Announcing new books like Brian Evans' Practical 3D Printers: The Science and Art of 3D Printing is dangerous. Now we'll never get you out of the basement. Should you decide to sequester yourself in pursuit of 3-D-printing guru-dom, you will find yourself fully armed with everything you need to know. In case you are not yet aware, a 3-D printer is a device you can either buy or (oh so much more fun) build to make parts, toys, art and even 3-D images captured by a sensor or modeled in software. The book takes readers beyond building the printer to calibrating it, customizing it and creating amazing models with it, including 3-D printed text, a warship model, a robot body, windup toys and arcade-inspired alien invaders. Readers also will explore the different types of popular 3-D printer models like the MakerBot, the whiteAnt RepStrap and RepRap printers. Other topics range from finding and creating 3-D models, including using Google Sketchup, creating a 3-D model from a 2-D image, the printer toolchain, creating multipart models and meshes, and upgrading both the mechanical and electronic parts.
