MakerBot Industries

Extending Tube by MakeALot

Before I understood the glory and power of OpenSCAD, I fumbled around with Sketchup for designs.  A while ago I had wanted to print concentric cylinders in PLA for the purpose of making a light-up collapsible sword.  It worked terribly and I uploaded it to Thingiverse anyhow. 

MakeALot, on the other hand, has wrought an amazing parametric OpenSCAD script for a set of collapsible concentric cylinders that can lock in place.  MakeALot’s designs and description are another example of an excellent contribution to Thingiverse.  He’s uploaded his design files (the OpenSCAD script), a couple of different STL’s (so you don’t even have to use OpenSCAD if you don’t want to), a detailed set of instructions and descriptions, and has contributed some really insightful responses to the comments offered by others – all with a very permissive license.

I also found MakeALot’s notes on his experience with printing tolerances and  experiments with gaps for moving parts very interesting.  And, last, but not least this project serves as a great way to find out the limits of your machine when it comes to printing moving parts in place.  Seriously, how cool would it be to be able to just create fully functional mechanical objects straight out of a 3D printer? ¹  I’m really looking forward to playing with this script to make a toy collapsible sword as well as finding out the tolerances of my 3D printer.

Extending Tube by MakeALot

An extending tube printed as a single print. Extend, twist and push to lock in place.

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1. And, you know, it could even include a rubber band placer so that you could print a, say for instance, toy clockwork spider, that would just get printed and then walk off the platform.  That way you wouldn’t even need an automated build platform! [↩]

Ethan’s recent post about Nick’s experiments with turning down a print bed’s heat to avoid upper layer warping got me thinking…  it seems to me that keeping a heated platform on throughout a print job may not actually be required. ¹  When I’ve printed without heat at all, such as on an acrylic surface, I’ve only noticed ABS warping up to about 1cm or so.  After that printed objects tend to just even out.

The GCode command for setting the heated build platform temperature is:

M109 S70 T0

Where “S70″ means heat the platform to 70 degrees Celsius. ²  I honestly don’t know exactly how this GCode works.  It might force your printer to wait until the platform reaches a new temperature before continuing with processing more commands.  While this isn’t a big deal while your extruder is heating up before printing begins, it could be problematic if you try to change your printer’s temperature during a print job.  Even if this command doesn’t force the printing to pause while it changes temperature, there’s still the issue of how to implement it.  You probably don’t want to shut off the print bed’s heat during a short print job or in a print job for an object less than 1cm tall.  In any case, this is an idea and a question for the experimenters, hackers, and RepG/Skeinforge gurus out there.  What do you think?

1. Doesn’t it just seem ironic that using a heated build platform can eliminate warping at the base only to cause warping farther up a printed object?! [↩]
2. When I heat my build platform to 70 degrees Celsius, PLA sticks to to Kapton like glue. [↩]

ToMcat the Pen Plotter by ScribbleJ

It is no secret that I am a fan of pen plotters. Well, I’m thoroughly enchanted by ScribbleJ’s work-in-progress 3D printed pen holder. It is one thing to name a machine after an animal — it is another to successfully integrate that animal motif into the functional design.

I can’t wait to print this pen holder and see how it compares to my MakerBot Unicorn Pen Plotter.

