3D printing for work (and play). Research Fellow, Designer, Maker, Educator, Writer and other words ending in *er.
Like many people I’m completely fascinated with 3D printing, as well as a variety of other emerging technologies. This blog began at the end of 2014 as a way to document some of my 3D printing projects and the things I was learning, both successes and failures. While this passion has now become my career, I continue to share what and when I can through this blog, and hope some of the stories will benefit those of you riding this roller-coaster with me.
Below you will find links to a range of places you can follow my work, and stay up to date with the latest behind-the-scenes projects. If you’re an academic like me, or just looking for more technical papers to read, you can also find an up-to-date list of my research with links in my academic profile.
Please share, comment and enjoy.
Dr James Novak.
I have also been involved with:
Computer Aided Design & Applications Journal
You can follow my work and inspiration in the following places:
edditive blog 
Dear James, my name is Jorge Lopes , I also work with 3D printing stuff in Brazil – you can see some of my works on these two links : (http://www.dezeen.com/2009/07/16/the-fetus-project-by-jorge-lopes-dos-santos/) and
( http://www.designboom.com/technology/next-life-labs-puc-rio-3dbot-3d-printing-robot-brazil-09-16-2014/).
I came into your work through a research about 3D printing and I would like to invite you to participate on the next edition of Brazilian Design Biennial will be held in Florianópolis, in the State of Santa Catarina, in the South of Brazil, from May 15 to June 12 with your 3D printed bike.
The main subject will be “Design for All”, under the curatorship of Adélia Borges (www.adeliaborges.com) who invited me to organize the exhibition. The event is an initiative of the Ministry of Development, Industry and Foreign Trade (MDIC) and the Competitive Brazil Movement (MBC), supported by Apex-Brazil and the Government of Santa Catarina and promoted by the Federation of Industries of Santa Catarina (Fiesc) and Santa Catarina Association of Design (Design SC).
The Biennial will happen in several venues of the city, including museums, cultural centers, parks, public areas and universities. It will comprise cultural exhibitions, seminars and workshops, among other activities.
Among the exhibitions that will be presented there is “The Makers and Digital Materialization”, devoted to feature the new directions in digital manufacturing, covering mainly objects developed through 3D printing. We would be very pleased to include it in this exhibition. If you are interested in participating, we ask you to please complete the attached file by November 23. Unfortunately we are not able to invite you to come to the opening that will happen in May 15 2015. Of course we will be responsible for shipping and insurance of each product / project selected for the Biennial.
Thank you ,
best regards, Jorge
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Wow thanks very much for your interest Jorge, sounds great. Unfortunately my bike is already committed to another major 3D printing conference in May so I will have to decline this particular opportunity. All the best with your exhibition, I look forward to reading about it.
Cheers
James.
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Really enjoying following this blog and learning a lot from your experiences… Keep it up!
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Thank you so much @mr3dprint, it means a lot that the things I share are useful to you.
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Hello James, I´m playing around 3d scanning and I´d like to something about your experience scanning your face. May you please tell the programns was used, the distance from camera and light conditions and what kinkd of camera you used. I am making a lot of comparision, working to note some standards so I can share with others makers later.
Best regards.
Jorge Lencini
Porto Velho, Rondônia / Brazil
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Thanks for the question Jorge. The scan was done using an Artec handheld scanner like this one http://www.artec3d.com/hardware/artec-eva/, although an older model. This was captured using their matching software and saved as an STL for me to import into my 3D CAD software. If you’re talking about using a standard photography camera, you might like to try out a free program from Autodesk called 123D Catch which can produce 3D models by stitching together photos.
Hope that helps 🙂
– James Novak
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Hello James
My name is Oleg Lysak. I see your project FIX3D Bicycle Frame (http://a-difference-in-making.com/projects/fix3d-bike-frame/). It is fantastic solution.
I’m working in Tomsk Nanocenter Rusnano (http://en.rusnano.com/about/fiep#/nanocenter) and we are very interesting in development of additive technologies in differrent areas from bicycle to vehicles. Now I wnat to make some showcase to present all capabilities of Additive Manufactuting.
Can we discuss ways to cooperation basing your project?
I connect with your in Facebook and if you have some interest we can continue our communication in the private mail.
Best regards, Oleg
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Dear James,
it seems that you and your 3D Bikes are very popular, so that we have to hurry to ask you to support our exhibition.
In summer 2017 we, the GRASSIMUSEUM at Leipzig/Germnany (www.grassimuseum.de) will prepare a big Exhibition about the contemporary bike-design. All kind of bikes (folded, the single speed, the cargo-bike, E-bikes and: new materials, new technologies) will be focussed at the show and will be a proof that bikes will be the new (urban) mobility. I have contact with many designer of bikes in new materials: carbon, paper, plastics, bamboo and recycled Wood. But a printed bike is still missing! Therefore I want to ask if we can loan the bike from june to September 2017. All fees for transport and insurance will be payed of course. A catalogue (in geman and english) with all objects of the exhibition is planned as well.
Hope you like this idea and you could support us.
With best wishes,
Yours
Sabine Epple, Curator for modern design
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Dear James Novak,
It is Rafael Vinader from Héctor Serrano Studio. I have been searching for a email address contact but could not find you. Hope you get this message.
