MakerBot Industries

Clothbot, owner of MakerBot #9 from batch 1 was one of the first purchasers of a MakerBot. We’ve asked him to work on the documentation and instructions for the Thing-O-Matic and so we sent him one of the very very few prototypes of the Thing-O-Matic that exist in the world. As he says, “These things practically unbox themselves!” A few notes. The Thing-O-Matic ships with 1 pound of natural ABS, not red. Also, there are no electronics in this box because the electronics are still being manufactured and assembled.

A few weeks ago, we who populate the Botcave started to think about Halloween. Perhaps unsurprisingly, many of us expressed the desire to be a MakerBot.

You would think that living and breathing MakerBots all day, every day (including weekends for some) would make you want to escape from the world of MakerBots when given the chance. But apparently, everyone thinks it’s a great idea to be a MakerBot. So I guess my idea was not that original, considering the company I keep. Initial concern that we might be stepping on each other’s creative costume idea toes evolved into the delightful epiphany: we’ll all go as a MakerBot ‘Botfarm!

Alas, extenuating circumstances such as illness and not-a-minute-to-spare have plagued the Botcave. So there may not be a ‘Botfarm this year. But there will be at least one MakerBot – me!

So for those of you who are desperate for a cool costume idea, have a few hours to spare, and are healthy enough for the challenge, I give you my step-by-step guide to becoming a MakerBot.

Step 1: Find a Box

We have been hiring people like crazy at the ‘Botcave, and we’ve been scrambling to keep everyone comfortably seated. Because of this, there’s a surplus of chair boxes that are the perfect size for a MakerBot costume.

Step 2: Gather Supplies

The foundations for a good MakerBot costume are box cutters, scissors, and tape. I initially was trying to make cuts in the box with scissors when Sam shook his head and told me I needed box cutters. He was right. Cutting out the walls of the box was much easier with box cutters. I used the scissors to cut pieces of brown paper I salvaged from the recycling bin to coat the box with. I used the tape to hold the paper in place. I loved that someone wrote on the tape dispenser “Become what you dream.” It was fitting, considering I was using the tape to become what I had dreamed of being – a MakerBot.

Here I am, just a woman with a vision. A woman wearing an average chair box, but dreaming of becoming a MakerBot.

Step 3: Paper your Box

Covering the box with brown paper was the most time consuming part of this job. It took over an hour. An alternative solution is to turn the box inside out, which would require cutting down one of the sides and potentially compromising its structural integrity.

The paper I found in the recycling bin was the perfect texture for the task. It was soft and malleable. The costume was coming together.

Not yet a MakerBot, but slightly more than a woman wearing a chair box.

Step 4: Get Your M On

At first I had grand visions of an anatomically correct MakerBot. I decided I would be a Cupcake as opposed to a Thing-o-matic, and wanted to mimic it perfectly. But that idea crashed and burned when I absentmindedly cut a hole in each of the four chair box walls instead of three. Had I been true to the Cupcake anatomy, my left side wall would have stayed intact. I quickly realized in the interest of time that I would not be able to make a perfect MakerBot. So I settled for good enough. In that spirit, I managed to print out an M with the help of Matt Griffin, who mercifully tolerated staying later than he should, donating his exacto knife skills for the cause. There was no time to spell out “MakerBot Industries,” or to preserve the bump in the front wall of the Cupcake for the M. I was proud just to have a bright-colored, nicely printed MakerBot logo.

Step 5: Bling Your MakerBot

There’s no doubt about it – people are impressed by LED lights. I was hoping to decorate my MakerBot with circuit boards, plastic parts, and anything else I found lying around the ‘Botcave, but I decided to keep it simple in the spirit of getting it done. If there’s one thing that will make the costume, it’s those bright little LEDs, which we sell in the store to bling your real MakerBot. Although I had lots of ideas about things to add to the costume, I realized that I was almost done.

