MakerBot Industries

First ever Botacon!

A Botacon is an exciting get together of robots and the people who are creative near them.  Already we’ve got several hundred people interested in this all-day event.  (Don’t worry – I’m saving a spot just for you.)  It will be at the Brooklyn Lyceum from about 10am until 6pm on December 11, 2010.  Right now we’re still taking suggestions for ideas and topics, but the rough outline is:

• A keynote speaker in the morning
• A bunch of small talks and discussions (anywhere from 5-20 minutes each)
• About 2 hours for lunch
• A workshop project
• Some more talks and discussions (also 5-20 minutes each)
• Time for people to get dinner
• A bar drinkup¹

However, since we’re still putting together the program for the Botacon we need your input.  Please take the time to fill out a super short survey, drop us a line, or leave a comment.  We’d love to know:

• Who do you want to hear from as the keynote speaker?
• Who would you like to hear from?
• What kinds of talks would you be interested in?
• What kinds of things would you like to hear about?
• What would you like to see?

And, don’t forget to submit your talk!

I hope you decide to come out.  It just wouldn’t be the future without you! 

1. Because even roboticists need libation.  Hint: If you have a robot, like robots, can spell robots, or have an evil laugh – you count as a roboticist in my book. [↩]

Check out Matt Griffin's Poe Portrait on Thingiverse: http://www.thingiverse.com/image:23744

Getting in the spirit of the season is so much fun with open source robots! If you need some help, take some inspiration from Edgar Allen Poe. Get yourself a Unicorn and print yourself your own Poe. The design was uploaded to Thingiverse by Matt Griffin. Nobody sends Halloween cards. Why is that? I would love to get one. My suggestion: hand print your own Halloween cards. Put Mr. Poe on the front, and put this quote inside:

Deep into the darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.” -Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven

Tape for sad people

Blue painter’s tape is a lot more useful than it first appears. ¹  When you think about tape, it’s tempting to assume something like duct tape is the most useful kind – because it is super sticky and super strong.  However, these aren’t always desirable characteristics.  Suppose you need tape that will stand out against a drab background?  Or that will come off cleanly?  Or won’t be too sticky?

Or you’ve got a 3D printer.  Blue tape is a great surface for printing with PLA and can be very useful when printing on an automated build platform with ABS.  It is cheap, easily replaced, and has a slight texture that lets hot sticky plastic grip well.  If you’re having problems getting a raft or print to stick, definitely give it a shot!

1. Photo courtesy of photonburst [↩]

At the New York Maker Faire a few weeks ago we announced the launch of our newest addition to the MakerBot family: the Thing-o-matic. It is, quite simply, THE top-of-the-line, do-it-yourself, open source 3D printer. The kit comes with all the latest hardware we’ve worked so hard to develop, such as the MK5 Plastruder and Automated Build Platform, which allows you to continuously print as many parts as you have plastic with one stroke of the “Enter” key.

This is what’s included in the Thing-o-matic parts kit:

• The lasercut parts to assemble a Thing-O-Matic CNC machine.
• 3 x NEMA 17 motors
• The hardware to assemble it.
• Belts and pulleys
• Smooth Rods and Drive system components
• Pre-assembled 4th Generation Electronics
• a USB cable to talk to it
• cat5e and rainbow cables to wire things up
• a standard ATX power supply
• a tools kit with all the hex keys, wrenches, and other bits you need to construct it.
• SD card to buffer your prints
• 1lb of MakerBot ABS Plastic to print with

Less than a day after we launched the Thing-o-matic, it was already winning awards. Those three blue ribbons adorning it in the photograph are the Maker Faire Editor’s Choice awards. It got a record three. We’re so proud!

Matthew LaBarge printed the Iris Box by msruggles and was kind enough to upload a short video of it in action!

High resolution print of Venus' head

There are a surprising number of DIY 3D printer projects out there that have nothing to do with MakerBot or RepRap developments.  The coolest one I’ve seen in months is Junior Veloso‘s DIY homemade high resolution 3D printer.  Junior’s system builds the object upside down by projecting light from a DLP projector into a thin layer of UV resin.  Each layer takes about 8 seconds to cure and the layers are about 0.1 mm thick.¹  Between the high resolution from the DLP projector and the 0.1 mm vertical layer thickness, Junior is able to get some pretty incredible results as you can see above.

Building upside down

High resolution is obviously one of the biggest benefits to Junior’s system.  With thin Z layers and a super high resolution DLP is what makes the high resolution possible.  With a cure time of about 8 seconds per layer, even the largest layer is going to be cured far faster than a layer of plastic put down by a Cupcake.

This system isn’t without it’s downsides, however.  First, the UV resin comes to about $90 per pound – significantly higher than the cost of ABS.  Secondly, the amount of time it takes to put down a layer depends entirely upon the area being placed – which means some layers could be faster than 8 seconds.²

1. Which is about 1/3 the typical vertical resolution of a MakerBot Cupcake.  That is, unless you’re talking to Dave Durant. [↩]
2. There aren’t many paths that would take less than 8 seconds. [↩]