Here at MakerBot, we make open source hardware and we freely share digital designs for our products on Thingiverse.com. As a business, we strive to be a model for the bold companies of the 21st century that embrace sharing. You can download the design files for the things we sell on Thingiverse.com.

We created Thingiverse to be the digital design sharing utopia of our dreams. Thingiverse.com integrates with open licenses that encourages Thingiverse users to let others copy and change their work so that others can stand on their shoulders and create the products of tomorrow and the solutions for the next generation. Every day I look on Thingiverse and say “Wow!” when I see the new things that have been shared. People who upload designs to Thingiverse are my heroes.

Things, and digital designs for things, are very different than other types of media. Copyright doesn’t work the same way on things as it does with music, movies, and books. If you’re into exploring the intellectual property landscape of things, you need to read “It will be awesome if they don’t screw it up” by Michael Weinberg.

The Pirate Bay announcement of a new category for digital designs is interesting because it’s another place where people can share digital designs for real things. As a technology, torrents are particularly great for super mega giant files because they distribute the downloading load and I’m curious to see what kinds of things will begin to show up in that category. Because The Pirate Bay takes a bold, no-holds-barred approach to sharing, I’m sure there will be controversies as companies and people who long for the proprietary days of the 20th century come to terms with the raw power of contemporary sharing technology. Cue squeaking of the world’s tiniest violin.

In the contemporary age of sharing, those who share will be the leaders of tomorrow. The sharers will be the ones who will emerge in the 21st century as winners in the rapidly changing innovative landscape. I’ve consistently advised individuals and companies to push their comfort level and share more. If you have a company that feels threatened by the idea of someone sharing digital designs for your products, I suggest you join the sharing community and share those design files yourself on Thingiverse.com.

Thingiverse is filled with useful items from the pig salt & pepper shakers to an array of cookie cutters. And who can forget the episode of MakerBot TV where Annelise MakerBotted her entire kitchen?

Jenn Garbee from LA Weekly’s Squid Ink food blog visited MakerBot at the Affordable Art Fair last week and was surprised to learn that “you could buy a 3-D printer for less than the price of dinner for four at The French Laundry.” (Yep, that’s $270 a person without alcohol or tip!) After perusing Thingiverse she blogged about the “Fun Food Things You Can Make on MakerBot’s New 3D Printer.” Check it out and start printing a hamburger press of your own!

Colin Butgereit – one of our Bot Assembling All-Stars – has been assembling Thing-O-Matics for customers from the moment we began offering them eight months ago. He’s gotten faster and faster with each build and can currently build a TOM in a little over an hour. If you’ve assembled a Thing-O-Matic on your own you know that this is pretty impressive! Our production workshop is currently in the process of making the switch from Thing-O-Matics to Replicators so we made sure to spend some time this week documenting one of Colin’s last Thing-O-Matic assemblies. With the simpler, cleaner design of The Replicator there’s no doubt that he’ll be building them at top speed in no time.

Also, pay close attention to the music in used for the video. It’s a song made ENTIRELY FROM MAKERBOT NOISES created by MakerBot Support Wizard Mike Battaglia. Check out more of Mike’s awesome music here.

Well now…it’s the end of January, which means the post-holiday glow has subsided and we’re back to the long slog…in a few months, there might be vacations to look forward to (or maybe just warm, sunny days) but for now, we’re all just trying to get through the week.  If you’re like most people on the internet, this means only one thing:

Cats.

So why not print some cat enhancements on your MakerBot?!  Luckily, brand-new Thingiverse user Surveyor has posted a cool design to let us do just that.

Just in case you’re wondering, links to youtube videos of your cat playing with this printed toy will be appreciated.

Untitled by Surveyor

This thing brought to you by

Foam Dart Pistol by SuperAmi

Thingiverse citizen SuperAmi resized vik’s Foam Dart Pistol for printing in a Thing-O-Matic and added a few features – such as a sight.  I love that these little guys are clearly taking the brand new gun sights very very seriously.¹²

I can also appreciate that each of the guns has a different colored muzzle.  This is probably one of the very best reasons I’ve seen for having multiple colors of plastic on hand.  Easy color differentiation means there won’t be a dispute about who has whose toy – and of course, allows for additional kid customization. ³

1. I would suppose you’d really need a gun sight if you were wearing an eye patch. [↩]
2. Then again, I’m not sure that lining up a gun sight using your eye patched covered eye is the best move. [↩]
3. Pink!  PINK!!! [↩]