MakerBot Industries

We’re big fans of open source here at MakerBot. Not only are all of our designs are open source, but we use many open source tools to run and build the machines. So when we heard about a conference about Open Sourcing everything, we were really psyched! After all, thats one our big dreams: that people will use MakerBots to build open source physical objects! We even created a website called Thingiverse to make it easier for people to do just that.

Anyway, if you’re interested in this sort of thing, its going to be really fun. Also, the more people that show up that are interested in MakerBot, the more likely it is that we can convince the other conference attendees that we should hold a session on open source hardware in general, and open source 3D printable objects in particular. We’ll be bringing our latest CupCake CNC machine, and it should be a really fun day of printing.

Here are the details:

1. Make sure you register! The deadline to register is by noon tomorrow. Sorry about the short notice.
2. Its at the UNICEF headquarters in Midtown. Directions are here.
3. It starts promptly at 8am. So don’t go out partying the night before.
4. Let us know if you’re going to stop by. We’d love to say hi and chat.

During our pre-order period over the last month we got orders for 20 MakerBots. We ordered A LOT of parts and assembled those parts into kits and then put the kits together to make the big Cupcake CNC kits. We documented the process to share with you!

What you see here is the pre-order kit. These pre-orderkits are deluxe with a special tool kit, extra plastic, and a few other special things. For those who pre-ordered, we gave them a number of special bonuses for being the bold adventurers blazing a trail into the future of home manufacturing, digital design, and personal fabrication.

Here we are packing boxes, that’s me in the forefront and on the left and Adam Mayer, Zach Hoeken in the middle and Ryan Destroys, our Chief of Operations on the right.

All the fragile bits get packed into their own box.

Here’s everything including an empty box, unless someone ordered extra things. It’s here to fill up the space and keep things from knocking around.

First thing into the box is 5 pounds of plastic.

Then we add the rods that are wrapped in plastic wrap, all the hardware in one bag that is the size of a burrito, and the fragile parts in their own box.

Then the body parts go in in their own plastic bag and an empty box to keep things from rattling around. (A lot of folks bought extra plastic and if they did, it got packed into this box.)

A box with the motors and another box with the plastruder parts go in the side. and the ATX power supply and bag of cords go on top.

Then we all signed a special letter.

Here are 19 of the boxes all set to go! If you’ve ever assembled kits, you know the obsessive amount of exact counting and brain-focus it takes to get these kinds of things together. We’re really proud of these kits and we can’t wait until they arrive at the doors of the pioneers who are blazing a trail into the future of 3D printing.

Fluid Forms is a company that lets you customize designs in the browser and then have them made. I’m a big fan of their topographical “choose a place and have it modeled” process. Try it out, it’s cool!

Their blog is full of awesome. Right now they are maintaining a laser-cut diary. They’ve got a lasercutter and they are doing as many things possible with it. Definately worth a read! Check it out!

Ryan, Chief of Operations @ MakerBot signing in! It’s a pleasure to meet you.

In the past 30 days, I’ve been blown away by the excitement and enthusiasm MakerBot has generated worldwide. I thought it would be neat to put together a map showing all the locations across the globe that we’ve shipped to so far. Everyone here at MakerBot would like to send a heartfelt “thank you!” to all who have made this possible. We’re all excited to fill up this map even more!

Fabbaloo’s about statement pretty much sums up why we like this blog so much:

Fabbaloo tracks developments in Fabbing, 3D Printing and Desktop Manufacturing. We believe in a future where everyone can easily make any 3D objects by using inexpensive desktop equipment, much like we use inkjet printers today for two-dimensional paper objects. It’s also known as Desktop Manufacturing, Rapid Prototyping or Digital Manufacturing. We call it Fabbing.

Need we say more? Check it out! [Link]

Our buddy Allan C. Ecker, AKA, Masked Retriever, is blogging up a storm over at Thingiverse.

The truth is that nearly everyone does something that’s almost unique. We’ve all got a quirky hobby, a specific habit, or something we do that only a small percentage of people share. This is the area where I think personal fabrication will really change lives. I don’t think personal fabrication will replace our plastic forks and lawn chairs. Everyone’s need there will be similar enough that, in the long run, we’ll settle for a fork that doesn’t have our personal stamp on it.

And in the process, make our lives not only easier but a bit more FUN.

Make sure to go check his writing out, it’s the stuff of the future! – Link

Windell, Lenore, Chris, and their two cats make up a superstar team of DIY awesomeness. If we had a billion dollars, we’d be very tempted to just give it all to them to just see the future arrive that much faster. Go forth and enjoy their projects, forums and make sure to check out their awesome kits.

EMS Headquarters
EMS Store

Here we are at our warehouse putting kits together. (Normative and Muxtape share their space with us.) We’re on track to have all the parts in boxes to ship this Wednesday. We’ve had a few challenges, like the metal rod cutting saw we ordered hasn’t shown up, but that just means that we’re going to get another tool locally to do the job or just wear our shoulders off using a hacksaw to make 100′s of cuts in M8 threaded and smooth rod. Stuff like that.

I’m feeling a bit reflective. Here are some of the memories from the past 3 months.

* Pulling together as a team and starting a business.
* Getting the actual business license.
* Deciding to make our own machine inspired by RepRap research, but being totally build-able from a kit, thus cutting the hassle out of the material sourcing process.
* Obtaining a bank account and having the bank manager go get the boss at the bank who just looked at us incredulously. “Really? You’re starting a robot company in NYC?”
* Getting funding from three excellent people, Jake Lodwick and the wonderful couple, Christine and Adrian Bowyer.
* Hiring Ryan Destroys, employee #1.
* Not sleeping for 3 nights in one week while finishing the first prototype. We put it in a box about an hour and a half before sending it on a plane to SXSW and having the robot work perfectly for a solid 3 days.
* Finishing the second prototype, feeling like it was the final prototype…
* Finishing the third prototype and knowing it was the final prototype and the prototype process was over.
* Getting awesome press! (Thank you internet and media and friends!)
* Running our laser-cutter for days on end.
* Figuring out what we wanted and then sourcing the materials from all over the place.
* Endless Daft Punk and Bass Drive.
* Watching people on Thingiverse become friends, share digital designs, and be awesome.
* Packing up the kits and counting a lot. We really need to figure out how many pieces are in this kit. I’m guessing something like 3000.

I can’t wait to post a picture of all the kits at the door ready to be picked up by the postal service!

The Replicator Blog is awesome. It tracks the 3D Prototyping and augmented reality developments online. It’s a blog that’s not afraid of controversy and I like that they are really exploring the future possibilities in thier areas of interest. [Link] [RSS]

Know How to Make a 3-D Scanner

Argon, published an instructable with instructions on how to make a 3D scanner. 3D scanning is cool. Using a 3D scanner you can bypass the digital designing part of 3D printing and goes straight to object replication.

Check out this video and accompanying instructable for more info on this particular 3D scanner. As we come across more 3D scanning possibilities, we’ll do our best to keep you posted!