Creating an acoustic 3d printable violin has been a labor of love, instigated by a single instagram post. In March of 2014 Autodesk posted this photo of David Perry playing the FFFiddle.

David Perry is a mechanical engineering genius, fellow cat aficionado, and the spark that showed it was possible to design and 3d print a functional violin.

The FFFiddle is a solid and proven design. I'm proud to be one of the first to purchase the FFFiddle. The only problem is that my #1 client didn't quite like the way the thumb felt. A normal person would have just forked and redesigned the FFFiddle to have the appropriate attributes. Instead I dove into the 3d design rabbit hole: first with OpenSCAD, then with Fusion 360. After roughly a year and a half of casual prototyping, I've arrived at the point that I can now call the hovalin design "good enough".

If phrases from our website sound familiar to those from OpenFabPDX, its because David's careful wordsmith work on his site along with his choice of licenses for the FFFiddle fit many of the same details and goals of the hovalin. A sincere thanks to Dave for all of your great work and inspiration.

Please checkout his design, the FFFiddle and more awesome work at openfabpdx.com