Making Things

Why did Aggregate.Org wait until 2013 to get involved in research about making things? We started making stuff way before that. However, we believe that making things, even at the hobbyist level, has finally become largely a computer engineering problem. We're really good at those...

Selected Research Results

Here are a few pointers to our research results in this field...

Construction of a high-speed extrusion-based 3D printer: From Summer 2024 to May 2025, our lab supported Gunner Aberli attempting to set a new world record for Speedboating -- print speed for a standard benchy. The printer he made produces a nice-looking benchy in around 4 minutes and a vaguely benchy-shaped lump of stringy plastic in as little as half that time. Unfortunately, the Speedboating competition does not have sufficiently precise quality standards to really call a print time. In comparison, a stock Bambu X1 Carbon takes about 17 minutes for the benchy version used in Speedboating.
Our 3D Models at Printables: This is the primary place we post our 3D models. Most are posted as STL files, with some also posted as OpenSCAD.
Our 3D Models at Thingiverse: Originally, we posted most of our 3D models at Thingiverse. However, once we had posted about 100 things there, we noticed the now well-known problem that quite a few things we posted were randomly disappearing from Thingiverse lists and searches (although the URLs still worked). At this writing, Thingiverse shows only 98 of approximately 130 designs we posted there -- which is why we now post on Printables.
Our Instructables: We have a variety of Instructables posted covering things from improvements to a $100 Laser Engraver to making bookcase shelves that do not sag.
Trace2SCAD: Converting Images Into OpenSCAD Models: This is a simple tool we wrote to convert images into OpenSCAD programs. It uses Potrace for the basic vectorization, but provides more options and can reduce the vector complexity by combining adjacent line segments that have similar angles. It was originally written to convert graphic figures into a 3D-printed form understandable by a blind student.
Paul Eberhart's Blog: Paul is a long time member of the Aggregate.Org group and a highly skilled maker who has been posting lots of maker-related stuff for many years. Among his posts you'll find a lot about most of the maker things our lab has tried.

Introductory Talks

NNCI Nano + Additive Manufacturing Summit, July 25, 2023: A Design For An Object To Be 3D Printed Should Be A Transformable Parametric Program
KY Nanotechnology and Additive Manufacturing Symposium, July 31, 2019: A Computer Engineering Approach To Design For 3D-Printing Manufacturability; start with these slides to understand why 3D printing is a computer engineering research area.
Presentation for Henry Clay High School STEM Club, May 11, 2016: A little presentation on computer engineering and 3D printing; here are the slides used.
STEM presentation at Tates Creek Middle School, March 14, 2013: Professor Dietz, assisted by Paul Eberhart, demonstrated our MakerGear M2 printing a Tates Creek logo medal. Here are overview slides (PDF).
YMCA Black Achievers presentation at Lexington Traditional Magnet School, September 28, 2013: Professor Dietz, assisted by Paul Eberhart, demonstrated 2D paper cutting to make parts for an operating iris card and 3D printing using our MakerGear M2 to build a hingebox and a printed-assembled prosthetic hand. Here are overview slides (PDF). This went well despite having students actually build both the iris card and the hand, but the iris card was difficult for students to assemble (using a stapler might help?).
EPICS (Engineering Projects in Community Service), August 26, 1996: Professor Dietz was one of the founders of the EPICS program at Purdue, and he created EPICS Project Management and Resources as an overview of how to make things. Start here if you have no idea how to approach a making project. It is wildly out of date, but gives a nice insight into how things used to be done, as well as what sorts of things you should still be thinking about in any making project.