Step 6: Accesorize

Any good MakerBot costume is all about the final touches. I gathered some ABS, put some blue tape on my belly, wielded an extruder, and appropriated a freshly printed object with the help of one of our talented MakerBot engineers, Nick Starno.

So go forth, and create your own MakerBot costume! Let us know how it turns out. Take a picture, and if we get enough of them, we may be able to make a virtual ‘Botfarm!

USB flash drive guts

The idea behind this morning’s post about USB flash drives struck me last night/this morning on a whim.  Through absolutely no coordination whatsoever, I noticed the appearance of a photopool series on Flickr  with every photo labeled “Dead Drops.”  From the photos in the pool it appears someone¹ is going around New York epoxying and cementing USB flash drives into public crevices. ²

A dead drop is, according to Wikipedia, “a location used to secretly pass items between two people, without requiring them to meet.”

Now, for the questions:

Who is doing this and why?  Why those locations?  What are on these drives?  Where are they?  Is someone mapping them?  Are they read-only? ³ And, how long before someone sitting on a park bench or leaning up against a phone booth scrapes themselves on one of these?

I’m not sure about the answers to those questions…  but I suspect this man may know…

Mystery computing

1. Perhaps the photographer Aram Bartholl aka agoasi? [↩]
2. In a way, I suppose this is a public service – sealing cracks in walls and buildings. [↩]
3. I don’t see a switch on the one in that photo above [↩]

Sugar On A Stick Custom Case by kristianpaul

I rather like flash drives.  Whenever I go to a conference or convention, I eschew those silly useless knickknacks like tri-color highlighters, flashy LED cufflinks¹ , and nylon bags for holding more useless knickknacks.  Flash drives, on the other hand, I’ll let you bend my ear for a few minutes so that you’ll offer me a 256 MB flash drive. ²

One of the great things about give-away flash drives is that they usually have modest space anywhere from 256 MB to 1 GB or so.  A small flash drive is good loaning to someone – without having to worry about whether you’ll get it back.  It’s good for a small Ubuntu Boot drive, small utility drive with recovery software, or the Tor Firefox Browser bundle.

The other great thing about these freebies is that they are poorly enclosed. Some you can pop open with a paperclip, precision screwdriver, or even a fingernail.  When done, you’re left with the naked electronic USB flash drive without any of that annoying or silly branding.

At the last conference I attended I snagged several such small drives.  After cracking the cases open I realized I could build a better flash drive enclosure using my 3D printer.  This isn’t exactly a new idea, Kristian Paul designed a custom USB flash drive case about nine months ago.  I can’t tell from the pictures, but it looks like he’s using his custom case to enclose a complete flash drive, rather than just the electronics.

So, if the world were your oyster and you could have a flash drive in ANY shape imaginable, what shape would it be?

1. Seriously, I saw these at the last one. [↩]
2. I fully realize these are probably only worth about $2 and that I may have a drawer full of them at home. [↩]

Desktop catapult by Sublime

I hate to say it, but it appears that Pattywac’s rubber band design contest may just be bringing out the worst in Thingiverse citizens.  Of the five entries into Pattywac’s contest so far, an amazing 80% are rubber band powered weapons!

• Desktop catapult
• Elastic crossbow
• 20 mm test cube sling shot
• Semi-Automatic Rubber Band Gun

Is it any wonder that rubber bands, typically used for intraoffice disputes have also been incorporated into the latest 3D printer enabled technological developments in desktop warfare?  With the increasing consumer prevalence of 3D printers, I only see an increase in class warfare in the years to come.^1 2

1. Especially shop or design classes… [↩]
2. Did you see what I did there?  I am exploiting the current midterm political environment to suggest “class warfare” while simultaneously suggesting “classroom warfare.” [↩]

Al's arm, Robbie, and Christian

The guys from Ace Monster Toys, a new hackerspace in Oakland, braved the rain and were out at the Easy Bay Mini-Maker Faire on Sunday.  Al, Christian, and Robbie were showing off their MakerBots, demonstrating printed objects¹ , and answering questions.  After all, what’s a hackerspace without a 3D printer?!  While one robot printed merrily in blue ABS, another played the Imperial March, and Al was working on the MK4 Plastruder for the third.

