I decided to participate in WeTheBuilders‘ most recent project to make a large, distributed, crowd-sourced 3-D printed statue.
This latest project was a statue of Charon, the psychopomp Styx ferryman of Greek mythology, sculpted by Ryan Kittleson. This collaboratively-printed sculpture was displayed at Loveburn 2025, in Miami in February 2025 and is now back in Baltimore awaiting display in a more permanent home.
Participating in the crowd-sourced project was a great experience. I ended up printing 4 pieces for the Charon statue. They provide the .STLs (via a check-out mechanism), you provide the plastic, the printing, and shipping to them.
Some quick facts about the project:
The final statue was about 5 feet tall, 2.5 feet wide, and 4 feet front-to-back.
Approximately 40 individuals printed parts for this project.
The sculpture was subdivided into 260 parts using Luban.
Participants were encouraged to include a coin in the parts they printed, in the style of the ancient Greek tradition of burying the dead with a coin in their mouth to pay the ferryman’s toll across the river Styx.
Full credit where due: the WeTheBuilders team ran logistics, conceptualized the project and sculpture, received and assembled the parts, and transported the finished project from Baltimore to Miami and back.
I look forward to participating in future WeTheBuilders projects and would encourage you to look into participating as well. At the very least, consider a bookmark and visit the site occasionally for updates.
Recently we’ve worked on several projects to re-create hard-to-get classic car parts, exact-fit custom parts for restorations, and custom adapters.
The first featured part that we designed was a custom fit cluster plate for the center dash/console for a 60’s era resto-mod Camaro project. The owner had two new gauges they wanted to mount where the radio fit, so they provided pictures, measurements of the dash opening, the gauges themselves, and a hand sketch to give us an starting point for their desired solution. We iterated several times with various prototype solutions to do test fits, got feedback, and adjusted the angles of the two gauges to the customer’s desires.
Our second project was to adapt a MK6 VW emblem to the trunk lid of a MK5 VW. The newer VW emblem has a subtle body curve to the mounting surface while the inset badge mounting location on the car is flat. We carefully measured, calculated, and designed a slim adapter plate that fit both the car surface on one side and the curve on the back of the badge perfectly. Some carefully-applied 3M emblem adhesive strips on both sides on both sides of the adapter firmly attached the emblem. A jig was designed to fit in and center on the inset location on the car to assure the emblem and adapter were exactly centered onto the car. A recent check showed that the adapter is still in place, surviving hot Alabama summers, and performing well 10 years after it was installed.
*If you are removing stock emblems or trying to clean up the remaining adhesive residue, use 3M Auto Adhesive Remover.
The most recent project in this genre we’ve tackled was to duplicate a hard-to-find mid-1960s Dodge trim clips for a customer’s restoration project.
There area couple things to take into consideration if you are attempting this yourself:
If you are printing parts for cars, you probably do not want to make them out of PLA. It will not withstand the hottest outdoor temperatures of most locations and definitely will soften and deform at the internal temperatures that cars will develop on hot days. It’s glass transition temperature is 60C/140F at which point it will start to droop and warp, ruining the part.
PET-G might be a good midpoint between PLA (cheap, easy to print) and ABS (more expensive, higher temperature tolerance, difficult to print.) PET-G has higher temperature (glass transition is 85C/185F), prints easily, doesn’t give off toxic fumes and is affordable.
for temperature stability, the best material to make car parts out of is probably ABS. ABS’ glass transition temperature is 105C/221F, which, while not indestructible, will stand up to most interior and exterior temperatures a car will experience (engine bay and exhaust temperatures will go much higher than that.) ABS does need proper ventilation while printing as it gives off toxic fumes while it is printing.
You’ll also want to consider UV resilience on exterior parts, flexibility/rigidity, impact resistance, vibration dampening and other plastic traits in your design.
we do not design parts that are directly safety-related, mechanical in nature, or that work around engine bay or exhaust heat. If you are working with extremely high temperatures, plastic is not the material you are looking for.
If you are looking to have a rare part duplicated or a custom part designed please feel free to reach out to us with your requirements for a quotation. We’d be glad to design and draft your part and can print your parts as well. We can also do print-on-demand if you
DaveMakesStuff is a prolific designer of interesting, creative textured geometric creations. You can see all his designs on his Things profile, or check out his other links.
This QR Code Sign is perfect for businesses (waiting rooms, schools) or private spaces (rental properties, home) that need to provide wireless access to their guests. Simply scan the QR code with your smartphone and you’ll be securely connected to the specified wireless network. With no complicated setup or password to remember, users can quickly and easily access the network. And the sign’s sturdy construction ensures it will stand up to the elements, so you can use it indoors or outdoors. So give your guests secure and easy access to your wireless network with this QR Code Sign.
As a minimum, you provide the Wi-fi SSID and Password (both case-sensitive) that you want people to connect to and we’ll make the sign and ship it to you.
Features included:
A QR code that automatically connects users of the sign to your wi-fi (WPA) network. (Note: the network name and password are encoded in the QR Code. If you change the password, the sign won’t work anymore.)
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Custom features available:
The text versions of your SSID and password can be added, if desired.
Custom colors are available (remember the key is high-contrast) with a longer production time.
Magnets can be integrated into the sign for mounting
Production time: 1-2 business days
To order a custom wi-fi QR Code Sign, visit our Etsy product page, choose your options and we’ll start making your custom sign directly.
Today Prusa made their latest alpha release of PrusaSlicer available on github: 2.6.0-alpha2. (Make sure you understand what alpha testing is before downloading/using this software. An alpha or release of a software package intends to do something particular, and mostly does so, yet isn’t guaranteed to do so fully. You are testing out an early version of this software, if you find a bug, report it.)
There are many game-changing features in this release, but in particular, this post provides step-by-step instructions on how to get the “auto downloading from printables.com directly into PrusaSlicer software”.
Enable “Show PrusaSlicer button” in your profile while logged into printables.com. Click the avatar icon (upper right corner), then chose the first line item (your user name), then scroll down next to the bold title “Info“, and click on “Edit your profile link”. When the modal window appears, scroll down to the checkboxes section and enable the checkbox for “Show PrusaSlicer button”, then click “Save” at the top of the window.
Enable download option in PrusaSlicer software. In the menu, select Configuration -> Preferences (or Ctrl-P), then select the Other tab. Click the checkbox to “Allow downloads from Printables.com”, then choose “OK”.
These changes should make it so you see the the PrusaSlicer icon next to the download button while viewing a model’s “Files” list.
Select the PrusaSlicer icon next to the file you want to test, confirm (twice) that you want to allow the download integration, and everything should be working.
I’ve tested this on a Windows 10 PC using Chrome, Firefox, and Edge successfully with PrusaSlicer 2.6.0-alpha2.
Hopefully this will help you find excellent resources, models, and connections on printables.com. Please comment if you have any suggestions or corrections.
Prusa doesn’t make it easily to see who are the top leveled-up users on Printables.com, but with a little detective work, here’s the current top users, as of October 2022.
S H (lvl 33)(!) 34k+ downloads, 6k+ likes, 155 followers, 17 following
The title of “Prusa Approved Designer” was awarded at by the Printables Team at its discretion to recognize and reward long-term, consistent, and high-quality work. As of September 2022, there were 15 “Prusa Approved Designers” on Printables.com. I’ve compiled them here for easy reference and one-page access in case you’d like to explore their profiles. Consider checking out, following, and supporting these successful and hard working designers if they interest you. (It appears Printables.com got rid of this award, so I’m archiving this here for posterity.)
(in chronological order)
Josef Průša, Czechia, (Prusa Staff), December 17, 2021
