MakerBot Industries

Lightsaber for a 2-year-old by bryanduxbury

If Halloween has snuck up on you this year, there’s still time for a costume – especially if you have a MakerBot 3D printer!  Check out these awesome and quick to print costumes:¹

1. A Mustache.  Sometimes all you need for a little bit of anonymity is a simple disguise – such as a mustache.  There are at least a dozendifferent variations on mustaches on Thingiverse.  My personal favorite is the Mustache Ring for it’s silliness and simplicity.  You could probably print a Mustache Ring in less than 10 minutes.  Bonus points for printing extras for friends who have forgotten their costumes.²
2. Autobot or Decepticon Ensigna.  Those tricky robots can hide as just about anything…  So why not a human?  Affix to a shirt and proudly display your robotic affiliations.
3. A demon tail.   With little more than a forked tail and perhaps some makeup, you could be a demonic attendant.  For bonus points, carry around a contract for the purchase of souls and a bag of empty promises.  If a tail is too understated, why not go for horns?  You have your choice of double-horn or the  single horn unicorn variety.  Again, this print might be so quick you could carry extras – or use them to adorn shoulders, elbows, and knees.  These little ghost figurines might even make excellent horns to round out the costume.
4. A brain slug.  Printed in nuclear green and glued to a simple hair clip, these little guys are a fashion statement, indispensable accessory, and an instant geek-cred costume.
5. Star Trekcommunications badge.  With nothing more than a communications badge, you’re totally ready for an away mission!  Bonus points for wearing a red shirt.
6. Green Lantern mask.  The only problem with this printed mask is that in order to get it to conform to your face, you’re going to need to mold the print while it is still warm.  You need nimble fiberglass fingers to do it properly or you risk becoming cast in the title role of an Alexander Dumas or Gaston Leroux novel.  If you’re committed to this one, don’t forget your Green Lanternring options!
7. Pirate hook.  A hook by itself is very persuasive evidence of one’s pirate-status.  If you need a little more flare, don’t forget the eye patch.  If you’ve still got time before the Halloween festivities start, you could also print up a nifty telescoping tube set for use as a spyglass. ³
8. Light Saber.  While there are some really intricate light sabers on Thingiverse, you can definitely crank out this little one for that padawan in your life.
9. Sonic Screwdriver.  Don’t believe in weapons but do believe in technology?  Me too.  Well, with just this little prop you too can be a madman with a box.⁴  Triple bonus points for printing your own TARDIS.  If someone points out that it is too small, just assure them they are just very far away.
10. Arc Reactor.   There are several excellent arc reactor designs on Thingiverse.  If you don’t have time to wire one up, you can always print it in glow-in-the-dark ABS or flourescent yellow.

What’s your favorite printed costume?

1. I figure most, if not all of these items could be printed in about 15 minutes or so. [↩]
2. And who obviously don’t own a Makerbot! [↩]
3. And, a tiny treasure chest for itty-bitty booty [↩]
4. How could I NOT do this?! [↩]

Happy Halloween from Sphero from GoSphero on Vimeo.

The crew over at Orbotix have made a spooky Halloween video starring Sphero. The costumes were made by Adam (one of Orbotix co-founders) using his MakerBot. Cool! Link. Via Brad.

PRI talked to Bre about Project Shellter for the latest episode of their Living on Earth radio show. Listen here to get the scoop on what Project Shellter’s mission is, why hermit crabs are facing a housing crisis, and the challenges that come with the project (who knew hermit crabs were right handed?!).

The US Embassy in Bahrain invited MakerBot’s own Jonathan Monaghan to show off the Thing-O-Matic and talk about creativity and innovation. Our embassy puts together some pretty awesome programs there; they are bringing out Andrew W.K. next! Jonathan took a MakerBot to five major schools and universities and gave workshops to over sixty locals. The response was overwhelmingly positive, and now people all over this small island nation in the Persian Gulf can go to the Al Riwaq Art Space and use Bahrain’s first MakerBot. We think its awesome that the US State Department sees MakerBot’s ability to engage the creative side of youth and its potential to help a build a better future for everyone. We are excited to see what they make with it!

More photos from Jonathan’s trip after the break.

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This week on MakerBot TV – PRINT YOUR KITCHEN!!!! Find out about the many incredibly awesome and incredibly useful items that can be MakerBotted for your kitchen!