Our Making Equipment

The University of Kentucky has a manufacturing center with extensive facilities. However, our group also has been accumulating mostly hobbyist-level equipment for a long time. In fact, our facilities led to the creation of two now better-equipped makerspaces within UK:

ECE Engineering Prototyping and Invention Center (EPIC lab) is a makerspace for ECE students and faculty
Innovation Center is a makerspace for the entire College of Engineering (and happens to be run by an ECE faculty member)

The key additive manufacturing devices to use in our Marksbury 108 lab are:

A Bambu X1-Carbon Combo 3D Printer. This core X-Y machine is a real game changer, not just because the AMS really works to change filaments during a print, but also because it prints very quickly, up to about 500mm/s (typically 300mm/s with PLA), with high quality and a minimum of fuss. The build volume is a respectable 256x256x256mm, although a filament change tower can eat into that a bit. Professor Dietz also owns a Bambu X1-Carbon Combo personally, which he got several months before buying one for the lab.
An AnyCubic Predator. This delta configuration 3D printer can print rather large objects, up to 370mm diameter and 455mm tall. It isn't fancy, but is a realiable workhorse for big prints. It prints best around 60mm/s, but can go as high as 150mm/s.
Two AnyCubic Kossel Plus (aka Linear Plus). These are delta configuration 3D printer workhorses. Builds as large as 230mm diameter and 300mm tall print best around 60mm/s, but it can go faster without too much trouble. Professor Dietz also owns a Linear Plus personally.
A Wanhao I3. We got this in Fall 2015 as a "sacrificial" printer to bring to conferences, etc., and it has served that purpose well. In fact, we now let student groups borrow it. The build volume is 200x200x180mm and it has trouble printing faster than 40mm/s. It also isn't particularly easy to level the bed. Still, it hasn't died despite many travels, so there is something good to be said about this wimpy little bedslinger...
A MakerGear M2. In Fall 2012 this $1800 3D printer was about as good as hobbyist 3D printers got -- and it continued to be one of the top performing printers available until the Bambu started shipping in 2023. That's an amazing statement, but it's absolute fact, made possible by the M2 being built like an industrial machine tool, with art-level welded steel, waterjet-cut aluminum plates, and linear rails to guide X and Y motions. The bedslinging M2 can make nice prints at a scary fast 200mm/s, as long as the part stays stuck to its heated 200x250mm borosilicate bed. Print height officially tops out at 200mm, but it's really more like 180 mm. Professor Dietz also owns an M2 personally.

The key subtractive manufacturing devices to use in our Marksbury 108 lab are:

A 3.5W Laser Cutter. Professor Dietz personally has a similar 2.5W unit. Both of these have been heavily modified enhance safety and efficiency. The biggest safety upgrade is a 3D-printed hood that hides the laser light, except through an appropriately-filtered little viewing window. The biggest performance upgrade is a blower air-assist system; the air-assist allows a 2W laser to compete with the cutting ability of 10W or more. An additional upgrade of both safety and functionality is a homemade vacuum table that holds workpieces to the perforated aluminum baseplate while protecting the table and allowing smoke to be collected and filtered by a HEPPA-filtered vacuum cleaner. This whole rig sits on a wheeled cart, making it easy to do the cutting outdoors.
A 3040T CNC mill/engraver. This is personal equipment of Professor Dietz, but is still a resource for our group. Our lab in Marksbury isn't really a suitable place for a CNC, otherwise we'd have one of these $700 machines there too. It is nowhere near as convenient nor flexible a tool as the 3D printers, but it can machine to tighter accuracies than we can print, and can handle a wide range of materials.
An HTPOW mini laser engraver. This is a very small unit, with lots of limitations, but it is a 1000mW @ 405nm laser capable of engraving wood, cutting PLA, etc. We've made a variety of modifications, outlined in our Instructable, Making Your Mini Laser Engraver Safer And Better, which includes some 3D printed parts posted as Thing 1859303.
A Silhouette SD (Graphtec) programmable paper cutter. This sub-$200 device is subtractive 2D only, using a small blade to cut thin material ranging from paper to thin plastic sheets. It is certainly not a laser cutter, but it is surprisingly effective on soft-enough materials; the angled edge of the blade only causes significant imprecision on very small cuts involving sharp angles. Truth is, it's more precise than a laser cutter because there is no kerf.

Some Noteworthy Software

Arguably, the main reason 3D printing has taken off is software. Machines using G code have been around for a long time. Prof. Dietz first wrote software to generate G code for Bridgeport Series 1 CNC Mills (in particular, the ones shown in this photo) way back in 1977 -- first simple stuff that ran on a HeathKit H8 and then more substantial things that ran on NorthStar Horizons. Back then, it was common that folks would directly write G code, and even the interpretation of G code took a fairly substantial machine; the Series 1 Mill used a DEC LSI 11 that was about the size of a dorm refrigerator. Dietz's fanciest software allowed generation of G code toolpaths from intersections and unions of simple solid objects, internally using a voxel model... nowhere near as smart as modern slicers. So, what is the smart software now?

