MakerBot Industries

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. [↩]