MakerBot Industries

Here’s another Thingiverse item that falls into the “useful” category: a nice little print that shores up that place where those nice white cables always start to fray.  Since quite a few of us do own devices like this, I think most of us are familiar with this phenomenon.

As seen above, with Zaggo’s iPhone dock, it makes a really nice DIY solution for many of your i/Phone/Pod/Pad “needs.”  Good job FreeRider!  Now how about a version for the power adapter cable…

USB Strain Relief by FreeRider

I made this to beef up the other end of my old iphone cable which is showing its age. The 30pin end is supported with Zaggo's dock:thingiverse.com/thing:1279 This is one the first things I have created since switching to Alibre for my designing. Compared to the multitude of mesh modelers out there I am very happy moving to a full solid modeling program and love the parametric nature of it. Highly recommended Alibre! I also very much like the extra gripping cutouts I placed on the sides. I dont know about others but I find yarding the little connector out from the USB port on the backside of my computer more difficult then it needs to be...seems like the designer was looking to make life harder then needed when they not only made the plug as small as possible but also gave it a mirror smooth finish! Sure looked pretty, but I dig the beefy look of its new body ;).

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Mars Exploration Rover by tbuser

In honor of Space Month on Thingiverse, MakerBot’s own Tony Buser has designed an amazing replica of the Mars Rover:

Articulated, snap together, Mars Rover! No screws, glue, or support structure needed (although some glue in a few places wouldn’t hurt). All the parts can be posed, turned, twisted. The wheels turn and the legs even pivot like the real thing to go over obstacles! Unfortunately, it is not autonomous.

42 separate pieces with 20 unique parts, painstakingly arranged into just five printing plates.  Designs like this really push the boundaries of what’s possible with just a 3D printer.  Parts that snap together with no hardware or glue, while still being movable means you can basically make any kind of plastic object out there.  It’s probably not long at all before we see a printable Transformer.

With any luck, a printed version might even be able to find its way back home.

Mars Exploration Rover by tbuser

Articulated, snap together, Mars Rover! No screws, glue, or support structure needed (although some glue in a few places wouldn't hurt). All the parts can be posed, turned, twisted. The wheels turn and the legs even pivot like the real thing to go over obstacles! Unfortunately, it is not autonomous.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mars_Exploration_Rover2011-07-19 Update: V3 fixes a problem with plate 5 that was causing some pieces to be too close together and get merged, makes the axel holes in the body a little tighter, half the panels in the plates have been flipped so that the shiny side of all pieces printed on a HBP can be on top, I made the dimples on the panel tabs larger so they hold together better, and I also added squares to the panels to make them look more like solar panels.2011-07-16 Update: I uploaded a new version of everything with a few changes like dimpled tabs for the solar panels (thanks to gpvillamil) and slightly larger holes to make it easier to snap bolts into. I also added a variable to the openscad script called tolerance that you can use to make those holes slightly larger. If you print the tolerance_test.stl you can use it to help find the right tolerance for your printer. The holes range from a tolerance value of 0.0 to 0.6 in 0.1 increments and the files I uploaded are 0.2

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Hey everybody!  I went looking on Thingiverse for some things that might help you celebrate le quatorze juillet and I must say…things are not looking so French right now.  We have the French Curve which actually does look vaguely French.  And then there are these French Fries…and that’s about it.  A search for France turns up some French Thingiverse users (formidable!) but not a lot of France-themed 3d models.  I don’t even see a fleur-de-lis.

I was really hoping for a small model of the Bastille itself which an enterprising printer might be able to print and then overrun with a number of mini-figs.  Let’s all get modeling so we can symbolically throw off the tiny plastic shackles of oppression next year, fellow-citizens!

Liberté, égalité, fraternité ou la mort!

For many MakerBot users, the plethora of downloads available on Thingiverse is more than enough to satisfy their printing needs. For other users, the MakerBot serves as a tool with which they can express themselves.  Geoffrey Wardman is one of the second class of MakerBot user: he’s been using his CupCake to help with design and testing of the Magnetic, interconnecting, Modular, Mounting system – or MiMMs.

This simple, elegant, yet brilliant design has gone through months of testing to create a mounting system for all of the portable electronics in your life. His CupCake allowed him to make modifications to his idea, offering an affordable way to prototype his designs. As he put it himself, “This is a product that was fully enabled by Makerbot – without my Cupcake it would only be an idea.”

Cheers, Geoff!  One of MakerBot’s goals was always to make industrial prototyping faster, cheaper, and more accessible.  Thank you for being an inspiration to all the inventors out there!

If you want to find out more, or get your hands on a set, Geoff is using kickstarter to get his product to the next level.  Best of luck!

Click for full comic. WARNING: contains a vaguely "adult" word.

Can you believe it?  Famous internet comic XKCD is talking about us!  Well, the trend in which we and Thingiverse are engaging.  Isn’t that amazing?

*Psst*

All spoofing aside, we all know that 3d printing is right on the cusp of really grasping its possibilities; this comic is just tapping into the zeitgeist that we’re all feeling.  The future, with its promises of instant delivery of goods and a smarter, more efficient economy are almost tangible.  I can almost feel 3d picking us all up on its wings and taking us from these economic doldrums.

*Psst*

No, really, I can almost feel its enormous wings beating, picking us up gently with their mammoth claws…just like when the eagles save Frodo at the end of the Lord of the Rings, and depositing us in a land of plenty, where pure ideas can become material almost instantly.

