MakerBot Industries

The MakerBot Botcave™ Retail Store opens on November 26th! As far as we know, this is the first time anyone has opened a store focused on open source hardware. It is getting set up right now as an actual physical retail store at 87 3rd Ave here in Brooklyn. We’re going to plan to be open Tuesday to Saturday 12-8 until Christmas eve!

You have a special hardware enthusiast in your life who talks about arduinos, MakerBots, and 555 timers in their sleep. You want to get them something for the holidays. What would be the best present? Besides MakerBots and Arduinos, the MakerBot Botcave™ will have a selection of kits from Adafruit, Evil Mad Science, Jimmie Rodgers, Sparkfun and Liquidware.

Put it on your calendar to come out and see us and get all the gifts you need for the hardware enthusiasts in your life in one stop!

When: November 26 through December 24th. Tuesday to Saturday 12-8pm.
Where: 87 3rd Ave”>The MakerBot Botcave™ – 87 3rd Ave, Brooklyn NY 11217
What: The greatest open source hardware of all time… in a physical store!

Replacement Key Fob

My mom came to visit on Monday night and left yesterday morning.  Monday evening she mentioned her car key was broken, I measured the broken parts, printed up two prototypes, and printed out a fully functional replacement the following morning.  Well, last night I received an e-mail from my dad:

What a fantastic job you did on your mom’s car keys. Wow! I hope you still have the measurements for that key saved because that car came with two keys and over the years both keys had plastic parts which were shattered. The one you repaired was the better one of the two. However if you can make another one of those cases for it, may be then you can repair the second key as well.

Measurements?  Where we’re going we won’t need measurements.

If you need one¹ just download the designs from Thingiverse, fire up your 3D printer, and crank out a few parts.

Posts in this series:

• MakerBot Hero:  Car Keys I
• MakerBot Hero:  Car Keys II
• MakerBot Hero:  Car Keys III
• MakerBot Hero:  Car Keys IV
• MakerBot Hero:  Car Keys Epilogue

1. Or, in the case of my parents, two or more. [↩]