3D Printers and Printing

The H480 has done it again! We are happy to announce that Make: Magazine has named the Afinia H480 as “Reliable Performer” in their Ultimate Guide to 3D Printing 2015, and has included the Afinia in the top 10 3D printers (out of the 26 tested). In recent years, we have also been awarded “Best Overall Experience,” “Easiest to Use,” and “Easiest to Set Up.” To test the printers for the Ultimate Guide to 3D Printing 2015, Make: ran 26 3D printers through their paces to create side-by-side comparisons, and to identify the top performing 3D printers across nine classes, with our Afinia H480 tops in the “Reliable Performer” class. [Read more…]

Young adults and children are our future. As they continue to grow, they change our world with their thoughts and actions. At Afinia, we recognize how their thoughts and actions are influenced by educators and schooling, and therefore, how an education that emphasizes STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) is extremely important. Many of our customers in the field of education have realized the benefits of including 3D printing in their classrooms and makerspaces, and have incorporated this technology into their lessons. Their passion and creativity are inspiring, and we wish to share their stories. We’re proud to announce our second eBook, Afinia 3D Printer-Enhanced Educators: Stories of Success. [Read more…]

Lis Bokt is the Executive Director of The Geek Group, a 43,000 square foot makerspace in Grand Rapids, MI, where individuals can work on projects, regardless of scope. Geeks of the World: Unite! Since we last spoke with Bokt in April, The Geek Group has grown from about 25,500 members to nearly 30,000. “Our members span the globe. We have a lot of members in the UK and Australia, and even have members in Bulgaria, Scandinavia, and Brazil,” says Bokt. Even though using the facility in Grand Rapids, Michigan is not an option for these international members, they are able to take advantage of other opportunities. “Distant members get access [Read more…]

TANDEMKROSS is a New Hampshire-based company that locally designs and manufactures gun improvement products. Their mission is to solve firearm problems that the manufacturers can’t or won’t: Making good guns great. Competitive Shooters Their market is predominantly gun-owners who use their firearms for competitive shooting. They make magazine expanders, front and rear sights, and kits to simplify the takedown of guns for cleaning, as well as many other accessories for Ruger, KelTec, and other manufacturers. “The firearm industry, as we know it today, has been around since the 50’s. When you look back at the number of manufacturers that have been around for a while, there aren’t that many. Colt, [Read more…]

Afinia 3D, a leading supplier of Desktop 3D Printers, now offers a new line of Premium PLA filament at store.afinia.com. Current colors include Green, Blue, and Gray, with Black, White, and Natural becoming available in the fall. PLA, also known as Polylactic Acid, is a cornstarch derivative and is the world’s second most commonly-used 3D printing thermoplastic. “Afiniacs are an enthusiastic and creative bunch, and they have asked us to add PLA filament to our line-up. In our experience, 3rd party manufactured PLA filaments do not print consistently and have issues with brittleness, nozzle clogging, and bridging or spider webbing that can leave users disappointed with the results. Our Premium [Read more…]

3D Printed Minnesota Wild Logo The Minnesota Wild are still hanging on in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. After upsetting the Colorado Avalanche, they are giving the defending champion Chicago Blackhawks a run for their money. The Wild logo was designed by John Westrum of Afinia, this print showcases our H-Series’ ability to easily stop in mid-job and change filament colors. Red layer first, followed by Yellow, Green and White. [Read more…]

Clark Barnett is an Educator and Education Technology Consultant in Thousand Oaks, CA. He is currently part of the Conejo Valley Unified School District and an Adjunct Professor at Pepperdine University. In education circles, he’s known for his Ecosystem and build-a-bug Entomology labs. Engaging Through Experience “I was trying to figure out how to really engage my students because Ecosystems and Entomology are subjects that are far more interesting to experience than to read about. Fortunately, I got my hands on an Afinia Desktop 3D Printer last summer and the teaching ideas just began to flow. I decided to tell the kids that the classroom was an Environment in which [Read more…]

Afinia H-Series-printed models are featured in the just-released project book Modeling in SketchUp for 3D Printing, by Bonnie Roskes. Bonnie Roskes of 3DVinci has been writing SketchUp project books and producing YouTube tutorials for over 12 years. She has recently turned her attention to using SketchUp to create models for 3D printing. Bonnie says, “The 3D printing seed was planted when several teachers approached me about writing a project book on this topic. Schools are funding STEM, and 3D printers are finding their way to more and more classrooms.” “Teachers with 3D printers often wonder how to get started and what to make. My book opens by discussing printer types, [Read more…]

Welcome back to Time Lapse Thursday! This week we have a few people at the Inside 3D Printing Conference and Expo, we wanted to print something that will appeal to the inner nerd in all of us, as well as give our team a little something to chat about while at the conference. So for today’s print we chose the mascot for the newest release of Android – Kit Kat created by p0Pe. To all our Android and Google fans out there – How SWEET is this? We printed our file at Z Layer Resolution : 0.15mm Fill: Loose Material: ABS Quality: Fine With Raft Size: 81.00 x 120.25 x [Read more…]

Happy Time Lapse Thursday! This week we’re highlighting the H-Series’s new capability for pausing the print and swapping out the filament. We chose to print a Knot Vortex designed by SteedMaker, and printed it on glass. This object was printed with a normal quality setting and the printer still turns out this amazingly detailed object. The whole print took about 9 hours to complete printing, and this is including the time for the 2 filament swaps. It turned out to be a nice piece that everyone here at the office comments on when they walk past. Our file was printed at: Z Layer Resolution : 0.20mm Fill: Loose Material: ABS [Read more…]

