It's safe to say that 3D printing has moved past trinkets and toys and onto more interesting things. From large scale objects like cars to functional 3D printed motors, it seems that almost anything can be 3D printed. In order to build these huge or complicated items, one must work around the limitations of 3D printing and make careful design choices. A key shortcoming of 3D printing is the strength of the parts. With this in mind, I pose the question: is it possible to 3D print a powerful full sized crossbow? Yes, in fact, it is. Materials This crossbow...

An Archer is only as good as his arrows, and making a good arrow is easier said than done. An important part of arrows is the fletching; it plays a key role in making the arrow fly straight. Installing the fletching can be tricky, which is why fletching jigs were invented. A fletching jig holds the feathers or vanes in the correct position as you attach them to the arrow shaft. There are lots of commercial fletching jigs available, but they can be fairly pricey. They certainly don't cost $1 like my jig did! The Design I wanted this jig...

Last year I took a slight interest in archery and did some research on how to build a bow. I read a detailed build-along thread and decided it was definitely something I might like to do, but then summer ended and I forgot about it. This summer, however, I actually followed through and built myself a longbow. The two resources that helped me most were this forum thread (it's very detailed and even includes history!) and http://poorfolkbows.com/. Here are some details and photos of the process. Starting Out Given that this was my first bow, I wanted to...

A few years ago I bought some macro extension tubes so that I could experiment with macro photography. Unfortunately, the tubes didn't work very well; the lens wouldn't lock into the tubes, so using them was very risky. I put them aside and moved on; they were only $6 anyway. Fast forward a year and we have built a 3D printer: time to fix these extension tubes! The Problem Looking inside the tubes I could see that the lever that holds the lens in place was too thin. It could easily slip past the slot in the lens, preventing it...

3D printers may seem like a piece of specialty equipment, but they have a lot of practical uses. We use ours all the time and don't know what we'd do without one! Recently my father was installing sliding doors in a gazebo. The doors hang off of a set of rollers in a track. This means that the top of the door is held in place, but the bottom can swing in and out. This could be a problem in a wind storm, so some kind of guide is needed... Off to the 3D printer! To accomplish the task, we...