Blender: Is there anything that Blender doesn't do? It's mostly know for making "organic" 3D models and rendering videos, but it actually contains a Python scripting interface that is at least comparably nice to OpenSCAD for expressing parametric designs. There even now a 3D Printing Toolbox offering a bunch of useful tools. Back to the original question, the only thing that Blender doesn't do is become comfortably familiar in a short period of time -- learning to use Blender is neither quick nor easy.
OpenSCAD: This is a programming language for defining parametric 3D models. There's a lot about it that isn't great, including really long processing times, but it is free open source and fundamentally a very powerful way to make parametric designs.
Sol75: This is a fitness-based AI optimizer creating OpenSCAD designs to detailed specifications. For example, it can design springs with specific stiffness, lifetime operation count, etc. This is a great example of what should come next in 3D printing...
FullControl GCode Designer: This is another vision of the future of 3D printing software. Rather than defining a 3D model and slicing it, this suggests directly designing the tool paths to make the desired 3D structure. There's an online version with examples at https://fullcontrol.xyz/, and it is stunningly effective. I strongly recommend the Nuts and Bolts example and the Pin-Support Challenge. The catch is that it's a huge pain to do infill this way, but the bolts are actually accurate and quite strong without any infill.
Slic3r: This is the dominant open source slicer upon which many others are based. It's a tad less friendly than some of its forks, but it tends to be where new ideas get implemented first. For example, there is a version for non-planar slicing.
PrusaSlicer: This is a fork of Slic3r. It really isn't better than Slic3r, but it is better resourced with pre-defined configurations, etc. In sum, it's a little nicer to use than Slic3r.
Ultimaker Cura: Cura is the main competitor to Slic3r, but it has a tightly integrated user interface (sort of like PurusaSlicer). That has actually started to get in the way more than it helps... but Cura is still a freely-available top-quality slicer.
FormWare Online stl repair: This does what is says -- repair of broken stl files -- and it is free.

Some Of Our "Things"

We've designed and built a lot of things. Here are some of them grouped by catagory....

Puzzles & Fun Stuff

Calibron Twelve Block Puzzle (Calibron 12): A very difficult 12-piece packing puzzle
Tunable Tolerance Tetrahedron Twist Timewasting Toy: A two-piece puzzle that's really just a funny-shaped screw
Flat Neighborhood Network Puzzle: Build a cluster computer from six PCs and six network switches
Hanging Gardens Replacement Playing Piece: 3D-printing lost board game pieces
Triangular Dovetail Joint Microbox: An apparently impossible dovetail, solved with a turn
Flatfish-ish 3D-Printed Lure: A simple 3D-printed fishing lure
3D PRINT STRONG locking bracelet: A bracelet, but really a demonstration of how strong 3D-printed parts can be; this simple clasp can hold 30 pounds! We use this as our new filament test print...
This Old TARDIS, 3D-Printed Parts: A TARDIS lock and key the 4th Doctor could love; "Bigger" on the inside
MakerGear M2 simplified toy model ornament/keychain: Simplified MakerGear M2 model
Ring Area From A Chord: What is the area of the difference of two concentric circles if the length of a chord tangent to the inner circle is 10cm?
Triangle "Missing Square" Puzzle: Arrange the four pieces, no holes; rearrange, one hole?
Sun Medallion: A sun that refreshes some Tangled memories...
Die Puzzle: An awesome little puzzle making a die out of 9 pieces; even the box for it is a puzzle!
IEEE SoutheastCon 2014 Keychain: A simple keychain made for IEEE SouthEastCon 2015
SC13 Aggregate.Org/UK 20th Year Refrigerator Magnet: Commemorating our 20th SC conference since we built the world's first Linux PC cluster supercomputer
SC13 Aggregate.Org/UK Dovetail Puzzle Keychain: An apparently impossible dovetail keychain
Make fun not a gun: It is not a gun, but it is "A gun" keychain
3D-Printed Birdhouse, A Sign (version 3): A "bird" + "house" birdhouse, improved version
3D-Printed Birdhouse, "bird" House: "bird" house
3D-Printed Birdhouse, A Sign: A "bird" + "house" birdhouse
Tiny 4-Ball Maze: A sealed four-ball maze that's about the size of four pennies

