MakerBot Industries

Did you say DOUBLE???

That’s about the situation in which I find myself.  I already own a 3D printer – MakerBot Cupcake #465, “Bender.“ ¹  I’ve got him all tricked out with a couple of printed upgrades, MK5 plastruder, and an automated build platform.  Well, today the last bits I need to finish my Thing-O-Matic arrived. ²  I’m very hopeful I’ll have it online and operational before the end of the weekend.  The weather forecast for the California bay area says it’s going to rain all through the weekend.  It sounds like perfect robot assembling weather to me.

However, I’ve had one nagging thought.  Assuming all goes well, I’ll have two fully functional 3D printers in my home.  I have no problem keeping one busy, but two?

What would you do with a printer that had an automated build platform and double the printing speed of a Thing-O-Matic?

1. Photo courtesy of Vincente Alfanso [↩]
2. Once operational, I intend to name my Thing-O-Matic “Flexo” [↩]

The latest version of ReplicatorG is now available for download!  This is primarily a bugfix release, with improved default Skeinforge profiles and better machine descriptors.  There’s now an emergency stop button on the control panel, so if you’ve ever leapt for the reset button after accidentally clicking “Z-” one too many times, leap no longer!  (Props to Marius to getting that in to this release.)

This release fixes the too-hot Thing-O-Matic profiles mentioned in yesterday’s post.  It also includes example STLs and convenience gcode scripts accessible from the “File” menu.  (See the ‘Attribution.txt’ file in the ReplicatorG/examples directory for more information about the sources of the examples.  Hint: they’re all from Thingiverse!)

As always, let us know what goes right and what goes wrong.  Changelog below!

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New MakerBot operators frequently ask for a good first design project for printing on their MakerBot. Well, I’m a tremendous fan of the Custom-Cookie-Cutter-Generator by guru, a Processing tool for creating your own cookie cutter designs by adjusting nodes on a polygon and then hitting a keypress to generate the STL file you need.

Hitchcock cookie cutters by MiFGa

He completed his first version of the tool very quickly back in June as a part of the 30 Days of Creativity challenge. I used this version of guru’s project to make a pair of Hitchcock themed cookie cutters for the Halloween Challenge by grabbing the unlekker.net libraries and then jumping into the Processing script and adding the additional node points I needed. But aside from guru’s own cookie cutters, I didn’t see that many other people taking advantage of the tool.

Well, that is bound to change really soon — he has updated his tool to allow a great run-time version with a few more extremely useful keypresses, including “c” to circle up the nodes, “t” to load an image to trace, and even more exciting, “+” and “-” to add or remove node points.

How To Make A Cookie Cutter from Nikolaus Gradwohl on Vimeo.

He also made the above “How To” video which shows a few techniques including hitting the “c” key to circle up the nodes,¹ so I really can’t see how any self-respecting MakerBot operator can avoid dropping everything to make a cookie cutter. In fact, I just made two … and it took me less time than to write this blog entry. Seriously.

— Matt

1. I’d suggest adding a bunch of nodes with “+” if you have a really elaborate cookie cutter design in mind, and then hitting “c” to circle them up before you start to drag them out to trace an image. [↩]

Simple fix for ABP gear slip by tc_fea

Tony Cervantes brings us this tiny timely tale of tragedy and triumph on Thingiverse:¹²

I ruined the snap fit slot on my MakerBot Automated Build Platform while I was learning to use the ABP. (Tranlated to English: I had to replace the belt several times due to my screw-ups.)

The wooden snap fit slot holding the geared roller loosened to point where the motor gear would force the roller gear out of the slot and slip.

Tony’s fix involves cutting a two inch section off of a standard paperclip and bending it around the metal motor and the metal for the conveyor belt.  Apparently his hack has lasted through at least 14 builds.

If this has happened to your Automated Build Platform, you might want to try off a new side panel using Chooch’s Printable ABP.

1. Today’s post has been brought to you by the letter “T” and the number “5″ [↩]
2. There’s no particular reason for the alliteration – I just started typing and got carried away. [↩]

Huzzah for progress!

When MakerBot hired Marty McGuire (aka, the infamous Schmarty) to work on Thingiverse they didn’t just hire a web warrior, they apparently hired a man who is as stealthy as a ninja.  A few days ago a new Thingiverse feature was stealth-released.¹

While editing one of my Things I noticed that there was a new option.  Under the “Details” tab, just above “Save your thing,” the new option reads, “Work in Progress [checkbox] Is this thing a Work in Progress?”

I used to be hesitant to share unfinished designs.  What I came to realize is that sometimes even an unfinished idea can be a powerful thing.  With the derivative system on Thingiverse, people are able to design a variation on someone else’s work and then upload it as a derivative.  The citizens of Thingiverse have been really amazing at improving upon other people’s ideas – whether they were finished designs, unfinished designs, or even just the seed of a design concept.  Admittedly, such innovation isn’t for everyone.  Now, with the “Work in Progress” flag it will be very easy to see whether an idea is ready for prime-time or whether it needs a little spit and polish before it is workable.  With a standardized way to designate a design as a “Work in Progress” designers also won’t need to clutter their titles or descriptions with such disclaimers.²

Thanks Marty!

1. Photo courtesy of Daniel*1977 [↩]
2. For some reason I tended to go overboard “Proposed draft design for a preliminary sketch of an idea … on scratch paper” [↩]