The Black Sperm of my Vengeance

Blog Type Content Portal for Writer Scott J Grunewald

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tweet of the century

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3D Printing Was the Most Important Technology of 2015

3D Printing Was the Most Important Technology of 2015

I’m open to the suggestion that I may be a little biased on the subject, but I think this past year no other technology has proven that it will completely alter the world the way that 3D printing has.  2015 certainly saw plenty of amazing technology come into its own, but it’s hard to ignore the fact that most of the year’s big developments are still decades away from making any real world impact. The self-driving cars from Google are impressive and are probably at the very least the future of mass transit, but they’re still years away from hitting the road, and the artificial intelligence that will run them is almost embryonic in its development. But additive manufacturing has had quite the year, and I think one that will go down in the history books as the point of no return when the end of traditional manufacturing as we know it became inevitable.

2015 was nothing short of a transformative year for 3D printing, and while it may have seen the bottom fall out from under two of the industry’s biggest companies when Stratasys and 3D Systems took massive hits to their stock prices, it hasn’t slowed down the sales of 3D printers. In fact, not only did the industry grow yet again this year, but it is expected to continue to grow well into 2020. The shaky financial positions of two of the industry’s heavy hitters is less a symptom of 3D printing’s bubble bursting and more a sign that people are becoming much more savvy when it comes to 3D printing technology.

Both Stratasys and 3D Systems focused rather heavily on the desktop 3D printer market last year and frankly they were a little less than straightforward with what their technology was capable of. But rather than get angry or frustrated and leave 3D printing altogether, it seems that many consumers just started migrating to other 3D printer manufacturers. The meteoric success of companies like XYZprinting, Flashforge and Robo 3D is testament that the desire for 3D printers is alive and kicking, consumers are just looking for more value and fewer bells and whistles. The fact that the largest companies in the industry can falter while everyone else grows is a pretty good indication that 3D printing has reached a point where the technology is more important than the companies that sell it.

Continued on 3DPrint.com

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Using 3D Printing to Make This Amazing Star Wars: The Force Awakens Kylo Ren Helmet

Using 3D Printing to Make This Amazing Star Wars: The Force Awakens Kylo Ren Helmet

It is probably safe to say that the new Star Wars film, The Force Awakens, is one of the most anticipated movies in decades. Our entire generation has grown up on Star Wars, and everything that we’ve seen from the movie so far has exceeded expectations on almost every level. One of the stand out new characters that has a lot of Star Wars fans excited is the film’s primary antagonist, the mysterious Kylo Ren. We have only caught brief glimpses of him in the trailers and production art that has been released so far. But the sight of Kylo Ren with his Darth Vader-inspired helmet and ragged, self-built lightsaber (the one with the lightsaber hilt) already has fans and cosplayers excited and eager to dress up as him.

For 28-year-old engineerLuke Daley, 3D printing and 3D design are hobbies that he uses to fill his free time at night, after coming home from his day job with Siemens. Currently he’s a member of several Star Wars costuming groups with his wife, and heavily involved with the 99th Garrison and the UKG ( part of the world wide 501st Garrison). So while Daley is heavily involved in the Star Wars cosplaying community, it turns out that this is actually the first helmet that he’s designed and built all on his own. However it certainly doesn’t show based on the finished product, which is only the first part of Kylo Ren’s costume that he’s going to be working on.

Daley started his project back in April 2015 after the Star Wars Celebration Anaheim showed off the complete Kylo Ren costume. Unfortunately he was unable to attend the event, but after seeing some of the pictures posted online, he knew exactly what his next costume project was going to be. Using every bit of reference material that he could lay his hands on, Daley spent almost 100 hours designing in Solidworks getting the helmet details just right. After posting the digital files on MyMiniFactory, where anyone can download them for free, Daley was kind enough to walk me through the entire process of designing, printing and the finishing of his fantastic prop helmet.

