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Olaf Diegel’s Latest 3D Printed Guitar, the Xenomorph

“Here’s lookin’ at you, kid.” “Hasta la vista, baby.” “Life is like a box of chocolates.” “Game over, man, game over!” These are all memorable lines from iconic films, though some people may not recognize the last one. This is a line from one of my absolute favorite movies, the 1986 Aliens, and was uttered by Private Hudson, played by Bill Paxton, after (most of) the group narrowly escapes with their lives from a close encounter with the film’s titular creatures.

(Image: IMDB)

Needless to say, I was pretty excited about multi-talented Swedish design engineer Olaf Diegel’s latest 3D printed guitar: the Xenomorph, which is what “the Company” dubbed the fully-grown alien life form in the movie.

“Yes, this was a fun little project that really got the creative juices flowing,” Diegel told me in an email.

Formerly a professor at Lund University in Sweden, Diegel is now in charge of the Creative Design and Additive Manufacturing Lab at the University of Auckland in New Zealand, as well as a professor of additive manufacturing and product development. He is also a DfAM expert and loves completing creative 3D printed projects, like a tiny desktop distillery, a Skeletor microphone, a saxophone, and of course, guitars.

Olaf Diegel (Image: ODD Guitars)

Diegel also founded ODD Guitars, which focuses on making, according to the website, “personalisable, customisable guitars that explore the limits of 3D printing technologies and applications.” ODD uses Selective Laser Sintering (SLS) technology to make its guitars, and finishes the instruments with top quality off-the-shelf hardware.

ODD makes all kinds of guitars – there’s a Steampunk one, the Spider, American Grafitti, Beatlemania, and now the Xenomorph. I told Diegel how much I love the Alien franchise, and asked if he could tell me a little more about the making of his Alien-themed guitar.

“It started way back, about 3 years ago, when Fredrik Thordendal, from Swedish extreme metal band Meshuggah, suggested the idea of designing a biomechanical inspired guitar. And I also had a friend in the robotics field who had a lot of biomechanical tattoos, so those got me started on the guitar,” Diegel told me. “But other projects got in the way and I forgot about it until around 3 months ago, and picked the project up again, but that’s when it got morphed somewhere between a biomechanical and an Alien themed guitar which, indeed, were awesome movies…”

Diegel used mostly SOLIDWORKS, with “a bit of help from Meshmixer,” to sculpt some of the guitar’s more organic parts. He got some of the “rough details and proportions” for these parts from different Thingiverse models.

In response to a question from one of his LinkedIn followers, he said, “I did a very rough crude shape of the head and teeth, mainly trying to get the head carapace right in Solidworks and exported that as an STL, and then had to modify and massage the STL a whole heap in Meshmixer to make it look like the Alien.”

Then, he put it all together in Materialise Magics so he could merge all of the individual STL files into a single file. The body of the Xenomorph guitar was 3D printed in white nylon by i.materialise in Belgium, and its neck is a high-quality Warmoth maple neck, with a rosewood Fretboard, and a machined maple inner core that joins it to the bridge. The hardware includes Seymour Duncan hot-rodded humbuckers, a Schaller bridge and guitar strap locks, and Gotoh tuners, all in black for a good Alien vibe.

Diegel received the guitar back from Belgium right before Christmas, so he took advantage of the holidays to begin priming, sanding, and painting it.

“When I got to the colour, I started it off with ‘Hammerite’ paint, to give it almost the ‘worn’ grey metallic look of the spaceships in the Alien movies. But I then thought it needed a bit more colour to highlight the Alien bits, so took it to Ron Van Dam, the NZ airbrush artist who does the ‘fancy’ paint jobs on most of my guitars. He did an awesome job at giving it just the touch of colour it needed, as well as the glistening clearcoat that mimics the sliminess of the Alien Xenomorph,” Diegel told me.

He’s tried it out, and the 3D printed Xenomorph guitar “plays and sounds awesome.”

“This is guitar number 80, and I have one of each design in my collection, so have sold somewhere around 66 of them, so this is also makes a nice example of using 3D printing for low-volume high-value production,” Diegel said.

Other LinkedIn comments on his original post provide Diegel with some ideas for his next guitar. Harry Potter was one option, but I agree with the second one – a 3D printed Predator guitar, so the two can battle it out.

