MakerBot Industries

Thingiverse citizen Pattywac recently launched two design challenges – a Holiday Design Challenge and a MakerMe Design challenge.  Each winner gets $40.00 from Pattywac and an additional $100.00 in MakerBot store credit from MakerBot Industries!  Without further ado, here’s Pattwac’s announcement of the winners!

Holidays Challenge

There ended up being 21 holidays-tagged items to judge, many of them being closely evaluated to each other.  Thingiverse citizen Kliment ended up winning with the Holiday-ized Prusa Mendel design, in part, due to the huge response from the community.  This design was able to incorporate the holiday spirit and will continue to give for years to come by allowing others to print other Things and hopefully other 3-D printers.

MakerMe Challenge

Nutcracker by psync

There were only two entries to this contest but they were both pretty cool.  Citizen psync was able to fit his Holidays Nutcracker into the MakerBot for some z-axis walnut smashing action while citizen Nickames was able to create an egg-bot style attachment for the Makerbot.  Nickames ended up taking home the W with the egg-bot attachment due to the response from the community and the fact that it will allow a whole new range of designs to be posted on and printed from Thingiverse.

Congratulations Kliment and Nickames!

Earlier this week, Andy put together our newest kit – Evil Mad Scientist’s Egg-Bot!
Before we got ourselves all yolky, we decided to try some light bulbs.
I was hoping we could get a cool gobo-effect from printing on the bulb.
The light effect didn’t work so well, but they do look great, especially if you have ‘em on a dimmer!

Here’s a video of it printing a demo pattern that we found on the website.

It’s been a good run at the Botcave!
After today, we’re closing up the cave for hibernation until further notice.
That means you have until 5pm today to get your loved ones (or yourself) some sweet gadgets, arduino accessories or [the best present evarrr] a MakerBot!
Thanks for stopping by a n3rd1ng out with us at the Botcave.

Happy and Healthy Holidays,
Mike, Andy & Hanny

As we near the year’s end and look back over the last year there have been some really amazing things on Thingiverse.¹  Mousetrap challenges, numerous design challenges, shattered Hall of Fame records, huge multi-part designs, and some truly incredible designs that have pushed the limits of 3D printing.  So, with that in mind:

• Who is your favorite designer of the year?
• What is your favorite Thing this year?
What has been the best knickknack for explaining how a MakerBot works?
What’s the best jewelery Thing on Thingiverse this year?
• What’s the best fidget toy on Thingiverse this year?

Leave a comment and let your voice be heard!

1. Photo courtesy of Ninako [↩]

Evan Klonsky published an article over at Inc. Magazine about the use of 3D printing as part of developing a product prototype.¹  Have a gander:

Whether penned on the back of a scraggly bar napkin, mended together on your basement floor, or designed using the latest 3D modeling software, every product starts with an idea. But bringing that idea to a fully functioning, marketable prototype takes time, money, and more often than not, a few expert opinions.

Luckily, there’s been a recent emergence of tools, resources, and groups to help do-it-yourself innovators bring their sketches to life. “We are living in a fantastic renaissance of innovation right now,” says Bre Pettis, co-founder of MakerBot Industries and the NYC Resistor, a hacker collective. Groups like NYC Resistor bring together like-minded hobbyists to collaborate and build ideas with laser cutters, rapid prototyping machines, and electronic-building software. The group has even given rise to products, including Pettis’ very own MakerBot, a 3D printer available for under $1,000 (3D printers, typically costing several thousands of dollars, create objects by stacking plastic or metal layers on top of one another).

While creating a professional-looking design still may require outside help, it’s now easier and cheaper than ever to get your prototypes in front of customers. Here’s how to efficiently develop your idea and bring it to market.

Developing a Prototype: Doing it Yourself

Before you begin with any elaborate plans, why not take a stab at trying to build the thing yourself? Eventually, once you start to sell the product, you’re going to have to know it inside and out. Putting all the initial pieces together will not only give you an idea of manufacturing details, but it will make you more prepared for speaking with professional prototypers in the future.

A little more than a year into business, Pettis has shipped more than 3,000 of his MakerBots to what-to-be inventors throughout the country. He says the device can make almost anything up to 4”x4”x6′. The device converts 3D CAD files into tangible, plastic models of any shape or size. It may take a little while to build the machine and master the software, but costs a lot less than what a development firm might charge you. “You can feel really comfortable coming up with ideas, printing it, making mistakes, and re-printing it,” Pettis says.