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Watch 3D Printed Actions Figures Battle in This Awesome Stop Motion Video

Watch 3D Printed Actions Figures Battle in This Awesome Stop Motion Video

Toy designer Hauke Scheer had been creating his own line of custom designed action figures and toys the traditional way for years until he discovered 3D printing in 2013. Since then he has been making and selling all of his figures using his 3D printer. Because he got so good at designing them he was often asked to create figures for other people’s properties. Eventually he simply started to design his own line of 3D printed toys and sell them via his website. We wrote abouthis cool action figures last year, and his skill at creating toys using a 3D printer has only gotten better since.

All of Scheer’s figures are designed using The Foundry’s Modo Software, which is unconventional for 3D printable objects, but because he has a long background in animation and games he simply found it easier to design with a program that he already knew how to use. It certainly hasn’t held him back any, as his 3D printed, fully articulated action figures are some of the best that I’ve ever seen. All of the parts are 3D printed using his Stratasys Mojo 3D printer, and Scheer chose to print them using ABS so the small parts are nice and durable. The figures snap together and assemble using no glue of any kind, and are then hand painted using standard acrylic paints.

Scheer was looking to find a creative way to show off how posable and sturdy his new figures were, so he decided to film a stop motion animated movie. The video features an updated version of his Caveman action figure, and a whole bunch of his 3D printed robot figures are getting in on the action too. The new Caveman is his first figure that uses only ball joints to move the limbs and parts, and he found his design to work exactly as he wanted it to.

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The Bike Project is Creating the First 3D Printable Open Source Bike called OBI

The Bike Project is Creating the First 3D Printable Open Source Bike called OBI

A pair of Dutch industrial design students named Stef de Groot and Paul De Medeiros have started developing the Bike Project, a completely open sourced 3D printable bike called OBI the Open Bicycle. They hope that their hard work will inspire others to customize and 3D print their own bicycle, and once the first working bike has been completed, the designers will release their designs for free. Anyone will be invited to improve, customize or alter OBI to suit their own individual needs. The goal is to create a template that will allow anyone to build a fully-functional bicycle for about $450 in parts and materials.

Because OBI will be made almost entirely of 3D printed parts only a handful of the bike components will need to be sourced. De Medeiros and de Groot also say that OBI will be the first truly modular bicycle, so virtually every part can be easily replaced without requiring any specialized tools. So if the bike is damaged or a part is broken, there will be no need to buy expensive replacements or take it to an expensive repair shop since the part can simply be reprinted and easily changed. And because it will be open source, all of the parts can be improved, customized or altered to suit the needs of each individual user.

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Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ BB-8 Droid gets a Halloween Costume Courtesy of a 3Doodler

Star Wars: The Force Awakens’ BB-8 Droid gets a Halloween Costume Courtesy of a 3Doodler

The remote controlled BB-8 droid from the next Star Wars movie is all but destined to be the must-have toy of the upcoming holiday season. Considering that it is currently sold out almost everywhere it is also destined to cause many a gray hair on a frazzled parent’s head. But if you’re lucky enough to have one now, why not get into the Halloween spirit first? That’s exactly what the 3Doodler team did when they got their hands on a BB-8 of their very own. Using their handheld 3D printing pen, BB-8 was carefully given a whole selection of adorable Halloween costumes to choose from.

The remote controlled BB-8 toy on its own is a pretty amazing little invention called a holonomic robot, which means that the little guy is capable of instantaneously moving in any direction along the horizontal plane. The technology that makes the tiny droid work is based on theSphero, a remote controlled ball that works using an internal gyroscope that tells it which way is up and which way is down. Internal wheels drive against the inside of the outer shell, which causes the entire ball to roll. BB-8’s droid head is held on top of the ball with an internal magnet that is always kept at the top of the ball using the same internal gyroscope. The internal magnet is counterbalanced with the battery pack to help keep BB-8’s head in the correct place.

Since the head isn’t actually connected to the ball portion of the BB-8 droid, it’s pretty easy to remove and won’t damage the rest of the droid. And the 3Doodler team wasted no time in using their handheld 3D printing pen to give BB-8 some new duds. Well, some new heads at least, in the form of some famous Star Wars faces. BB-8 was dressed up as Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader, R2D2 and the most adorable Princess Leia that you’ve probably ever seen. He also got to dress up as a mustache-wearing pirate, eye patch and all.

