Prepare your face: this Kickstarter gadget lets you 3D print icing and Nutella

Ever thought your icing gun was just not enough? Wished for more precise placings in your Nutella art? Well, you can now dream bigger — thanks to a new extruder attachment, it’ll be easier than ever to print paste-like substances.

It’s called the Discov3ry and it’s a universal extruder that will fit with existing desktop 3D printers on the market (like the popular Makerbot) and allow them to print materials like silicon, icing, Nutella, wood filler, ceramics and polyurethane. It’s currently raising funds over on Kickstarter, where it has already passed its 30 000 Canadian dollar goal by more than US$34 000.

The team behind the Discov3ry (Canadian-based Structur3D Printing) says the gadget is compatible with “any stepper motor based, fused deposition modeling (FDM) desktop 3D printer system” — basically, if your 3D printer can print plastic, it can print Nutella. All you have to do is swap your machine’s printing tip with Discov3ry’s material feed tube and extruder tip, and hook up its wiring to your printer’s electronics. That’s it.

The kit you’ll need includes a selection of food-grade syringes, plastic tubing and connectors, and costs $333 for the beta kit and $249 for the first production round, if you can wait a bit longer.

Using a prototype, the Structur3D Printing team has already successfully printed out everything from Star Wars cupcake toppers to silicon corrective foot pads. By passing its funding goal, it has said the Discov3ry will go into production, with beta units shipping in September this year.