Self-manufacturing can be a real nightmare if you’re constantly printing useless toys and gadgets. Once you’ve exhausted the library of plastic gizmo, widget, and doodad, there’s always more thingamabob to horde. Why not use your 3D printer to repair things you already own? Below is a list of my favorite 3D models shared by hackers and makers at Thingiverse for fixing everyday objects you have around your home – like your guitar or dishwasher.

Repair Your Matsui MF654EWN Dishwasher

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D.C.’s Martin Luther King Jr. Library is proving that libraries aren’t just for books – they’re also for 3D printing and book-making. The library is using its $3.4 million grant to provide a publicly accessible 3D printer and an Espresso Book Machine for on demand book printing – great for students and self-publishers. Printing is five cents per gram plus $1 (they say most print jobs costs between $1-$5). The library also has plans to include a “Dream Lab” where users can collaborate on projects ,test drive tablets and e-readers prior to purchasing, and also publish personal novels.

Library manager Nicholas Kerelchuck is optimistic about the library’s 3D printing service as an educational tool:

They’re learning math skills, engineering skill, hard science skills…this is future job experience. I think that in 10 years if someone has experience using a 3-D printer, they are far ahead of the curve.

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Fuel 3D is an amazing scanner camera – it’s the only 3D camera to date that can capture 3D information with a handheld, portable point and shoot interface. The data collected is a 3D mesh that also includes color. Mesh object are standard .STL, .OBJ and .PLY file formats which can be used to print in 3D or to be manipulated for renderings and animations.
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It’s one thing to build a soapbox car in your backyard, but what about building your own plane? The engineers at MakerPlane hope to raise $75,000 on IndieGogo to finance the building of MakerPlane, an open source aviation project that would allow people to build their own planes using CNC mills and 3D printers.

The money would allow the organization to build an aircraft and then provide free open source plans, build instructions and electronic files to the public. Here is more about the project: “Basically we are designing an aircraft that can be built on a computer controlled mill at home, or at a makerspace which is easy to assemble and quick to build.  The plans and instructions will be available for free to anyone that wants them!”

Follow this link to check out a video demonstration of the plane. (Via Wired).

If your keyboard or bicycle wheel has not experienced the joy of flying, you should check out this 3D printed kit, Drone it Yourself. The kit is a set of 3D printable STL files and it can turn small everyday objects into a simple UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) – perfect for a weekend project. The files are modifiable, so you can redesign it and print a legion of drone kits for personal aerial acrobatics right in your own backyard.
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You probably didn’t know this equation existed: Your Smartphone Camera + 3D Printing = Latte Art. I’m not talking about rosettas or coffee heart, but your very own face. Or your cat’s. Or anything you ever took a photo of.

Unfortunately, it’s only for lucky people in Taiwan, but I am hoping with enough demand, we can also have our morning coffee with our face on it. It’s definitely easier than getting the Startbucks’ baristas to spell/pronounce names correctly.

Lithophanes are beautiful etched artwork, usually sculpted out of thin white porcelain. The result is a scene revealed with backlit diffused lighting that gives the portrait visual depth and texture. Now, you can make any of your personal photos a lithophane with a 3D printer by converting the grayscale value in each pixels for thickness. Read more

Mashing a plethora of industrial design categories will give you exactly what you’d think – bright plastic shoes with iPhone holders. The iPhone Mashup Shoe does exactly what it was commissioned to do, but it feels gaudy from trying to be too much all at once. Who wants to reach down to their feet to answer a phone call?

Designer Alan Nguyen had this to say about the shoes:

A super fun project that allowed me to question the possibilities of fusing all three categories of Art, Fashion and Product Design with the use of 3D Printing.

Via Mashable

The photon 3D scanner allows you to scan practically anything and turn it into a plastic replica:

The Photon scanner uses a high definition camera and dual laser lines to capture 3D scans in as little as 3 minutes. The Photon can scan objects up to 190mm x 190mm x 250mm (7.5″ diamter x 9.75″ height), and yet folds up into a compact size. It’s lightweight, portable, and compact, making it easy to integrate into your workspace.

 

Personal 3D scanners are rare creatures with huge potential. Imagine shopping for glasses with your new 3D model of your very own face.  This would also be useful for parents of newborns who wants to recreate their children’s feet for posterity. Read more

Unless you are a celebrity like Neil Patrick Harris or a notable video game designer like Cliff Bleszinki, you probably won’t have a chance to empty your pockets on a pair of Google Glasses.

Bu why pay $1500 for the real thing when you can print your own Google Glass imitation? Some time and access to a 3D printer will produce these plastic Google Glasses that look just as great and can fool most at first glance. Be sure to walk around pretending to talk to your new device to make the appearance even more convincing.

You can download the 3D model from industrial designer Joris van Tubergen at Makerbot’s Thingiverse site.