That is to say, he made a 3D printing of a dead firefly and crammed three LEDs inside. As bizarre as this is, a whole swarm of these would make for an interesting chandelier. [Design News Now via No Smarties via Boing Boing]

Using a 3D printer and a high-resolution image of the official handcuff key of the Dutch police, Ray, an SSDev member, printed a functional handcuff key. Scary and awesome at the same time. Best of all? You can get all the details on printing your own on his site. [ke.y.nu via BlackBag via Make]

21 days and $10 per cubic centimeter is all you need after you send a CAD design to Shapeways, a company who began offering 3D resin and plastic printing quite some time ago. There are specific size and detail guidelines to keep in mind due to models being printed in layers, but based on the moebius strip complete with moving parts, those guidelines can't be all that limiting. What's going to be your first 3D steel print? [Shapeways via PopSci via CrunchGear]

That's exactly what Jay Leno does: He scans the part in a NextEngine 3D Scanner in about 20 minutes at a 160,000 dots per inch resolution. Then he prints the resulting 3D model in plastic using a Dimension 3D Printer. It takes three hours to get the plastic model, which then he uses it to create a mold that will produce the actual car piece in metal.

You can read more about the process in Jay's own words at Popular Mechanics. [Popular Mechanics]

D-Shape's 3-D stereolithic printer creates models entirely out of artificial sandstone using CAD-CAE modeling technologies and CAD-CAM software to control the plotter. The printing proceeds in 5-10mm layer segments and, in the end, produces a structure that has strength characteristics reminiscent of standard Portland Cement—without the need for internal reinforcement. This gives designers greater flexibility with structural shapes.

The final 10-meter structure is scheduled to be erected in Pontedera, Italy next year, but D-Shape's 3-D printer might be the beginning of a major shift in architectural design. How long will it be before we move on from machining small scale models (and cupcakes) to full-scale buildings? [Dezeen via Fast Company]

MakerBot founder Bre Pettis compared the CupCake to the mythical Altair 8800—but you know, for 3D printing. Next on their list is a 3D scanner that'll copy the design of objects so you can skip creating the 3D schematic yourself—turning CupCake into a replicator. We talked a bit about the possibilities of DIY object replication—Cory Doctorow's Printcrime story came up, but for now you're limited to 3D printing objects the size of cupcakes, hence the name.

You can buy CupCake fully assembled for $2500, but that takes part of the fun out of it—putting the $750 kit together makes for a weekend of awesome. Besides that very nice Empire State Building model—the tip of which was destroyed partly at my behest to show how sturdy the Lego-grade plastic is—the coolest item they'd produced was a custom lens hood for a camera. Why buy spare parts when you can just make them?

Here it is in action, generating a MakerBot coin:
[MakerBot]

No price has been announced yet, but if Objet want to go mainstream with this thing they should probably take aim at the $2400 DIY systems that are already floating around the tubes (update: Oh shucks, it's going to be about $40,000). Full details are on Objet's site, and you can see an example of the printer's capabilities at BBG. [Objet]

How much, Lasseter? How much!? [Toys R Evil]

Each of these cells, when created in a 3-D printer, can be made in any size or shape —or with any material in order to achieve a custom sound. Zoran also envisions a website with recommended sound cell designs that musicians can use to get started. I'm not sure how plausible all of this is, but I certainly like the idea—not to mention the look of the instruments he has come up with. [Architectradure via Design Blog via Gearfuse]

Kicks are big business. Sneakers aren't just for athletes or Americans anymore. And to make sure we're all getting the perfect fit in the future, a company called Prior 2 Lever has come up with a manufacturing process that could help you build a customized set of shoes using a form of rapid 3D printing, which it calls selective laser sintering. The process actually fuses particles of nylon-based materials together and builds the product layer upon layer, after scanning your feet.

Prior 2 Lever plans on using this for British soccer players first, then trying it out on us peons. The idea is to be able to create a pair of these magical sneakers in just a couple of hours.

Tailor-printed shoes will offer a perfect fit [NewScientist]