MakerBot Industries

Robots and Unicorns - natural allies

Here are some potential uses I came up with for the MakerBot Unicorn Pen Plotter.^1 2 Let’s get the usual and obvious stuff out of the way first:³

• Drawing small things, using a pen or pencil
• Small swivel blade for cutting things
• Drawing with a resist-pen to create circuit boards

So, what else can we do with a Unicorn?

• Painting things, with a small paintbrush
• Perforating paper, cardstock, cardboard, or fruit roll-ups
• Applying adhesive with a gluestick
• Bleach with a bleach pen
• Mini-CNC router or etching with a dremel
• Scoring glass with a diamond blade
• Install a small wooden rake for an automated mini-Zen garden
• And, the worst idea of the bunch, a CNC tattoo gun (seriously, you shouldn’t try this)

Let’s suppose you had a MakerBot Unicorn at your disposal.  What would you do with it?

1. Mind, I have some pretty BAD ideas sometimes [↩]
2. Photo courtesy of interpunct [↩]
3. Besides being a blog post about various ways to use the MakerBot Unicorn, the post title “Unicorn Variations” refers to a collection of short stories by Roger Zelazny.  The story behind the story is particularly interesting, and a testament to what can be accomplished if you try out silly ideas now and then. [↩]