MakerBot Industries

Eggbot Nutrition Label by dnewman

Have you noticed the recent marketing of prepackaged produce?  I’m not talking about washed, bagged lettuce here.  I’m talking about a prune or a banana in a single serving plastic wrapper.  The prune, okay, maybe.  Unless you’re buying prunes individually this just doesn’t seem to be worth the effort.  As for bananas, pineapples, oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit, avocados, kiwi, mangoes, watermelon, cantaloupe, and any other fruit where you do not consume the exterior…  I just don’t get it.  Perhaps it’s more pushed by a desire to utilize more marketing space on produce?

Dnewman’s solution is beyond elegant.  Why not just print the nutritional information right on the produce using an Eggbot??  I just LOVE this idea!  I would absolutely buy eggs from any producer that did this.  Not only is this idea so so so cool, but it opens the door to all kinds of other food labeling robots.  I mean, who wouldn’t want a Mangobot 2000?  Oh, and if you’re going to buy an apple, pear, or other fruit or vegetable where the exterior is consumed, why not just print with an edible ink? ¹²

Eggbot Nutrition Label by dnewman

In need of nutrition information for your large eggs? Then this drawing is just what you've been looking for! This is a 3200 x 800 pixel plot intended for plotting with the Eggbot. P.S. The text was rendered using the new Hershey Text extension by Windell Oskay and distributed with the latest Eggbot software release. It may be found in Inkscape under Extensions > Render > Hershey Text (after you update to the latest Eggbot software). The utility of that extension is not limited to just the Eggbot. Among other things, it provides nice, non-filled, single stroke fonts ideal for use in CNC and CNC-related applications.

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1. I suppose this would cause an infinite regression of trying to then print the ink’s own nutritional information on the ink itself…  [↩]
2. Wibbly wobbly… [↩]
3. I’m just letting it be known I had to restrain myself from using a number of other adjectives here. [↩]
4. Frankly, this is the mark of incredible self-control [↩]
5. I didn’t use the words extraordinary, example, or exemplary. [↩]

Glen Kotapish sends in these instructions on how to mod your Automated Build Platform Belt to make it last longer and keep it from coming apart. We’ve just considered these belts somewhat disposable, but this hack should keep your ABP in action for longer!

Materials and hardware used: ABP mylar conveyor belt, foil tape (3M Foil Tape 3311 – found at most automotive supply stores and hardware stores – other types of metal tapes may work well too), Kapton tape, scissors, paper cutter, coffee thermos with 3.5” diameter, coffee mug,

Put a new ABP mylar conveyor belt on a metal thermos with approximately a 3.5” diameter (or similar cylindrical object). Place shims behind the belt (shims between the thermos and mylar belt) until the belt is taught around the thermos.

Then wrap the metal foil tape around the mylar conveyor belt. You can use a coffee mug or other object to flatten out the bumps and bubbles in the foil tape as you wrap it around the mylar belt. You can drag the coffee mug’s round surface over the bumps and bubbles. Rocking the coffee mug also works to even out the foil tape. You’ll have to do more than one strip of metal tape depending on the width of your tape. There are tapes and rolls of metal foil with ahesive that are wide enough to cover the full width of the mylar conveyor – this example uses tape that can be found easily at hardware and auto stores.

After completely covering the mylar belt in metal foil tape wrap it in Kapton tape. Now carefully remove the shims from between modified conveyor belt and thermos. Put modified conveyor on ABP and you’re good to go. Be sure to recalibrate your machine’s Z axis for the addition of the foil tape and Kapton tape layers to the mylar belt.

Testing of this conveyor belt has shown no warping so far. The parts off of this build surface have looked good too.

Thanks for sharing Glen!

Caliper Holder by LightingPhil

With a 3D printer at your disposal you can design everything from a complex machine to a replacement knob for your stove. Sometimes, elegantly simple designs that make your life easier are the killer models. And bonus meta-points when you design and print 3D printed parts … that make it easier to print 3D printed parts. Here are two functional designs that have arrived up on Thingiverse since Friday that I am certain to print this week — and put into immediate use!

MakerBot Filament Spool Holder by charlespax

MakerBot Filament Spool Holder by charlespax

MakerBot Industries now sells filament on spools! Here is a spool holder you can mount on you Thing-O-Matic or Cupcake CNC in place of any rod cover. You should also print the spool housing to keep you filament nice and tidy. thingiverse.com/thing:8762 If you want to stack two spools, checkout tbusers Spool Stacker thingiverse.com/thing:9198

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Caliper holder by LightningPhil

Hold a caliper and 3 hex keys neatly on the front of the makerbot. Now I can find them! Everyone needs a caliper. Much easier to read a digital display than guess fractions of a mm. The hex keys come with the makerbot. Seemed a good holder to put them all together in one place. In addition to the above, I have a small holder for a craft knife and a tourch. Might draw them again, but didn't keep the STL's. This was my first go at using Solid Works. Far easier than expected! :)

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Daily earring #53: Castle by Schorhr

As Ferris Bueller famously said, “You can never go too far.”

Thingiverse citizen Schorhr has uploaded nearly 60 totally different earring designs. ¹  His designs include earrings in the shape of Tetris blocks, pi to eleven decimal places, the Enterprise being attacked by a Borg ship, traffic lights, an excavator, a gecko, the earth’s core, a little tentacle monster, a Gameboy, ball bearings, and wool and needles.  Now, don’t think these are just the whimsical ramblings of a mad designer – Schorhr has actually printed these things and uploaded pictures of them² to prove it.

In Schorhr’s own words:

Why am I doing this?

- To test how small I can go with the printer
- The little prints allow me to try lots of stuff without wasting much time and material
- It increases the WAF ( en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wife_acceptance_factor )
- 3D printing + Gifts = Love!³

Let’s put Schorhr’s accomplishment in perspective.  In two years of Thingiverse‘s existence the most things anyone had uploaded as of 12/31/2010 was an astonishing 80 designs from MakerBot’s own Zach “Hoeken” Smith.  Schorhr has managed to design nearly 75% of that amount in about 60 days time and upload more than half of that amount in just one day.  It’s no small task to upload a printable file, the design file, a screenshot or photograph, description, and instructions for each one.

Keep up the good work!

1. For the sake of accuracy, I only found 54 Thing under Schorhr’s Things section.  I can totally see how a few could get lost as you upload such an enormous pile of designs. [↩]
2. Usually painted with nail polish! [↩]
3. I would take exception with this equation.  I think it’s more like “Love + 3D printing = Gifts!”  However, I might have forgotten to carry the one. [↩]

Here’s something sweet to start the week.  OK, this might not be entirely useful, but I think the attraction is obvious.

Kudos to CreativeTools for baking a cookie and then running it through their high-res laser scanner.  There’s no need to ask why when it’s this awesome.

Laser scanned chocolate cookie by CreativeTools

A small chocolate cookie laser scanned with a Handyscan 3D VIUscan. The .zip file contains both model and texture, as well as reference images. Creativetools.se

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