MakerBot Industries

An excellent step in the right direction for open source 3D modeling with fonts.

OpenSCAD Bitmap Fonts Module by tbuser – Thingiverse.

Time Lapse Makerbot Build from Nick Starno on Vimeo.

Nick Starno and Matt Sharpe created this time lapse while assembling a Makerbot all in one sitting!  It’s a great project to tackle with a friend, and it’s even better to capture on video!

The MakerBot Cupcake Heated Build Platform v2.0 is the most revolutionary innovation in the recent history of open source 3D printing.

No longer will your prints be thwarted by the evil incarnation of plastic physics: CURLING! Curling happens when layer upon layer of plastic cools down on top of each other and shrinks a small percent. This shrinkage builds up layer after layer and the edges of the printed object start to curl up!  The heated build platform greatly reduces curling by keeping the temperature of the base of the object at a steady 110C.

Full instructions are on the MakerBot wiki.  We’re open source and we believe in keeping designs open so you can hack on them! Check out the designs on Thingiverse. We are also going to try something new with this project. We’re going to use our forums for community discussion on this project. Here’s the forum for this project.

Big thanks to Jordan Miller for his early support and research into heated build platforms. Thanks also to Nophead for his pioneering research into heated platforms and his work identifying appropriate materials to for printing on.

Special price of $42 until 3/29 when the price goes up to $50!

NOTE: We have started putting kits together now and will be able to ship them next week (The week of March 29). If you order more than the heated build platform, your shipment will be shipped when kit assembly is complete next week!

Chris Connors is on the lookout for some MakerBot Operators who want to set up at a Maker Faire event in Boston and blow people’s minds!

How would you like to join up with other Makerbotters at Maker Faire Boston? the event is on April 24th, 2010, from 12-4pm at Cambridge Rindge and Latin High School. We will be part of the Cambridge Science Festival. MakerBot 595 and at least one other MakerBot will be there, and it would be great to have a few others, and the people who love them. We can demonstrate how the machine works, share some tips and tricks and show people the magic of desktop 3D fabrication.

If you would like to participate, please contact Chris Connors at connors934@gmail.com. Let me know how you can help out, and if you can bring a Makerbot.

Give Chris a shout if you’re in the neighborhood and bring out your MakerBots for a MakerBot swarm!

Albert is an expert on things that are beginning and on their way up. He wrote up a great post summarizing the state of the 3D Printing universe. Check it out!

So how far are we along this path? It is early days. Probably a little too early to declare that atoms “are” the new bits. But progress has been rapid and it feels distinctly as if we are at the cusp of rapid acceleration. For a geek like myself it is impossible to look at the Cupcake CNC from Makerbot and not think of it as the Apple I of personal manufacturing. At the same time as other 3D printers cost $100,000 or more, the Cupcake comes as a kit for $750. That is two orders of magnitude cheaper. Yes, there is some assembly required (Bre jokes that it’s at the level of IKEA furniture) but it is easy to extrapolate to an Apple II, which will be the Makerbot in a box. In the meantime, there is a growing list of things that can be printed with a Makerbot that can be found at Thingiverse.

I grew up with domes. I was born while my dad was studying with Buckminster Fuller and I had a dome playhouse so I love this project! It’s a dome! You print out the connectors and saw some dowels and you’re good to make your own dome.

Peep it at the Fabricating Blog and go check out the dome connector thing on Thingiverse!

MakerBot found early inspiration in the RepRap project. A RepRap is a self replicating, rapid prototyper. Adrian Bowyer, it’s founder, supported MakerBot as an early investor, giving us money to put stuff on the shelves at MakerBot when we were just beginning. Zach designed the Generation 3 Electronics to be modular enough to work for MakerBot and RepRaps.

The RepRap, like MakerBot, is open source and the RepRap team is super smart, resourceful, and sharing which makes them superstars in the 3D printing world.

Zach, Adam and I got into 3D printing a few years ago hacking on it in our free time and just trying to make a machine that would work. Zach’s RepRap Darwin machine broke a few minutes after he had spent 3 years building it and my McWire machine actually caught on fire in Austria and started emitting the magic smoke of burnt up electronics.

