MakerBot Industries

Cardboard Dragon with 3D-printed feet

I can honestly say I didn’t understand just how cool these simple 3D printed feet were until I saw this picture.  Drawing an animal for a kid is one great.  But being able to turn that drawing into a toy for them to play with is just so much cooler.  Thingiverse user and MakerBot dad guru has provided his method for creating quick and fun characters for use with these plastic feet.  In the true spirit of Thingiverse, he’s also shared his OpenSCAD designs for printing your own feet.

Also, I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t mention SuperAmi‘s own game piece foot which serves a similar purpose. ¹

Feet for Cardboard-Figures by guru

I made some cardboard-figures from the delivery-boxes of a very famous book-seller and needed some feet. So i fired up my makerbot and printed some local-guru.net/blog/2011/10/12/Cardboard-Dragon-with-3D-printed-feet

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Game Piece Foot by SuperAmi

At the flee market this weekend I found a board game from my childhood, so of course, I bought it for my child. Unfortunately it was missing one of the plastic feet for the game pieces. So, I broke out the calipers and got scading. The piece is designed for the great game Mausefalle (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/25097/mausefalle), but it should work with little or no modification with many a great board game with cardboard cutout game pieces. (ie: Candy Land) Now I just need to find the rules for Mausfalle, since I don't remember how to get out of the mouse holes...

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1. I suppose, SuperAmi’s foot is for monopods and guru’s feet are for bipedal and quadrupedal creatures? [↩]

Miles Lightwood, AKA, TeamTeamUSA is in town doing an artist in residency in the MakerBot Industries workshop. He arrived into town and we wandered over to check out Occupy Wall Street and we got a chance to hear Tom Morello, who’s part of Rage Against the Machine and is righteous. They are using the human megaphone technique since they aren’t allowed to use electric amplification. The way it works is speaker says MIC CHECK and everyone who can hear them repeats it and one sentence at a time gets repeated so that the speaker can be heard.

Miles was inspired to make MIK CHK, a megaphone to extend the range of the human microphone technique. Miles modelled up a clip that connects a coffee cup and two manilla folders and adds a comfortable grip. Viola! You’ve got yourself a MIK CHK megaphone that will extend the range of the human microphone technique.

Download it and go be heard!

MIC CHK by TeamTeamUSA

Share your voice. Save your voice. This thing is part of a DIY megaphone to acoustically amplify your voice. It's great for gatherings where electronic amplification is forbidden. All you need is a coffee cup, some card stock, and the printable MIC CHK (microphone check) clip. Once assembled, like the movie directors of yore, you can make yourself heard loudly and clearly.youtu.be/hlzPJrGIbTo Print out a bunch and bring them to your next gathering! Share your voice. Save your voice.

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Pirate Hook by SuperAmi

Thingiverse citizen and MakerBot dad SuperAmi has shared what is sure to be a Halloween favorite – a parametric pirate hook!  One of the most amusing things about this picture is that it really looks like SuperAmi’s son is running at top speed.  In my family the refrain of “You’ll put your eye out!” has been passed down through generations.  I can just picture this pirate tyke responding, “No I won’t!  I’m wearing an eyepatch!”

Parametric Pirate Hook by SuperAmi

This is a parametric pirate hook I made for my son's birthday party. It fits the paw of a 4-5 year old very well. It consists of three prints, the cup for around the hand, the hook, and then the grip and joining piece. My son really likes it, although the hook is a little primitive. I've included the SCAD. The cup file is parametric, and while not greatly laid out, it should be easy enough to scale up or down. Its also relatively tall, and could easily be shortened by a centimeter or two. The other files are not parametric, because I was in a hurry, but they should be easy enough to adjust.

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Here’s another awesome video for you to watch! BBC News has just featured Bre and Thingiverse in the latest edition of their Living Online series. The piece focuses on companies taking to the Internet to push innovation and Thingiverse is name checked as a prime outlet for creative collaboration. Consider this video a friendly reminder to design something new and share it on Thingiverse today!

If you are in the Seattle area, check out this invite from the Seattle MakerBot Users Group!

On Saturday, October 15th, the Seattle MakerBot Users Group in collaboration with StudentRND invite you to a family friendly gathering to share the fun and excitement of the 3D printing community! Members of the Seattle MakerBot Users Group will be bringing MakerBots and Mendels as well as knowledge and some expertise on how to use them.

This is a great opportunity to meet others who are interested and active in 3D printing. Come and find some local experts with whom to ‘talk shop’, and share the excitement of this up and coming technology!

We’ll also order pizza and split the cost depending on how many people show up.

When:
October 15th 2011
4:00pm-8:00pm (if you’re bringing a bot feel free to email chgray@gmail.com with any questions)

Where:
StudentRND
1405 132nd Ave NE, Suite 3
Bellevue WA 98005

Seattle Makerbot Users Group

• http://groups.google.com/group/seattlemakerbot

StudentRND

• http://studentrnd.org/
• http://facebook.com/StudentRND
• http://twitter.com/StudentRND

That’s right folks — there are still openings for hard-working individuals to fill roles in our production facility in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn.