ToMcat the Pen Plotter by ScribbleJ

This is (another) printable pen holder for the Thing-O-Matic/Cupcake. I tried to bring at least something new to the party by stretching my artistic skills to the absolute limit for your enjoyment. UPDATE!!! 2011-3-20: Youtube video of first gcode print...youtube.com/watch?v=NR3ZwVLx-xE ...would you say it's as fast as an F-14? Youtube video of (manual) test:youtube.com/watch?v=MEXvrOI0ZgY I wanted a pen mount so I could draw etch resist on PCBs. The existing mounts on Thingiverse are either not for a Makerbot:thingiverse.com/thing:3593 Mendel Pen Holderthingiverse.com/thing:3526 Mendel Pen Spring Mount (oooh, springs!) Or were using a whole servo motor in the design (for something that's sitting on the Z platform!):thingiverse.com/thing:4185 Makerbot's Unicorn Penthingiverse.com/thing:4200 Printable Unicorn Pen Or seemed like perfectly sane designs I should probably use but for my love of springs:thingiverse.com/thing:790 Updated Pen Plotter So with all that considered, I set out to reinvent the wheel. I'm still at it and what I've got is somewhat roundish, so I'm sharing it now. The "random" cat photo is one of my two cats, taken by a wonderful (and very patient!) photographer friend of mine. Her site is here: shutterboxing.com/ WIP WHY: * Needs redesign; too big - too tall. * Leg STL file has two right legs (so do my photos, I was anxious) * Front paws needed dremeling out to fit pen between. * Tail was a quick hack; I'd like to redo it completely. * Needs me to work with some existing pen plotting gcode generators to make them work OK. Only tests so far have been manual control, not Gcode. * As will be usual - I'll release the scad files AFTER I'm done with the STLs... I wish it weren't so as I believe strongly in release everything as early as possible, but Thingiverse stops rendering other files in a Thing after I send it an .scad. I might put it up on my github in the meantime... UPDATE 2011-03-20: Added a copy of the Inkscape gcode plugin by Schmarty: thingiverse.com/thing:5986 The copy below in the .tgz is modified to include an option for "USE SERVO" which, if set false, will cause the gcode to use Z axis movements like in my video. UPDATE 2011-03-22: Added photos of first PCB attempt (it says 2011-02 because I dunno what month it is)! Needs some work, but it's actually useable, so that's great for a very first try. Here's a youtube:youtube.com/watch?v=rAaGFV45_aM

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Stand back, Tony Buser is preparing to try science...

MakerBot Operator Tony Buser is a programmer and technology consultant by day, but by night he is a DIY 3D printing ninja.¹

I first learned about Tony after using the great projects he has uploaded to Thingiverse — in particular, OpenSCAD projects such as the OpenSCAD Bitmap Fonts Module and OpenSCAD Height Map.  More recently, I posted an amusing tweet from Tony in which he declared his love for his MakerBot Stepstruder. Well, I reached out to him for a follow-up interview.

I was curious about the origin of Thingiview.js, a tool he wrote to allow online users to see full 360 degree views of 3D models using WebGL-enabled browsers.²

Thingiview grew out of CloudSCAD.  When I started CloudSCAD I was surprised that there were really no good or easy open source web based model viewers, so I had to write my own.  I thought the way I made the object viewer for CloudSCAD would be useful to other people so I made it it’s own project and put it on github when Zach asked me to make it so that Thingiverse could use it.

Tony continues to develop CloudSCAD, though he has been distracted from it by other recent projects. One of his latest projects: working with a fellow member of his hackerspace to help him create a laser target scanner: a positioning system to be mounted on a Roomba platform.

Basically, the idea is to use a spinning mirror turret that uses a laser pointer and photo diodes to find the location of reflectors in the room in order to triangulate the Roomba’s position. He’s designing it and doing all the CAD work and I’m helping him learn how to design parts to be printed and making the prototypes on my Thing-o-Matic.

It’s been a good test for the ToM and Stepstruder because he’s still learning the limitations of the MakerBot so some of his designs have very small and tall thin structures that are really only possible to be printed using a stepper driven extruder.

Tony has also been working as a technical reviewer for a book on 3D printing called Printing in Plastic due out later this spring. As a result, he’s knee deep in the build documentation for the plywood RepStrap printer, WhiteAnt.

Tony Buser shows off print of George Hart's Stick Puzzle

More of our interview, after the fold!

Read the rest of this entry »

1. Click through the above picture to see the many 3d printers in his workshop! [↩]
2. Thingiverse added Thingiview.js functionality back in February. [↩]

Here’s another great tip from our own R&D guru Nick Starno: you might be running your heated platform too hot.

Check out these three copies of the famous bottle opener.  The top print, labeled 125 degrees C: do you see the wobble in the coin slot?  That comes from excess heat from the heated build platform.  In Nick’s experience, turning this down to 100 degrees solved his warping…but you’ll need to run your own experiments for this one, because each platform’s thermistor is a bit different.

Note that this is especially applicable for users who run their bots in a “Heated Build Platform” configuration — if you’re running an automated platform, you’ll likely need the extra heat because of the insulating effects of the belt.

Hmmm…these aren’t exactly emerald green, but we still get St. Patty’s day points, right?