MakerBot Industries

Adam, George (wearing the torzle) and Charles Pax at Maker Faire

What a weekend! It was incredible to meet so many creative people at Maker Faire. Veteran MakerBot operators and those who had never seen an at-home 3D printing machine cycled through the MakerBot tent relentlessly for two full days. It was non-stop Botfarm action all weekend with a record sixteen MakerBots printing, drawing, and even making music at our tent, and about five next door at the 3D printing village – including a MakerBot Frostruder printing delicious liquid sweets such as Nutella onto bread.

On Saturday we caught up with George Hart, an engineer/educator/computer scientist/sculptor/mathematical magician and designer of the pieces used to make what he calls a “torzle.” Art historian Bret Rothstein saw the 16th century original at the Schloss Ambras Musuem in Austria. He took a picture and sent it to George, asking, “What the heck is this?”

George made a 3D model of the torus – which is made out of 75 identical interlocking components – on his computer. He and Bret made reproductions out of wood and nylon, and captured the attention of Boing Boing. It wasn’t long before the torzle made its way to Thingiverse, thanks to Adam. Charles Pax printed it out with a MakerBot soon after. The torzle has since been living at the Botcave, but Adam and Charles thought it only fitting to gift it to George when they saw him at Maker Faire.

This twisted torus is the perfect item to print out using your new MakerBot Automated Build Platform or with the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic, since you can hit “Print” and kick back while it spits out part after part after part.

George has since found out that the Danish called the torzle a “Gærkrans,” and used it for storing yeast to make beer.