This is one of my favorite things to do on campus!
I thank Prof Anurag Purwar for inviting me back to this end of the semester event, that really starts the students that take the class off with a bang.
Some robots had skins, other were bare… some had lights, some spoke, some whistled, others threw things around, and others threw things away… most were pretty successful in doing the things they were meant to do.
I’m just going to share a bunch of picture and some videos for you to see what our freshmen can be doing at Stony Brook University.
The CAT Lab has opened it’s second course. A self-paced, beginner-friendly leather working micro-course that
encourages makers to open the leather working kit and do it safely. The course lives in Brightspace under the Discover menu, but all of the hands-on work happens right here in the CAT Lab.
No prior experience is required. You’ll learn how handle tools safely, and build confidence with basic stitching, edging, and finishing techniques. Along the way, you’ll document your progress and share your first completed project with the CAT Lab community.
Course Structure
The course is organized into short, focused modules so you can work at your own pace online and during open lab hours.
Welcome to Course
Module 1: Kit Orientation & Safety
Module 2: Getting Started
Module 3 – Punching & Stitching for Beginners
Module 4: Edge Smoothing and Polishing
Module 5: Maintenance & Stewardship (Optional)
Badges!
Showcasing Your First Project
At the end of the course, you’ll photograph your finished leather project and upload it to a short peer-sharing activity. Makers are encouraged to celebrate progress, give supportive feedback, and use what they learn as inspiration for future visits to the CAT Lab.
This micro-course is part of an ongoing series of skill-based learning experiences developed by Stony Brook University Libraries and the CAT Lab.
Keep an eye out for additional modules on textiles, electronics, and more.
🧵 Hands-On Learning Takes Shape: Sewing and Serger Course Now Live on Brightspace
The CAT Lab’s newest learning path is officially open! After months of planning, testing, and threading (literally), the Sewing and Serger Course is now live on Brightspace — giving students a safe, guided way to earn access to the Brother CS7000X sewing machine and MARGAR serger in the CAT Lab on the second floor of the Melville Library. To enroll in the course, please use the Discover tab, or go directly to this link:
Each stage of the course unlocks new levels of access in the lab:
Badge 1 – Sewing and Serger Access: Complete the digital part first in order to be able to come in a start using the machines
Badge 2 – Sewing Machine Experiential: Demonstrate your first line of stitches and proper cleanup on the Brother CS7000X.
Badge 3 – Serger Experiential: Demonstrate your first line of stitches and proper cleanup on the MARGAR serger
Badge 4 – Maintenance: A special module for student employees and lab stewards, learning to maintain and cleanup our machines.
The badges aren’t just icons — they’re visible markers of skill that staff can verify before hands-on use.
🧷 Learn by Doing — Safely
The CAT Lab emphasizes experiential learning rooted in safety and self-reliance. Students complete short, interactive modules on Brightspace, then demonstrate their skills on site. Each assessment focuses on confidence, care, and cleanup — teaching habits that translate to every tool in the lab, from textiles to 3D printing.
✨ Designed for Everyone
This course welcomes total beginners as well as experienced makers who want official access to the equipment. It’s self-paced, visually rich, and supported by short in-lab check-ins with CAT Lab staff.
📍 Get Started
The Sewing and Serger course is now available to all Stony Brook students, faculty, and staff. Visit the CAT Lab in the Melville 2nd floor or enroll through Brightspace to begin your first project — one stitch at a time. Lab hours are not public yet, but feel free to contact me for a walk through.
As 3D printing continues to transform the way we teach, research, and innovate, an important shift is happening: academic institutions and libraries are partnering with 3D print databases to enhance access to quality models. Whether it’s for biomedical training, robotics research, or book history education, these collaborations are unlocking new possibilities across disciplines.
Below, we explore a few repositories and platforms that have formed meaningful partnerships with universities and libraries — and why those relationships matter.
