MakerBot Industries

Lately, I’ve been experimenting with Skeinforge 35′s Support preferences (located in the Raft tool) to print objects that either have nasty overhangs (so would be likely to drop loops) or do not offer an easy flat sides to print from. In the past, these tools worked, but lead to uneven results. But with the latest toolheads offering stepper driven extrusion and really precise temperature management, bridging and printing with support structure gets better every day.

One consequence of the mechanical and software engineering updates to the Thing-O-Matic printer: with each new round of releases it is worth the effort to experiment with tuning Skeinforge settings in the Raft tool so that you can see how your MakerBot responds to the new possibilities.

Here are the models I use for support testing:

• Wizzard by guru (the hat, sleeves, and arms are excellent support tests)
• a 40% scale, upside down Stanford Bunny (printing inverted will make it obvious if your settings are skewing your model)

I also have a really challenging support test (featured above): animator Raedia Albinson‘s abstract sculpture “SisterRaeSpiral3.” I can’t make this STL available (though she is considering sharing it with Thingiverse) but suffice it to say that this is a cluster of nested spiral tendrils with no flat base. Pretty much the most brutal support test I have found — so I keep threatening the R&D team to send it to them as a test print.¹

The Support settings are found within Skeinforge and can be accessed by clicking “Generate Gcode,” choosing a profile from the list, and then hitting the “Edit” button to open up the settings windows.

First Tip: Your settings in the Raft:Interface section will have a tremendous effect on your support material! So that Interface Infill Density (ratio) value determines how dense your support material will be (even though it isn’t in the support material section).

Second Tip: Can you use Support Material in combination with ReplicatorG 25′s Print-O-Matic features? Why, yes you can! Print-O-Matic overwrites some of the values in your profile, but not all of them. So you will be able to get the support material settings you like in your profile, and use a combination of activating “Raft” and picking a “Use support material” setting to use the Skeinforge:Raft settings you have added into your profile.

Here’s a great place to start for settings!

• Interface infill density (ratio): 0.4 (0.3-0.7)’
• Interface Layer Thickness over Layer Thickness: 1.2 ( also  0.7)
• Support Cross Hatch: No.
• Support Flow Rate over Operating Flow Rate (ratio): 0.7 (0.4-0.7)
• Support Gap over Perimeter Extrusion Width (ratio): 0.005
• Support Material Choice: Everywhere
• Support Minimum Angle (degrees): 35.0

1. And they keep saying “Bring it on!” [↩]

Hey folks!  This Monday brings a product announcement that should be exciting for some of you bleeding-edge types: a new, experimental 0.3mm nozzle for the Stepstruder MK6 and MK6+.

This is the smallest nozzle we’ve ever offered, and while we’ve decided that the 0.4mm nozzle is the best choice for general use, we wanted to get these nozzles into the hands of advanced MakerBotStars to see what they can do with them.  These nozzles have the same geometry and the same anti-stick coating as our other nozzles, but the a smaller opening does mean that it won’t work with the default printing profiles.  You’ll need to use Print-O-Matic in ReplicatorG 25 or roll your own custom Skeinforge profile.  Also, if you don’t have a stepper-based extruder, this isn’t going to work for you.

If  experimenting until you’ve got the perfect settings to get some of the best MakerBot prints ever sounds like loads of fun to you, then head over to the store and pick one up.

3D printed zoetrope

Each of these twelve sections was created with a 3D printer and then put together to show a figure walking.  Old school zoetropes had a thin wall all around the edge with slits through which you can observe the action.  As the zoetrope was rotated, the small glimpses through the holes in the wall would create the illusion of animation.  Newer zoetropes tend to use synchronized strobe lights so that the light comes on for a brief moment exactly when each segment reaches the point in the rotation where the prior segment was when the light was last on.  While still a work in progress the artist, Sam Ellis, has updated his website to show some more pictures and details.  He’s even promised to share the code for his work!

While we’ve seen animation using 3D printing before, this is probably the best example of something we could all be doing with our MakerBots right now.  Here’s what I’m hoping for – a stop motion video or zoetrope with a Gangsta.

Hey everybody!  It’s Friday, so, despite having just been upstaged badly by the amazing sun-printing video, we’re back with another episode of everyone’s favorite web-show about all things MakerBot.  We’ve got a Thingiverse round-up showing off a printable flyswatter, a 3d-scanned sign of the horns and its first mashup, some printable keys, and just a few of the cool folks we’ve scanned with the Polhemus FastScan.  Then, our artist-in-residence Jonathan Monaghan tells us a bit about the scanning process, and invites everybody to next Thursday’s party.

“Solar Sinter” is a 3d printer by Markus Kayser that lives on sand and sun. It’s based on selective laser sintering (SLS), using Saharan sand as the medium and sunlight from a Fresnel lens in place of laser.

If you jump to 1:36 in the video above, Markus appears to be using MakerBot electronics to drive the Solar Sinter.

Markus writes:

In a world increasingly concerned with questions of energy production and raw material shortages, this project explores the potential of desert manufacturing, where energy and material occur in abundance.

In this experiment sunlight and sand are used as raw energy and material to produce glass objects using a 3D printing process, that combines natural energy and material with high-tech production technology.

