MakerBot Industries

Printing plates for Mr. Maker by ErikJDurwoodII

Yesterday I spent some time organizing the parts in the MakerBot mascot entry “Mr. Maker” by ErikJDurwoodII into printing plates.  Afterward, Erik asked how I did this.  While I had posted some tips on creating printing plates earlier, I didn’t really give a decent step-by-step guide.  I like using OpenSCAD to orient the parts, but I’m sure there are other ways.  Here’s my process:

1. Orient.  Make sure all STL parts are centered and flat on the build surface.
1. The easiest way to ensure this is to open the STL in ReplicatorG, click “Move” in the bottom right corner, then “Center” in the right panel.  Matt demonstrates how to do this in MakerBot TV episode one @ 2:56.
2. Sort.  Sort all STL’s by the number of times each part needs to be printed.  I like to put them into folders labeled “1″, “2″, “3″, etc.
3. Make a Plate.  I use a simple OpenSCAD command to create a transparent representation of the build area.  I like to use an 80×80 mm square so that I can be sure everything is going to fit.  Here’s the command I used:
1. % cube([80,80,0.01],true);
4. Practice Moving/Spinning.  Using just the OpenSCAD translate and rotate commands, you’ll be able to move, spin, and place any part.
5. Plan for Multiples.  Looking at all of the parts that need to printed multiple times, see if you can place them together so that printing a single plate more than once will give you the proper number of parts.
6. Biggest Parts.  The largest parts that can’t be included with other large parts will essentially determine the number of printing plates you need.  Place each large part onto it’s own plate.
7. Medium Parts.  Once you have a general idea of the number of plates you need, as determined by the biggest pieces that can’t be combined with other parts, try to fit the medium pieces in and around other parts.  If you can’t fit them around the large pieces, you’ll need to create a plate of medium parts.
8. Small Parts.  The smallest parts can be sprinkled in and around all the large and medium parts.
9. Pro Tips:
1. If you have a part that needs to be printed an odd number of times, consider putting a single occurrence of this same part into a plate that needs to be printed only once.
2. Sometimes it helps to have extra parts, so printing an even number of a piece that you need an odd number of isn’t actually very wasteful.
3. Consider mirror-flipping a part if it won’t fit.  Some parts won’t fit onto a plate unless they’re flipped, but are just as functional either way.
4. Consider printing small parts multiple times if you can fit an extra instance onto a plate.  Small parts can rip off the build platform, get deformed, break, or get lost.  Printing an extra small part along with larger parts doesn’t add that much time or plastic and will probably save you a lot more time down the road.
5. Save yourself some heartache and make sure you use a Stepper based extruder that will allow you print without a mess of strings between all the parts.
6. Always include the individual STL’s for parts even if you’re uploading printing plates.  Sometimes people just need to print or reprint one little piece and it can be a real pain to carve one out of a printing plate.
10. Rock Star Tips:
1. Some parts such as complex gears or external pieces can better benefit from high resolution, slower printing, or different infill ratios than other simple or internal pieces.  Consider organizing the parts so that certain pieces that need similar resolution/speed/infill ratios are printed together.  Thanks to Bobbens for including this tip in his Mini servo gripper plate.
2. How about creating the entire GCode setup for printing everything using an Automated Build Platform?
3. If you’ve got a MK7 Dual Extruder setup with soluble support material, you could stack parts on top of one another.  This means you could turn a multipart print into one single long print task, print everything as one big chunk of plastic, drop the result in water, let the PVA dissolve, and pull out all of your parts.

Do you use production or printing plates?  What program do you use to make them?  What additional tips do you have?

Experiencing Post Maker Faire Depression (either because you’re sad that you weren’t there or you’re sad that it’s over)?

Well, come with me and re-live the GLORY! This week’s episode of MakerBot TV: all-you-can-eat-Maker-Faire! Check out the 3D printing scene; catch the guest star appearances of Spazzi, Keepon, and BreBot; hear interviews with MakerBot enthusiasts; and sit on the sidelines of the Turtle Shell Races!

Special thanks to: Tristan Juan, Forest Crossman, Luis Rodriguez and Timmy Chao Li for their interviews.
As well as Kevin Macleod, Ciccilleju and Doctor Popular for the music.

While we were away showing off Turtle Shell Racers at Maker Faire, Thingiverse users like DrWeidinger have been busy making more awesome things, just as ever.  Case in point: this clever print to make playing with magnets even more fun.

This is a three-pronged version which you can use to assemble polyhedra; it’s a “Work in Progress” so I wonder if we might see some versions with different numbers of prongs.

So print them out, have fun but remember: DO NOT EAT THE MAGNETS, even if they look really tasty.

Magnet Toy by DrWeidinger

This magnet toy is great for exploring geometric shapes and the awesome power of MAGNETS. It is inspired by natural geometry and buckyballs, which are way too much fun. Unless you eat them. DO NOT EAT THE MAGNETS.

This thing brought to you by

Qball by Benoit

Benoit’s Qball is a cute little printed-plastic-and-rubber-band creation that snaps back into semi-spherical shape after being deformed. ¹  This little gem makes use of only two different printed parts² plus a number of rubber bands, so it could probably be built into an arbitrarily large springy structure.  I like this one because strikes me as a great conversation starter or desk fidget toy.

Qball by Benoit

A few years ago I was interested in Penultimate Modular Origami by James S. Plank cs.utk.edu/~plank/plank/origami/penultimate/intro.html folding paper into geometrical spheres. Now there's a rapman in my stable and paper turned into polylactic acid. This is my first printed object, I hope you"ll enjoy it! Can be pressed, stretched, thrown, twisted, and the bow-connectors could be basic elements for connecting rubbers into anything! In TwistinTheCube.skp I tried to reveal how you get a Qball by twisting a cube, before it becomes a cuboctahedron.

This thing brought to you by

1. There’s also a lasercuttable version by nikor! [↩]
2. One that goes over and one that has a bend in it to go under [↩]