Tools & Parts

HingePliers (a metamaterials experiment): An experiment in complex metamaterials design, inspired by research at the Hasso Plattner Institute.
Rackmount Stud Adapter Plate: A plate for adapting to Dell rackmounts
Fencepost Solar Light Mount: Mount solar lights on a fencepost, rather than with a ground spike
MakerGear M2 Ducted Fan Mount: Several alternative fan shrounds for the MakerGear M2 3D printer
Improved Replacement for Reading Lamp Shade: This lamp shade has vents that the original didn't... which is why the original failed
MakerGear M2 Z Adjustment Wrench: The M2 has somewhat awkward access to the Z stop adjustment screw; this odd-shaped wrench makes adjustment easy
Double Cup Holder for a Porch Swing: Two drinks are better than one...
Cup Holder for a Porch Swing: One drink is better than none...
Mount for Impulse Sprinkler on Green Metal U Post: Mount your sprinkler a little higher
Poster Display Monolith: Very neat little corner clips that allow building a display monolith out of three 4x8 foot sheet in a minute or less; great for poster display
MakerGear M2 Printer Spool Holder -- 3/4" End Caps: There's a nice design for a MakerGear M2 spool holder, but the rod is too thick for some spools; this allows a 3/4 inch rod to be used instead
SC13 Aggregate.Org/UK Page Holder: A useful little holder for individual sheets of paper
Prosthetic/Robotic Hand Printable As An Assembled Unit Without Supports: Designed mostly as a demo, this uses our print-assembled hinge to create a print-assembled prosthetic hand... which prints in about 45 minutes on our M2
HingeBox Printable As An Assembled Unit Without Supports: Our ever-popular print-assembled HingeBox; as seen on Tested: Smart Cookie
Hinge Printable As An Assembled Unit Without Supports: The inital demo of our print-in-place vertical-pivot hinge
Versatile Stand for Nabi Jr: It's a stand! It's a handle! It's here
Doorstop for Indoor/Outdoor Carpet: Shockingly more effective on indoor/outdoor carpet than commercial doorstops
USB Webcam Bracket for MakerGear M2: Simple mount for a $3 USB camera on a MakerGear M2

Camera Stuff

Minolta/Konica-Minolta/Sony A Lens To Leica M Body (Techart Pro LM-EA7) Adapter: A lens to M body -- or autofocus using LM-EA7
Canon FL/FD/FDn Lens To Leica M Body (Techart Pro LM-EA7) Adapter: FL/FD/FDn lens to M body -- or autofocus using LM-EA7
Minolta SR/MC/MD Lens To Leica M Body (Techart Pro LM-EA7) Adapter: SR/MC/MD lens to M body -- or autofocus using LM-EA7
M42 Lens To Leica M Body (Techart Pro LM-EA7) Adapter: M42 lens to M body -- or autofocus using LM-EA7
Kiev 10/15 Lens To Leica M Body (Techart Pro LM-EA7) Adapter: Kiev 10/15 lens to M body -- or autofocus using LM-EA7
Anaperture Single-Shot Anaglyph Apertures: Customizer application that designs filters that allow a camera to capture an anaglyph stereo image in a single shot, or even anaglyph stereo movies
3D-Printed Screw-In Front Lenscaps With Optional QR Code: Customizer application that designs screw-in lenscaps, with optional text and QR code labels
Camera Obscura for Canon PowerShot ELPH115IS: 16MP digital pinhole imaging using an unmodified Canon PowerShot
Bird's Eye Camera Stand: Mount for a Canon PowerShot to capture a 360-degree view in a single shot reflecting the scene off a Christmas-tree bulb
Kiev 10/15 Lens To Sony A7II-series Body Adapter: Kiev 10/15 lens to E body
Focusing E-Mount For Ultrafast Lenses: Various special-purpose ultrafast lenses to E body; focus by turning in a screw thread
DupliHood: a 3D-printed slide copy attachment: An attachment that screws into the filter thread of a macro lens to allow copying of slides or negatives
3D-Printed Screw-In Front Lenscaps: Customizer application that designs screw-in lenscaps, with simple labels
Mount For Fisheye Converter Lens On Canon PowerShot A4000: IPIX 185-degree fisheye converter on Canon PowerShot A4000
Minolta SR/MC/MD Rear Lenscap: SR/MC/MD rear lenscap
Meade telescope to Sony FE/E-mount Adapter: Meade telescope to E body
Kiev 10/15 Lens To Canon FL/FD/FDn Body Adapter: Kiev 10/15 lens to FL/FD/FDn body
Minolta SR/MC/MD Lens To Canon FL/FD/FDn Body Adapter: SR/MC/MD lens to FL/FD/FDn body
M42 Rear Lenscap: M42 rear lenscap

