You'll forgive the delay in all projects as the OKC Thunder are busy kicking San Antonio's ass in the conference finals and hopefully continuing from there.

In case you haven't noticed from our Thingiverse page (or not noticed the page at all), we've taken a turn towards the tactical.  I love alliterations.  We also love guns.  A lot. 

One of the most famous fictional weapons is the M41A Pulse Rifle.  The coolest component of this particular weapon is the dual seven-segment display that counts down the 99 round magazine.

As this is a very popular feature on functional and non-functional replicas alike, this project has been done to death.  There are kits, instructions, schematics, diagrams, pictures, examples....but nothing that really suits our purpose.  Read on....

We finally got around to finishing the Strapper Keeper derivative of the ITW Web Dominator MOLLE management system.  Several changes were made, a few additions, and we changed the name.  Feel free to distribute this model freely if you find it useful.  This model is licensed as Attribution-Creative Commons-Non-Commercial, so no selling the design!

You'll notice that I never did get the bend in there (but I did figure out how to do it).  I found that the bend made the entire thing too fragile.  Here is the file:

MOLLEMASTER.STL

Here are some updated files.  On v2, the geometry wasn't symmetric, none of the edges were finished, and the raised strap guide was absent.  I fix.  The next and final iteration (if I ever figure it out) will have the requisite bends.

STRAPPERKEEPER3.STL

STRAPPERKEEPER3.DWG

STRAPPERKEEPER3.MCX

Yet another derivative.  Anyone that has dealt with the MOLLE webbing system knows what this is.  The ITW Web Dominator strap keeper is a must for managing loose straps on tactical gear.  And while the original Dominator is made of some sort of magic plastic that doesn't glow under IR light, our knockoff is just as functional and just a little easier to clip to webbing.  Add a length of shock cord to this print and you'll have your straps tidy in no time.  The knockoff lacks the little bend on the end (because I can't figure out how to do it in Mastercam), but I'm not sure I care.  The files are on Thingiverse, but we're not necessarily expecting them to stay there, so I'm posting them here, too.

 Files:

strapperkeeper.STL

strapperkeeper2.MCX

strapperkeeper.MCX

strapperkeeper.DWG

After spending an entire weekend doing pre-made and parametric prints, I decided to try my hand at my own.  You know those handles that you can load a mess of grocery bags on  so the bag handles don't cut your fingers off?  Here is one example, and here is a nifty example of another.  I buckled down this evening and made myself an open-source version and sent it up to Thingiverse.  

***UPDATE  05-03-2012*** This project has been chosen as a Featured Item on Thingiverse!!!  We are very excited and wanted to take a moment to thank them.  We believe that this site and sites just like it are going to be the way of the future.

Here is a 3D rendering of it:

Not too bad for my first crack at a fully 3D print from scratch.  We'll see how it turns out.

well, after about 4.5 hours, this was the result: 

I tested the strength to well over 100 pounds and it's very sturdy.  I think we have a winner.

In this installment, we'll go over printing do's and don't's some finishing techniques.  As long as you've got a good preliminary setup, your prints should go off without a hitch.

So our 9 week wait is over and the Makerbot Replicator finally came via UPS. It has been a very exciting few days.  In this post we'll give you a quick primer on 3D printing, it's basic terminology, what we've learned in these days, and discuss finishing techniques, tried and not.

So I've cut the first version and I didn't like how it turned out, so I made some revisions.  I'll tell you about the cut later, save this piece of advice: Get a bit that's meant to cut fancy plywood.

So in the spirit of learning from your mistakes, here is v2:

LAMPV2.DXF <  --- download here

EDIT: I guess I should at least mention what parts changed:  just the three head pieces, nothing else.