They had quite a crowd of onlookers watching objects being fabricated right before their eyes.  It’s always amazing to see new people being exposed to the potential behind a 3D printer for the first time.

1. Spiral boxes and plastic monkeys! [↩]

As you know, Makerbot is growing by leaps and bounds nowadays.  We’re shipping more bots, rolling out more new products, and researching more incredible stuff than ever before.  The only thing around here that isn’t growing is my brain.  Sadly, skulls don’t scale.  So, it’s time for us to add another noggin!

We’re looking for a programmer to help out with our firmware and software.  This is a full-time position at the botcave in scenic Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, just steps away from Atlantic Terminal.  You’ll helping to maintain the firmware for our current boards, as well as developing code for the latest and greatest.  You’ll also be working a bit on ReplicatorG, supporting new products, and coordinating with open source hackers around the world.

Interested?  Check out the job listing, and get in touch.  We’re looking forward to hearing from you!

Easy path to upgrades

Here’s one of the things I love about open source projects – clear to understand and consistent upgrade paths.¹

To put this in perspective, I have a name brand GPS unit.  Shortly after buying it that company released a new version that was thinner and had some new features.  Alas, no such upgrades were available for my unit.  And, really, that’s just silly.  My unit has a processor, memory, a small hard drive, and a GPS receiver.  Why shouldn’t I be able to just update the firmware to get these new features? ²

Last month brought lots of cool new upgrades for MakerBot printers as well as a brand new printer, the Thing-O-Matic.  Since MakerBot Cupcake CNC’s are an open source project, you have an opportunity with your printer I don’t have with my GPS.  The parts are designed to be modular, updated, swapped out, and hacked.  Unlike with my GPS, a 3D printer owner need not ever worry about being left behind by upgrades.  With the designs online, you can even source (or print!) all the parts you need.

Now that I’ve picked up all the upgrades for my own Cupcake, I can highly recommend them.  The MK5 Plastruder gives an extremely smooth extrusion and the Deluxe Filament Spindle Box box gives you tangle and hassle free filament feeding.  The Automated Build Platform has worked for me admirably as a heated build platform – but I expect it will work better as I get the hang of it.

1. Photo courtesy of eggman [↩]
2. Also, if it were open source I could have modified the on-screen keyboard to be QWERTY rather than have keys in alphabetical order. [↩]

Stuart Fox of TechNewsDaily stopped by the Botcave to talk about 3D printing and 3D scanning. In this video you can see the MakerBot Cupcake which is currently on sale and the New Makerbot 3D Scanner designed by Taylor Goodman and built on technology by Kyle McDonald.

Three years ago, a marketing company produced a video envisioning the future of the media. It illustrates the collapse of old media and rise of new media through the concept of the “prosumer.” The prosumer is not content to sit passively as news is fed to her, but actively contributes to the knowledge stream as an idea producer.

Needless to say, prosumerism has expanded to the world of manufacturing, and MakerBots is at the cutting edge of that transformation. Prosumerism is not just for digital media anymore.

According to one definition, in a prosumerist society, “interconnected users come together to create products to meet their demands.” The power of advertising wanes as consumers realize they can design their own goods.

MakerBot Industries teeters at the intersection between the producer and consumer. Our product is interactive, and we encourage our consumers to help us improve our product, and to be producers.

This new model is what Mateusz Makosiewicz explored for his master’s thesis in philosophy from the University of Gdansk. His blog is “probably the first dedicated entirely to the matters of prosumerism.”

If you’re interested in learning more about prosumerism, check out his recommended reading list, which includes classics such as “Wikinomics,” “The Third Wave,” and “Netocracy.”