MakerBot Industries

Nylon Bicycle on BBC

Take a look at this coverage of a Bristol-based engineering outfit that have released a nylon, 3D-printed bicycle to demonstrate the strength of 3D printed products to British manufacturing industry. The vid contains an excellent demonstration of selective laser sintering applied to a much classier model than you typically see supplied by the industry.

The discussion at end about the potential role for 3D printing to bring manufacturing back to the UK by closing the gap between innovation and end product is also worth a listen. And it mirrors conversations I’ve had with DIY 3D printing evangelists about the economic opportunities offered by local, small scale 3D-printed manufacture as a way to eliminate off-shore manufacture and boost local economies.

I’d also like to mention that I have received a number of support emails today asking when a MakerBot designed affordable selective laser sintering product will be available…..

Anthony Atala: Printing a human kidney

Well, we have been hearing about the 3D printing of organs for a while — and there are reports that a MakerBot Operator with a heavily modified Cupcake is engaging in this very work: printing plastic scaffolding for stem-cell “curing” of organs.¹

Here is a great talk about the present practice and future potential of 3D bioprinting.

And here is a great link to read more about the program exploring this technology.

1. Or as Marty in the Botcave has just said it — “rafting an organ on a 3D printer.” [↩]

Last week I was talking with a friend of mine when the conversation turned to bluetooth headsets.  He was lamenting that he’s going to have to get a new headset because of a broken plastic ear-hangy-thingie.  Again.  Apparently he had purchased his original bluetooth headset with insurance, broken the ear-hangy-thingie, then argued with the cell phone store until they gave him a new headset.  Now that his replacement headset was broken, he was psyching himself up to do it all over again.

He asked me which one I would recommend.  I laughed and reminded him I have a robot for these sorts of things. ¹  And that I could just print up a new ear-hangy-thingie or different sizes or different colors.  Which brings me to the above photograph courtesy of Grahoo on Flickr.  Why should someone have to suffer with an earpiece that doesn’t fit?  Why should someone have to replace a $50+ headset for want of a $0.01 piece of curved plastic?

I should think there’s a decent market for replacement ear-hangy-thingies.  If nothing else, it would be worth significant sums to cell phone stores – since they could replace $0.01 of plastic instead of an entirely new headset.  Heck, at that kind of cost they could have a jar of them next to the door.

1. Which, really, he should have remembered – since I basically never stop talking about cool robots that are cool. [↩]

Andrew Plumb Making an Eggbot

Andrew Plumb, known better in the 3D printing community by his handle “Clothbot,” is the closest thing the MakerBot Forums and MakerBot Operators Google Group have to a community leader: always jumping in with a thought or two to help veterans and beginners alike, taking all concerns seriously, making an effort to test issues and techniques. I find him an extremely useful resource as a troubleshooter and a cool head —  and for the longest time have had the strange feeling that he is working in the next room over.

In fact, he lives and works his community magic from Ottawa, Canada, where he is a founding member of the Ottawa ModLab group, a motley crew of engineering and arts types that gather a couple of times a month at ArtEngine.  As part of his local community, he teaches how to use 3D printers, as well as evangelizing for the ArtEngine ModLab’s Cupcake and 3D printing/design in general.

I had the pleasure getting to know him during MakerFaire NYC 2010 when he was a part of the 3D Printing Village next to the MakerBot booth, and I enjoyed hearing details about his current activities: interview follows, after the fold.

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CNC Etch-a-Sketch by BenJackson

You have probably already seen this on Thingiverse or can deduce what it is from the above picture.  That photograph conjures images of a post-apocalyptic future where bits of nostalgia are hooked up to scavenged parts to form a computer display where CRT and LCD screens are no longer available.  This amazing engineering feat of a CNC Etch-a-Sketch is courtesy of BenJackson.

You have to read his entire Thingiverse description, but here’s my favorite part:

It easily goes 8000mm/min (which is how fast the pictured spiral was drawn). Given the torque and the large step size I suspect it could go fast enough to melt the stylus if you cared to.

Yes, Ben, I would definitely care to do so.

Also, Ben, if you’re reading this – you should seriously consider turning this into a kit.

This picture is more or less all you need to know.  It’s a print that looks like a super-ninja has thrown a shuriken so hard that it went right into your fridge.  This is maybe not the most useful thing, but who doesn’t need more fridge magnets?

Bonus points to designer hotkey for making a parametric OpenSCAD design!

Ninja Fridge Shuriken by hotkey

Yay! Ninjas in your kitchen! This is a printable "Shuriken" fridge magnet. SHOW EVERYONE YOUR NINJA PRINTING SKILLS! :-D Updated: Version 103 has more user-friendly parameters. The 103.stl has an altered impact angle. So if you plan on printing more than one: Download and print both STLs for a more natural "ninja attack" look :-)

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