#Colorado - #Libraries and the ‘economy of sharing’

An ode to the palace of the people

By Kaylee Harter - Apr. 9, 2025

"Visit one of BPL’s #makerspaces, a feature that’s become a staple in many libraries, and you can use #3DPrinters, #looms, #LaserCutters, #ScreenPrinting equipment and more.

" 'It’s a collaborative learning environment,' Farnan says. 'We’re learning together. If you were to go into the makerspace today and ask, like, ‘I’m thinking about doing this,’ then they would say, ‘I don’t know how to do that, but let’s figure it out.’

" 'That is inherently resilient.'

"He recalls a blind artist who came in with a unique challenge: 'She wanted to be able to see her drawings.'

" 'They worked with her with 3D printers, with the laser cutters and that kind of thing, in order to transfer her drawings into dimensional objects, because they were abstractions, so that she could then see them with her fingers.'

"Despite the always expanding array of programming and services, the books themselves — and literacy for all ages — are ever important."

https://boulderweekly.com/special-editions/libraries-and-the-economy-of-sharing/

#WatertownMA - Watertown's "#LibraryOfThings" offers creative #community #workspace. Here's a look inside.

Story by Jordyn Jagolinzer

"The library in Watertown, Massachusetts is providing the tools and a space for people to get creative and learn new skills.

" 'A lot of libraries have started a 'library of things' collection, but they don't have necessarily a space to allow people to just make and create and build community,' Watertown Public Library director Kim Hewitt said. 'We have a big Hatch-maker space and that was one of the first in the area.'

"The 'Hatch' facility on Summer Street is right around the block from the main library. The workshop is stocked with tools, materials and expertise for everyone to learn in a venue that fosters #creativity.

"We have scraps of material to play around with, the #SewingMachines, or create something, #JewelryMaking. It doesn't have to be prescriptive. You can go there and see what appeals to you," Hewitt said.

"The #Hatchspace is a standout amongst similar programs in Massachusetts, and it just celebrated it's tenth birthday. It has #ButtonMakers, #LaserCutters, and even #3DPrinters.

"Talented expert volunteers are on hand to assist patrons with their projects, which is how Seth Deitch first started making things in the space.

" 'We're very lucky to have the people that we have who volunteer here. Many of them are extremely talented. Lots of people with advanced degrees,' Deitch said.

"Hatch also offers workshops that more and more people in the community are getting involved in.

" 'It's nice having a space for the entire community that's free to come to and work at,' Deitch said. 'Nowadays, people spend a lot of their time staring at screens, not enough working with their hands.'

"The best part is, anyone in the state can get in on the fun.

" 'As long as you're a #Massachusetts resident, you can get a library card at the #WatertownPubliclibrary,' said Ran Cronin, the library's access services supervisor.

"The library is hoping to expand the Hatch space. It also has one of the largest English language-learning programs, called #ProjectLiteracy, which serves 900 students per year."

Source:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/watertown-s-library-of-things-offers-creative-community-workspace-here-s-a-look-inside/ar-AA1Cfel3

Quick Post #5: A Utility for Converting .obj Files Created by Microsoft 3D Builder
There are several different file formats for specifying 3d objects (as Tannenbaum wrote, "The good thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from." One such standard is the obj or .obj open format. By itself, the .obj file definition does not support coding surface shading properties in the .obj file,
https://www.mcgurrin.info/robots/8123/
#Uncategorized #obj #3DBuilder #3DPrinters #python

I'm struggling to decide between the #prusa core one or the mk4s. I already own a mini+. Anyone got opinions or feedback on comparisons? #3dprinting #3dprint #3dprinter #3dprinters

Quick Post #4: 3d Printed Monitor Stand
I have a 7" touch screen monitor for Raspberry Pi's. I wasn't happy with the stand that it originally came with, which was rather flimsy, and the stand broke twice. But I got a 3d printer from my wife for Christmas, and I decided I could build a better stand for it. To design the stand, I used TinkerCad, which while less sophisticated than many other tools,
https://www.mcgurrin.info/robots/8090/
#Uncategorized #3DPrinters #MonitorStand #RaspberryPi

shout out to sn4k3 on github whomst authors UVtools, a fantastic analysis and repair tool for resin-using SLA #3dPrinters - it’s a swiss-army knife of tools for making sure your sliced file is really truly ready to go onto your printer for the next N hours of printing.

he does not have an SLA printer. he does it all using printer specs and file format reverse engineering and such and waits for user reports about whether or not it works for the actual hardware.

the readme on the project goes into a lot more detail, and the various pages of the wiki, particularly around the calibration topics, have a delightfully personal voice to go along with the person you meet in the readme.

even if you’re not into SLA printers or software, it might be a fun read for you.

https://github.com/sn4k3/UVtools/

as finicky as FDM #3dPrinters are they’re an absolute cakewalk compared to SLA printers, which are finicky and more grumpy about being finicky. oh what I wouldn’t give for an SLA printer with the repeatability of my weird frankensteined Voxelab bedslinger.

