Dubbed OpenCAL, the open-source resin printer uses a video projection method to project an entire model at once, and flash-cure it in a special resin in just a few minutes.
The specialized resin will be commercially available through FormLabs, and the printer’s specs are available online for anyone who wants to push the science forward.
Recycling All the Plastics
Some projects were a little less high-tech, but just as worthy. Peninsula Precious Plastics showed how they support STEM and the arts with a focus on sustainability. They demonstrated how plastic can be shredded, melted, and injection-molded into new products. This certainly gives me some ideas for recycling my failed prints.
Mini 3D Printers
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@TheBasedDoge came out with an array of mini 3D printers he designed, from an Encore Mini Core XY 3D printer with a 3D-printed chassis to miniature 3D printers made with DVD motors and CD drives.
A Different Kind of Engineering
Sometimes it's not even obvious which projects were 3D printed, like this giant 1/8th scale model train, large enough to take twenty adults for a ride. This built-from-scratch train had tons of 3D-printed parts to give the steel body detail for a cheaper price: the lights, the numbers, the latches, air tanks, suspension, and more. If you want to see how it’s done, you can watch a video here that shows how the train is painted and detailed.
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