Other Stuff

Instructable: Making Your Mini Laser Engraver Safer And Better, http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1859303: Here's how we modified our mini laser engraver to be both much safer and and a significantly more effective tool.
Instructable: Prosthetic/Robotic Hand Printable As An Assembled Unit Without Supports, http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:158843: Here's our 3D-printed prosthetic/robotic hand for which all the printed parts print assembled without supports in less than an hour. You still have to thread some fishing line and rubber bands through it, but from print start to working hand is easily done in less than 90 minutes using a total of about $1 worth of materials! Makes a great demonstration piece, although it would have to be tweaked for use as a real prosthetic. this cap is an easily-printable thread compatible with standard metric M42x1. The outside is a grip pattern similar to that used on the focus ring of many M42 lenses.
Instructable: 3D-Printed Birdhouse, A Sign, http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:117929: A fully 3D-printed birdhouse the entry/donation to the annual Birdhouse Display and Benefit Auction, May 24-June 2, 2013, at The Arboretum in Lexington, KY, http://www.ca.uky.edu/arboretum/..
Instructable: 3D Printed Maze, http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:65025: This is a very small toy (not for young kids). This maze is designed to take four balls, with the goal of simultaneously moving all four balls from their start to end positions by tilting the maze. It also is a nice demonstration of thermally bonding a different material to PLA -- a sheet of overhead transparency material is used to make the transparent cover of the maze.
Instructable: Printable Camera Mount for MakerGear M2, http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:62443: This bracket allows a $6 webcam to be very inobtrusively mounted on a MakerGear M2 to provide a (low resolution) live video feed of the part being printed.
Instructable: Use Your Camera To Capture "3D" Anaglyphs: This describes how to capture analglyphs directly with a single shot through a special anaglyph filter -- which is most easily cut using a programmable paper cutter.

Our New Making Technologies

Print-in-place Hinges and Metamaterials

It started with Hinge Printable As An Assembled Unit Without Supports, but continued with HingeBox Printable As An Assembled Unit Without Supports, Prosthetic/Robotic Hand Printable As An Assembled Unit Without Supports, and HingePliers (a metamaterials experiment)

Our first print-in-place vertical-pivot hinge led to some other applications and a horizontal-pivot version.. along with treatment of printed parts as metamaterials

Trace2SCAD: Converting Images Into OpenSCAD Models

A simple tool to convert images into OpenSCAD programs

Welding Plastic With A Soldering Iron

Not much to say here, but it's a trick we use often. This is particularly good for PLA, because very few materials react with PLA, making gluing difficult

Thermal Bonding With A Clothes Iron

For building the tiny 3D Printed Maze, we 3D printed the maze, but needed a way to seal the balls in. The answer we came up with is thermally bonding a piece of overhead slide material to the maze using a clothes iron. It's shockingly simple, with heat set on around 2-3.

USB Webcam Monitoring Of MakerGear M2

This Instructable, Printable Camera Mount for MakerGear M2, explains how to make a mount for a $6 webcam -- so it can be watched. I wish I could say we only watch the M2 because it is hypnotic, but it also is very common that prints fail. Reasons it fails (decreasing frequency):

Bad first layer (usually due to bad leveling of the base).
Bad bond with the base causes part to slip late in construction.
Twist in filament spooling causes feed to jam & extrusion stops.

