MakerBot Industries

There is an interesting phenomena on Thingiverse lately: Surprise Boxes! It looks like an ordinary box right? But the secret is that there will be something 3D printed inside the box! What will it be? You won’t know until you make it become a reality on your MakerBot or other 3D printer!

The way it works is that it is a box with something special inside, but to find out what it is, you have to make it… and even then only you will know what’s inside because the surprise gets sealed in! What a awesome idea!

This is so cool. What an innovative idea by Conrad2468 and it’s already been repeated by Owenscenic!

Update: from the comments it appears that at least Conrad2468′s box has such a thin top that it won’t 3D print, so while it is impossible to see into the box in the Thingiverse preview, you’ll be able to print it and be able to see in at the end. For the record, I think it would also be cool to make it entirely enclosed so that someone would have to destroy the box to get to the inside.

Update Update: Owenscenic’s surprise is set up so that it prints a enclosure over the top of the objects. So cool! These boxes are the coolest!

Ars Elektronica gives out awards every year to celebrate the cyber arts. In the digital communities category the MakerBot Operators got an honorable mention for “Sharing Digital Designs on Thingiverse.com to Create Real Things.”

This is the first time that the MakerBot community has been recognized with an award and so to all the MakerBot Operators out there in the world that are making things and sharing. Congratulations!

(Also of note: CCC won the main prize in this category. Very cool!)

I finished printing and assembling the MakerBot Transformer this weekend. The main body part took around 4 hours and each of the small parts took between 14-25 minutes each. I did it with a 10% infill and two layers shell. All in all I probably spent about 12 hours of MakerBotting over a few days.

This is the most satisfying print I’ve ever done. The transformer transforms easily from robot to MakerBot and back again! The nuts and bolts loosen up a bit after a couple transformations and need tightening every once in a while.

This orange is a fancy custom color we are trying out. Like it?