MakerBot Industries

How many bots could you build if you were building bots in Belgium?

On October 9 – 10, 2010 Timelab.org and Wim Vandeputte¹ ran a MakerBot build weekend at the “IF … Innovation Festival Kortrijk” during the “Yes! We’re Open” expo by Thomas Lommee in Kortrijk, Belgium.  Lots people registered and showed up to assemble MakerBots during this two-day festival.  By the end of the weekend they had 11 fully operational MakerBots!

Bart Grimonprez and several design students from the HoWest design group cut a transparent amber acrylic case.  Lieven Standaert modified the MakerBot Cupcake designs to work with 5 mm plywood, which is easier to obtain in Belgium. ²

One of the winners of the MakerBot Teacher Giveaway³ Walter Janssens from the Karel de Grote-Hogeschool assembled a MakerBot from scratch with the help of a large group to give him a head start for when his ‘bot arrives.

1. Seen here standing next to his MakerBot, “Pinky” [↩]
2. They promise the design files will be up on Thingiverse once it’s up and running! [↩]
3. We gave away MakerBots, not teachers [↩]