05 May 2013

Make Love Not War

I wrote a press release in response to the 3D Printed gun story. Here it is:
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Make Love Not War Using Your 3D Printer

It is a shame that one of the greatest new technologies of the last few years, the consumer 3D printer, is becoming famous for printing guns. We have been given a new device that can print whatever we can design and one of the first widely publicized uses is a weapon. Why do we always invent more ways to wage war?

What the world needs more than war is love. But actually, when I say love I mean sex, really great sex. At MakerLove.com, we believe that 3D printers should be used to make sex toys. In fact, that is the entire purpose of our project. MakerLove.com is a website where people who own 3D printers can download free designs for sex toys.

Why would people want to print out sex toys with their 3D printer? First and foremost people like sex toys. Sure, they may not talk about them in public, but sex toys are fun and 53% of women in a recent survey admit to using them. The second reason people may choose to print sex toys is because it is private. 3D printer owners don’t need to go to a store to buy a sex toy; they don’t even have to order one online. They can freely and privately download a design from MakerLove.com and print their own.

If they don’t like their first design, they can print another, make adjustments in any 3D design software, or design their own toy. Skilled designers can even submit their work to the MakerLove.com project and win a cash prize if their design is chosen for sharing.

Are 3D printed sex toys the future? It is probably more likely than 3D printed guns. Guns manufacturing requires precision, high strength materials, and complex designs made of multiple components. It is important that a gun be safe to use and work reliably. Currently 3D printed guns are none of these. Most sex toys are one simple piece. Sex toys require only body-safe materials and interesting designs.

Many 3D printers can print in ABS plastic, which is body safe. While the printouts aren’t initially smooth enough to use, there are a number of ways to quickly finish the surface of these toys to make them pleasurable. 3D printed sex toys are a great alternative to their traditionally manufactured counterparts.

The 3D printed sex toy may very well make a positive impact on the lives of people, which is much more than a 3D printed gun will ever do.

MakerLove.com was created by the same team that operates Vibrators.com. Tom Nardone, the project leader is available for comments or conversations at 1-800-809-0610 or tom@priveco.com.

Shrinkage and Its Effects

I’ve been working on printing some new designs. I have about a dozen submissions but typically I have a difficult time getting them to print correctly. Unfortunately, ABS shrinks so much as it cools that anytime you try to print something long, it invariably shrinks halfway through the process and pops off of the base, then you end up printing a giant batch of spaghetti. It’s a waste of time and a pain in the neck. The trick to these items is to try to print them as vertically as possible, but that only leaves roughly 6 inches of length to work with. I’m not sure if a temperature-controlled box would do the trick. I hear that there is a patent that blocks most 3D printer manufacturers from including this in their designs, which is too bad. It seems necessary when printing in ABS. Anyone have any thoughts?
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