MakerBot Industries

Thing-o-Matic Alternate Front Panel by dougkeenan

Sometimes a simple hack is all it takes.  Just look at dougkeenan’s “Thing-o-Matic Alternate Front Panel.”

Why would you want a front panel that has a little divot in the left side?  Well, if you’re rocking a MakerBot Automated Build Platform, you already the know the answer.  The MakerBot ABP has gears that advance the conveyor belt so that it can keep printing part after part.  However, those gears on the side rob the operator of a few precious millimeters of build space in the X direction.¹  My making a little cut out, dougkeenan has effectively increased the build area for his Thing-O-Matic.  One of the cool things is that you could even just cut this little piece out of your front panel and gain the extra build area too!

Thing-o-Matic alternate front panel by dougkeenan

panel outline is slightly trapezoidal, with a notch for the ABP gears

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While many of you have been swept up in MK7 mania, we know that others of you are sticking with their tried-and-true MK6 and MK6+ Stepstruders.  This is still our #1 extruder design for 3 mm filament, so why not stick with it!

However, when it comes to 1.75 mm filament, it’s true — MK7 is the new champ.  However, don’t count out Mk6 just yet…we’ve just introduced a new, machined one-piece coretube insert for using the MK6 with 1.75 mm filament.

This new coretube will be included with all future MK6+ orders (at a new low price!) and will is also available for purchase as an upgrade for earlier extruders.

MakerBot was featured on the latest episode of PBS’s NYC 2.0 that aired last Sunday, September 18th. Check it out for yourself on the video link above!

NYC 2.0 is an awesome show covering the New York City tech world. Host, Rick Karr visited the Bot Cave to see where all the action happens (and of course, gets scanned in the process)! The topic of the episode was Hackers so of course, he also visited at our neighbors, NYC Resistor.