Hackaday Podcast Ep 332: 5 Axes are Better than 3, Hacking Your Behavior, and the Man Who Made Models
Aug 8, 2025
A new 5-axis 3D printer makes waves with its non-planar printing capabilities, eliminating overhangs. The hosts dive into the quirks of budget vs. premium digital microscopes, revealing surprising insights about their performance. They also tackle naming challenges in tech, shedding light on systemic issues for those with unique names. Plus, there's a nostalgic nod to model making and a reminder of lightning safety in aviation. And don't forget about the upcoming sci-fi Halloween party at Supercon—it's going to be a blast!
AI Snips
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Transcript
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5-Axis Printing By Tilting The Bed
- Daniel from Fractal Robotics built a 5-axis printer that tilts the bed instead of the nozzle to avoid overhangs.
- Its slicer lets you place reference planes and interpolate between them to coordinate all five axes for intuitive non-planar printing.
Non-Planar Layers Improve Strength
- Non-planar multi-axis printing can remove overhangs and create interlocking layer geometries that improve part strength.
- Varying the growth plane during a print produces non-aligned layers that counteract typical weak layer interfaces.
Names Break Systems
- Dan and Elliot recount personal naming problems caused by software that assumes simple ASCII first/last formats.
- Elliot shares how German prefix fields produced a mismatched