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Archive for April 5th, 2011

Top Ten Best Things About the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic

Posted by on Tuesday, April 5, 2011 in MakerBot News

 

The MakerBot Thing-O-Matic is our favorite thing. It makes us so happy to see them go out into the world and make things for you. It comes as a kit and you put it together and it makes you things! Why is it so awesome? Here is our top ten list!

 

#10. MakerBot Stepstruder MK6 toolhead

MakerBot Stepstruder MK6 Toolhead

The MakerBot Stepstruder™ MK6 is the latest and greatest in MakerBot extrusion technology — and is included standard in every Thing-O-Matic.
You have more control over printing than ever before –  print hollow and fast for prototyping, partially filled, or print solid for heavy-duty parts for usable mechanical prototypes.
And keep your eyes open for the incredible MK6 prints appearing on Thingiverse such as the grouping here and here!

#9. Ninja Customer Support Team

MakerBot Customer Support Team: Isaac, Ethan, Matt

Have questions before you buy? Puzzling over your build? Ready to take your prints to the next level? Ask us!
Our favorite model? The Ninja Fridge Shuriken.

#8. Kid tested, Operator Approved: Detailed, Step-By-Step Assembly Instructions

Putting together a user-assembled kit with as many moving parts as  MakerBot takes some patience. Thankfully, we have an actively-maintained wiki to guide you through the process. Have an additional question about the instructions? Fire a question off to support and we’ll add pictures and text to help you (and everybody) out!

#7. Completely Open Source, with Multiple Toolheads and Modular Design

MakerBot Unicorn Pen Plotter

MakerBots are Open Hardware products, with available source files and plenty of resources to extend, expand, and reinvent your bot any direction your dreams take you. Purchase a Unicorn Pen Plotter and Frostruder MK2 to sketch, etch, or even make food sculptures! And there are even more community-designed case mods and toolheads on Thingiverse.

#6. Epic Choice of Colors and Materials!

A few of our range of MakerBot ABS and PLA Plastics!

We’ve spent a lot of time working to find the best and coolest materials for printing your designs.  Check out our selection and let our research work for you. We release new materials and colors regularly!

#5. Heated Build Platform and Automated Build Platform options ship standard in kit

You decide — do you want a non-motorized Heated Build Platform for the ultimate in adhesion and ABS shrinkage prevention?  Or do you want to use your Thing-O-Matic as a high-volume desktop fabricator with the Automated Build Platform?  It’s all in the box.

#4. An Endless supply of objects to print from Thingiverse.com

Thingiverse.com

New to 3D printing? Check out Thingiverse to see what MakerBot Operators the world over are designing — then print their models yourself! Many modellers on Thingiverse are MakerBot owners, so their files are already set to print!

Already have designs? Put them up and get feedback and props from the community.

#3. Our MakerBot User Groups are fun

MakerBot User Group: Bioengineering Design & Prototype Studio, Arizona State University (Tempe, AZ)

User Groups as far away as New Zealand have been meeting up and bringing their MakerBots together.

#2. Print off SD card … and via the MakerBot Gen4 Interface Board Kit!

MakerBot Gen4 Interface Board Kit

Prep your models on your computer, copy them to an SD card, trigger your print, and then unplug your computer!
Have a Gen4 Interface Board? Scroll through print models on your SD card right from the sexy control interface hanging off the side of your bot. (No computer necessary!)
And the number one reason to love your Thing-O-Matic….

#1. Make Anything!

MakerBot Operator Schuyler Loves His Thing-O-Matic

Your imagination is the limit with this machine and there is no more satisfying experience than watching something you designed or downloaded materialize before your very eyes.

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Printing Pro-tip: Adjust Your Build Height

Posted by on Tuesday, April 5, 2011 in Research and Development
Perfect prints come from careful build heights

Perfect prints come from careful build heights

Once I had my Thing-O-Matic build-height dialed in, I never thought about the starting build height again.  As a Cupcake owner, I used to obsess about getting the build height right for every print job.  I’d start a print job, watch the raft to make sure it was going well, and scrap the print if it didn’t.  A calibrated Thing-O-Matic will automatically home to the specified build height.

Until very recently, I had exactly two profiles I would print with – one for PLA and one for ABS.  Using Dave Durant’s formula, I’ve been able to print with any vertical resolution I feel like.  It was only this weekend that I realized that I can’t use the same starting build height for every profile.  When printing at 0.36mm layers, I have to use a build height 0.3mm higher than the build height when I’m printing at 0.25mm.

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Lepus Draconis (The Drabbit) by tbuser

Posted by on Tuesday, April 5, 2011 in Thingalert

Get ready for spring with the classic print: the Dragon-bunny, or drabbit.  Drabbits, of course, are to Western Europe what the Jackalope is to the American West; they were widespread throughout the area until the dark ages when the monastic orders hunted them down mercilessly.

Ok, well, April 1st was last Friday, and that’s not true.  Actually the closest I’ve ever seen to this was the bunny from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.  Well done tbuser, for your ingenuity and the amazing repositioning of the ears!

Lepus Draconis (The Drabbit) by tbuser
Silly Drabbit! Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene is for kids. Also: Do not meddle in the affairs of Drabbits, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup. Also a derivative of the Stanford Bunny by phooky thingiverse.com/thing:3731 Made with Meshmixer: meshmixer.com/
This thing brought to you by Thingiverse.com
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