This project appeared in Make: Vol 87. Subscribe for more great projects. Charcoal fume extractors of all shapes and sizes have been a staple project in makerspaces for many years. Make: even has its own mini fume extractor by Marc de Vinck (Volume 19) with a video by Kipkay, now there’s a throwback! Built into an Altoids tin and featuring a 40mm fan and a basic circuit, this little device was rough but...
This article appeared in Make: Vol. 86. Subscribe for more maker projects and articles! Metal 3D printing conjures up an image of lasers depositing energy into explosive powders, and systems that cost millions of dollars. However, there are viable options that will allow you to print metal parts on a consumer-level filament 3D printer. The investments start at a couple thousand dollars and go up a couple orders of magnitude from there. Let’s find out what...
When 3D printing matured from an industrial edge case to a mainstream commercial technology in the 2010s, it captured the imaginations of everyone from schoolteachers to fashion designers. But if there’s one group that really, really got excited about 3D printing, it was makers. When 3D printers became commercially available, they knew that everything was about to change. Indeed, 3D printing offers everyone the invaluable ability to create custom components tailored to specific needs. This in turn brings a...
The Rocky Mountain RepRap Festival had an amazing third annual event on May 17-18 2025 in its usual venue, the Pedersen Toyota Center at the Ranch Events complex in Loveland, Colorado. The two-day event celebrating all things 3D printing had an estimated 3,600 attendees the first day and 1,700 the second, plus about 500 people exhibiting in a bit under 300 booths. This was the biggest year so far, with all of that coming to about...
