While learning about 3D printing, I was most intrigued by the possibility of modifying and repairing existing products. While there’s an amazing community with many good and free models available, I naturally reached a point where I couldn’t find what I was looking for already designed. I realized that this is an essential skill for effectively operating not just 3D printers, but really any kind of productive machine.
Since YouTube was where I learned everything about 3D printing, and all the people I looked up to there were using Fusion 360 as their CAD program, that’s what I got into.
In hindsight, it was a pretty good choice — I fell in love with the possibilities that parametric design gives me.
Below you’ll find some of my designs.
The process is something I deeply enjoy and want to explore even more.
Through trial and error, I’ve already learned a lot about designing specifically for 3D printing. But I often feel that I lack a deeper understanding of aesthetic considerations in design.
I want to broaden my general ability to design physical objects, something I hope to gain during my master’s.
In the last few years, I played around with a few smartphone cameras and was always quite sad that my scans were never accurate enough to do cool stuff with them.
I couldn’t really afford a proper 3D scanner and had already started cobbling together a Raspberry Pi camera with a cheap TOF sensor.
That setup is simple, but not nearly as precise as a laser or LiDAR sensor. Then Apple released the first phones with accessible LiDAR sensors.
Recently, through work at the university, I got access to a device with a LiDAR sensor and started having fun with it.
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This last one was scanned with just my smartphone camera. You can see that the quality is notably worse, but considering it was created with just a single, run-of-the-mill smartphone sensor, I think it’s still pretty impressive — and will certainly help democratize such technologies and capabilities.
What this section is supposed to deliver is the message that I am currently not where I want to be when navigating the vast possibilities of CAD.
I feel confident enough to approach small repairs around the flat with a new perspective, but I still lack technical expertise when it comes to designing collections of composite parts that have to function together. I still have lots of projects half-done or half-thought — and one major reason is the lack of critical exchange within my field of study.
I want to incorporate 3D printing as a method to extend the abilities of other tools — to serve mechanical or electrical purposes, be food-safe and engaging.
I fell in love with the idea of designing a toy system. Inspired by [Makeways on Kickstarter](https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/makeway/makeway-create-intricate-courses-watch-your-marbles-soar), I’ve already started adding my own parts to their set.
I dream of my very own 3D printed coffee cup — one that is both food-safe and dishwasher-safe.
For that, I’d have to do quite a bit of material research, but that only makes the idea more appealing.
I’d love to find a material composition incorporating waste, to stop relying on plastics — or at least on fossil-based ones.
Once in Berlin, I want to connect with the people at [Kaffeform](https://www.kaffeeform.com/en/), who produce largely compostable coffee cups incorporating a significant amount of used espresso grounds (albeit using injection molding).
The industry selling composite filaments is much more conservative with the percentage of non-plastic additives, because a nozzle extrusion process is much more error-prone.
Still, I would love to explore that avenue further and think there’s a lot to be gained from looking at pellet printers.
I also credit huge parts of my exploration into local recycling to the awesome people at [Precious Plastic](https://preciousplastic.com), whose open source designs helped me out a lot.
<aclass="colored external"href="https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lvonasek.arcore3dscanner&hl=en&gl=US">3D Live Scanner for Android</a>
