Last night I had my first exposure to 3D Printing at our local Makerspace AssentWorks. They have over a quarter of a million dollars worth of equipment and tools there and for $100 a month anyone can go in, 24 hours a day, and build whatever they want. It’s a cool concept and the tools are even cooler. Maybe most especially, the 3D printer.

If you don’t know what a 3D Printer is think of that device on Star Trek that made food materialize out of thin air. 3D Printing isn’t quite there but it’s getting close. You “print” your 3D CAD drawing to the device and it lays down melted plastic (in some cases, other materials apparently) to form your drawing in real life. And it can be incredibly precise.

Here’s a 3D mascot figurine someone had been working on fresh out of the oven.

And a shelf full of other figurines that have been left behind on display.

This is a whistle that been printed with THE BALL ALREADY INSIDE. Sorry for the all caps but, really. That’s just crazy.

Here’s a torus with a ball inside it. The ball is actually pretty cool. It has two other smaller balls inside of it. All printed inside each other much like the ball inside the whistle.

And here’s the beast itself.

Insane. There was even more cool stuff at AssentWorks but the 3D Printer was just amazing. If you ever get a chance to check one out in person don’t pass it up.