MakerBot Industries

After last week’s challenges, we have re-assessed our priorities and made some fundamental changes to the way we do things at Robot Hospital.  I’d like to think that we’ve made some improvements, but a change this drastic is bound to be contentious.  Decide for yourself!

Of course, we talked about the brand-new Stepstruder™ MK6.  With ReplicatorG 24‘s new support for the Unicorn, we were bound to again discuss our own Schmarty’s Inkscape Extension.  We also had a brief  interview with one of Keepon’s creators, and a tour of the ever-changing Botcave.  There’s even an original music video to introduce viewers to the concept of “reversal” with the MK6.

In all seriousness, the change in format has allowed us to create more and better content, and this is one of our best shows ever.  We’re proud of this one, folks.

Too cool! Too cool!

Even when you’ve got Skeinforge totally dialed in there can be other potential problems with getting a perfect print. ¹  A drafty room, cold ambient temperature, or too much moisture can all cause problems.  Just as cold and wet conditions can lead to suboptimal prints, so can too much heat.  If a layer is still molten and gooey when the next layer is laid down on top of it, the lower layer can get squished or pulled out of place.  Through the use of judicious cooling, you can ensure you don’t have a problem with a molten lower layer.

Besides the Thing-O-Matic’s built-in fan, there have been a number of extruder cooling mechanisms:

• The Ducted Cooling Fan by Iwo
• Around-the-Nozzle Cooling Ring by scanlime
• HYPERVENTILATOR! by ScribbleJ

ScribbleJ’s version, while perhaps the most labor intensive, is easily the most well documented and entertaining to read.  If you haven’t already checked it out, some of those pictures are priceless.

For more information and ideas on fighting the gooey layer problem, check out Bothacker’s work with Skeinforge’s Cool function and Tesla893′s idea of printing multiple copies of parts at once.

1. Photo courtesy of Piero…assente fino a domani [↩]

Clamp Box by J_Hodgie

J_Hodgie recently uploaded a design for a clamp box to Thingiverse.  Even after seeing his Flickr stream showing all of the parts and the stages of it opening I didn’t quite get how it worked at first.  Each of those six “T” shaped prongs sticking out from the lid have a little protuberance that fits into a groove at the top of the box.  When the gear/lid is rotated counter-clockwise it will pull the six “T” shaped prongs into the lid and lock it shut.

This design is just so cool.  It’s got a gear for steampunk style, a satisfying rotating mechanism, and creates a box that will confound and surprise someone the first time they pick it up.  After all, who would expect the cap of a jar to expand as you open it?