Focus: Bioscience, medicine, education Institutional Tie-In: Strong collaboration with academic researchers and medical schools
NIH 3D offers an open portal for sharing high-quality, scientifically vetted 3D models. Originally developed to support biomedical education and research, the platform became particularly valuable during the COVID-19 pandemic for distributing PPE and clinical tools created in collaboration with university labs. The models here are more than just downloadable files — they are educational assets grounded in research.
You can create an account using your university google account.
Focus: Anthropology, paleontology, biology Institutional Tie-In: Widely used and contributed to by university researchers
MorphoSource is a 3D data repository designed for sharing scanned biological and fossil specimens. It’s deeply rooted in the academic world, supporting everything from anatomy courses to evolutionary research. Universities use it not only to access models but also to contribute new datasets, often from rare or fragile collections.
Focus: Book history, printing technology, instructional use Institutional Tie-In: Collaborative initiative between UNT, UCLA, and Texas A&M
The 3Dhotbed project is a fantastic example of library-led innovation. Developed through partnerships between university libraries, it provides 3D-printable teaching tools related to book history and movable type. Models range from early printshop components to illustrative replicas used in literature, history, and design instruction.
Focus: Engineering, prototyping, and industrial design Institutional Tie-In: Widely used by engineering schools and student makers
GrabCAD is one of the largest online communities for mechanical engineers, offering an extensive library of free, downloadable 3D CAD models. While originally designed for professional engineers, it has become a go-to resource for university makerspaces, engineering departments, and student design teams. Many institutions incorporate GrabCAD into coursework, allowing students to iterate quickly using real-world parts and assemblies. It’s especially valuable in capstone projects, rapid prototyping, and cross-disciplinary design challenges.
Some academic institutions even contribute original models, tutorials, or design challenges to the platform, helping bridge the gap between classroom learning and industry practice.
Why These Partnerships Matter
Partnerships between 3D repositories and academic institutions offer benefits beyond simple access:
Accuracy & Trust: University partnerships ensure models are reviewed, high-quality, and aligned with scholarly or clinical needs.
Metadata & Rights Management: Institutional repositories handle licensing and versioning to support long-term access and reuse.
Pedagogical Value: Many models are developed with instructional goals in mind, not just design aesthetics.
Collaborative Knowledge Sharing: These platforms often act as bridges between institutions, enabling cross-campus innovation.
As my faithful followers will know, I’ve been reconditioning some used 3d printers. This week I’ve been working on an old Ultimaker 2+. To get it to print something I had to load a file to a SD card, as this printer does not have the native ability to connect to the computer or network. I did not have an SD card reader on my Mac at first, so I printed some files that were already on the card – and after some poking and prodding that did eventually work, but the files were uninteresting. Around this time, my coworker, Victoria Pilato let me borrow her SD card reader, so I happily went looking for something to print from Thingiverse – found a cute little fancy statue and set to printing.
Then I stopped the print job…
Even though the files on the card had been boring, they were at least printing ok. This time it was trying to print from a few mm above the print bed. I readjusted the bed calibration (which seemed fine, as I had already done it earlier), and still had the problem.
Next morning. I’m feeling ready to tackle this. I ask ChatGPT. It suggests my bed could be off or POSSIBLY some weird thing could be in the G Code telling it to start the first row higher on the z axis. I poke around in Ultimaker Cura, trying to find the issue, but I don’t see the problem.
AI Fixes the G CODE
It occurs to me the maybe ChatGPT can just read the G Code. I dump it on the AI and turns out that it can. It tells me mostly everything looks alright… BUT it says that it is configured for the Ultimaker 2+ Connect, which has auto leveling, where my model does not and that I should fix that in Cura. Now in Cura, I can clearly see that I have it configured for the correct printer, not the Connect. So, I ask GPT to fix the code directly, instead of me doing it in Cura. And it does.
