Recently Nokia has released designs for you to 3D print your own shell for your Nokia Lumia 820.

How will the 3D printing work?

Nokia is providing mechanical drawings of the Lumia 820 case (shell) which you can use to 3D print your own using plastic and accessorize it. Really cool stuff coming up in 3d printing space. Prabably this is the first time a mobile manufacturer has given up the drawings.

“While the outside of the phone case can take almost any shape, limited only by your imagination, the inside is a bit trickier. You have to make sure there’s room for the battery, antennae, and other protuberances, as well as openings for buttons, speaker, microphone, etc. Not fun to figure out on your own, so we’ve taken the guesswork out of the equation for you.”

Nokia Lumia 820 has a removable back cover. Nokia has given models in STL and STEP format here: 3D print your own shell for your Nokia Lumia 820

What Software will you need for 3D printing?

Design (TinkerCad, Sketchup, FreeCAD, OpenSCAD, Alibre Design

Printing Stuff- examples – Slicing (Slic3r, Skeinforge) See more on the Nokia site (link above)

What Hardware will you need for 3D printing?

You will offcourse need access to a 3D printer. But being a latest technology, not sure how many will have a 3d printer.

However, good news is that there are 3rd parties avaialble who can do the printing for you. It will be somewhat similar to old days where you would give your photo negative to Jessops to print. Once digial cameras came in, people started home printering digital photos. So for some time at least, you may have to rely on 3rd paty 3d printers. Above site has some 3rd party printers. You can also google to find more.

If you come out a design, do share it with us and we’ll be happy to publish your idea.