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3D Printing Brings the Award Winning Artwork of John Nickle to Life

3D Printing Brings the Award Winning Artwork of John Nickle to Life

Illustrator John Nickle has been making a living as an artist for newspapers, magazines, novel covers and children’s books for over 25 years now. His body of work is as diverse as it gets, ranging from serious journalism to humorous commentary and criticism. His art can easily shift from surreal to childlike and over to dark and moody depending on the subject matter, and sometimes even a mix of all three. His work graces the covers of hard boiled crime novels and absurd and silly children’s books alike, and while all of his art is distinctly his, it never feels out of place or like it doesn’t belong.

Thus far he has had quite the career, and he has the resume and awards to prove it. Over the span of his career he’s counted just about every major book publisher as a client at one point or the other, from Random House to Harlequin. Newspapers and magazines like the New York Times to Sports Illustrated regularly call on him for his art services. And his award winning children’s book The Ant Bully, a story about a young bullied boy who is shrunken down to the size of ants after he takes his frustrations out on their colony, was turned into an animated film in 2006.

And now, after all his years as a working artist, Nickle is now bringing his artwork into an entirely new dimension. Specifically the third one, thanks to 3D Printing 4 Everyone (3DP4E) and their new 3D printing service 3DArtGeeks.com. The new website works with artists of all kinds to turn their two-dimensional artwork into three-dimensional statues. Nickle worked closely with the 3DArtGeeks team and turned three of his most intriguing pieces of art into cool 3D printed sculptures that his fans can purchase and display.

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3D Printing Helped Bring Avengers: Age of Ultron’s Breakout Superhero, The Vision, to Life

3D Printing Helped Bring Avengers: Age of Ultron’s Breakout Superhero, The Vision, to Life

As one of the highest grossing films of all time it is a pretty safe bet that the Marvel Studios’ latest film, Avengers: Age of Ultron, did something right. There were certainly plenty of notable moments and new characters in the film, but there was almost universal praise for the Vision, the newest Avenger played by Paul Bettany. Acting in a Marvel film wasn’t new to Bettany, as he had voiced Tony Stark’s digital butler J.A.R.V.I.S. through all three Iron Man films and the first Avengers movie. But when it came time to cast the android superhero Marvel brought him on screen, and then promptly hid him behind makeup and prosthetics.

Any actor who has been through the rigors of wearing a lot of prosthetic makeup in a film will talk about the challenges involved, both as an actor and just as a person being asked to sit still for hours on end. Heavy prosthetic makeup can restrict many of an actor’s tools such as facial expressions and body language, so they often have to learn entire new ways of communicating with film viewers. And considering they are usually required to spend several hours sitting in place before they even are given the chance to act, the process is often nothing short of exhausting.

However Bettany’s performance was widely regarded as one of the highpoints of Age of Ultron by both critics and fans alike. As a long time comic reader, I was highly skeptical that Marvel and the film’s director, nerd overlord Joss Whedon, would be able to bring the Vision to life without sacrificing his visual impact. A tall, bright red and green android just seems like it would work better in a comic than on a movie screen. Not only was I wrong, but it turns out that the amazing makeup not only sold the visual look of the character, but allowed Bettany the freedom to do what he was hired to do–act.

The Vision’s makeup was designed and supervised by Jeremy Woodhead and Nik Williams fromAnimated Extras, two film veterans who have worked on makeup-heavy films like the Lord of the Ringstrilogy, V for Vendetta, Cloud Atlas and Jupiter Ascending. Thankfully they had five months to develop the makeup effects for Vision, and were able to test several different approaches to realizing his look. They explored a full-body suit and full-facial prosthesis but their final design ended up somewhere in the middle. Not having to worry about how to make a full prosthetic suit and full-facial prosthesis work gave them more time to focus on perfecting the look of the few prosthetic makeup devices that they would end up using.

