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Digital fabrication can produce useful household objects, custom-fit accessories, kinetic toys, and art on an unexpectedly large scale. These nine projects, featured by Eric Chu in Make: on November 17, 2016, show how 3D printing, CNC machining, laser cutting, and a 3D pen serve very different creative goals.
Useful objects made with digital fabrication
Some of the projects solve modest, tangible problems: making a better-fitting shoe insert, keeping small parts organized, or reusing an empty can as a planter. Their appeal is not just that a machine made them, but that digital tools let makers customize shapes and mechanisms to suit a particular purpose.
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Gensole Custom Insoles
Gensole is a web app that uses 3D foot scans to generate custom 3D-printable insoles. The project addresses a familiar fit problem: standard shoe inserts may not suit every foot. The 2016 feature presents the scan-to-print workflow, but does not establish current app availability or provide evidence of medical or clinical benefits.
Pip Boxes
These stackable drawers are designed to print in place, with geometry that captures the drawers so they stay in the frame instead of falling out. They are intended for organizing small parts and tools. The design makes the moving parts part of the printed object rather than relying on a separate assembly step.
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- Set Up in 15 Minutes: Spend more time printing and less time setting up. User-friendly design ensures a hassle-free assembly experience for all skill levels.
- Supported Filament: Ideal: PLA, PETG, TPU, PVA, PET ABS, ASA; Capable : PA, PC; Not Recommended: Carbon/Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer.
Campbell Planter
This self-watering planter fits over the rim of a standard-sized soup or soda can, giving the can a second use as a container. It is a small example of combining a printed component with an everyday object rather than fabricating an entire product from scratch.
Fabrication that becomes play or performance
Other projects use fabrication to make movement part of the result. Here, a machine can set up a familiar game, while a precisely cut disc creates the illusion of animation when viewed under the right conditions.
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The Pink and Green Domino Machine
Greg Zumwalt’s machine automatically sets up dominoes. Instead of serving as a finished object with a single static function, it performs a task that is usually done by hand and prepares the pieces for the next part of the game.
Laser-Cut Phenakistoscopes
Drew Tetz’s phenakistoscope discs are laser-cut and spun on a record turntable. View them with a strobe, smartphone, or videocam to see the images appear animated. The effect depends on the rotating sequence and the viewing method; the disc itself is not a screen or a video display.
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- Up to 16 Colors: Bring your designs to life with vibrant multi-color/multi-material printing capabilities, perfect for showcasing your creativity. Note: Connecting Bambu Lab AMS is required.
- 500mm/s and 20000 mm/s² Acceleration True High Speed: Don't wait around for your masterpieces. Lightning-fast printing speed lets you focus on creating, not waiting.
- Enclosed Design: Fully enclosed body improves print performance for advanced filaments. Automatic Bed Leveling: Say hello to high-quality, successful prints. Auto bed leveling makes 3D printing such an easy thing.
- Set Up in 15 Minutes: Spend more time printing and less time setting up. User-friendly design ensures a hassle-free assembly experience for all skill levels.
- Supported Filament: Ideal: PLA, PETG, TPU, PVA, PET ABS, ASA; Capable : PA, PC; Not Recommended: Carbon/Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer.
3D printing as a route to fit, optics, and flexible form
Several projects use 3D printing not merely to reproduce a rigid shape, but to explore how a printed object can fit a body, work with optics, or flex into a usable form.
SLO 3D-Printed Camera
Amos Dudley made the SLO camera with a Formlabs Form 2 SLA resin printer. Its interchangeable optical lenses make it more than a printed camera body: the design treats the lens as a replaceable part of the system. The feature notes that the lens needed substantial polishing, a reminder that a printed optical component may require significant finishing before use. The Form 2 is named as the equipment used in this 2016 project, not as a current printer recommendation.
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Z-Purse
Dragon Mountain Design’s Z-Purse is a flexible handbag made with NinjaTek SemiFlex filament. T-shaped elements and matching slots interlock along the edges, allowing the bag to hold together without glue or separate fasteners. This is a useful demonstration of designing the connection into the printed geometry itself.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.When the project becomes the spectacle
At the far end of the practical-to-aspirational range, fabrication is less about saving time or solving an everyday problem than about making an audacious object possible.
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World’s Largest 3D Pen Sculpture
A team made a full-size Nissan Qashqai crossover using a 3Doodler pen. They formed sections separately, pre-assembled them, and fused the sections together. Make: reported that the project took 800 hours in 2016; that figure applies to this car sculpture, not to 3D-pen projects generally. Its scale turns a handheld drawing tool into a means of constructing a vehicle-sized sculpture.
A CNC-made trophy with a practical twist
Deer Rack
The Deer Rack is a faux-taxidermy trophy cut from half-inch (12 mm) plywood on a CNC machine. It is also designed to function as a hanger for a hat, charms, or even a bicycle. The project pairs a decorative silhouette with a job to do, showing how CNC machining can turn sheet material into a distinctive object with a useful purpose.
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How the nine projects compare
| Project | Process or equipment | Intended use or effect |
|---|---|---|
| Deer Rack | CNC machining; half-inch (12 mm) plywood | Faux-taxidermy decor and hanger |
| Gensole Custom Insoles | 3D foot scans and 3D printing | Custom-fit shoe insoles |
| World’s Largest 3D Pen Sculpture | 3Doodler pen | Full-size Nissan Qashqai sculpture; Make: reported 800 hours in 2016 |
| Pip Boxes | 3D printing, with drawers designed to print in place | Stackable storage for small parts and tools |
| Campbell Planter | 3D printing | Self-watering planter that fits over a soup or soda can |
| The Pink and Green Domino Machine | Fabrication method not stated in Make:’s 2016 feature | Automatically sets up dominoes |
| SLO 3D-Printed Camera | Formlabs Form 2 SLA resin printing | Camera with interchangeable optical lenses |
| Z-Purse | 3D printing with NinjaTek SemiFlex filament | Flexible handbag with interlocking edges |
| Laser-Cut Phenakistoscopes | Laser cutting; viewed while spinning with a strobe, smartphone, or videocam | Animated optical effect |
The examples are a showcase rather than a controlled comparison: they span different materials, tools, and goals, and do not establish current equipment specifications or costs. Their shared lesson is that digital fabrication is not one process. The right method depends on whether the design calls for a cut sheet, a custom printed shape, a moving mechanism, or simply a striking object.
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