MakerBot Industries

Today is the last day to submit for the MakerBot Teacher Giveaway. If you’re submitting, make sure you’ve included a lesson plan!

With the advent of the new Plastruder MK5, we have a lot of MK4 parts here at the botcave. We’ve decided to take 50% off the MK4 Plastruder to make room for the MK5 parts.

We’ve also got lots of lasercut parts for the MK4 and we’ve dropped those down to $29 which is more than 50% off!

If you’ve wanted an extra extruder or a backup extruder or frankly, if you just need spare parts, here’s your chance to get an extruder for cheap. At this point, if you need spare parts for your MK4, you might as well buy a whole new extruder!

Some stories really show how having a MakerBot can make a difference. Thingiverse user Peter Harris, AKA colorbroken created this tripod mount, but it’s more than that. Read on.

This was designed specifically for one of my photo customers who has a degenerative condition, Late Onset Taye-Sachs disease. He experiences muscle fatigue and problems with grip and steadiness, so he uses a smaller point-and-shoot camera with a table-top tripod for a hand-grip.

The problems are multi-fold. One is that the tripod has to be removed every time he changes his batteries, or when he puts the camera away, and he disassembles the whole setup for storage and transport. Two is that when he does this, it wears out the 1/4-20 tripod mount in the camera, which is plastic.

Instead of ordering a steady supply of new tripod mounts, which would only solve one problem, we agreed on an offset platform so we could move the tripod mount towards the center of the lens axis, and allow the battery door to open and close with ease. The two-fingered offset on one side allows a 1/4-20 bolt to lock down into the camera, with the intention of it no longer being removed regularly. We agreed to modify the camera a little so it could support a second mount on the far side, so I disassembled and bored out the hole for the body panels.

The center hole supports a standard 1/4-20 nut to interface with whatever you connect the camera to. This should prove much more reliable than any type of plastic could.

Don stopped by the shop today and picked it up, and was very pleased with the results. I’m posting it just because it’s my first serious design project, and I’m pleased too. We put a Joby Gorillapod quick-release plate on the bottom of it, locked up nice and tight, and set him up with a monopod with a Joby ballhead, and a Gorillapod SLR Zoom with the same. Now he has one plate mounted full-time, and two methods to support it. Testing will tell if it flies long-term, and we can just print another one!

Check it out and download the files and print out your own over on Thingiverse.