A number of products, and even companies, have spawned from the likes of MakerBots and hacker collectives as well. Pettis says the founders of the social network Diaspora met putting together a MakerBot in computer science class at NYU. Tinkerers can even share their homemade designs on a site called Thingiverse.com, which features everything from toy cars to salt- and pepper-shakers to robotic arms. With more ease of use and collaboration, DIY modeling today acts almost as a natural prelude to prototyping.

[...]

Read the rest of their article here!

1. Photo courtesy of Simon Davison [↩]

You may already remember Michael Curry, aka Skimbal on Thingiverse, from his epic Cathedral Play Set or his rubber band design challenge winning rubber band gear mechanism.  Well, you’re going to love his latest design – Christmas greeting themed oversized Lego people.  My favorite part is the slide show of his twenty Lego people touring Kansas City.

This year instead of sending Christmas Cards I decided to use my Makerbot to make something unique for my friends. And naturally the project took on a life of its own.

The final result was 20 Lego Men at 4x the normal size. Each inscribed with a holiday greeting.

Before dispatching them off to the world, I decided it would be nice to take all 20 brothers on a photographic tour of Kansas City.

picasaweb.google.com/skimbal/LegoMenOfKansasCity?feat=directlink

Happy Holidays to all of the Thingiverse Community.

-Michael Curry

Use science to increase the quality of your prints! By finding the actual feedrate of your machine, and dropping that into skeinforge, you can get much better prints!

The DC motors used in the MakerBot are the cheapest possible solution to getting the torque you need to drive a MakerBot but they are DC motors so they don’t all run at the same speed. Speeds can vary from 17mm/sec to 32mm/sec. That’s a huge range and so it makes sense that each bot needs to be tuned. With the current default settings in ReplicatorG 23, we’ve been able to get great results by calculating the actual feedrate of the motors, changing that setting in Skeinforge from 32mm/sec to the actual feedrate and rocking great prints.

One of the easiest ways to get frustrating prints is by having a feedrate that is too fast. If you’re machine extrudes at 17mm/sec and you’ve got it set at 32mm/sec, the filament will get stretched as it comes out of the nozzle and stretched ABS wants to shrink and so you’ll get cracks. If you stretch the filament, you’re objects will get much more shrinkage in prints. My personal MK5 plastruder extrudes at 22mm/sec.

How do you calculate your feedrate? Here’s a way I’ve come up with that works.

1. Raise your extruder nozzle 100mm off the build platform. You can use the control panel to make this happen… or a ruler!
2. Get the plastruder to extrusion temperature. We keep it locked at 220.
3. Start the plastruder by setting the speed to 255 and pressing the forward button. This will make plastic come out.
4. Get a stopwatch ready. Most phones come with stopwatches these days.
5. Use tweezers to pull away the plastic from the nozzle as it’s running. Start the stopwatch at the exact same time.
6. Stop the stopwatch when it hits the platform.
7. Repeat 10 times. Ignore any results that vary widely and average them by adding them up and dividing by 10. You should have a number between 3 and 6 seconds.
7. Divide 100 by your number to get the mm/sec.
8. Drop that into skeinforge under the speed tab and try a print!
9. Win!

Here is another skeinforge tip that we’ve been playing with that seem to be very helpful in dialing in good prints. Up your travel feed rate to something like 40mm/sec. It’ll make the whiskers between objects much thinner. If you’re feeling adventurous, increase it to 100mm (untested!).

After much anticipation, the EggBots arrived for in-store sales! That means you have a chance to walk in and snatch up one of the most eagerly wished-for robotics gifts. I sort of feel lucky getting to announce they are here. HURRY UP! (and totally score the coolest gift for your DIY Man or Special Lady(friend)!

Available at The BotCave Store: 87 3rd Ave. Brooklyn, NY. 11217

Thingiverse citizen Robert Hunt recently posted a picture of his second print – a Coin-op Bottle Opener.

My second print on my Thing-O-Matic #86 with the default settings, no tweaks yet. Printed pretty well.

That’s really excellent print quality right out of the box!