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
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
Steve Warren makes hundreds of cool, organic twisty vase designs. He posts the last hundred or so on his Thingiverse profile. He regularly removes older designs, so if you see something you like, download a copy.
layer.works is a full-service 3-D design/make/teach education, consulting, and 3-D service provider, based in Central Alabama, just north of Montgomery.
We do custom prototyping, mass production, training, troubleshooting, education, and consultation in additive- and subtractive-fabrication and manufacturing. We also do low-voltage custom, animated LED light solutions.
A small sampling of projects we’ve worked on:
Scale architectural models (entire building structure, furniture/cabinet installation visualization)
If you have 3-D printing, 3-D design, large-format CNC (4×8 foot), or low-voltage LED lighting needs, send us an inquiry and we’ll get back to you quickly. Not sure if we can help you? Drop us a line with your needs and we’ll figure out what we can do or point you in the right direction.
