This year, I plan to spend more time documenting the work I do that is accelerated by the use of open-source resources. To kick off that effort, I’ll describe a small project I finished this week.
3D-printing and open source hardware is eating the world.
I don’t know who Sleighbells64 is, and given that their address is at an Air Force base, perhaps it’s more polite to not ask.
What I can do is thank them for helping me acquire a useful tool for learning the violin — in remarkably little time, and at nearly no cost. A shoulder rest:
Sleighbells64 shared an STL and an assembly README file, licensed CC-BY-SA, for a shoulder rest that they designed after losing their original rest the day before a concert. They liked it enough to publish it on Printables.
Their design uses a broad PETG beam held in tension when attached and hinged arms that fold almost flat when separated from the violin. Any compressible foam can be attached to the underside to lay against your shoulder. It’s a clever implementation.
The CMPSR print takes only about 60 grams of plastic, less than $1 worth, to go from bits to atoms. It’s even remix-licensed; as long as you provide attribution to the original author, you can do whatever you like with it. In my case, I modified their file to use 3mm bolts rather than 5mm screws, and stretched it by 3% along the length to fit my violin’s wider body.
That last part is especially unique to open-source and 3D printing. Can I go to the store and arbitrarily stretch or bend a product to fit before I buy it?
I published my updates here.
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