Custom Manufacturing Platform is Reinventing the Maker Community

(Image credit: Stock photo.)

Full disclosure: Make: Projects, mentioned in this article, is a joint venture of engineering.com and Make:Community. Xometry has a partnership with Make: Projects.

With inventors such as Benjamin Franklin, George Washington Carver, and Henry Ford, there is a reason why people call America the land of great inventors. Every American has gained access to tinker with almost anything with the help of 3D printers and easy-to-use manufacturing services.

In April 2020, Make: Community partnered with engineering.com to launch Make: Projects. The platform offers students and makers a place to organize and share their projects online while collaborating with their peers and teachers in private as well as public groups. The platform features file sharing; whiteboards; project collections; project templates; teams; contests; and a worldwide community.

Xometry is now supporting Make: Projects to offer key services to all makers.

Xometry is a manufacturing service that enables makers to find the optimal and affordable manufacturing solution for their designs. Instead of makers having to wait multiple days after sending out a request only to get less than adequate results, Xometry provides them with a state-of-the-art software platform that enables product designers and engineers to instantly access a network of over 3,000 manufacturing facilities. Xometry offers instant pricing and manufacturability feedback.

Xometry compared to the traditional way of manufacturing custom products. (Image courtesy of Xometry.)

The company can help makers with CNC machining, sheet metal fabrication, direct metal laser sintering (DMLS), selective laser sintering (SLS), fused deposition modeling (FDM), HP Multi Jet Fusion, PolyJet 3D, die casting, binder jetting, urethane casting, finishing services, and injection molding.

Through talented makers and companies such as Xometry, America has become a leader in manufacturing, engineering, industrial design, hardware technology, and education.

The manufacturing giant is helping innovators make anything from 3D-printed clocks inspired by the earliest mechanical clock to a CNC router sandwich board to a robotic wasp 3D model. Many users have created their own inventions such as a ChromaRune, which the maker created by reinventing their coffee table into a light show stage. Another maker constructed a 70 cm geodesic dome with 120 LED triangles and sensors to play light shows, music, Simon, and Pong.

So far, over 25,000 Make: Projects members have produced around 8,000 projects. And now, makers can fast-track their projects with the help of Xometry. Through Xometry’s Digital Fabrication sponsorship with Make: Projects, the company is helping innovators all over the world create custom parts with 3D printing, CNC machining, and sheet materials.

For a limited time, makers can get $25 off their first order of $100 or more by using the code MAKE25 until October 31.