AI Suggests a New 3d Model
I have already skipped the fancy little model, and been working on a simple Benchy today. After it provides me with the new code… and that code is happily chugging away on the printer, I ask GPT if it can alter the code to actually change the shape of the model. It says it can not, tells me what programs to use… and yet, still offers to make a prototype. I say sure. It says it will give me code, but instead gives me an image. Again tells me it get generate an .stl file, but instead makes a placeholder, with another image.
Oh by the way, I’ve told it to merge the Benchy with an UFO – because, why not?
This is an AI rendered image, not a picture of a printed model.
AI Converts a 2d Image into a 3d Render
So at this point, I’m pretty happy with the cute Benchy from Outer Space, so I decide to download that image and bring it into Meshy. Meshy is a browser based AI 3d model generator, that can either make a model from a text prompt or from an image. I’ve previously made a little seawolf with it before, starting from an image.
image
meshy model from image
printed meshy model
The one thing I wasn’t thrilled about the first time I printed Wolfie straight from Meshy, was that I thought it lost some of the detail and looked a bit blobby.
From inside Meshy, I loaded the picture I wanted it to generate a 3d model from. Similar to when you ask any AI to make a model, it gives me 4 choices. You can see that they are doing the usual AI thing, and not really, really, trying to just make what you gave it, but providing you with some creative adaptations.
Some of the choices are already less blobby than others, but I really wanted the one that looked the most like what GPT had made, so I went with the one in the top left – which already looks lumpy.
AI Makes Recommendations to Refine Meshy Model
Me: “I have brought in a model into Blendr from meshy. The model looks kind of globby. Is there an easy way to clean it up so it looks more defined?”
GPT:
Top Reasons for “Globby” Models from Meshy and How to Fix Them
🟠 1. Surface is Too Smooth (Normals or Shading)
Meshy sometimes auto-applies smooth shading, which can make details look melted or blobby.
✅ Fix in Blender:
Select the model in Object Mode.
Go to the left toolbar or press Right-click → Shade Flat.
Instantly sharpens up the look by reverting from smooth shading.
🟠 2. Mesh is Over-Triangulated or Dense
Meshy-generated models often have millions of triangles, making them look blobby or noisy.
✅ Fix:
In Edit Mode, run:
F3 → search Decimate Geometry (non-destructive, try ratios like 0.2–0.6)
Or use Remesh Modifier (Voxel mode, low voxel size like 0.05–0.1)
🟠 3. Normals Are Messed Up
If the surface has weird lighting or jagged shading, the normals may be flipped.
✅ Fix:
Go into Edit Mode (Tab)
Press A to select all
Press Shift + N to Recalculate Normals
🟠 4. Model Scale Is Off
Sometimes imported models are tiny or huge and look off.
✅ Fix:
Press N for the sidebar → check scale
Reset with Ctrl + A → Apply Scale
🧠 Tip: For 3D Printing
Use Mesh → Clean Up in Edit Mode to:
Delete loose geometry
Fill holes
Merge by distance
Remove doubles
If you want, you can send me a screenshot or description of what it looks like, and I’ll give you a specific cleanup sequence.
Or — I can write you a custom macro that does it all in one go!
Me: Macro??? Yes please!
Here is the gold — lol (I didn’t know you could throw a python script into Blendr. Even if you did, maybe you hadn’t thought to have AI make it for you)
—————————————————————–
import bpy
import bmesh
# Get active object and ensure it’s a mesh
obj = bpy.context.active_object
if obj and obj.type == ‘MESH’:
# Ensure we’re in Object Mode
bpy.ops.object.mode_set(mode=’OBJECT’)
print(“✨ Cleaned, smoothed, and preserved edges!”)
else:
print(“⚠️ Error: Please select a mesh object in Object Mode.”)
