It's no surprise that with the advent of 3D printing one of the first things people wanted to make was sex toys. One of great things about 3D printing, after all, is being able to personalise consumer objects. And what could be more personal than your very own uniquely designed dildo?
Geekosystem stumbled across a site that allows makers to do just that. The descriptively named ‘Dildo Generator’ lets you tweak a phallic model until it fits your preferences just so, ready to be saved and exported so the 3D file of your fantasy can be forever solidified in silicone.
I reached out to Ikaros Kappler, the Berlin-based programmer behind the project, to ask why. Fittingly, the idea came to him while he was hanging out with friends, drinking beer, and listening to techno at a maker space.
“It was the aim to print something more useful instead of printing small figurines to put on your windowsill,” he told me over email. He also wanted to explore the new features of HTML5. “Oh, and I love Bézier curves!” he added. Those are the curves you can make by adjusting points at either end on a computer model, always resulting in a nice smooth finish. Pretty important to dildo design, I guess.
The idea of 3D-printed toys is far from new, but what differentiates this project is its simplicity and accessibility. We’ve seen companies that’ll scan your dick and print a model of it, and free marketplaces of often eyebrow-raisingly intricate sex toy designs you can share and download. But Dildo Generator is easy enough for pretty much anyone to give it a go. It’s the DIY side of the 3D-printed sex toy revolution.
You start with a pretty generic cylinder and you can adjust sliders to change the height, circumference, shape, bend (up to 180 degrees—ouch!), and of course colour. You can pretty quickly get to some rather experimental designs, and I guess you could use the tool to make any basic 3D model, presuming it fits the vaguely dildo-shaped parameters. It took me about three seconds of playing around to make this not-so-sexy specimen:
It might not look like much (or really be fit for purpose), but I dread to think how long it would have taken me to design from scratch. The difficulty of using 3D modeling software has long been one of the remaining barriers to bringing 3D printing to the mainstream, and though this project clearly has its own very specific applications, it also shows that you shouldn't really need much know-how to get involved with basic 3D design.
Once you’re satisfied with your design, Kappler doesn't recommend printing it straight out in plastic filament. If size and shape matters, so does texture—and, you know, basic safety and hygiene.
“The first results were directly printed dildos, made with PLA (polylactic acid), which is pretty brittle and hard,” he said. “Not a nice material for sex toys.” So they decided instead to print molds that can then be filled with silicone to make the actual toy, with fewer sharp edges.
Developer Jan Northoff runs a 3D printing shop where you can print the mold for your design, and order the silicone if you want. “We use medical silicone to cast the dildos, so they are safe for use,” Kappler assured me. “Additionally we smoothen the molds' surface, so it gets less bumpy (from the printing process).” The Dildo Generator site does note, however, that the software and printing is “somewhat experimental,” and that results may vary. So you’ve been warned.
Kappler’s now planning to branch out a little in the tech-sex space, and it sounds like he’s been doing his homework. “I visited some sex shops and got inspired to make generators for more than just dildos,” he said. “There is some cool and fancy stuff people start to do when it comes to sex, and it should only afford some smaller modifications to the code.”
SOURCE
It's no surprise that with the advent of 3D printing one of the first things people wanted to make was sex toys. One of great things about 3D printing, after all, is being able to personalise consumer objects. And what could be more personal than your very own uniquely designed dildo?
Geekosystem stumbled across a site that allows makers to do just that. The descriptively named ‘Dildo Generator’ lets you tweak a phallic model until it fits your preferences just so, ready to be saved and exported so the 3D file of your fantasy can be forever solidified in silicone.
I reached out to Ikaros Kappler, the Berlin-based programmer behind the project, to ask why. Fittingly, the idea came to him while he was hanging out with friends, drinking beer, and listening to techno at a maker space.
“It was the aim to print something more useful instead of printing small figurines to put on your windowsill,” he told me over email. He also wanted to explore the new features of HTML5. “Oh, and I love Bézier curves!” he added. Those are the curves you can make by adjusting points at either end on a computer model, always resulting in a nice smooth finish. Pretty important to dildo design, I guess.
The idea of 3D-printed toys is far from new, but what differentiates this project is its simplicity and accessibility. We’ve seen companies that’ll scan your dick and print a model of it, and free marketplaces of often eyebrow-raisingly intricate sex toy designs you can share and download. But Dildo Generator is easy enough for pretty much anyone to give it a go. It’s the DIY side of the 3D-printed sex toy revolution.
You start with a pretty generic cylinder and you can adjust sliders to change the height, circumference, shape, bend (up to 180 degrees—ouch!), and of course colour. You can pretty quickly get to some rather experimental designs, and I guess you could use the tool to make any basic 3D model, presuming it fits the vaguely dildo-shaped parameters. It took me about three seconds of playing around to make this not-so-sexy specimen:
It might not look like much (or really be fit for purpose), but I dread to think how long it would have taken me to design from scratch. The difficulty of using 3D modeling software has long been one of the remaining barriers to bringing 3D printing to the mainstream, and though this project clearly has its own very specific applications, it also shows that you shouldn't really need much know-how to get involved with basic 3D design.
Once you’re satisfied with your design, Kappler doesn't recommend printing it straight out in plastic filament. If size and shape matters, so does texture—and, you know, basic safety and hygiene.
“The first results were directly printed dildos, made with PLA (polylactic acid), which is pretty brittle and hard,” he said. “Not a nice material for sex toys.” So they decided instead to print molds that can then be filled with silicone to make the actual toy, with fewer sharp edges.
Developer Jan Northoff runs a 3D printing shop where you can print the mold for your design, and order the silicone if you want. “We use medical silicone to cast the dildos, so they are safe for use,” Kappler assured me. “Additionally we smoothen the molds' surface, so it gets less bumpy (from the printing process).” The Dildo Generator site does note, however, that the software and printing is “somewhat experimental,” and that results may vary. So you’ve been warned.
Kappler’s now planning to branch out a little in the tech-sex space, and it sounds like he’s been doing his homework. “I visited some sex shops and got inspired to make generators for more than just dildos,” he said. “There is some cool and fancy stuff people start to do when it comes to sex, and it should only afford some smaller modifications to the code.”
SOURCE
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