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Turn 3D Photos into 3D Pop-Up Cards Using a Kinect or Asus Xtion 3D Camera

Turn 3D Photos into 3D Pop-Up Cards Using a Kinect or Asus Xtion 3D Camera

As 3D photography becomes cheaper and more appealing to average users, people are finding all sorts of new ways to use the technology. Primarily it tends to be used in industrial and business applications. However, in the last few years makers have been turning things like the XBox Kinect into a makeshift 3D scanner, or an inexpensive way to simply capture some 3D data. But the problem with 3D photos is a simple one: what exactly do you do with them? You can’t really print a 3D photo out, and unless you have a digital picture frame they’re certainly not going to decorate your desk or photo wall at home. Turning them into 3D printable objects is a possibility of course, but it’s expensive and there are only so many memories that you will have room to display in your home.

Blogger and maker Kawamoto Ken was dealing with this very dilemma when he came up with an idea to use 3D point cloud data to auto generate popup cards. Using his Asus Xtion to collect the 3D data, Ken developed an algorithm that easily converts data captured with an off-the-shelf 3D camera into what is essentially a 2D image. Once the 2D image is printed out, parts of the photo just need to be cut out and popped into position. The finished product feels like a 3D image that can conveniently be folded up as flat as a 2D image. They can easily stored away, put in a picture book or even flattened and mailed like a card.

There are other ways to create a pop-up picture that doesn’t involve using complicated 3D cameras, but none of them are quite as fun as Ken’s method. And there are certainly ways to turn a 2D image into a 3D image, but the quality isn’t always going to be the same, and the process isn’t any less complicated than Ken’s. Granted, not everyone has access to a 3D camera like a Kinect or an Xtion, but those are both relatively inexpensive options. Go ahead and look up some of the other few 3D cameras available, if you have $600 to spend on a FinePix 3D go for it. But a Kinect can usually be purchased from eBay for pretty cheap, and will work almost as well.

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3D Print Your Own Raspberry Pi Powered Mini Nintendo Entertainment System

3D Print Your Own Raspberry Pi Powered Mini Nintendo Entertainment System

While it certainly wasn’t the first home game console, the Nintendo Entertainment System is probably the most recognizable, even 30 years after it was first released in the United States. In its lifetime, the NES sold almost 62 million units all over the world and revitalized a video game industry that had seen several years of sagging sales. One of the main features often attributed to the massive success of the NES was the design of the case. It was made to look similar to other home electronics, with the front-loading cartridges being reminiscent of a VCR. And Nintendo was very careful to not treat it like a toy and emphasized that video games were for everyone, not just children. In a lot of ways the release of the NES was the moment that video games started to grow up.

Originally intended as a Christmas gift, Thingiverse user T.J. Owens’ Raspberry Pi B+ Mini Classic NES case project turned out to be a lot more of a complex build that he had originally intended. When he went looking for a mini version of the NES he wanted it to be as close in appearance as possible while also not being any larger than it needed to be. Unfortunately, what he found was either needlessly big, had the ports in the wrong places or just didn’t look enough like the original. So Owens decided to simply build his own mini NES that would be custom built around the newest model of the Raspberry Pi and designed to be as accurate as possible. Similar to a 3D printed mini-NES we saw back in April, Owens’ project is inspired by the RetroPie Project–“it’s the purpose of the case after all,” he tells us.

Other than the size, Owens made a real effort to make his version of the NES true to the original console’s appearance and aspect ratios. He designed the model in Blender, using photo references and a set of calipers to make sure that the dimensions and parts were all in the correct place. Then he used a 3D model of the Raspberry Pi B+ that he found on Thingiverse as reference to ensure that there would be plenty of room for it inside of the 3D printed case. However, in order to get the port placement to be accurate, Owens needed to do some customizing of the Raspberry Pi layout, so anyone looking to build their own will need to be willing to do some soldering.

