MakerBot Industries

Nicholas C. Lewis who is part of the crew over at Open3DP have come up with a 2D inkjet printer that’s on a XY coordinate system. Can you guess what happens next?

They’ve done an amazing job documenting it, check it out! A “Thing”, a video a flickr album and ablog post. Keep up the good work!

I’ve been working with Lynn Hershman on some interesting projects, including a large-scale interactive installation that was shown at the Sundance film festival. The piece allows users to browse an archive of videos featuring work by contemporary women artists, using virtual flashlights that illuminate a simulated room.

I was able to use my Makerbot to make some small but critically important parts for the physical interface, parts that would have been difficult to make using any other techniques. Using the Makerbot and OpenSCAD, not only was I able to build the part (with help from friends), but I had it very, very quickly.

Wii to flashlight adapter ring

Keep reading for more details on what this little part does, and why using the Makerbot was the best option for building it.

Read the rest of this entry »

"Do you enjoy warm candy?"

This just looks like an instant classic to me.  There are just a few things that people always like to print – MakerBot coins, bottle openers, Pink Panther women, heart-shaped boxes, to name a few.  Bradley’s Heart-Shaped Candy Dish looks like a real contender to me.  It’s simple, pretty, and functional.

Although, I just can’t help but think of a robot asking me, “Do you like warm candy?”¹²³

Heart-shaped Candy Dish by Bradley

Here's a thing to use as a thoughtful gift to thank those significant people who have been so supportive (patient and tolerant) of all those (frustrating) hours you've spent tinkering, tweaking and hacking your 3D printer to produce a decent print. I designed it in Alibre Design.

This thing brought to you by

1. Because, you see, the plastic and automated build platform would be kind warm. [↩]
2. I kinda lied.  I was really thinking of a Dalek asking me “DO YOU LIKE WARM CANDY?” but I didn’t want to go there. [↩]
3. Um, I guess I just did. [↩]

Kinect Camera Tripod Mount with Embedded Threaded Insert

Before your imagination carries you to embedded systems or even cyberpunk, I should warn you: I’m talking about a simple hack to integrate hardware of the nuts, bolts, and threaded inserts variety. ABS plastic is sturdy and easy to work with — but for fastening and unfastening many many times, metal hardware can be an advantage.

I wanted to make a sturdy 3D-printed camera mount for MakerBot’s current artist-in-residence Kyle McDonald who is doing work with the Kinect. I liked a few of the Kinect mounts that I found online at Thingiverse and elsewhere (particularly the Kinect mount to camera tripod by Henkka and Kinect Tv mount by Chooch) but Kyle requested something that could really lock down the Kinect mount for longterm, rugged use. (Also, the four outer holes on a Kinect are just the right size to create threading for M3 bolts.)

When I found a bunch of 1/4-20 threaded inserts in the BotCave, I thought: “Why don’t I build my model around this hardware?”

Creating the Model

I built my mount using Tinkercad, a solid modeller, so that I could continue to tweak my model after every time I printed it. Bonus: you can jump in and make your own version of the mount with whatever baroque embellishments appeal to you. Edit the part online at: tinkercad.com/p/acc0d8eff4d75895

Rather than aiming to trap the threaded insert with a second 3D printed plug¹, I designed the model so that I could perform post-print extruding to seal the hardware into the part. Essentially, I added a enough millimeters to the tolerances around the parts I want to seal in that I can extrude plastic down into the cavity to seal it in.

Embedding the Hardware

For a few months I have used a “partymode” script to extrude in intermittent bursts for filling in voids in prints that need just that one last dollop of love. This script heats up the nozzle and omits turning off the heater at the end of the print ((And not turning it off at the end of the print — a bit risky if you don’t watch what you are doing.)) so that I can run it series for short periods of time.² You can create a script like this for yourself — or you can use the options for setting the extrusion time in seconds using the control panel in RepG 24 and 25.

Here are the steps I took after printing the base model.

1

Place the hardware in the socket prepared for it in the model. Warm up the extruder to about 230 degrees Celsius and set the stepper extrusion speed to about 1.5 to 1.9. If you have one handy, thread a bolt into the insert to prevent any plastic from slipping into the mounting point itself.

2

Set extrusion to 10 or 30 second at a time and bring the part to fill up to within a couple of millimeters of the nozzle. Fill the cavities around the mounting spike just like you might with a hotglue gun. I move the part in a tiny circle so that the plastic can fill the cavity fairly evenly. Fill a little bit higher than the top surface.

3

Having completely filled the bottom cavities, I pull the part out of the MakerBot. While the plastic is still warm, I press the plastic down into the cavity firmly with my fingers. A flat screwdriver or a tiny file can work well to clean up any excess or stray threads. After pressing the plastic flush, I flip the part over to fill in the top cavities.

4

The completed, filled top cavities. As the camera pin and the threaded insert will be locking down, filling the top is more to taste — as long as he extrusion at least reaches the plastic extruded into the other side a tiny bit.

Now I have a Kinect camera mount with the hardware locked in place for easy use!

What projects of yours would benefit from this approach?

1. which would work really well — feel free to design a snap-in and share it back with folks! [↩]
2. Afterwards, you can sand the “filler” back flush with the surface of the model with some sandpaper. [↩]

Thing-o-matic modified backplane to accomodate rear-mounted electronics by usiegj00

I realize full well that there are very practical reasons for wanting external electronics on a 3D printer.  That’s one of the cool things about the MakerBot Cupcake CNC.  It’s a snap to just jump right in, disconnect some wires, swap out circuit boards, and generally just hack and tinker away.

With an automated build platform, MK5 extruder¹ , MK6 plus heater upgrade kit, safety cutoff switch, Twotimes Z-rider, and Twotimes Mendel inspired XY lowrider carriage you can upgrade your Cupcake to near-Thing-O-Matic abilities.

Seeing usiegjoo’s modification of their Thing-O-Matic gave me a good chuckle.  Ever since seeing Charles Pax’s Muffin CNC, I wanted to perform a similar hack to put the electronics inside my Cupcake.  So, despite knowing all of the practical benefits to external electronics, I couldn’t help but think of this an almost…  downgrade for the Thing-O-Matic. ²  Since the release of the Thing-O-Matic the trend has been very much the reverse – with people working to upgrade their Cupcakes to near-Thing-O-Matic levels of functionality.

Thing-o-matic modified backplane to accomodate rear-mounted electronics by usiegj00

The ATX power cable and supply cables needed a notch in the lower back of the case along. This is added to this backplane as well as side-channels for easier cable routing. This is based off of thingiverse.com/thing:4973

This thing brought to you by

1. Apparently the truly adventurous can try their hand at the completely unofficial and unsupported wiki entries on the StepStruder MK6 with Gen 4 electronics. [↩]
2. That said, it’s not a downgrade.  It’s really more of an alternate configuration. [↩]