A few years later, it is still not trivial to put a RepRap together, it requires a lot of enthusiasm, a healthy dose of bravery, and the ability to navigate a project that is growing and changing every day. There aren’t step by step instructions which makes it a very challenging project.

To make a RepRap requires having a 3D printer, a classic chicken and egg problem solved by having a MakerBot! You still need to buy the nuts and bolts and motors and belts, and rods and plastic and wood and so on, but the plastic parts are totally MakerBottable!

There is a great demand for these parts such that creating them and selling them on ebay is like 3D printing money! Adrian Bowyer recently sold a set of Mendel parts on eBay for 420 Pounds ($630 US Dollars). Adrian encourages folks to make them and sell them too.

The mendel is a big machine and it takes a lot of time to create all the parts, but if you’re looking for something easier with smaller printed parts, there is a new mini-mendel.

There’s no knowing how long the RepRap gold rush will last, but for now, if you’ve got a MakerBot, you can put it into service making RepRap parts, sell them on eBay and make money with your machine by making parts for RepRap machines! Here are all the things tagged with Mendel on Thingiverse which should point you in the right direction so you can start printing parts!

Update: One of the MakerBots (#170) that made a ton of the pulleys for batch 7-9 MakerBots has an ebay auction for Mendel parts up right now! Go check it out!

Photo by Batist!

Michael Curry didn’t want to spend centuries building a cathedral the old fashioned way, so he made his own Makerbottable cathedral! I was curious about it and asked him some questions.

How did you design this? What program did you use and what was your strategy for breaking it into parts?

The Cathedral is modeled in the free version of Google Sketchup, and exported using a free stl plugin. Inspiration comes from the gothic cathedrals of Europe, with Leon Cathedral in northwest Spain serving as the primary source for the front and transept façades. But the Gothic Cathedral Play Set is intended to be a generic model of the style, not a representation of any one building.

The size of the blocks is dictated by two things, the proportions of the cathedral and the maximum print size of the Makerbot.

To make the proportions work with the module, each part for the Nave includes one full window and two half windows. This way the parts fit together properly and form the correct shape. The Nave dictates the proportions for all the other blocks. The parts will fit together in any configuration, because each part has at least one face that will match any other in the set.

As for the size, the limiting factor is the height of the Makerbot build chamber. Most of the prints end just before the z-stage runs into the top of the machine.

How long did it take? What was the hardest part?

Printing took about four weeks, and had its frustrating moments.

I designed and printed one part at time, which sounds more arduous than it was. There are only 7 parts, 3 of which get mirrored to make their partner. That cut down on modeling and simplifies the digital end of the project.

When printing something tall in the Makerbot the extruder puts a lot of torque on the top layers of the part. It has a tendency to knock the build platform off its base. I lowered the travel speed and used rubber bands to jury-rig a securing system, this way when the part got knocked off I had a chance to grab it an put it back on. There were some white knuckle moments, but we made it through. To everyone hoping to make their own cathedral, remember, failed prints are cheap, but the final result is worth it.

What was your motivation for this?

My background is in architecture, not technology. So this is my contribution to the Makerbot effort. I want people to realize what is possible with the equipment we have now, before they start dreaming about what we can’t do yet.

This is what is possible without a support material. Gothic architecture is driven by the limitations of unreinforced masonry construction. Each stone in a cathedral is supported only by the stones below it. The style is defined not by a desire for a certain look, but by the limitations of the 12th century construction technology. It is the perfect analogue for what an unsupported 3d printer can do. We can achieve incredible results even with basic limitations.

What’s next?

Right now, I’m baking a key lime pie. After that… Well I’ve got a few things I’m working on. I don’t like to share until I know they’re ready. I will say I recently acquired a big box of springs… Just keep watching Thingiverse.

Thanks Michael! We can’t wait to see what you do next!

It’s on our agenda to someday make MakerBots that will be able to print you furniture and houses. These folks are pushing forward on that!

Layers of sand are bound together to create a marble-like material, in effect turning it back into solid stone. The process includes internal curves, ducting and interior partitions. Here, hollow columns are being constructed from the base up.

via Blueprint Magazine – Architecture & Design.

Wow, just wow. If you don’t have a MakerBot, here’s a darn good reason to get one!