*Psst…did you actually read this comic?*

Oh, no…ok, I get it.  Forget what I said.

As you know, I loved the original tiny toy dump truck.  Madscifi showed us the progression of each of the versions leading up to the one that had a movable bed and rolling wheels.  We’ve seen some pretty cool print-at-once things on Thingiverse, but madscifi’s work seems to be opening up a new area with an awesome cam shaft.

His Thingiverse post also provides a lot of detail about how he used manual support to accomplish this print.  The process amounts to introducing pauses into the GCode, putting clay on the platform at the exact proper level, and then resuming the print.

Tiny Toy Dump Truck with Cam Action Bed by madscifi

This is a variation of the Tiny Toy Dump Truck that does require support in order to print. The use of support allows cylindrical wheels, a bed axle sleeve that is no longer sliced, and the addition of a cam and rod that lifts the bed once per rotation of the back axle. It can be printed as a single piece on a standard Reprap/Makerbot by manually introducing support material during the print. See youtube.com/watch?v=47iEXR6xXnE for a video of a working copy that was printed on a standard Reprap.

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Maker Bot No.4421 Timelapse from crypto_b on Vimeo.

As you know, we can’t resist a nice timelapse here at MakerBot, so when Thingiverse user Crypto sent me a time-lapse of his assembly process, we couldn’t NOT post it here.

It looks like Crypto’s build was a single 16-hour marathon session crunched down to about 10 minutes — pretty impressive stamina, and the video ends with a successful print.  My favorite part might watching the housecat wandering around at high speed, but that’s probably just me.

MakerBot Industries is expanding our web development team! We’re looking for a capable, driven web warrior that will build and maintain the websites that make MakerBot Industries possible. Candidates should be strong web developers with front-end, back-end, and system administration skills who work well independently and in pairs. You will be responsible for our web presence and an important part of our team.

Key Areas of Responsibility

• Frontend/Backend development of new functionality and site designs
• Debugging and bugfixes in existing and new code
• Working within 3rd party frameworks like Magento and WordPress
• Development of internal tools within MakerBot
• Writing awesome code that you can be proud of

Job Qualifications

• Extensive experience in the internet / web development.
• Expert level knowledge of PHP / MySQL / HTML / CSS / JavaScript
• Functional knowledge of MVC / distributed architectures / eCommerce
• Working knowledge of the other important internet acronyms (JSON, XML, AJAX, etc.)
• Experience architecting and implementing backend systems (from database on up)
• Capable of transforming design mockups into HTML/CSS templates

Bonus Qualifications

• Knowledge of HTML5
• Skills with cloud computing tools and services such as Chef, Amazon’s EC2, etc.
• Experience developing eCommerce sites
• Familiarity with 3D printing / digital fabrication / MakerBot
• Good front-end design skills

This position is located in Brooklyn, NY.

About Us

MakerBot Industries is a rapidly growing, Brooklyn-based startup that designs and manufactures low cost 3D printers. We make machines that make things! We’re deeply committed to open source hardware and software, and have the goal of getting these incredible tools into the hands of makers, inventors, and ordinary people around the world.

How to Apply

Visit our Online Application to apply!

Bar Hairclip - Stars and Plain by Bioluminescence

Check out this super clever printed bar hair clip from Bioluminescence.  It makes excellent use of the plastic’s elastic properties while remaining very cosmetically pleasing.  These are probably going to be excellent demonstration pieces for a long time to come.¹

Bar Hairclip - Stars and Plain by Bioluminescence

After 16 iterations, and inspired by a Bruce Sterling story (Kiosk), I've designed and printed a working hair clip. Length: 8.4cm Height: 2.2cm Depth: 1.2cm Weight: 7g Printed in ABS, and utterly dependent on its mechanical properties, it features a working ABS hinge, three kinds of springs, and a snap fastener. This version is plain - the Sketchup file is included for those who want to go on and adorn their hair clips. Failing that, you can use the gently curved outer surface as a base for gluing on your own additions.Versions: hairclip-mk15 = This version has four embossed stars on the outer bar (as seen in blue in the photograph). hairclip-mk16-final = The flat backed version, easier to modify on your own. (Personal blog post regarding the Bruce Sterling story and other influences, here - myriadwhimsies.wordpress.com/2011/07/11/jovanicas-hair-toys-3d-printed-hair-clips/)

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1. I can’t wait to see someone upload a parametric derivative! [↩]

Don’t you just hate it that big, fancy cameras don’t have clever self-retracting lens caps like your cheap point-and-shoot does?  Do you find yourself losing caps,or leaving them off, risking your expensive lenses?

Well guess what — Thingiverse user kitlaan has come up with one of the cleverest solutions I’ve ever seen to this problem.  It’s a fully parametric lens cap holder for attaching your unused caps to your camera strap.  Not only will you stop losing caps, you’ll also keep them out of your linty pockets.

Awesome work — keep the camera innovations coming!

Camera Lens Cap Holder by kitlaan

A (parametric) buckle that you can attach to your camera strap, which lets you (hopefully) stop losing your lens cap. The STL is sized for a 58mm lens cap, and a ~40mm strap width. The printing layers make for a great friction catch for the lens cap. But there's a designed-in lip overhang to make it a little more aggressive.

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