Solar-sintering aims to raise questions about the future of manufacturing and triggers dreams of the full utilisation of the production potential of the world’s most efficient energy resource – the sun. Whilst not providing definitive answers, this experiment aims to provide a point of departure for fresh thinking.

MakerBot Operators and friends in the New York Area are invited to check out the final wrap-up show for Jell-O’s Big Adventure, Brooklyn’s annual Jell-O Mold competition. This year is the year of the DIY 3D printer, with a number of the high school student groups and adult designers using MakerBots to accomplish unusual gelatin creations. Keith Ozar, MakerBot’s Marketing Manager, will be one of the judges this year — and his wife, the amazing Anney Fresh, will be emceeing and bringing lots of mischief. Details below!

Help take Jell-O on a big adventure—out of the kitchen and into the world at large!—as a crack panel of judges including creative consultant and curator Josee Lepage of Bondtoo, and Keith Ozar of MakerBot Industries, Emily Elsen of Four & Twenty Blackbirds pie shop ,and Core77′s Allan Chochinov and host Anney Fresh of Space Kittys announce the winners of the third annual Jell-O Mold Competition on Saturday June 25, 2011 at 8pm.

Guests will also have the opportunity to vote for People’s Choice. Kelso beer and Jell-O shots will be served, along with the Jell-O creations. There is an $8 cover, students under the age of 16 enter for free.  Doors open at 6pm.  Music by DJ Allied Mastercomputer till 10pm.

More information at www.gowanusstudio.org/jello

And check out this video about last year’s competition!

A few weeks ago, CNN came to the BotCave to talk to Bre about the entrepreneurial origins of MakerBot for “Start Small, Think Big” — and got caught up themselves in what is possible if you have a MakerBot at your disposal. Here’s their segment!

Also, take a look at the CNN crew having a great time while filming in the BotCave.

311mm x 311mm Printer using TOM parts by Scooter

Thingiverse citizen Scooter posted his work-in-progress designs for a printer that could be built out of parts printed on a Thing-O-Matic.  Along with his description he added this a simple request:

I have been working on this design for over a week, but I am having trouble printing the larger parts flat. Some times they are almost flat but not the intire part, they always tend to warp up in the corners and ends. The smaller parts seem to print fine. Each part has a common wall thickness, and actually designed so they could even be injection molded.

Are there any veteran TOM users thay can reply with some help in correcting this warping issue.

At last count, Scooter’s project designs have at least 20 helpful comments with lots of different ways to defeat warping and curling.  These suggestions were so great that I had to go back and update yesterday’s post to add two additional methods.  However, the best part is that a simple request for help can garner so much information.

If you’ve gotten stuck on a project or it has just stalled, why not upload it to Thingiverse?  There’s bound to be someone interested in helping!

Error - could not find Thing 9554.

Vertex generator by ssured

Ever since I watched Michael Felix create a massive dome using connectors printed on a MakerBot, I have been fascinated with the MakerBottable possibilities when you consider MakerBot elements in combination with other elements (rods, ropes, sticks, stones, wires, springs, lasercuts, etc.). Thing 9560 really caught my eye — an OpenSCAD tool for creating wire-frame models of geometric figures.¹

Thingiverse Web Warrior Marty McGuire proposed a next leap in the comments: imagine joining this tool with another “papercraft” tool to allow you to skin your object.² Ssured and WilliamAAdams have been tag teaming on these platonic solids — so maybe one or the other of them will take this tool even further. Or maybe you, O Reader, will post one first!³

Vertex generator by ssured

Based on thingiverse.com/thing:9359 and thingiverse.com/thing:9203 this script allows to model any vertex. Special thanks for WilliamAAdams' work on OpenScad 3d math! You can use this script to print vertices for creating any wireframe model. The script can accept vectors for all directions the edges have to go. Cut your edges and you have your solid wireframe model. For fun and pleasure, and for all math enthousiasts, all regular solids are added to the script. See the script for details on how to generate the vertices.

This thing brought to you by

1. Toothpick geodesic domes, anybody? [↩]
2. From geometric model to enclosure! [↩]
3. Marty also mentions this interesting paper from CMU last year by Max Hawkins that looks to be compelling reading for someone looking to jump in to this topic. [↩]

What is the real cost of MakerBotting? Nick Starno, MakerBot Engineer decided to find out. He did some SCIENCE and made this handy chart so you can plan things out. You’ll notice that the electricity cost is at $.15 in this equation. That is a little bit more than we pay for it here in NYC, but we thought we’d adjust up in case your electricity is more. You’ll notice that the timing of the centimeter cubes is all the same, even though there are different infill settings. That’s because “cool” was turned on, which makes small layers take 15 seconds so they get a chance to cool. Even with solid infill, it needed to be slowed down to make each layer take 15 seconds and so they are all the same time! In the settings, these each have 1 shell so each model has two perimeters. The time noted here did not include warmup time. Using the new Print-O-Matic functionality in ReplicatorG, this was printed with a .4mm nozzle and a .3mm layer height and 30mm/sec feedrate.

We are proud of our plastic. We get the best plastic possible with great tolerances and we make it as cheap as we can! If you’ve done your own experiments in regards to power usage and costs. Drop us a note in the comments!