Happy Time Lapse Thursday! This week we wanted to print something that would be a little difficult to print, but still interesting and has that WOW factor. You may have seen this before, but we chose to print a Ball in a Cage the Twists the design is created by stevemedwin. We decided to shake things up a bit and print it on a glass piece. The glass was prepped with a solution that helps the filament stick to the plate, and set to dry for a few minutes. Then off we went… Our file was printed at: Z Layer Resolution: 0.15mm Fill: Loose Material: ABS Quality: Fine With Raft [Read more…]

Welcome to our new weekly video series – Time Lapse Thursday! For our first video we thought we’d start out with something quick and fun to print. we found a Jigsaw Cube design created by TheSeend, and we realized it was a great place to start. The set up was quite easy, and It only took a few hours to print. I recommend this print for anyone that might be new to 3D printing, it’s a great file to try different printing techniques. Check out the video here: Time Lapse Thursday – JigSawCube Print Details Z Layer Resolution: 0.15mm Fill: Big Hole Material: ABS Quality: Fast No Raft Final Print [Read more…]

Thank you for your support of our teacher, students and school. The Target Range school community is fortunate to have innovative educators that bring practical experiences to our students. The 3D printer that you have supplied has increased our ability even more. Thank you very much. Partnerships are positive for education and I look forward to continuing our partnership with you. [Read more…]

Many thanks to Rich Brown of CNET for doing this review. Here’s a summary: The good: The Afinia H-Series 3D Printer (H479) strikes the right balance between ease of use and configurability. It also gets you printing faster than any other 3D printer we’ve tested so far. The bad: The H479 has a smaller build platform than its competitors, some elements of its software are confusing, and your objects will need some post-print TLC to look their best. The bottom line: No 3D printer is perfect yet, but the Afinia H-Series H479 3D printer is the most approachable model we’ve reviewed, and we’d recommend it to anyone serious about getting [Read more…]

Dr. Phil Metzger, Ph.D. is the Lead Research Physicist and founder of NASA’s Granular Mechanics and Regolith Operations (GMRO) Lab, which is part of the Surface Systems Swamp Works (gotta love it). Here’s Phil’s explanation of what the GMRO does: “The GMRO Lab develops technologies primarily related to regolith – that is, excavation, conveyance, in and out of chemical processors, manufacturing and construction with regolith, site preparation, landing pad construction, prediction of rocket exhaust blast effects, etc.” It is the GMRO’s work that will make lunar 3D printing possible. Here’s Phil’s mind-expanding take on the motivation, challenges and possibilities. “The cost of a lunar mission is directly proportional to the [Read more…]

Your printer is by far the best on the market, hurry up and work with up! to get larger volume. [Read more…]

The Afinia looks more like the sum of the engineering process behind it than does the Form 1 — more industrial, less polished. By the time we had found Afinia the crowds were in full flow, so getting to speak to anyone proved impossible however we did get to take a look at the machines (essentially a re-badged Up!) and some of the parts. Afinia was also riding the wave of a prize win from Make: Magazine in the form of the ‘Best Overall Experience’ in the Ultimate Guide to 3D Printing. If the crowds on the stand are anything to go by this little FDM-style machine has legs. The [Read more…]

Steve Norris of www.NorrisLabs.com loves to make ‘Bots, so much so that he produces one every two months, photographs and writes about them in his blog. (Editor’s Note: Steve has about 20 of them detailed on his site.). As a Contributing Editor at Robot Magazine, he is continually challenging the status quo to create things that have never been seen before. As an example, one need go no farther than the hilarious RoboStool, the name of which, Steve quickly points out, is quite funny in its own right. So, where did the idea come from? I’m not really sure, but one day while waiting for my wife to finish shopping [Read more…]

I have used a couple of other 3D printers. Involved in some kickstarter projects as well for others. This one is the first 3D printer that has ‘just worked’ (almost see below) and I highly recommend it. I have printed in the 5 weeks I’ve had it an amazing amount of ABS. With the holiday season many folks received an ‘I made this’ gift. The problems I’ve had. 1) SD card had to be removed, reformated before it would actually work. 2) ABS printing doesn’t seem to ‘stick’ as well as I would like. I wonder if a bit more heat on the bed would be good. The greatest thing [Read more…]

This was a Christmas present for my husband, but it has been a lot of fun for both of us. The quality of the prints is very good, definitely good enough for small things and sturdy enough to give most things to our toddler. I’m glad we waiting a couple years for the technology to mature, but this printer is pretty user friendly. The setup for the printer once we received it was pretty simple. The only things that needed tweaking from shipping were the platform leveling, and entering the values from the included calibration print file after we printed it. So far most of what we’ve done is print [Read more…]

So far, I’m very pleased with the unit. It worked as I expected it would. Easy to use and good print quality. The software is better than expected. I like the way it builds its own base below the actual print. My 10 year old daughter imported a cat into sketchup. We exported it into an STL, using a free plugin and it printed perfectly, without any tweaking. I’m looking forward to using it for more serious jobs. Reviewed by: Kai Kaletsch from Saskatoon, Canada. on 1/13/2013 [Read more…]