We are working on a new exhibition about 3D Printing at Espacio Fundación Telefónica in Madrid titled: “3D, Printing the world”.
The exhibition explores the impact of the 3D Printing in our society with pieces that range from fashion to art, architecture, science, transport or medicine.
It will take place from 14 of June 2017 until mid September. It is curated by Carmen Baselga and Héctor Serrano.
The Espacio welcomes more than 600,000 visitors every year and the gallery space is approximately 850 Square meters.
This in meant to be an international exhibition. With contributors from many different areas. We are still confirming every piece right now, so I am not able to give you a closed list. But there are some leader companies whiling to collaborate, such us: Honda, Airbus, Adidas, Stratasys, 3D Systems, BQ, Robohand…And artist like: Daniel Widrig, Janne Kyttanen, Neta Soreq, Nendo, Joris Laarman, Iñigo Bilbao…
We are very interested in including your “3D printed Bicycle” (as a physical object). In case it is available for these dates.
Fundación Telefonica will take care of all the transports and insurance costs in order to guaranty the safety of the pieces. If you find the proposal interesting we can discuss further details.
Please contact me in order to confirm your participation. We would need some graphic material such as high-res images within next week to be on time for the catalogue and media diffusion. We will of course credit to your name any image published via any channel.
Thank you very much,
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Hi Rafael, thanks very much for tracking me down 🙂 I really appreciate your offer, sounds like a great exhibition. Unfortunately after all the exhibitions the bike has been in around the world, the frame has been damaged beyond repair and I now only have the wheels and other peripheral pieces, no 3D printed frame. I’m also out of funding to produce any more. Sorry I can’t be involved, and thanks again for contacting me.
Regards
James.
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Hi David,
thanks very much for getting in touch. Unfortunately this is my personal blog and I’m not looking to advertise anything through this channel, other than sharing my own personal experiences with 3D printing and 3D printers. I wish you all the best with your 3D pen 🙂
Regards
James.
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Dear James Novak,
I am deeply interested in your inmoov project. I am too working on a same project as you, for my end of the year school project. But i have been running into some obstacles recently, can you please tell me the battery you are using? Since i have been trying to power all my servos but nothing seems to work… And this BTW is it possible for you to share my your app inventor file since im still a real newbie at this part of the the job..
Thxxxx
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Sorry there is a typo in my previous message i mean by your App inventor file a picture is fine if you are willing to share it to me thxx again
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Thanks for getting in touch. I have just emailed my reply to you, I hope the information is useful. Good luck.
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Dear James Novak,
This is Brilliant again, I forgot to ask, what battery did you use? and what servo? Since i’m already done with the arm, but im afraid for the servo to burnout, how did you solve this problem? Since I know you used the InMoov arm for an exhibition which should have runned for an entire day, did your servo burned out? Or did you turn it off when there is nobody coming to your booth?
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Hi Brilliant,
The servos I used have labels on them saying “Towar Pro MG946R Digi Hi Torque.” I remember they were not cheap, so I think they are quite a good quality servo that I’ve never had any problems with for this project. Batteries were nothing special, just 4x AA Energizer batteries. In terms of the exhibition, no I did not leave them powered up the full day, I just turned on the battery pack whenever I wanted to demo the arm to people. Hope that helps, I think if you have good quality servos they should be able to handle a lot of use. You may find more detailed info on the InMoov website/forums, it’s been a long time since I built the arm and there may be new/improved info people have shared. Hope that helps.
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Hi James,
I’m an elementary teacher in Colorado and our students have recently started 3D printing. We are holding a STEM competition in our school and we were wondering if you would be able to do a google hangout or Skype with our winning class to share some of the things you have done. If that is something you are interested you can email me at shultine@jeffcoschools.us
Stephanie Hultine
Twitter @STEMphanietime
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Hi Stephanie,
I sent you an email but haven’t heard anything back, just checking if you received it?
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Hi James,
thanks for the creative and impressive examples! as indicated through LinkedIN earlier today, I’d like to get in touch (through e-mail?) in order to discuss a “bicycle-deal”… 😉 could you contact me please? thanks in avdance & kind regards! Kris Binon
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Hello James,
I hope this message finds you well. I am an industrial design student currently studying grasshopper and parametric design. Would you be so kind as to share your .gh/rhino file for your surfboard fin generator? I would love to be to able to analyze your process. Thank you very much… your work is super inspiring !!
Best,
Luke
lukemichaeltodd [at] gmail .com
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Hello,
This is Wendy from the marketing team of Justway, a leading 3D pinrting supplier that offers wide range of 3D printing technologies, including FDM, SLA, SLS, and MJF. You can visit our website: https://www.justway.com/.
It is a pleasure to visit your website and find its content very relevant to our profession. We wonder if there is an opportunity here to work with you, and Justway would like to sponsor your 3D printing project, would you be interested in this?
We look forward to your reply.
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Hi Wendy, thanks so much for reaching out. At the moment I am lucky enough to work in a facility that has all of these 3D print technologies, so am constantly developing new projects with these (unfortunately most don’t make it onto this blog at the moment). However, I will keep your business in mind if I have any side projects or future work that may need these. Thank you.
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Thank you for your reply.
Okay, we look forward to working with you in the future!
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