We’ve been really excited to see a major tool manufacturer like Dremel entering into the 3D printer arena. Their Idea Builder did well in our tests and we can truly imagine it sitting on a workbench in our neighbor’s garage.

We’re especially giddy today because Dremel has offered up one of their new 3D printers as a prize for a contest!

Here’s the topic: Assimilating a 3D Printer.

If you’re reading this, the chances are you already make stuff. You’re probably also very eager to get a 3D printer to play with. While we love 3D printers and put them through their paces regularly, we tend to only focus on what the printer itself can do.

For this contest, we want to see what you can do! We want you to give us a mixed-media project idea — something that uses 3D printing as well as some other form of construction. One example would be a wind chime: The frame could be an intricately printed piece of art and the chimes could be thin aluminum tubing. Another example would be a picture frame: The frame and stand could be 3D printed, but the glass obviously can’t be.

Entering:

To enter, all you have to do is share your plan with us in the comments. We would really love a picture or a drawing. Don’t worry, it doesn’t have to be a perfect schematic, a napkin sketch will do. Hurry though; you have to have your entry in the comments before December 17th, next Wednesday.

Judging:

The editors at Make: will browse through your entries and find a single one that we all agree is the winner.

We’ll use the following criteria to determine whose is best:

Creativity: Did you come up with something interesting?

Feasibility: Is the project even possible?

Beauty: Every judge has their own opinion of what is beautiful. It may be intricacy, it may be simplicity. This allows the judges to include a healthy dose of personal opinion.

You can download the official rules in PDF form here.