—————————————————————–
Here is what it looks like after applying the script:
It isn’t perfect… but it is a whole lot better. BTW – Blendr is free, Meshy has a paid version that very well make my models look better, but I am using the limited free version, the original Benchy model is free from Thiniverse as are many other items (though tips are encouraged (remember beerware??)). I pay for ChatGPT – but I suspect this could have been achieved from the free version as well.
After this, I brought it over to Formware to do some last minute manifold repairs on the stl file.
“You can use this free online tool without hassle to fix your stl files quickly. Files are deleted after download or otherwise after 6 hours to keep our systems clean. The fixer accepts binary and ascii .stl files.”
And here is the print after the supports are removed:
This past week I’ve rolled up my sleeves and tackled checking whether two new-to-us UP Mini 2 3D printers from Tiertime were still functional. These compact machines had been tucked away for quite some time—unfortunately, in a room that suffered a significant flood. One unit had been stored in its original box (lucky break), while the other had been sitting exposed on the floor. Needless to say, I had some concerns about their condition.
I started with the boxed unit, which appeared to be in better shape. When I loaded a fresh spool of filament, it threw an “Insufficient Material” error—even though I could clearly see the filament had been fed properly. The fix? Manually entering the filament weight (500g), which this printer model requires in order to track usage accurately. Once that was squared away, I ran a test print—not the traditional Benchy, but a Calibration Mouse. (Let’s just say the loaded green filament gave it some extra personality.)
The second printer needed more attention. The nozzle was gummed up and required a good cleaning, along with a bit of tinkering to get everything running smoothly. After some patience and perseverance, I managed to coax it back to life. The reward? A second successful test print—this time in red.
Why the UP Mini 2?
The UP Mini 2 might not be the flashiest printer on the market, but it’s a solid workhorse, especially for educational and makerspace environments. Its fully enclosed build area makes it safer and better for temperature-sensitive materials like ABS. It’s compact enough for a desktop yet capable of reliable, high-quality prints with minimal fuss. Features like HEPA filtration, auto-leveling, and built-in touchscreen controls make it accessible for beginners while still meeting the needs of more advanced users.
With both printers now tested and functional, our upcoming space has two more reliable machines ready to support student projects, prototyping, and creative exploration.
When I printed my first double-chambered flute on my 3D printer, I was thrilled to see it come to life. But as I prepared to play it, a question nagged at me: Is it actually safe to put this in my mouth? That one query opened a whole new world of research into the safety of 3D printed objects—especially those that come into contact with food or the human body.
(who am I kidding – this is made of PLA and I did blow into it before even considering all of this.)
3D printing offers incredible possibilities—from custom cookie cutters to personalized water bottle lids and musical instruments. But just because something can be printed doesn’t mean it should be used without considering safety, especially for anything that goes near your mouth or food.
Understanding Food Safety Terms
Before diving deeper, let’s get a handle on a few critical terms:
Food grade: A material is safe for human consumption or is allowed to come into contact with food.
Food safe: A food grade material that meets safety requirements for its intended use and won’t pose a health risk.
Food contact surfaces: These are surfaces that touch food or your mouth and must be nontoxic, durable, and easy to clean.
These terms aren’t just relevant for kitchen utensils—they’re also important for things like wind instrument mouthpieces that see prolonged contact with your lips. The underlying concern is migration—the transfer of small particles from the printed object into food or the body.
Why Basic 3D Prints Aren’t Safe (Even with “Food Safe” Filament)
Here’s the truth: even if your filament is labeled “food safe” or “food grade,” that doesn’t make your printed object safe by default.
Fused Filament Fabrication (FFF) creates objects with microscopic crevices between layers—perfect hiding spots for bacteria and mold.
These gaps are hard to clean, even with a dishwasher (if the material can tolerate high temperatures).
Studies show that untreated 3D prints can harbor significantly more bacteria than coated or properly treated ones.
This is especially problematic for items with repeated or long-term contact, like flutes or cup rims.
