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#StarWarsDay: May the 4th Be With You

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Happy Star Wars Day! Not only has the Star Wars universe brought us massive amounts of joy, fun, and cultural content, it’s also been an incredible source of inspiration for makers over the years (including us!) We’re celebrating May the 4th over here by reviewing some of our favorite Star Wars themed projects, plus searching the web for ideas and builds from makers around the world.

We hope you’re celebrating in style! (And, of course, May the 4th be with you)

Here’s a round-up of some cool stuff/resources for this year:

And, last but not least, here’s a list of some of our favorite Star-Wars-themed Adafruit projects:

Construct your own Star Wars​ lightsaber using 3D printed parts and the Prop Maker Feather Wing!

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Creating a Terminator Skull Using the Lost PLA Casting Process #SciFiSunday

On AndysMachines, Andy creates an amazing Terminator skull starting off by fabricating most of the parts using lost PLA casting. This is when you 3D print models of parts, create a mold around them, and then heat up the mold to melt away the PLA plastic inside so that it’s ready for a metal pour (in this cast aluminum).

As Andy points out, it’s not a tremendously precise process and there was a lot of post-processing, but it definitely saves time over having to hammer sheet stock and machine all of the skull pieces.

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3D Printing Mandalorian Helmets on a Small Printer #StarWars

In this I Like to Make Stuff video, Bob prints out and finishes two Mandalorian helmets, one for him and one for his son. Because he’s using small-bed printers, he had to print the helmet in sections.

Bob is a master at 3D print finishing and this video is a great class in things like using PETG filament (easier to sand), glazing putty, filler primer, and lots of priming coats and sanding. As you can see from the results, all of that time and effort pays off.

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Adafruit’s Top Ten Blog Posts of 2020 #AdafruitTopTen

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Split Saberstaff #3DThursday #3DPrinting

You probably know about Darth Maul’s dual-bladed light saber, but what about Asajj Ventress? She had a dual-bladed lightsaber designed to be split. Saber staff or dual weild, very cool. Here’s a saberstaff design shared by Elijah_Moore  on Thingiverse:

My own take on a saberstaff that can split into two separate lightsabers as exhibited by Asajj Ventress and Cal Kestis. I have not tested the belt clip yet, but I will edit this once I do

Download the files and learn more

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Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

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Prop from The Dark Cystal – The Dual Glavie #3DThursday #3DPrinting

Check out this fantastic recreation of the Dual Glaive from Jim Henson’s The Dark Crystal, shared by BlacksmithingGamer  on Thingiverse:

This is the Dual Glaive from the Dark Crystal Series and the new video game The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics!

Download the files and learn more

649-1
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!

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Adafruit Weekly Editorial Round-Up: CAD Design Tips, Discord, Cleveland Museum of Art PyPortal Frame and More!

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ADAFRUIT WEEKLY EDITORIAL ROUND-UP

We’ve got so much happening here at Adafruit that it’s not always easy to keep up! Don’t fret, we’ve got you covered. Each week we’ll be posting a handy round-up of what we’ve been up to, ranging from learn guides to blog articles, videos, and more.

BLOG

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A Poster of CAD Design Tips for #3DPrinting #CAD @BillieRubenMake

“Maker of many kinds, serial skill-collector, and STEM-student,” Billie Ruben, has created this very useful little poster of do’s, don’ts, and other design considerations for creating CAD files for 3D printing.

You can download a large version of the poster, along with two other 3DP tips posters she’s created here. While on the Imgur link, don’t forget to check out Billie’s other two posters with more tips on what modeling programs to use for different types of 3DP and the ins and outs of 3D printer bed leveling. Read more!

More BLOG:

LEARN

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Cleveland Museum of Art PyPortal Frame
Use your PyPortal to display works of art from the Cleveland Museum of Art

Museums today are expanding public access to their art collections, not just inside the walls of the museum but also outside. Digital initiatives are bringing artwork, once relegated within the confines of the museum, to a 21st century global audience. These modern museums have essentially become the new content providers. Much like the modern companies Netflix and Pandora that provide video and music content, museums are becoming their own content providers with their collection of paintings, photographs, jewelry and other media. Digitizing these collections and making it publicly available brings this material to a global audience.
One such museum that is at the forefront of this endeavor is the Cleveland Museum of Art.

This project accesses the CMA API using CircuitPython running on the PyPortal. It uses the API to pick a random item from the collection. It converts and resizes the JPEG image from the collection to a BMP image sized to the PyPortal using Adafruit IO image conversion service. Finally, the converted image is downloaded to the PyPortal for display. A new feature of the PyPortal allows the correct scaling of portrait images, which is a great feature for this project.
Learn more!

More LEARN

Browse all that’s new in the Adafruit Learning System here!

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Adafruit’s Top Facebook Posts of the Decade #AdafruitTopTen #DecadeofAdafruit

Adafruit top of the decade blog

Over the years Adafruit had shared a great deal of Maker content on Facebook, providing some and island of knowledge, DIY  independence, and open source philosophy to the land of news feeds and blue frames. Here are some of our favorites from the last decade!

10.

Women Who Watched “The X-Files” Pursued More Careers In STEM…

Posted by Adafruit Industries on Wednesday, April 25, 2018

9.

Mho’s Resistance – The most fun you can have learning Resistor values!

Posted by Adafruit Industries on Friday, April 21, 2017

8.

7.

6.

Limor Fried, Founder & CEO. Produced in association with Melinda Gates, TechMAKERS highlights five extraordinary women…

Posted by Adafruit Industries on Tuesday, March 13, 2018

5.

Build a retro game controller with Arcade Bonnet #raspberrypi #arcade #mame #adafruit #diy

Posted by Adafruit Industries on Thursday, July 27, 2017

4.

3.

Posted by Adafruit Industries on Sunday, May 7, 2017

2.

LED physics on a Pi powered Matrix! An Adafruit LED matrix displays the LEDs as little grains of sand which are driven…

Posted by Adafruit Industries on Wednesday, February 28, 2018

1.

HACK dealer Adafruit Industries Limor Fried #adafruit #radiofruit RadioShack

Posted by Adafruit Industries on Thursday, November 9, 2017

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Lightsaber Hilt With Cap, and Hanging Ring #piday #raspberrypi @Raspberry_Pi #3DThursday #3DPrinting

by SparkBibo on Thingverse (translated from the French):

These are some additions I made to @3DPRINTINGWORLD ‘s awesome lightsaber. I love to cosplay and needed these items to complete the saber for a prop I so I can wear it at a con.

The end cap is the same as his, but two holes have been added. One for the Key Ring and one as an air hole. I find the blades extend much better if there is an air inlet to relieve air pressure.

The Key Ring has a slight break in one side so you can slide it in the hole. Then superglue the two ends.

The cap has a thumb tab to help you get the cap off and inside the cap are small tabs that latch to hold the cap on. This was necessary addition to keep the blade in the hilt while wearing the saber on your belt. I printed it at 100% and had no trouble popping it on and off. Depending on how you printed your saber, you may have to increase/decrease the size in your slicer.

Download files and learn more

649-1
Every Thursday is #3dthursday here at Adafruit! The DIY 3D printing community has passion and dedication for making solid objects from digital models. Recently, we have noticed electronics projects integrated with 3D printed enclosures, brackets, and sculptures, so each Thursday we celebrate and highlight these bold pioneers!

Have you considered building a 3D project around an Arduino or other microcontroller? How about printing a bracket to mount your Raspberry Pi to the back of your HD monitor? And don’t forget the countless LED projects that are possible when you are modeling your projects in 3D!