General References

Note that being listed as a reference here does not imply an endorsement by the University of Kentucky... but our group has found the following sites to be useful.

3ders.org list of 3D printers is probably the single most comprehensive list of what's available, including prices and lead time. Lots of good info at this site....
MAKE magazine's "ultimate guide to 3D printing" is a fairly nice overview with detailed evaluations of many printers. Unfortunately, the field is evolving so fast, and print quality of so many printers is so highly dependent on minor tweaks, that as a buying guide this isn't all that much help. It does at least give one more realistic expectations: most 3D printers still very slowly produce rather imprecise parts. Our MakerGear M2 gets pretty much top scores on part quality, and just about everybody who has 3D printing experience has been telling us our M2 is simply outclassing their printers, but printing precisely-dimensioned parts with our M2 is still somewhat hit-or-miss (with most 3D printers, it seems to be miss-wildly-or-miss-and-hand-rework-to-dimensions).
Thingiverse is one of the best repositories of 3D designs that might actually be printable using additive extrusion. The Customizer by MakerBot WWW tool hosted at Thingiverse is a bit of a hack, using special comments to parameterize OpenSCAD files, but it is darned effective.
Instructables is probably the site with the most detailed instructions on making things ranging from Chicken Cacciatore to snowmobiles. It is where we publish most of our "random" making.
OpenSCAD is software that processes a simple programming language for defining 3D solid objects. There isn't really any point-and-click editing support, but the tool seems more reliable than most in producing 3D-printable STL files. The system apparently uses extensive caching of portions of the design to make processing of minor textual changes to the program fast, although this also seems to make the tool want a heck of a lot of memory space. (Then again, slicers seem to be at least as memory hungry, so this might not be the performance limiting factor.)
FreeCAD is a parametric 3D solid modeler that in many ways should be all that OpenSCAD is an more... but it's more fragile. If you don't have a design, but want to just build the design as you build the model, this is a pretty good tool to use.
Blender is an amazingly powerful 3D creation studio... but it is hard to learn and more oriented toward animated movues of organic solid models than 3D printing of technically-precise parts. We don't yet have anyone expert enough to really judge how well it can do in building 3D models for printing.
MakerGear's homepage -- we bought an M2 because it had just about the best reputation for the hot end, seemed very solid, has a good build volume, and was relatively cheap fully assembled. We have not been disappointed. From everything we've seen since getting our M2, it really seems an excellent contender for best in its class. Unfortunately, the M2 pricing has gone up a bit.... Incidentally, MakerGear's black filament (which they are usually out of) is stunningly black even in the thinnest single layer -- it probably contains actual carbon black.
ProtoParadigm is a 3D printer filament supplier. They seem to have very good pricing, but more importantly they have some very competent articles posted overviewing things like the differences between PLA amd ABS, etc. We haven't tried their filament yet.
MatterHackers is another 3D filament supplier, also with good pricing and two grades of filament: regular and "PRO." I've just ordered several spools of the PRO 1.75mm PLA filament... it at least looks good on their website.
The "unfortunately named RepRaper.Com" has stunningly low prices on filament which, after adding rather fast shipping from China, are still very low. They clearly don't know English very well, but their filament seems to print well. We have noticed that their filament colors are not very strong, probably imposed with organic dye. Blue and glow-in-the-dark blue are quite transparent, and black is more of a transparent light smoke color, until you get to about 1mm thickness. White seems to be more solidly white.

Some Personal Background

Henry George Dietz founded a manufacturing company in 1947... so it isn't surprising that, as a kid, Prof. Henry Gordon (Hank) Dietz, his eldest son, grew-up spending a lot of time learning drafting, machining, tool and die making, injection molding, and all the other skills associated with manufacturing. In the late 1970s, Hank Dietz learned to program the Bridgeport Series 1 CNC Milling Machine, and ended-up writing various software to ease the process of converting 3D designs into physical things. In fact, Hank Dietz started out as a double major between ME and EE... So, the technologies for building things have always been of interest...

The only thing set in stone is our name.