3D-printed #guns, like the one allegedly used to kill #UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, are a growing threat in the US and around the world. A tech management professor on why they’re likely to be used in even more criminal activities: https://theconversation.com/3d-printed-guns-like-the-one-allegedly-used-to-kill-a-health-care-ceo-are-a-growing-threat-in-the-us-and-around-the-world-246220
#ghostguns #crime #3Dprinters

Klipper on the M3D, New Mechtrum DLX and used 5M pro.

https://makertube.net/videos/watch/14ab90c5-edea-4c91-9b6e-d346e9bfabfa

Joshua Bird hat nicht nur einen neuen Ansatz für #3dprinters mit polarer Kinematik entwickelt, sondern einen Prototypen aus Standard-Komponenten gebaut, die Firmware erstellt und eine funktionierende Slicing-Software geschrieben.
Ein echt vielversprechender 4-Achs Drucker fürs "Einsteiger" Preissegment.

Das ganze geht direkt #opensource !
Hut ab! ... wir werden bald die ersten Maschinen in der Community so drucken sehen.

#3dprinting #innovation
https://youtu.be/VEgwnhLHy3g?feature=shared https://mastodon.social/@silentknight/113583093508267284

Joshua Bird hat nicht nur einen neuen Ansatz für #3dprinters mit polarer Kinematik entwickelt, sondern einen Prototypen aus Standard-Komponenten gebaut, die Firmware erstellt und eine funktionierende Slicing-Software geschrieben.
Ein echt vielversprechender 4-Achs Drucker fürs "Einsteiger" Preissegment.

Das ganze geht direkt #opensource !
Hut ab! Ich bin mir sicher wir werden schon bald die ersten Maschinen in der Community so drucken sehen...

#3dprinting #innovation
https://youtu.be/VEgwnhLHy3g?feature=shared

OSHW Open Source Hardware the (new) Prusa 3DPrinters are not OSHW anymore

@Timpostma

#OpenSource #3DPrinters #Prusa #OSHW #3DPrinting

https://hackaday.com/2024/11/20/with-core-one-prusas-open-source-hardware-dream-quietly-dies/

Last year, as part of her Math Teachers' Circle leadership, my wife made a Julia Robinson Math Festival in a box, and started loaning it out to teachers. JRMF sells such things, but because it's tricky for some complicated reasons to get grant money to pay for the ones they sell, she worked out how to do it more cheaply, doing a lot of the work herself.

So this year, the North Carolina Council of Teachers of Mathematics asked her to make eight more boxes to share around the state at their upcoming conference, and they worked out enough grant money to pay for most of the materials for her mostly DIY boxes.

This is why my #3DPrinters are going day and night printing 640 Skyscrapers puzzle pieces.

I modeled them to print parsimoniously, but 640 of anything takes a while even with fast 3D printers. My Qidi X-Max 3 has faster acceleration (helpful for boxes 20mm square) but a 0.4mm nozzle and lower power hot end, so each wall takes four perimeters and I'm using thinner 0.2mm layers. My SK-Tank has half the acceleration (still 10K mm/s²!) but a 0.6mm nozzle that allows it to print the walls in two perimeters and a higher-power hot end, so I can use thicker 0.3mm layers (I could go thicker but the parts would suffer cosmetically). 80 4-unit-high blocks take about 30 hours on the Qidi; 80 1-unit-high blocks take about 7 hours on the SK-Tank, so not hugely different in the end.

That's actually 1600 20mm³ units. 1600 of anything takes a long time. Ignoring any print failures, that's about 148 printer-hours of time. Across two printers, that will average out to about 3 print-days.

We're making lots more opportunities for kids to explore the joys of math.

#3DPrinters of Mastodon, what do you do with your old printers? Please boost for responses! #3Dprinting #3DPrinter #recycle #upcycle #oldtech #upgrade #prusa #Prusa3D #creality #ender3 #creality3d #printrbot

Ice Cream 3D Printer
https://hasanshaukat.wordpress.com/projects/ice-cream-3d-printer/ presented by Hasan Shaukat
#3dprinters #icecream #bhnt #bhnt97 @BHNT

If anyone has any 3D Prints to suggest for interesting ways to reuse pet bottles (mostly 16.9fl oz/500mL bottles but some 2 liters also), hit me up. Obviously I can search thingiverse but that's a LOT to dig through and about half of it is funnels/watering can caps, so I want to know what neat stuff other people have found. And trying to Google this just gives me a million posts about making filament out of bottles which isn't what I meant lol

I don’t know anything about #3dPrinters, but am hoping you folks can help me out. What is a good place to start in the under $500 (preferably less), open source, 3d printing realm? I want to make some toys, functional and precise replacement pieces when fixing things, mostly consumer electronics, and I want to be able to set it up with ease.

#Anycubic users say their #3Dprinters were hacked to warn of a #securityflaw
This #vulnerability allegedly enables potential attackers to control any Anycubic #3Dprinter affected by this vulnerability using the company's #MQTT service #API.
The hacked_machine_readme.gcode file received by the impacted devices also asks Anycubic to open-source their 3D printers because the company's software "is lacking." The file claims 2,934,635 devices downloaded this warning .
https://techcrunch.com/2024/02/28/anycubic-users-3d-printers-hacked-warning/