MakerBot Industries

This is the end...

That’s right folks: this is the end of an era.  We have looked over the numbers, and it’s official: we’ve just sold the very last Cupcake CNC kits that we’ll ever be able to offer.

Though we’ve moved on to bigger and better things, the Cupcake was the kit that got it all started for us, and we’ll never forget that.  It’s also still a darn good little machine, so if you have an order that’s among the last, you’ve just gotten yourself a great deal on your first 3d printer.

This must be what it’s like to send your kids off to college…snif.  I told myself I wouldn’t cry…

Of course we still have lots of parts for servicing and upgrading your Cupcakes at the store, so don’t be a stranger!  Check in once in awhile!

Yes, that's a rabbit.

As viewers of Robot Hospital may know, I am a huge fan of items that are used to stick pieces of fruit to things.  This is mainly because these items are generally intended to feed small, cute animals, and I am, in general, a supporter or small, cute animals.  As long as they are not vicious.

For these reasons, I was very excited to learn that it was also possible with vegetables, thanks to CloudMaker‘s elegant design.  I am a bit concerned about its performance with thicker carrots, but this is a “Work In Progress” so I expect updates.

I haven’t made a “What’s up Doc” joke as of yet…I apologize for this oversight.

Carrot Holder by CloudMaker

Just a carrot holder to attach to a bunny cage so the carrot wont lay in the dirt. Edit: Uploaded updated file carrotholder2, improved design! :-)

This thing brought to you by

Slow down, you move to fast. You've got to make the moment last.

Over the weekend I was experimenting with really really fast feedrates for my Thing-O-Matic. ¹  What I discovered was that if I start even a complex object off very slowly, I could run the Thing-O-Matic pretty darn fast. ²  The tricky bit was getting that first layer to print slowly enough.³

After some poking and prodding in Skeinforge, I found the settings here:

• Raft -> Object First Layer -> Object First Layer Feed Rate Infill Multiplier (ratio)
• Raft -> Object First Layer -> Object First Layer Feed Rate Perimeter Multiplier (ratio)
• Raft -> Object First Layer -> Object First Layer Flow Rate Multiplier (ratio)

I set each of these settings to the same value.  However, my target range was between 10 and 15mm/s.  So, I look the Feedrate from the Speed settings, and discovered that I would have to reduce my Feedrate to 30% of it’s normal speed in order to get within that range.  Thus, I entered 0.3 in each of the above settings.

The result was an almost agonizingly slow first layer – but a print that adhered well to the heated build platform, did not deform as the infill was applied, and provided an excellent base layer for the rest of the print. ⁴

1. Feedrate is the speed of the X and Y axes.  Flowrate is the speed at which the plastic comes out of the nozzle. [↩]
2. More on the speed stuff in a later post. [↩]
3. Photo courtesy of Jakob E. [↩]
4. If you’re curious, I was printing the 27-to-1 gear toy [↩]