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[Images: Olaf Diegel, ODD Guitars, unless otherwise noted]

The post Olaf Diegel’s Latest 3D Printed Guitar, the Xenomorph appeared first on 3DPrint.com | The Voice of 3D Printing / Additive Manufacturing.

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3D Printing Industry Expert Interview: Alejandro Espinoza Orias

Alejandro A. Espinoza Orias

Alejandro A. Espinoza Orias, PhD, received a licentiate degree in mechanical engineering degree from the Universidad Mayor de San Andres (La Paz, Bolivia) in addition to master’s and doctoral degrees in aerospace and mechanical engineering from the University of Notre Dame. He later completed a postdoctoral fellowship in spine biomechanics at the McKay orthopedic research laboratory at the University of Pennsylvania. He is an assistant professor in the Department of Orthopedic Surgery at Rush University Medical Center. His research interests include joint biomechanics, the study of structure-function relationships in orthopedic materials and tissues and applications of 3D printing in orthopedics.

Espinoza Orias is an active member of the Orthopaedic Research Society, American Society of Mechanical Engineers, American Society for Testing and Materials International, and Sigma Xi, the Scientific Research Society, He conducts peer review on many orthopedic and biomechanics journals and is on the editorial board of PLoS One.

Ese: Tell me about your educational background?

Alejandro: I became a mechanical engineer in my home country of Bolivia. Then I came to the US for grad school. I got my Masters and PhD from Notre Dame. This is where I first started learning about 3D Printing and computer-aided design.

What inspired you early on in your life to get you to this point currently?

I always liked CAD. When I got to grad school I worked on CAD projects. We made some cool prototypes and learned some rapid prototyping. I was focused on finding projects that had very interesting and applicable uses.

Explain more about what you do currently?

I do a combination of things. Having a use case for 3D printing is cool. I get to help patients with 3D printing. In my mind, all of these things are 3D problems. My lab is focusing on image based mechanics. We look at CT, XRAY, and various other imaging technologies. We are able to understand morphology more precisely through 3D visualization. It is awesome for printing and VR/AR applications. For example, If one is to get a hip replacement it is important to have precise tools that are helpful. You must plan for when you are experiencing a problem that does not fit typical anatomy. These tools can be leveraged for these type of situations where a doctor may not have the requisite historical knowledge to diagnose a newer and atypical defect.

Rush Medical Center

What is the future scope of your lab?

We want to be a large lab to print for hospitals. The idea would be to have a center where you can have a lab that has a focus on very good visualization. That is the most important for our future I believe. Complicated systems and complications happen in various fields. We want to be able to break down these systems. It is important to have great visualization as this field is always oriented in how great an image looks.

What is important for someone who wants to work in a lab?

Be curious and ask why. Be good with computers. Be able to think in 3 dimensions. Be able to completely understand anatomy. This type of work is very hands on. It is helpful to have that skill. One should be looking at how things work. How to make things is really important.

Where do you see the field going?

There is a focus on new materials. Printers are able to do even more detailed things. Biomimicry is huge. There is a lot of people doing the same methods as well though. In general the industry is attempting to adopt this. A need for high-end printers is not that necessary in every setting. Different industries are becoming aware. The key is to focus on materials. We want to print a product. Post processing is very important. Companies are focusing on the importance of finishing products now. It is a very interesting development.

Bioprinting in the lab setting

What mindset do doctors bring to the field of bioprinting?

People from different backgrounds can be a medical doctor. Doctors focus on caring for patients as that is their passion. It is a lot of varied talent. Surgeons are usually good carpenters. Radiologists are an analytical bunch. In the area I intersect with, radiologists are important as they know how to make images. MD & PhD holders are not all interested in necessarily practicing medicine. They are typically great at research. This field is very interdisciplinary. Leveraging all the talent is essential.

What advice do you have for anyone who is interested in this field?

Be passionate about new technology. Be a hands-on person. It is important to know how to make your own tools. Be open to helping others. This is a patient-driven field. Really push yourself to think in 3 dimensions. It is the key to being excellent within this field. Just be ready for the changes in technology as this field is rapidly developing on a constant basis.