MakerBot Industries

Obsolete 40mm Cube Test Object by bre

As some of you may know, I’ve been working on a Skeinforge calibration projected called, “ProfileMaker.”  I released v3.0 last month over at MakerBlock.com. ¹  My goal was a web-based cross-platform easy-to-use Skeinforge setting calculator.²

Calibration by cube is essentially a trial and error process.  Print a cube, examine the results, take some notes, change a setting, and LRR³ until you have a satisfactory result.  There’s nothing wrong this this, but it is time consuming and can be frustrating.  ProfileMaker uses the same math and formulas as Dave’s Profileinator to derive the flowrate (or speed at which plastic comes out of the nozzle) based on the few settings you choose.  There are also some advanced options, for the more adventurous.

When you calculate some new profile settings, ProfileMaker will generate the settings and tell you exactly where to enter them in Skeinforge.  Or, if you wish, it can e-mail a zip file containing those settings as part of a complete profile.  Just unzip into your directory and start slicing!

As always, I’d appreciate feedback!

1. In that time more than 200 people have generated nearly 1000 profiles.  I see this as a good trend.  If people weren’t happy with the profiles they’re getting, they probably wouldn’t come back to generate five profiles on average. [↩]
2. In fact, if this isn’t the easiest Skeinforge calibration system you’ve EVER used, I’ll give you your money back! [↩]
3. Lather, rinse, repeat. [↩]

Castle MakerBot by Renosis

I’m a big fan of bot bling — prints and modifications that hotrod your MakerBot — so I have been following¹ Carmiac’s Bot Bling Design Challenge for a little while now. There are only a few days left to upload your design to Thingiverse (submissions must be posted by 11:59pm EST May 15, 2011), and a number of elaborate projects are starting to roll in.

I must admit that I’m mildly disappointed that HipsterLogic beat me to the punch to create M3 bolt button caps with his awesome Sparkfun logo part (I had promised to make Stanford Bunny head button caps). Remember that the Thingiverse Triangulation Obligation I mentioned in my last bot bling post is still in full effect. Let my sorrow be a lesson to you: “Don’t Wait To Make” (DWTM).²

Renosis is not only going all-out on his “Castle MakerBot” mod but he contacted us yesterday for advice for how to re-code his Gen4 Interface Kit display so he can theme that as well. Lest we give him a leg up in this competition³, I thought I’d share Matt Mets’ sage advice what to work on if you want to theme your Gen4 Interface kit:

Matt Mets: That’s a really simple mod if you can get the firmware to compile. The directions are here: http://wiki.makerbot.com/v2-firmware. The file you need to modfiy is: G3Firmware / v2 / src / Motherboard / boards / mb24 / Menu.cc. Lines 72-75 have strings that set the startup message, and the other messages are also set by code in that file.

Thanks, Matt, for the pointers! Good luck to those with bot bling projects still in the works!

Castle MakerBot by Renosis

Castle MakerBot is my Entry into the BotBling competition! Hope you Like it! Bot Bling Design Challenge by Carmiac: thingiverse.com/thing:7784 I decided to do a Castle theme. Included in Castle MakerBot are four turrets, several coat of arms, medieval wall torches, stained glass rose window, and runic keypad for the Gen4 interface. I also couldn't resist putting a dragon in there, but that is Tbuser's design. Most of this was designed in OpenScad. Originally it was designed in Sketchup, but then I learned OpenScad and started over and redesigned everything. The only thing that remains in Sketchup is the stained glass window, but I will work on moving that to OpenScad as well. If you wish to poke around in any of the OpenScad files, I highly recommend you check out the Coat of Arms. It is parametric and you have a choice of 7 different logos to be placed in 3 different positions. I have uploaded some renditions here. The Torches are made from LED Tealights! They flicker kind of like real fire. These torches were difficult to photograph in low light, but I did the best I could. The castle turrets snap right on to the rod end caps on a thing-o-matic. The stained glass rose window has some pieces printed in blue PLA, natural PLA, red ABS and black ABS. I have intentions to add a few more things to this, if I have the time. There is just so much more I want to do. Hope ya like it! Update... added this video of me showing the various parts of the castle. Focus is a little off on some of the close ups and the stills on the left probably do the project more justice. I recommend turning down the volume too, the only noises are me being clumsy and banging into things. I guess I should have talked through some of it, but it is getting late and it probably would have made the video worse than it is! ;P youtube.com/watch?v=Xot8MsyZZ0s

This thing brought to you by

MakerBot Webcam Attachment by HipsterLogic

Have you ever wanted to watch your MakerBot print while you are away? Perhaps setup a live feed of your MakerBot? Or just want to add a webcam to your MakerBot? Then this will hopefully help you out. The MakerBot Webcam Attachment (It needs a better name) is a printable mount that attaches your webcam to a printable arm which connects to the frame of your MakerBot. By setting up a VNC server on the computer controlling your MakerBot and attaching the webcam, you will then be able to control and watch your MakerBot from any computer in the world with internet access! Also, you could setup a web sever on that computer and host a live stream of what is print on your MakerBot. Now the question is, Is this a MakerCam or do you have a WebBot? If anyone has questions about setting up a web server or a VNC server, I'll do my best to answer them. This is sized for a Microsoft LifeCam HD-5000 [ microsoft.com/hardware/en-us/p/lifecam-hd-5000/7ND-00001 ], but can easily be modified for a different camera with the included SCAD file. The last image is a sample taken from the webcam.WARNING: As barrychuck brought out, running a MakerBot while unattended is very dangerous. I am not responsible for any damage or harm that occurs from use of this part. Use this at your own risk!

