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3D printed, fully assembled, teeny-weeny little cars

Cory Doctorow at 12:20 pm Fri, Jun 29, 2012

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This teeny weeny little car is 3D printed, fully assembled, with all its mechanisms in place:

These tiny 3D printed cars were printed on the Objet Eden 3D printer and scale down from 4cm in length to a tiny 1cm in length. Even in the tiniest car, the wheels remain fully functional and there is no deformation of walls or loss of fine details - highlighting the enormous power of Objet's 3D printers to turn CAD designs into visually and functionally accurate prototypes.

Micro car with open doors and turning wheels

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 • Gadgets • gift guide • shapeways • tiny • toys • videos • youtube

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  • http://www.matthewpetty.com/ Matthew Petty

    I love it! How?!

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1428313809 Dustin Driver

    Next year they’ll be remote control with working headlights. And full HD cameras.

  • http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo

    *spoot*

  • Jake0748

    I’m trying to wrap my brain around the idea that a  3-d printer could produce a model car which comes out with spinnable  wheels.   With no further assembly required.

    How is it possible?

    • pKp

      Yeah, how do you print something that has moving parts, with no assembly required ?

      • https://launchpad.net/~googoleyes koanhead

        I don’t know how it’s done in this particular instance but some 3D printers have a “substrate” material that they can emit to fill space. When the part is complete this “substrate” can be rinsed off or blown out with compressed air.
        edit: KapCarl beat me to it, his comment has the answers.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1098701110 Christopher Durant

    creating perforations in the design that act as bearings would produce movable parts with lasting components….are you doing that?…. the precision in which these are made is incredible soon we will have one stop printing of concepts including the now current printable electronic components such as batteries resistors diodes and conductive elements.

  • KapCarl

    You can download the STL file for the tiny car from the Objet Blog: http://blog.objet.com/2011/11/17/tiny-3d-printed-car-stl-file-for-your-download/

    and you can read more about it here: http://blog.objet.com/2012/06/04/worlds-smallest-3d-printed-car-moving-doors-wheels/

    Next Sam Green of the Objet Blog is going to print the tiny car on the Objet Connex 3D Printer. The tiny car will be 3D printed with multi-materials in one shot – no assembly required (different colors, rubber-like tires, etc.).

    You can learn more about how support material allows you to 3D print moving parts in this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmDz7Q9_h6c&

    I think that’s enough links for one comment… Enjoy!