Huge thanks to Thingiverse users PolygonPusher for the hooks, tomlombardi for the sponge holder, eM5 for the drain plug handle, jahg for the dishrack foot, hoeken for the funnel design, Fido for the corncob screw, Seanz0rz for the knife design, vik for the rice spoon, deadmeat038 for the cheese slicer, loonix23 for the paper towel holder, emmett for the jet cookie cutters, RobertHunt for the heart cookie cutter, laserdonkey for the donkey cookie cutter and MattChapman for the star cookie cutter.. Music by Kevin MacLeod.

Hey everybody – it’s the big day, so I sure hope you have your costume all sorted out!  We’ve been ready for awhile now, as you can see in this special Make Live segment, which features many MakerBotters showing off their finery, and a real Space Kitty!

Not too impressed?  Wow, you must have something really super all lined up.  Well then –  you’d better share your amazing costume with us in the comments!

Recovering from a bear attack

There are a lot of reasons for needing to 3D print things.  You broke it, it wore out, or perhaps you lost it.  But, what about…

“After the bear stipped the mirrors of my 85′ bus, trying to get in”

This is easily in the top 10 reasons for needing to print things in plastic at home.  Bear attack. ¹  Thank you to 1oldclow for his printed car mirror and this bit of wisdom.

car mirror by 1oldclown

After the bear stipped the mirrors of my 85' bus, trying to get in

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1. Just the kind of thing that would scare the hell out of Stephen Colbert [↩]

Autodesk, the developer of Maya and 3DS Max, is helping out the 99% with their improved Assistance Program.

The program has always been available to students and educators, but they’ve expanded it to include veterans, and unemployed architects, engineers and designers.

Awesome, Autodesk!

This guest post is part of Project Shellter.

Tip o’ the hat to Blake at CG General Store!

Zydac is back with another clever design: printable night light covers!  And they’re snarky.  Pictured above is an evil IP lawyer waiting to issue cease and desist letters to DIYers.  Looks a bit like Henry Kissinger, doesn’t it?

Also in the set: bad economic times, bedbugs, and losing a fancy argument.  Nasty stuff!

Luckily, none of these things could ever possibly happen, so we can all sleep well!

Things That Keep us Awake at Night Nightlight Covers by Zydac

This is a series of nightlight covers for anxious types and insomniacs. Suitable for use in our neurotic times. They snap onto a standard $1.99 nightlight from the hardware store. There were a lot of possibilities for subject matter in designing this. I finally settled on these four: 1. Economic Instability (or Your @$%$*! Mutual Funds) 2. The Lawyer Next Door - (Maybe he's trolling Thingiverse looking for your Lego or Tintin Derivatives) (Sorry I don't have the resolution to get the Porsche logo on the sunglasses) 3. Bedbugs! (Are you itchy or is it...?) 4. Argument That You Lost in College - This one comes from a study that I read about a few years ago where they interviewed Yale students to find out what they were thinking about in times of introspection. The researchers were surprised to find that they weren't thinking about sex as expected but about winning arguments that they had lost. Hence the ultimate humiliating College Intellectual put-down - "That's a Tautology Dude!" Some outtakes include: Did I Unplug the Makerbot? Arcane Skeinforge Settings Fried Twinkies and Beer Dinner Your Family Weird New Weather Cousin Hank's Political Views Massive Solar EMP! Weird New Politicians The Top 1% The Bottom 99% Cher Earworm

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Once in a while an item comes up on Thingiverse that I just have to print. Immediately. Eried‘s awesome fastening system was one of those items. Using raised knobs spaced perfectly apart, this fastening system differentiates itself from the hook and loop system we all know.

By his own admission the system is not yet perfected, but Eried’s got a great start on his design. I’ve printed some out (you should too!) and have had fun testing its strength and the sound it makes when taking two sides apart. Make sure to join the discussion to offer suggestions for improvements and naming!

Printable VELCRO by eried

This is the first iteration (third internal) of my attempt to make printable Velcro. It is pretty nice to hang things, probably this small piece will resist much more than a kilogram of weight (hanging weight) and it is very easy to remove. 3d printing revolution is just starting, I don't say this is a flawless piece but I really consider it is a very good example about a very sweet future about us modifying our brains from "search-buy-adapt" (frustration included) to "think-design-print" (self-pride included :D ). Quick demo video: youtube.com/watch?v=BtLSMI3xVDY Quick demo #2 (perpendicular): youtube.com/watch?v=eLehgIfjmpA This was an object that did not exist in our 3d printing world, so I like to think this is an "upgrade" from real world to a better virtual&teleportable world ;)

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