This thing brought to you by

ClockIt MakerBot Mounting Brackets by HipsterLogic

This was originally designed as a joke which went something like this: Now, your already awesome MakerBot can be made even more awesome with mounting brackets for the DIY ClockIt Kit [ sparkfun.com/products/9205 ]! This way your MakerBot can not only print 3D objects, but tell time! 1 After printing this out, while I was adding it to my bot, I realized that there was a practical use for this, other than the joke. It could be used for time lapse videos for displaying the passage of time, It fits nicely into the upper right of the frame, or a stopwatch for the time your bot has been printing an object. It may be nice to have a custom program for the ClockIt that is more of a stopwatch rather than a clock. I don't know if I will be able to get around to writing one, so if someone is ambitious, go for it! 1. Yes, this idea came from the comment made by MakerBlock on the post "Don’t You Dare Delete That!" at the MakerBot blog [ makerbot.com/blog/2011/04/19/dont-you-dare-delete-that/ ]. I couldn't add the radio part, but the clock was possible.

This thing brought to you by

Printable SparkFun Logo by HipsterLogic

This is a printable version of SparkFun Electronic's logo. There are 2 versions, one is solid and the other has a hole that allows you to place it on one of the M3 bolts heads on the front of your MakerBot. It is approximately 23mm X 35mm X 8mm (W x H x D). If you don't have any red ABS to print it in, you can color it with a red permanent marker after printing it, perhaps use theorbtwo's Marker holder [ thingiverse.com/thing:5570 ] with a red marker, or just leave it in the color of your filament, the Technicolor SparkFun logo! More information about SparkFun and the usage rights of their logo can be found here: sparkfun.com/static/about NOTE: I am not an employee of SparkFun and do not own the rights to the logo design. The SparkFun Logo is a trademark of SparkFun Electronics.

This thing brought to you by

Error - could not find Thing 8056.

Custom Shop Flames by MakeALot

Print in Red, Orange and Yellow to turn your bot into a bot-rod.

This thing brought to you by

Secret Agent Bot by bongoboy23

The name's Bot. James Bot. Saving the world from market monopolies, this secret agent outfit for your Makerbot turns it into the perfect monopoly-fighting machine. Capable of printing out cups, keychains, and even mini-bots, this secret agent machine will have those massive corporations shaking in their hand-polished shoes. Give your bot a spiffy tuxedo, and a hand to hold his martini, shaken, not stirred. Or perhaps you would like it to hold a trusty sidearm, ready to save the world (and the girl)! Disk Shooter:thingiverse.com/thing:7643 Also, for the ladies out there, print a bowtie that hooks on the top of the Makerbot, turning it into a hairbow. Print in your favorite color, and enjoy. This set includes: Tuxedo with bowtie Bowtie/Hairbow Fully articulated hand

This thing brought to you by

Bot Bling Design Challenge - $35 Prize by carmiac

Being obligated to triangulate things on Thingiverse by blog.makerbot.com/2011/04/13/my-bot-rod-has-kickin-bot-bling/ my first two thoughts were design challenges and Bot Bling. So, this is a bot-bling design challenge. Hooray! Rules For Entry: 1) This must be NEW bot bling, so it must be uploaded to Thingiverse after I publish this contest. 2) All entries must be tagged with 'botbling_challenge' 3) Must be mostly printable (Unicorns and Frostruders included) 4) Submissions must be posted by 11:59 EST May 15, 2011 5) Enter as many times as you want, as long as the entries are unique. 6) Judging will be completed within a day or two of contest end. Judging will be based on the following, weighted in order. 1) Number of likes 2) Number of times it has been made by someone else 3) Aesthetics 4) Printability 5) File formats provided UPDATE: Makerbot Industries has generously added some LEDs to the prize!blog.makerbot.com/2011/04/18/botbling-design-challenge-from-carmiac/ WINNER: And, the winner is... Renosis for his awesome Castle Makerbot!!! Congratulations! Check it out at: thingiverse.com/thing:8401 Thanks to all the entrants! We have some excellently spiffy looking bots out there.

This thing brought to you by

1. and so far failing in my plan to participate in [↩]
2. Or was it, “Don’t Worry Too Much”? [↩]
3. I suspect he doesn’t need a leg up! [↩]

Dragon Fly puzzle by Neophyte

This extremely cute little 3D-printed flatpack dragonfly design comes with an interesting modeling history:

“I got this as a DXF file off the net quite a few years ago. Don’t know where I got it exactly.
Also, I don’t have a build diagram for it so therefore it’s a puzzle.”

This is definitely an example of a printed model that benefits from being an assembly of smaller parts — the graceful uptilt of the wings would be an enviable challenge for printing without support structure. In this case, printing flat was also essential to getting the visual finish Neophyte was going for, so the entire model has a self-consistency that works.

And I have to admit that a lot of the fun of this piece for me is imagining Neophyte and his wife printing first, and solving the puzzle later. Seeing this project has encouraged me to do a little “data dumpster diving” to find sources for potentially interesting models, in particular my artist morgue and a host of 2d illustrations that might be a fun place to start for extruding and modeling into 3D.¹

1. I am considering creating “data dumpster diving” as a Thingiverse tag should this process lead to any interesting results. Feel free to beat me to the punch, here. [↩]