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3D Print Your Own Working Ion Thruster Spacecraft Engine

3D Print Your Own Working Ion Thruster Spacecraft Engine

While it may sound like something that Captain Kirk asks Sulu to set to maximum, an ion thruster is not science fiction but actually a working technology that is available today. Ion thrusters are used on long-range spacecraft and on satellites to control their orientation and position in orbit. They work by generating beams of ions to create thrust that, in the vacuum of space, can actually allow spacecraft to reach some pretty impressive speeds using a very small amount of power. In space, ion drives are generally powered by solar panels, or for long-range spacecraft, nuclear power. However, it is possible to make an ion drive in Earth’s atmosphere, and while you won’t be able to fly anything with it, it is still a great way to demonstrate the science behind them.

A Portuguese engineer named João Duarte was browsing the internet when he stumbled on a demonstration of the working principles behind ion thrusters and decided that he wanted to build his own. As one of the founders of his local makerspace, eLab Hackerspace, he had access to everything that he would need, and was actually looking for a project to take with him to Lisbon Maker Faire. Because it is always cool to see a flow of air without any moving parts, he thought that a simplified version of this complex technology would be a great project to demonstrate for the show’s visitors. And not only did it just sound like a fun project, building his own ion thruster was a project right up Duarte’s alley.

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Gotta Catch All of These 3D Printed Russian Nesting Pokédolls

Gotta Catch All of These 3D Printed Russian Nesting Pokédolls

It is such a ridiculously simple idea that I really have trouble believing that we haven’t seen officially licensed Pokémon themed nesting dolls yet. Over the years there have been a handful of home made examples on Etsy but that’s really about it. Pokémon is second only to the Super Mario Bros franchise in terms of popularity and most crucially, the ability to sell lots of licensed toys, t-shirts and consumer products. And since Nintendo will slap one of their IPs on the front of virtually anything if they think it will sell, why no official Pokémon themed nesting dolls? I mean, the Pokémon live inside of a Pokéball, it practically screams make me a nesting doll.

In the Pokémon series of video games, cartoons and comics, Pokémon are cute little animals that live in the wild and have special powers. The Pokémon tend to have a type, or a classification, that they belong to, like a Plant Type or a Water Type and some Pokémon types are more powerful against other Pokémon types. For some reason, in the Pokémon world, parents let their children wander around unsupervised so they can capture these cute yet unpredictable wild animals and make them fight against other Pokémon. But the fighting isn’t just a junior version of dog fighting; the Pokémon fights actually help the Pokémon evolve into larger and more powerful version of themselves.

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New 3D Printing Complex Microscopic Constructs using Human Cells

New 3D Printing Complex Microscopic Constructs using Human Cells

Bioprinting is widely considered to be an integral part of the future of medical science. We have taken some incredible strides forward in developing applicable bioprinting technologies, but we are still in the very early stages of creating real, usable bioprinted material. While researchers are currently testing the viability of bioprinted objects like human ears, soft structures that have little to no internal support are still difficult if not impossible to print. Specifically small cellular structures like organs and human venous systems tend to collapse under their own weight before they can become viable.

However, a team of researchers from the University of Florida have developed a processthat allows previously impossible structures to be 3D printed out of soft materials like human cells or even flexible electronic circuits. The process works by injecting inks loaded with the 3D printing material into a special gel that will hold them in place and prevent them from collapsing in on themselves. This technique could eventually be harnessed to build complex, 3D printed organs from some of a patient’s own cells. And while printing new, viable organs is still a ways off, the process could be useful sooner as a way to create incredibly lifelike surrogate organs for medical training or drug research.

What makes this new 3D printing process possible is a commercially available granular hydrogel called Carbopol EDT 2020. The Carbopol gel is made of particles that are only 7 micrometers wide, which allows it to act as both a liquid and a solid depending on the shear stress that is applied to it. The unique properties of the gel also allow the extruder from the tiny printer to penetrate the gel and deposit the printing medium without disrupting the rest of the structure being printed. The gel holds the printing inks firmly in place so virtually any complex object can be drawn into it. The research team has used the gel to 3D print complex shapes like a tube tied in a knot, a set of tiny Russian nesting dolls and even detailed models of jellyfish.

