MakerBot Industries

Thaed's poop

Look, I’m not proud of this either.  But, such are the obligations of fatherhood.

A 3D printer could be used to print parts to fix the International Space Station, help prototype an invention that will save lives or be the next great iAccessory, and… now, plastic poop too.

Thaed, I salute you – not so much because you printed digital poop, but because you didn’t shy away from your fatherly obligations to do so.

poop by Thaed

Taken from Sketchup Warehouse at the behest of my 10 year old. Sigh.

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This short week caught us by surprise and we don’t have a full Robot Hospital for you.

Instead, we have something even better.

Presenting Spazzi by BeatBots!

In cooperation with MAKE Magazine and MakerBot Industries.

http://beatbots.net/projects/spazzi

Spazzi by beatbots

A solenoid-powered dancebot. Designed by BeatBots for MAKE Magazine. Video at vimeo.com/26191062

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Some enterprising students over that the MIT Media Lab have pioneered a process that will tickle the fancy of nerds the world over: 3d printing objects created in Minecraft.

We’re awfully excited about seeing what will come out of this (I don’t see their python code  as of yet, but maybe I’m just slow…) so we’ll be watching closely.  Thanks to the eagle-eyed Adam  Cecchetti for the tip.

Hey good people of MakerBotDom!  This weekend, come on down to the Red Bull Creation challenge at McCarren Park in Williamsburg, where we’ll be running a demo table while the participants try to build a totally fossil fuel-free people mover.  We’re also going to be providing a printed trophy to the winner as well as scanning and printing the MC, Greg Barris.

We were there yesterday and took a few snapshots to give you a little taste of the event, but if that’s not enough, you should head on up to the Bedford L or Nassau G (as if you didn’t know, you fixie-riding professed hipster-haters) 3-7pm on Sunday to see the event and check out our table.  It should be a wildly caffeinated dose of awesome.

SketchUp to STL Plugin with No Dialogs by br3ttb

Google Sketchup is a free surface modeling program with a gentle learning curve.  While it does not export to STL’s for 3D printing, users have created some plugins that give it this functionality.  Thingiverse user br3ttb has made this process even simpler.  After installing his hacked version of an existing plugin, an STL of your work is just a few clicks away!

As a bonus, I’ve been collecting some of my favorite Sketchup plugins.  You might find some interesting ones in that list.

I sometimes have trouble getting a watertight STL out of Sketchup.  What software do you use to fix meshes?

Thanks for the tip Chris!

Colbert Corn Screw by fido

Thingiverse, taken as a collective, is an amazing thing.  Sometimes all you have to do is leave a comment saying do or don’t want something…  and someone will upload a printable version of it.

Bre says, “I feel a beard coming on… NOOOOOOOOO!”  And less than a day later, Coasterman posted a picture of Bre with an octopus beard. ¹  Three days ago mattproc asked, “Can we get one [corn cob screw] with Colbert’s head as the handles?”  Less than twelve hours after that request fido uploaded Colbert Corn Screws, as derivative of his own Corn Cob Screws work.

What do you wish someone would upload to Thingiverse?

Octopus by MaskedRetriever

The .blend file has a rig with inverse kinematics for easy posing!

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Corn Cob Screw by Fido

These are printable corn cob screws that hold the corn in place while eating it. I never remembered to buy these while in store and I'm not quite sure where these are located in there. Anyway, my previous attempts trying to eat corn with forks resulted with chipped tooth so I decited to finally to do something about it. So if you find yourself in a situation with no corn cob holders around, print these and leave the forks alone.

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Colbert Corn Screw by Fido

Asked by mattproc, I present to you Colbert Corn Screws!

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1. Hey, Coasterman, can you upload the STL? [↩]

Many of you have noticed a new banner (above) popping up at Thingiverse.com. Well, as this July contains both the 42nd anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing and the final launch of NASA’s Space Shuttle mission, we have declared July to be Space Month — and encourage everyone to join our Space Program!

July’s Notable Thingiverse Tag: “Space month”

We are eager to see your astronaut helmets, satellites, Mars rovers, rockets, UFOs, aliens, Space Camp badges, and anti-matter rayguns. Remember to tag your item “Space month” in Thingiverse!

MakerBot Make-A-Thon 2: MakerBots in Space

The MakerBot User Group New York (MUGNY) meeting will be returning to 3rd Ward this month. In this installment, we’ll be showing off some of the fruits of our collective Space Month labors, highlighting work uploaded to Thingiverse and tagged with “Space Month,” such as the Cartoon Rocketship, the cool statue “For All Mankind,” and, of course, a Space Shuttle Orbiter or two.

