Rees Calder and his design
Creativity is what drives the desktop 3D printing space. It is creativity that has gotten us to where we are today, and it will also be the means in which we advance to a point of eventual self-sufficiency. While self-sufficiency for all, through the use of 3D printing, is still a long way off, in the meantime this shouldn’t imply we can’t have a little fun.
For Rees Calder, marketing coordinator for London-based iMakr, fun comes in the form of basketball. Because he loves this sport so much, he decided to create his very first 3D printable design based around the popular game.
“I actually work in the marketing side of things at iMakr and MyMiniFactory, but recently I’ve been dabbling in a bit of design and am hoping to get into Solidworks or something along those lines,” Calder tells 3DPrint.com. “I really like the idea of prints that are simple and come out in one piece, but then provide some entertainment instead of just being ornamental – that was the motivation behind this really.”
Simple it is, but simply ornamental it certainly is not. Calder’s design is for a desktop finger basketball which can be 3D printed on almost any FFF/FDM 3D printer which has the ability to print objects 15 cm in length.
“I thought it would be a fun toy just to have on my desk at work,” Calder told us. “I taught myself a bit of Sketchup and put this together in about 30 minutes. I left the backboard out so it would be a bit more challenging, and it was kind of getting in the way to be honest. The print comes out with a little bit of support but once removed it works great. It prints in less than two hours and has proved to a really fun addition to the office!”
This desktop game is free to download via the MyMiniFactory website, and takes between 100-140 minutes of print time. It comes with the court, the basket pole and the basket, but does require you to find another design elsewhere on the internet for the ball, or simply use some BluTac putty to begin ballin’ out! Surely you will be the envy of your classmates, co-workers and friends.
What do you think about this fun looking basketball game? Have you 3D printed it out and given it a try yourself? Discuss in the 3D printed basketball game forum thread on 3DPB.com.