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NASA Selects the 3D Printed Mars Habitat Challenge Finalists

NASA Selects the 3D Printed Mars Habitat Challenge Finalists

As NASA focuses on their discovery of liquid water on the surface of Mars, they also took the time to officially select the three winners for phase one of their 3D Printed Habitat Challenge. Back in August the 165 submissions were narrowed down to the top 30 semifinalists, who were then notified that their work would be more closely scrutinized by the judging panel. From the semifinalists, the panel selected the top three teams for the first phase of the challenge and announced the winners at this year’s New York Maker Faire. The three selected teams received a total of $40,000 in prizes to take them to the next phase of the competition.

NASA and the National Additive Manufacturing Innovation Institute, America Makes, partnered up on the Habitat Design Challenge with a potential prize pool of $2.25 million. The challenge was launched back in May and tasked entrants to design a process to create 3D printed habitats for the colonization of other planets, primarily for Mars. The challenge would follow the teams through the design process, and for a handful of lucky winners, into the prototyping stage. The ultimate goal is the development of additive manufacturing construction technology that would lead to housing fabrication techniques that would benefit our first offworld colony and create sustainable housing solutions here on Earth. The winning three teams of phase one of the challenge were announced at a ceremony at 2015’s New York Maker Faire yesterday, Sunday, September 27.

The First Place prize of $25,000 was awarded to Team Space Exploration Architecture and Clouds Architecture Office for their ICE HOUSE design. The ICE HOUSE is essentially a Martian igloo, although it is certainly more beautiful. The concept was to design a structure that connected inhabitants to the outdoors, giving them a chance to thrive in their new environment. Selected in impressive timing with today’s stunning announcement, the concept relies on water to serve as the main construction component for the habitat. Because there is an abundance of water on Mars and consistently cold surface temperatures in the planet’s northern hemisphere, the ICE HOUSE is made using a unique 3D printing technique that harnesses the physics of water and prints by simply controlling where the water is deposited. This multi-layered shell of ice can be pressurized and acts as a radiation shield for the gardens and habitats inside of it.

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Use 3D Printing to Build Your Own Set of Game Buzzers

Use 3D Printing to Build Your Own Set of Game Buzzers

Every family has one: that person who cheats at whatever game the family is trying to play together, be it UNO, Life, Monopoly or craps. Their attempt to win any game by whatever means necessary is the start of many night-long, outrage-fueled family battles that only end when your parents send everyone to bed early. All because they insisted that they had the answer first when you know good and well that they didn’t. Growing up, my family’s solution was to avoid games that could easily be cheated; coincidentally, these were often the most fun to play, and all thanks to a certain someone who won’t be named because she’s delicate and I’m hurting her feelings and why do I care so much if she cheats, it’s just a game. It’s never just a game mom, god!

I used to think that I was alone in my struggle, but then I stumbled onto this helpful little 3D printing project that maker and Thingiverse user Ron Provis created thanks to his own family of cheaters. Being pragmatic, Provis decided to avoid the arguments by designing a 3D printable set of Quiz Game Buzzers that would make it clear who the first person to answer a question was. And there would be no cheating possible because the buzzer is programmed to lock out all of the other lights as soon as the first button is pressed. Never again would Provis’ family fun time devolve into family hate time, and all because he discovered 3D printing a few years ago.

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Using 3D Printing to Help Rid the World of Landmines

Using 3D Printing to Help Rid the World of Landmines

It is estimated that over 110 million active landmines are scattered all over the world, and another 250 million of them stockpiled. Every 20 minutes a landmine is detonated throughout 70 different countries. Each month, over 1,200 people are wounded or maimed by accidentally triggering a landmine, and another 800 people will end up dead. Currently, landmine removal efforts manage to dismantle about 100,000 devices each year, which is impressive, but sadly at that rate it will take over 1,100 years to clear them all. And that is provided no further mines are laid, which is pretty unlikely considering that of the 162 nations that have signed the Mine Ban Treaty, the United States, Russia and China are not among them.

