Oh dreydl dreydl dreydl, I printed you with a wire-extruding Makerbot! And when the patents expire, I'll print you again with powder deposition technology!

In the event that you found a 3D printer under the Hannukah bush this year, here's a shapefile for a 3D printable dreydl to run off to your heart's content, courtesy of Zydac.

As it gets to the candle-lighting hour here on the East Coast, it really feels like (C)Hanu(k)kah 2k11 is going to be a good one. And what’s the number one accessory for the festival of lights?
OK, well, yes, candles. But the number two accessory is definitely the dreidel! And thanks to the prolific Zydac, Thingiverse has a lovely example to help share out the gelt.
Well done, Thingiverse! Now what about some printable latkes?

Happy Hanukkah: Dreidel by Zydac « MakerBot Industries

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: 3d printing • happy mutants • holidays • Kids

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phlavor

When do the patents expire?
http://twitter.com/Listener43 Listener43

Are there printable candles?
- HahTse
  
  Should be doable…you can always print the molds and then make candles using them…
Maxload

surely a dreydl made by a robot is a droidl?
arikol

Cory, is that seriously the reason for the lack of open source powder deposition printer? Patents?

I was wondering why all the open printing platforms use this plastic wire extruding tech when the nicest prints (in looks, at least) come from powder printers.
- Cory Doctorow
  
  Yes and yes, and the patents expire in 2014-2017.
  - ian_b
    
    I’d like to learn more about this, and I think you’ve mentioned it twice this week already. Why would these patents interfere with open-source tinkering? Are there parts/materials unavailable because of patents that would be impractical to make? Who holds the patents?
    
    Sorry for all of the questions, but I didn’t turn up much from my googling, and I’d appreciate your thoughts on what this means to 3d printing and maker culture.
    - Cory Doctorow
      
      Have a look at the work of Marc Ganter at U Washington — he’s doing open source/noncommercial stuff that might conflict with underlying patents like 5902441, 6416850, 6610429, 6375874, 5252264 etc
    - http://gadgeteer.org gadgeteer
      
      A patent holder can prevent you from selling, making, or even using their invention without a license. So while it may be physically possible to tinker with powder sintering they could sue you for damages.
Guest

“(C)Hanu(k)kah”? Heh. But if already, go all out: Happy (C)Ha(n)nu(k)ka(h), everyone!
- rrh
  
  (Ch|H)an{1,2}uk{1,2}ah?
  - Moriarty
    
    חֲנֻכָּה
    - Guest
      
      אכן עדיף!
  - Guest
    
    Haha, you win the internet. :D
Oren Hadas

As an Israeli i only ever saw dreydls with the letters: nun, gimel, hey, pey.
for “Nes Gadol Haya Po” (a great miracle happened here).
Never knew “foreign” dreydls had the letter Shin instead of Pey.
I guess it’s for the obvious “Nes Gadol Haya SHAM” (as in a great miracle happened THERE).
We Hebrews truly are the masters of subtle guilt trips ;-)
- jerwin
  
  Wikipedia says
  
  Israel, the fourth side of most dreidels is inscribed with the letter פ (Pei), rendering the acronym, נס גדול היה פה, Nes Gadol Hayah Poh—”A great miracle happened here” referring to the miracle occurring in the land of Israel. Some stores in Haredi neighbourhoods sell the ש dreidels.
  
  So why would some Haredim prefer ש?
  - Guest
    
    I actually hadn’t noticed that! That’s a really interesting question, so I did some googling. Turns out the dreidl was originally a gentile game, with Latin letters: NGHS, with each letter standing for a word in German like “win”, “lose”, etc. The Eastern European Jews made their own acronym and wrote it in Yiddish/Hebrew letters and it became part of the holiday tradition.
    
    Using the letter פ is a modern development, and not a wholly obvious one on the face of it. Since the “NGHS” phrase is actually a mnemonic for the rules of the game in German/Yiddish (which many Haredim still speak), they have a solid reason for keeping the original letters.
    
    In general the Haredim tend to update their traditions less in reaction to modern developments, or to make political/nationalistic points. I don’t know if it’s so much a belief or lack of it in the state (though that might be part of it too) as a simple lack of inclination to incorporate rulings of streams of Judaism not connected to them. Since the letters came first, and then the phrase, I think it makes sense that some Haredim haven’t changed it.
    
    I guess that makes three versions of the dreidel that we can print out with our hypothetical Hanukka-bush-printer!
    
    Source: http://www.peopleil.org/details.aspx?itemID=7621
Oren Hadas

well, i guess that’s because some of them don’t really believe in the state of Israel. For them, it will never be “here” until the temple is rebuilt and possibly the messiah returns…
- KapCarl
  
  Please refer to Cate’s well researched answer above regarding why SOME STORES in Haredi neighborhoods still sell dreidels with the Shin. You are making a very big leap in conclusions. I don’t think it’s a political statement. As an Israeli Haredi with both kinds of dreidels, I can assure you that my inaccurate dreidels are more a product of being a pack rat than any kind of messianic distinction.
sevenm

This dreydl is not “kosher”, the letter shown are in the wrong order. The right order from right to left is Nun, Gimel, Hei, Shin (or Peh in Israel). In your design its shows Nun (right), Shin (left), which is a reverse order and incorrect.
greenberger

so here’s a somewhat-related question… for those of us who still buy and listen to those archaic objects known as cd’s, it’s difficult to find good storage units. In fact, my favorite model is by laserline and holds 90 cds, can be mounted on a wall, easy to transport, etc. It seems to be everyone’s favorite as well. These things are no longer made, which has driven up the price on used cases tremendously. These cheap pieces of black plastic retailed for 10 bucks NEW, and now go for $30-$40 USED on ebay. I shit you not.

However, a kind, clever soul posted a 3D Google SketchUp design of this exact thing here:
http://sketchup.google.com/3dwarehouse/details?mid=4cabdf0328ccb52af007827d927c450

So my question is, why can’t I print up a few of these? Why can’t all of us? And how much do you think it would cost, materials-wise? It’s just a thin plastic later…

I don’t know much about 3D printers, but would like to learn more. Is this a crazy notion?
- bearchild
  
  It’s not a crazy notion and probably doable, but most of the cheap hobby 3D printers that get press right now aren’t big enough to print pieces large enough to make that CD rack. I’d really like to see someone make a variation of (say) the Prusa Mendel (look it up!) that can print large components. Sadly, I lack the funds to even build a normal sized one. :P
  
  A possibly more interesting solution would be to engineer a CD rack that 1. uses as little plastic as possible and 2. can be constructed out of many smaller parts (modular?).
  
  A suggestion for working out material costs: try weighing the CD rack and then look up how much it would cost to buy printing plastic of that weight. That might give you a good rough estimate. I think the RepRap wiki has information on this kind of thing.