Click for full details or have a look on our jobs page.

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Here’s another cool thing: a 3d visualization of the great depression.  No, not this one, silly!  The one your grandparents lived through, with the black and white movies of people sneaking onto trains!  And the snappy dialog.

While the dialog might not fly as fast these days, we do have very clever data visualizations, thanks to people like Zydac.  I’d love to see a similar version of the recession we’ve just been through — as bad as it has been, I suspect it wouldn’t be as deep or dark as what we see here.

Economic Spiral by Zydac

Enough gloomy talk about the economy already! Why don't you make something! What should you make? How about this conversation piece? What's the conversation? The Economy of course! Aaargh!

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Tardis : Laser cut cardboard version by t4obrien

So, here’s the deal.  I’m a Doctor Who fanboy.  I think that show is awesome.  And, I like blogging about awesome things.  So, if you share something related to Doctor Who on Thingiverse, however tangentially, I’m probably going to start gushing about it.

This detailed and thoughtfully laid out laser-cuttable cardboard version of a TARDIS by t4obrien totally qualifies as awesome.  I don’t own a laser cutter, but I just found the perfect excuse for buying one.  And, if you don’t glue the pieces together, you could open it up so that it is larger on the inside…

Tardis : Laser cut cardboard version by t4obrien

Ever wanted your very own Time Lord technology to fly around the universe and save the day with? Be your own Doctor and make this Tardis out of a bit of cardboard.

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Klein Bottle from simple primitives by MakeALot

First, I need to preface this by saying I can’t believe I overlooked coasterman’s low-polygon count Klein Bottle posted about a year ago.  Although created in Sketchup, this design is about as low-poly as you can get.  Now!  On to the imaginary awards show!

• First to upload that wasn’t me:  MakeAlot with a Klein Bottle from simple primatives for uploading his designs within about 3 hours of the challenge being posted.
• Fewest lines of code:  MakeAlot with a Klein Bottle from simple primatives with just 33 lines of code.
• Fewest facets:  Low poly (but still) klein bottle by aubenc with just 40 faces!
• Most resembling a traditional Klein Bottle:  MakeAlot with a Klein Bottle from simple primatives for his very curvaceous OpenSCAD designs.

Building on the work of these fine designers, can you design a Klein Bottle in OpenSCAD that uses fewer lines of code, has fewer faces, or is even more traditional looking?

Klein Bottle from simple primitives by MakeALot

A more traditional looking Klein bottle made from torus halves and tubes.

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Low poly (but still) klein bottle by aubenc

Quick, easy and dirty OpenSCAD to make a low poly klein bottle. Ehem... Quick? Not as much as I thought (1h-1h30) Easy? Easy would have been using cylinders $fn=3 instead of polyhedrons! Dirty? Yes! It looks like a parametric thing but it's NOT! Low Poly? Neither, OpenScad reports 40 faces but there's some misalignment that's adding 4 more than needed.

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OpenSCAD Klein Bottle by MakerBlock

Yes, I realize I declared this challenge and am entering it myself. ( makerbot.com/blog/2011/10/11/openscad-challenge-klein-bottle/ ) I didn't start designing this until well after I had already posted it. Since there are no real prizes, I figure you'll forgive me claiming the "first to upload", "fewest number of facets" and "most resembles either Kelsorj’s Klein Bottle ( thingiverse.com/thing:5217 ) or RotoScan’s Klein Bottle ( thingiverse.com/thing:11976 )" The bottle could be rendered with even fewer facets by just reducing the number of faces on the cylinders in the OpenSCAD file. Also, I hereby claim 9000 internet points! Mu-ah-ha-ha! Also, a shout-out to CloudSCAD is in order for letting me draft this up from my browser.

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Mechanical Animals by sconine

Thingiverse citizen sconine has just shared some really amazing toy mechanical animals.  Colorful, playful, and whimsical, each of these hand crank toys is sure to delight a child. ^1 2  Guaranteed not to wet the carpet, bite, or require you to let them out in the middle of the night these creatures would make excellent pets for any kid.  Interestingly, since the coolest instances of these toys is with multiple colored components in each toy, this is one of the few multi-piece prints that would not be well suited for printing plates!  I especially like how each of these toys has a distinctive motion to them.  I can’t wait to see what other little mechanical toys Sconie shares!

Also, over the last two weeks or so I’ve gotten into the habit of handing out imaginary and arbitrary points.  10,000 awesome MakerBot dad points to Sconine!

Mechanical Animals by sconine

These are 3 different machanical animals. They are all pretty basic mechanical devices that turn rotary motion into more of a linear motion. My kids (and their friends) have gotten a real kick out of them. I drew them all in sketchup.Jumping Prairie Dog Turn the crank and make the prairie dog jump up and down.Diving Dolphin Turn the crank and watch the dolphin dive through the waves.Wood Pecker Turn the crank and see the wood pecker peck away. (This was originally posted as a pecking bird, but my kids all call it the woodpecker, so I'm putting it up as part of this collection).

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1. Or, as in my case… the child-like. [↩]
2. They are also very reminiscent of the popular Trammel of Archimedes [↩]