MakerBot Industries is back from MakerFaire Detroit 2011 — where Matt and Keith shared cool Space Month things from Thingiverse, met many incredible people, and found their fellow exhibitors Awesome. Check out our slideshow for highlights from the weekend.

Detroit is a special place, and the each year we make it to the Faire here it feels more and more essential that we do so. See you all at World MakerFaire NYC 2011 in September!

This is good stuff — intrepid Thingiverse user Joakim has modeled a knob for the interior of a a legendarily rugged Land Rover Series II.  This has presumably broken after fifty years of running the vechicle in the Serengeti or somewhere equally exotic and treacherous, during one of the many ventilation changes necessary in this punishing environment.

Ok, so we’re not printing replacement camshafts quite yet, but this is still pretty cool.  After all, there are thousands of plastic parts in a modern (or, as we see here, not-so-modern) car.  Is anybody else using a MakerBot to fix them?

Extra points for including the manufacturer’s part number — well done, Joakim!

Untitled by Joakim

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Colbert Head Gears by emmett

Thingiverse citizen Pattywac recently organized a “MakerStrong Mashup Design Challege.”  The winner was to receive $60.00 from Pattwac himself with MakerBot kicking in another $100.00 in store credit!  And now it is time to reveal that winner…

Despite the difficulty of working with and not ruining such a flawless bust, there were some great entries to the Makerstrong design challenge.  Entries ranging from the beautification of my favorite childhood claymation show (Gumbert by JamieClay), to a tool for the next Colbert wannabe/stalker (Large Stephen Colbert Head by ALxD) made the judging process entertaining.

In the end emmett was able to claim the prize with a “decidedly creepier derivative” of his Heart Gears, which he called the “Colbert Head Gears.”

Congrats to emmett, the first repeat winner of these design challenges!

Thanks to everyone who created an entry and hope to see you next time!

Emmett, make sure to send Pattywac your paypal info!

Colbert Head Gears by emmett

Untitled by emmett

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