Material Considerations: Not All Filaments Are Created Equal
Some materials are potentially safer than others:
PLA, PETG, and PP (polypropylene) are commonly considered food-safe options—but only under certain conditions.
ABS and ASA? Not safe for food contact.
Filament colorants and additives matter too. Even if a base polymer is safe, pigments or other ingredients might not be. Always check with the manufacturer.
For commercial or high-stakes use, look for certified materials—like those compliant with FDA CFR 21 (U.S.) or EU 10/2011. Just be aware: “compliant with” is not the same as certified or approved.
The Printer Itself Can Be a Source of Contamination
Even if you’re using the right filament, your printer might not be clean enough for safe food contact.
Replace brass nozzles with stainless steel—brass can contain lead.
Avoid cross-contamination from previous filaments or lubricants.
Keep your printer—inside and out—as clean as possible.
Why Cleaning my Flute isn’t Good Enough
Layer Lines = Micro-Crevices
FDM/FFF 3D prints, including PLA, have tiny ridges and gaps between layers.
These crevices trap saliva, moisture, and bacteria, which can’t be fully removed—even with scrubbing, soap, or alcohol.
Biofilm Formation
Bacteria can form biofilms—slimy protective layers—that resist even harsh cleaners.
Over time, this can lead to odors, staining, or health hazards.
Porosity Makes Sterilization Difficult
Unlike glass or stainless steel, PLA is porous.
That means typical cleaning doesn’t penetrate deep enough to sanitize completely.
Heat-Based Cleaning = PLA Deformation
PLA softens at ~60°C (140°F), so it’s not dishwasher-safe or steam-sterilizable.
Autoclaves, boiling, or hot water will warp or weaken your print.
What About Specialty Cleaning Methods?
Isopropyl alcohol or diluted bleach may reduce surface bacteria, but again, they can’t reach deep into the layer gaps.
UV light (like toothbrush sanitizers) may help somewhat, but only on exposed surfaces, not inside layer lines.
Long-term, repeated cleaning degrades PLA, especially if it’s soft or has fine details.
The Essential Step: Surface Coating (Sealing)
Because of the porous nature of FFF prints, sealing the surface is key to making your item mouth-safe or food-friendly.
Use clear, food-grade epoxy resins or polyurethane coatings that are explicitly labeled food safe.
Popular choices: ArtResin (compliant with FDA CFR 175.300), MasterBond EP42HT-2FG.
Avoid coatings that are only labeled “non-toxic” (like Mod Podge or Krylon sprays) unless they specifically state food safety.
Be cautious—liquid resins are toxic before curing. Use gloves, a respirator, and follow all curing instructions carefully.
An improperly cured resin can leave your item dangerously unsafe.
Limitations of Coated Prints
Even the best coating isn’t magic. Your sealed object won’t be as durable as a ceramic plate or stainless steel fork.
Most coatings aren’t heat-resistant—don’t microwave or wash in hot water.
Scratches or wear can expose the porous print beneath, allowing bacteria to creep in.
Not ideal for cutting boards, utensils, or anything subject to frequent abrasion.
Considering Alternatives and Safer Workarounds
If sealing sounds too risky or complicated, consider other options:
Use food-safe sealants like water-based poly coats (with proper research and testing).
Make molds using your 3D print and cast with a food-safe silicone or material instead.
Be cautious with SLA (resin) printing. Even when coated, most resins remain inherently toxic and prone to wear.
Final Thoughts: Is It Worth It?
Yes—but only if you do it right.
Creating food- or mouth-contact 3D prints is totally possible. But it requires more than just buying “food-safe” filament. It’s about:
Choosing the right material (and checking additives)
Keeping your printer clean and lead-free
Applying a properly cured, food-grade coating to seal your print
And even then—understand the limitations. These prints won’t last forever and must be treated with care. For commercial products, certification and compliance are non-negotiable.
When in doubt, always check the documentation, contact manufacturers, and—above all—prioritize safety.
