While in the earliest days of desktop 3D printing's emergence, designs were more trinkets than useful creations, that's rapidly changing. Carles Oriol, from Barcelona, has only been 3D printing technology since this past December, but has already taught himself to create helpful, usable objects. He recently designed a simple door lock using Blender, and printed it in 6 pieces on his Prusa i3 Hephestos 3D printer. The assembled, installed plastic lock can securely hold a door closed (though Oriol doesn't recommend it for exterior use), and the files are available on Thingiverse. Check out more details of the design in the full story: http://3dprint.com/53960/3d-printed-door-lock/


Below is a photo of Oriol's 3D printed door lock: