MakerBot Industries

Shakespeare's 6th Birthday by Lindsayloveshermac

Are you working your bot too hard? (Is your bot working you too hard?)

Ever wanna just take the night off, spend some quality time with your robot? Maybe toss the ole Calibration Cube between the two of you?

Now you can: partymode

Here is how you do it.

Create a short snip of G-code¹ saved as a “.gcode” file, put it in a “partymode” folder, and drop the “partymode” folder into the “scripts” folder within ReplicatorG 24.

Code can be a fun set of movements, a tune, a gesture, a microprint, a neat trick.

Make sure it will play on all MakerBots (don’t play favorites: Thing-O-Matics and Cupcakes are both invited to the party). Test and tune right in the G-code window of ReplicatorG.² Call the script from here: “File > scripts > partymode.”

Now it is time to throw a party! Hire a caterer! Stock up on 3-IN-ONE oil! Activate your script and get down with your bad self, while your bot is bot-bot-botting along next to you.

Was your party a smash success? Share back!

Was there cake?³ Share your partymode script on Thingiverse. There’s a new tag in Thingiverse-town, and it’s shakin’ all the nation’. partymode

And get your partymode script up by midnight, Wednesday, March 16th and it will be under consideration for inclusion in a “partymode” folder for future ReplicatorG releases.⁴

Maker.Bot.Party.Mode - Set 01 by mifga

This set of short GCode scripts initiates what I hope will be a longstanding practice of creating fun things for your bot to do. Nothing as heavy as extruding much. More dances, gestures, sounds, and neat tricks. These scripts play well on all MakerBots (I don't play favorites: Thing-O-Matics and Cupcakes are both invited to the party). Make sure to read the instructions at the top of the code before running each partymode. Your axes might be reversed in a different pattern than mine -- so watch out! Where are your partymode scripts? And quick utilities? And stupid pranks? Making these things is probably the best way out there to get a firm grasp on essential, human-readable g-code scripting. They always told me that the future would be fun. And so I made it fun for everyone. Included in this set: "Game Anthem Grrarr!" "MakerBot M Stamper!" "one turn deserves another" "Party like a cube" "sNAKEy dANCe" "Stirring the Air" "Triangle Man, Triangle Man" "Where Is Violin! Is Too So Small!" Thanks to Pleasant 3D for the great gcode path visualization ... for these behaviors that leave no extrusion trace upon the world. (http://bit.ly/dUe5xh)

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1. wanna repeat? throw an M30 at the end — at least until ReplicatorG 25 comes out [↩]
2. Ah, G-code, you are so groovy and human-readable. [↩]
3. I was told there would be cake. [↩]
4. Just make sure these are released as Public Domain or Creative Commons such that commercial releases are permitted! [↩]

Hearts Gears by emmett

You probably remember Thingiverse citizen Pattywac‘s recent epic mashup design challenge.  This was probably the most participated-in design challenge ever, with 48 things on Thingiverse tagged “mashmeup”! ¹  Well, Pattywac is done weighing and considering the entries and we have a winner!  Here he is, in his own words:

Great job to everyone entering the MashMeUp Design Challenge.  Unfortunately, I had to DQ a few people because they combined items with unfriendly licenses….. but there were still a lot of great entries!  The community really made a few entries the front runners (through likes, ratings, and copies), but in the end the winner was Thingiverse citizen emmett with his Heart Gears entry.

Heart Gears by emmett

For a very nerdy Valentine's Day, I give you heart gears. This was inspired by Greg Frost's Broken Heart thingiverse.com/thing:4683, but it fits in the palm of your hand and can be twisted like some kind of worry ball. It makes use of the heart shape from thingiverse.com/thing:6190, the MCAD involute bevel gear script from thingiverse.com/thing:3575, and nophead's polyhole script for making properly dimensioned tap holes thingiverse.com/thing:6118. UPDATE: If you lack a 3D printer, you can now buy these from CarryTheWhat at etsy.com/shop/CarryTheWhat. I was daunted by the complexity of Greg's design, so this one is much simpler, having fewer gears, and a much simpler attachment design (simply thread the bolts into tight plastic holes). It also uses a smooth heart shape and is made for the hand instead of the desk.

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Again, congrats to everyone for doing a great job… my only advice is that people watch out for the licenses they place on and make derivatives from Thingiverse things.

emmett’s Hearts Gears entry garnered 93 likes, 31 comments, 20 Flattr’s, and was printed at least 4 times with one derivative.  It clocked in at 9 printed parts plus a little bit of hardware to put together.  He was also kind enough to include his OpenSCAD design files so that others may benefit from his design techniques.  This will probably be one of those cool printable things that really showcases the power and flexibility of DIY 3D printing.

Congratulations emmett!  Please send Pattywac a message on Thingiverse with your paypal name so he can get you your prize money.  And if you would leave a comment on this post, I’ll be sure and put you in touch with the guys at MakerBot so you can collect your $100.00 in store credit!

1. Unfortunately, there were a fair number of disqualifications for mashing up things that didn’t have licenses that would allow derivative works.  Please be sure and use an open license on your Things so that others can make awesome and cool stuff!!! [↩]

Bre and Thingiverse in the Botcave, featured in The Daily video

Check out this great video about Citizen Engineers and Garage Tinkerers that features  MakerBot Friendlies Becky Stern and Limor Fried. Also watch for Bre Pettis and lots of shots of the BotCave, testing rigs, Thingiverse, and Luis’s 3D printed Unicorn dropping into hand from the belt of a Thing-O-Matic into a welcoming hand.

Spiral Pencil/Candle/Toothbrush Cup by MakeALot, printed by Charles Pax

If you have been watching the Thingiverse Newest Things list as actively as I have,¹ then you will have noticed Mark Durbin (“MakeALot“) releasing a series of gorgeous parametric models developed using OpenSCAD.²

We have been printing a few of these objects in the BotCave and I wanted to share both that image and a bunch of links to interesting things Mark has released so far.

Mark, keep going — your work is gorgeous and that you continue to release your OpenSCAD files provides yet another masterclass for other designers learning that software right now.

Parametric Knot by MakeALot

An adjustable printable knot on a plinth The first image is a 2,5 knot the other individual one is a 2,3 knot, the other images show some of the knots you can achieve.

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Spiral Pencil/Candle/Toothbrush Cup by MakeALot

Desktop pencil cup made from interwoven spirals or Candle holder made from interwoven spirals or Toothbrush holder made from interwoven spirals or ... made from interwoven spiralsUpdate: I had it printed in ceramic to see what the quality would be like, I'm happy with the results - in ABS and ceramic.

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Twisted bracelet by MakeALot

Twisted bracelet I finally managed to generate the STL for this, it took 15.5 days and needed an Ubuntu installation on a machine with 4G ram and the latest CGAL libs.

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1. and check out the Thingiverse Blog coverage of this work [↩]
2. Yet another incentive to follow MakerBlock’s incredibly helpful tutorials on OpenSCAD and other resources gathered here. [↩]

OpenSCAD Ruler - Numbered by TeamTeamUSA

BrainyWaltDisneySta has a posse 107 mm 2.1 g All hail the new ruler! This mashup of my original ruler and avrgeek's excellent OpenSCAD League Gothic Font Module thingiverse.com/thing:6820 let's you measure things within OpenSCAD - now with numbers! Currently only numbered rulers less than 200mm in length are supported; however un-numbered rulers of any length are supported. "Tick marks are nice, but numbers are nicer!" -BrainyWaltDisneySta

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I find I can sometimes get disoriented when designing OpenSCAD.  When you create a solid, you know exactly how large it is – since you’ve already specified it needs to be so long, so tall, and so deep.  However, when you’re assembling something out of more than one part, a ruler would be very helpful.

TeamTeamUSA first published an OpenSCAD ruler about 10 months ago, long before I ever thought about trying the program out.  Only now do I see the wisdom of his contribution.    Just include his STL and move/translate it near the parts you need to measure!   I am happy to say I started using it almost right after it was uploaded to Thingiverse and I look forward to using in future designs.

As we all know, successful colonization of other planets is necessary for long-term survival of the human species.  So, obviously, it’s high time we start printing spaceships, like this model of the soon-to-be-defunct Space Shuttle, by Thingiverse designer BonsaiBrain.

You may need some glow-in-the-dark ABS to print it and have it glow.

printable glowing in the dark space shuttle by BonsaiBrain

This afternoon I was looking for some nice space shuttle to print. I found one here thingiverse.com/thing:1966 , but it seemed to be a bit to smooth. So I googled a little and found some fitting object in the 3D galery. I resized it and repraired it using netfabb and after a short time I printed one with a length of about 105 mm. The upper wing is a bit too thin to be printable precisely, but it is a little more detailed than the mentioned space shuttle. But the real cool feature: It is glowing in the dark using phosphorescent PLA. The model you can download here is scaled up to a length of 135 mm hoping that this size is big enough to print a better wing. Greetings BonsaiBrain More about this and where to get the glowing in the dark PLA: ifeelbeta.de

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