We’ll be printing Rockets, Astronauts, UFOs and Aliens in 3D. There will even be a space-themed 3D-printed Zoetrope, which will give a 21st century-spin on a centuries-old device. ((Also, check out the upcoming 3D Design and Printing with a MakerBot class taught by 3rd Ward’s Luke Schantz.))

MakerBot Make-A-Thon 2 // MakerBots in Space

Saturday, July 16, 2-6pm
195 Morgan Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11237
FREE admission

Note: RSVPs are required at 3rdward.com/rsvp

MakerBot Industries looking for a motivated video producer for a new MakerBot online video series. We are looking for someone to take on all aspects of producing a weekly video series related to the culture and community of MakerBot. This will include coming up with great story ideas, shooting and editing segments, publishing them online and staying in communication with online audiences.

Initially, you will be working with a consulting producer to help define the look, feel and direction of the show. Once the show is off the ground and processes are in place, you will take over the daily duties of producing the show. You will often collaborate with other MakerBot employees in sourcing story ideas and shooting segments.

Story ideas may include how people are using their MakerBot, interesting places MakerBots are being used (classrooms, prisons, design shops, etc) interesting designs and mashups people are sharing on Thingiverse and new MakerBot product features. That’s just a start. Click through for the details!

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s finally happened: a team of researchers at University of Exeter has created a dedicated machine for extruding 3d objects out of chocolate.  While we are a bit jealous of their accomplishment, we must applaud them.

In all seriousness, this is a very cool project, and we do wish them the best of luck with it.  Hopefully they’re already planning Thingiverse integration.

We do have some technical questions though — first off, what exactly is that they’re printing?  Is that low-cacao-content stuff that only England (ok and the US) will label as chocolate?  Can we print fancy dark chocolate like we have here in Brooklyn?  Is there an automated tempering system?  Can we have one?

Regardless of details, this is truly a proud day for all mankind.

Blooming Flower by bongoboy23

How’s this for a printable demonstration piece?  Bongoboy23 has created a little flower bud that will bloom, or close back up, as you rotate the base.  Besides being technically interesting, it showcases a MakerBot’s ability to fabricate functional and pleasant mechanical parts.

Blooming Flower by bongoboy23

***IMPORTANT*** Check back for updates as I revise the files This is an amazing blooming flower! Turn the gear on the bottom and the flower blooms, exposing the beautiful flower within! Original purpose for this design was creating something to turn rotational movement into linear movement, using something that could be printed on a Makerbot. Figured the easiest to design was something screw-like, but with overhang restrictions, I was unsure whether a tight screw design would work. And it turns out it does! ***DESIGN VERSIONS*** There are two different versions. First version uses glue and filament as the hinges for the petals. Pros to this is the petals are much tighter, and don't wiggle around alot. Con is that it requires more glue. Second version uses links as the hinges. Pro is that less glue is needed. Cons are that it wiggles alot more, because the links require some give to snap into place. Also, when snapping into the base, the base links have a significant chance of breaking off. I have added supports and fixes to prevent this from happening, but there is still a chance. Extra stl for broken links to glue on in case this happens. ***DIFFERENT GEARS*** NOTE: Applies only to large flowers In order to turn the gears, I designed two different gear systems. First version allows the entire bottom to turn, but is more difficult to get on the base. Second version is easier to get on, but the gear is slightly more difficult to get to, and could prove more difficult for some people to turn. ***FILES*** Files are placed in zip files, for easy organization. Credit where credit is due, flower in center is from:thingiverse.com/thing:5883 Internal screw is 1 rotation per 20mm rise. Design files included. (I apologize for the messy designs, didn't organize or rename anything in the ipt files :P ) NOTE: For those who want to design a different center piece without the cap, the rod in the center is 5mm diameter. This way you can design the hole directly into your variation. ***UPDATES*** UPDATE 7/7/2011: Edited Version 1-Large Flower-Base updated. EDITS: Forgot to edit the top ring of the small petals, they were 1mm too wide. Also the main circle of the base is several millimeters too small, causing the small petals to be too close to the center shaft. Sorry to those who have already printed this. UPDATE 7/8/2011: Edited version of Gear 1 for Large Flower uploaded. 1 zip with all current STL Files as of 7/8/2011 uploaded. EDITS: Center shaft is not long enough on Gear 1 bottom (Gear 2 is fine). Really sorry I missed this.(Note it says v1, but it is also for v2) UPDATE 7/9/2011: Edited version of large flower petal for v1 uploaded.....hinge was too big.... Re-upload of Large V1 zip with correct STL Files. Revised version updated. UPDATE 7/12/2011: Makerbot out of commission ATM, can't test any of the un-built files, but they should work just fine. UPDATE 7/22/2011: Hooray! Got my replacement parts, TOM is back up and running, will start printing some new flowers in the next few days! If you find any other mistakes, please message me.

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