Ohio State’s offer of free 3-D builds big following

*Thanks to Collin Binkley for interviewing us and writing/sharing this article about the DU3D printing pilot in the Columbus Dispatch!

Two smiling Digital Union student workers examine a 3d model on a computer screen.

This semester, Ohio State University bought two 3-D printers and spread a message across campus: For two months, students can make whatever they want on the printers for free. Continue reading

Taung Child Skull

Unless you’re working at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, you probably don’t have a Taung child skull available to examine in your own Anthro class. But since you’re at OSU, you can and print one here at the Digital Union! Download this model from Thingaverse or check out africanfossils.org where you can download models of over 40 prehistoric fossils, all for free.

Model of Taung Child Skull printed using white PLA filament.For prints like these, we encourage post-production to make the model truly reach its potential. In this instance is may be good to use small amounts of white clay to fill in the creases, sand it clean with 220 grade paper, and then top it all off with a thick, water-based, non toxic acrylic paint.

Makerbot’s in Milimeters

Hoping to save new modelers some grief with this troubleshooting tip from Makerbot Support:

Sometimes the intended size of an object can get lost in translation between your design software and slicing. Our software expects units to be set to millimeters, so make sure that your modeling software is also set for millimeters. If you open an STL or OBJ in MakerBot Desktop and it appears to be much too small, click the Scale button twice to open the Change Dimensions submenu and click Inches > mm to resize your object.