3D-printed loom
By Andrew Gregory. Posted
If you’ve ever tried to specialise in any field of making, you’ll find that at some point you’ll have stopped – or at least delayed – creating things, in order to make things that help you make things. If you’re at the start of your journey into woodworking, for example, you’ll very sensibly want to start with a bench hook, to hold workpieces steady while you’re sawing them. Then, of course, you’ll need a bench, otherwise the bench hook is useless. A few weeks pass, and at every turn, you’re spending more time making jigs than you are making the thing you wanted to make – what even was that again?
Program a robot arm, with Raspberry Pi and Python code
Into this grand tradition of making in order to make, we have Fraens, who has also made something that makes other things. Unlike us and our never-ending woodworking rabbit hole, Fraens has used 3D printing to make a useful machine in one attempt: this hand loom can be used to create patterned cloth, exactly like humans have been doing for thousands of years.
Also unlike us, Fraens is something of an engineering genius. It’s easy to give the credit to the 3D printer, but in reality we all have the same access to the tools; it takes a special ability to imagine new ways of doing old things.
Features Editor Andrew trawls the internet for Cool Stuff while keeping the magazine running smoothly.
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