Basically, landmines kind of suck. And for nations like Cambodia, which alone has as many as 6 million unexploded ordnance devices buried in the ground, dismantling them is a huge financial burden. The United Nations estimates that it will cost in excess of $50 billion to eliminate the world of landmines. Currently the world is only spending about $150 million, combined, on their removal. Unfortunately landmine removal also has an inhumanly high body count attached to their removal. According to the UN one person will die for every 5,000 mines that are removed, meaning that in a country that has already paid a staggeringly high price for war, Cambodia will still need to sacrifice 1,200 more lives to clean up the mess left by the Khmer Rouge.

But in Phnom Penh, the capital city of Cambodia, 3D printers are finding themselves an unlikely ally in the struggle to solve the country’s landmine problem. It all started in 2012 when MIT professor J. Kim Vandiver was visiting a student who was working with theGolden West Humanitarian Foundation, one of the world’s leading landmine removal organizations. Vandiver suggested to Cambodia country manager Allen Tan that Golden West form a partnership between his students and the Singapore University for Technology and Design (SUTD) to develop a new way of creating demining training aids. It is possible to make entirely plastic version of mines using injection molding; however, the cost is already prohibitive for just one model, but there are dozens of wildly different devices available. So instructors typically needed to use books and charts to teach the complicated process of demining, or get access to hard to find deactivated mines that are extremely difficult to travel with.

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Protect Your Precious Hazelnutty Chocolatey Goodness with a 3D Printed Nutella Cap Lock

Protect Your Precious Hazelnutty Chocolatey Goodness with a 3D Printed Nutella Cap Lock

If you’re unfamiliar with Nutella then you’re missing out on a food that is truly a modern wonder. Not only is the hazelnut and chocolate spread one of the most delicious and filling foodstuffs ever made, but it is also a completely nutritious and healthy way to start off the day. Just kidding, the company that makes Nutella used to claim that it was nutritious and healthy until they were sued, then they had to admit that it was basically breakfast frosting. So that crispy toast topped with Nutella is really just an excuse to eat breakfast cake. Yes, it may not be good for you, but all that stuff about it being one of the most delicious and filling foodstuffs ever made is actually totally true. Believe it or not, but a combination of chocolate, hazelnuts, milk and mostly sugar tastes absolutely amazing. Shocking, I know.

Nutella is one of those foods that are so good, that something like this seems totally reasonable. (Well, maybe not to that extent.) Nutella is so good that the promise of any negative health benefits seem less like something that you should be worried about and more like a challenge. “Oh? Eating this entire jar of Nutella may give me heart disease? I’d like to see some citations please.” Then, typically, you would cut the jar in half so you could safely lick every last bit of Nutella out of it. You know how you carefully scrape off any excess mayo or peanut butter back into the jar while making an average sandwich? Well, you sort of do the same thing with Nutella, only instead of the jar you scrape the excess off into your mouth, and just in case you miss any you may need to refill the knife a few times just to be certain that the knife is completely clean.

In my home Nutella is a little bit like the One Ring from The Lord of the Rings. Using it too much makes you kind of heavy and slow, your skin becomes pale from a noticeable lack of nutritional sustenance and I swear to Eru I will cut the throat of anyone who tries to steal my precious. Naturally with such a valuable resource stored safely in my home leaving the house for any length of time is generally ill advised. Thankfully, as with so many things, when there is a need for something, 3D printing often finds a way to fill it.

Thingiverse user and Nutella fan Fido has felt that cold rush of panic that grips your heart when you’re forced out of the home in order to do annoying things like socialize with other humans, leaving your precious unguarded. But worry not, there will be no more fear of losing any of your precious. No longer can your roommate surreptitiously use some of it on an English muffin, like some sort of barbarian. No, now your Nutella can be totally secured and protected from grubby roommate hands thanks to Fido’s 3D printable Nutella Cap Lock. The cop lock will fit snugly over the top of a typical sized jar of Nutella and then simply needs to be locked into place with a small pad lock.

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