This week’s installment of the wackiest weekly webshow about 3d Printing with MakerBots includes a demonstration of one of the Thing-O-Matic’s lesser-known properties, a timelapse of us printing a super-cool comedian, and a reminder from Matt about the new Thingiverse t-shirt.

Going to be in Detroit for MakerFaire this weekend?

Make sure to drop in on software/hardware engineer guru Matt Mets and marketing manager/chief advocate of awesomeness Keith Ozar at the MakerBot Booth!

Matt and Keith will be printing out loads of great models on their mini-BotFarm, with a focus on sharing items created for MakerBot Space Month @ Thingiverse, including Tony Buser’s gorgeous Mars Rover.

They will also be giving a short 20min presentation about the MakerBot Universe that will interest veteran Operators and new audiences alike on the Make:Live stage on Sunday, July 31st @ 3:00pm.

MakerBot Zoetrope

Matt Mets will be bringing his brand new MakerBot Zoetrope project, DIY  turntable + light-strobe rig designed for zoetrope animations using objects printing on a MakerBot. Should the delicate models survive, look to see the Blender experimentation I have been doing for Matt, printing out poses of Big Buck Bunny from the open source blender files for that character!

Matt will be printing other animations (he’d really like a Nyan Cat if the Thingiverse modelers are listening) and experiments all weekend.

Here are the MakerFaire Detroit event details

Detroit, July 30 & 31
The Henry Ford
Saturday 9:30am – 6pm • Sunday 9:30am – 6pm

See things before they are Things!

Last year MakerFaire Detroit distinguished itself as a particularly fertile place for Hackerspace project launches and the truly cutting edge. A great place for innovators to get audiences revving before the monster audiences arriving to the East Coast for World MakerFaire NYC. So if you can make it there, you won’t be disappointed.

Pew pew!

I’ve been working on a printable open source snap-together disc shooter for a long time now.  I think it’s time I brought in some help.    I’ve decided on my own Thingiverse challenge.  The chosen design will receive $50.00 from me via PayPal.  Here’s the low down:

Rules:

• Design a printable, multiple capacity disc shooter that uses printed plastic, rubber bands, and, if you wish, up to one metal spring from a Pez dispenser
• The discs should be 19mm in diameter and 2mm in thickness
• The disc shooter should be tensioned by the trigger, rather than having to cock the shooter for each disc
• Needs to be printable on a MakerBot Cupcake CNC or Thing-O-Matic
• Needs to be posted to Thingiverse with an open license by 11:59PM on August 31
• Tag your Thing with the word “pewpew”
• Multiple entries allowed, so go wild

The entries will be judged using the following criteria:

• Number of Likes on Thingiverse
• Number of times it has been made by someone else (so post your ideas early!)
• Printability (not just fitting it in the space but also how many separate prints are required)
• Effort put into documentation and design (based on testing and revisions)
• Bonus points for:
• A snap-together design
• Parametric design in OpenSCAD
• Use of a removable magazine for holding discs
• Easy-to-pull trigger
• Uploading STL’s for printing plates

If you need some inspiration here are some links:

• Details on commercial varieties
• Disc shooter on Thingiverse cicra 11/28/10
• Disc shooter on Thingiverse circa 12/5/10
• Disc shooter on Thingiverse circa 7/3/11
• Snap-together pin connectors by Tony Buser
• Snap-together Mars rover by Tony Buser
• Snap-together 27-to-1 ratio gears by Mraiser
• Snap-together Truckbot by Mraiser
• Snap-together Tank v2 by Mraiser
• Ideas for improvements on the open source disc shooter
• Sublime’s pencil gun on Thingiverse
• Vik’s foam dart gun on Thingiverse
• Bongoboy23′s disc shooter on Thingiverse

Good luck!  I can’t wait to have a big pile of multi-colored disc shooters!

Also, squirrels in space.

The thing about this Thingiverse item is that the whole 1980s cartoon aspect (Thundercats, no less) actually detracts from the fact that this is a life-sized 3d-printable sword.  Yes, that’s right: I said a life-sized 3d-printable sword.

That’s pretty epic, and we all need to tip our caps to cyclone for his imagination and dedication.  Well done, and I suspect that this may not be the last of its type.  I’m sure that there will be a number of dirks, daggers, katanas, and shivs before we know it.  But will any of them be better than this charmer?  The gauntlet has been thrown.

And be careful out there, folks: it’s all fun and games until somebody puts an eye out, as my grandmother might say.

Untitled by cyclone

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