MakerBot Industries

Thingiverse use RyGuy gets a special shoutout for presentation on this design: an 8-bit version of the indispensable piggy bank.

While we of course love saving our pennies for a rainy day, we may have selected a different design if it weren’t for the excellent photographic documentation, showing off our super-bright fluorescent plastic.  Also, check out the staging: it uses actual money!  Very appealing.

Cheers to RyGuy for making Thingiverse look very pro!

8-bit Piggy Bank by RyGuy

Yes, this is a fully functional 8-bit big money piggy bank! My 3yr old daughter need a safe place to keep all her high-stakes rock/paper/scissors winnings. She sat down with me in-front of a clean Sketchup session and we began to construct a piggy bank that Mario would approve of. Check my screen shots, I uploaded a plethora of images including object dimensions. I printed this in ~6hrs using no support on my Thing-O-Matic's ABP. My RIG: TOM # 4890 MK6+ 1.75mm .4 nozzle ABP with aluminum plate topper and titanium belt covered in kapton

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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.

Cat Toy by Surveyor

I made this to keep my cat occupied. I've printed about a dozen but they keep disappearing. I suspect they're under the couch.

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A remarkable message came into the support desk this week: the story of an active-duty soldier who went the extra mile to get and build his MakerBot Thing-O-Matic while on deployment in Iraq.

Here’s a bit more detail from Josh:

The story is taken from a publication called ‘Expeditionary Times’, it was a newspaper that was circulated in Joint Base Balad, AKA Anaconda in Balad, Iraq. It served soldiers assigned to Iraq during the Iraqi Campaign. My roommate just happened to work at the Newspaper and he was intrigued by my build, which took about five weeks (Sometimes you have to be patient!).

It took me forever to find a 240V Solder Gun. I eventually found one in a Iraqi Bazaar. It was obviously not for sale, but I tried anyways. At first the guy totally refused since they use it to fix nicknacks they sell soldiers, but I started haggling. Iraqi men love to haggle more than anything else so he sold it and I got robbed for the outrageous price of $12.00, I’m sure I could have gotten him to $5 but I wanted that iron bad. Keep in mind a dollar there is like ten here, probably 15 in Brooklyn!

My roommates didn’t complain but I didn’t use it quite as often as I’d like, sharing a 12×12 room with three other soldiers requires diplomacy that i wasn’t sure melting plastic could mend. I moved a couple of more places and the MakerBot was always the first thing out.

It generated a lot of interest. The motorpool Sergeant loved it, he even got me a donated travelcase for it. Those things aren’t cheap!

Needless to say, we are quite impressed with the lengths to which the Staff Sergeant went in order to build his Thing-O-Matic.  What’s more, it sounds like he’s got dome fever (a condition we share) — he’s using his bot to protoype geodesic dome connectors as a type of low-cost housing.

MakerBot Operators are generally pretty interesting, but this is definitely one of the best stories we’ve heard in awhile.  Staff Sgt. Rucinski: We salute you for vision and tenacity!

For the complete story, click here: Pdf

If you’re desperately trying to browse the store or arrange a Replicator order, you might have noticed that things are a little slow…well, it looks like we’re getting Slashdotted like it was 1999!  We’re bringing a few more servers on-line to help deal with the load, but in the meantime, check out this Slashdot-produced video where Bre breaks down the features of our newest machine.

Amidst all the excitement, it seems that one aspect of the Replicator™ is getting people excited more than any other: the ability to print big things!  Even though the Replicator hasn’t made it into the hands of our eager customers quite yet, large objects are already starting to flow onto the Thingiverse.

Have a look at Tbuser’s globe, for instance.  More to the point, user eried has taken our marketing copy very literally and created a loaf of two-color printable bread.  While it’s perhaps not the most useful print to have, it sure does prove a point, so thank you eried!

This is just the beginning folks…because (painful pun alert) there will be many more big things to come!

Loaf of bread for dual extrusion by eried

Obvious model is obvious isn’t? This is a big model for the Replicator.

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Are you excited about the Replicator, but you already placed an order for a Thing-O-Matic?  OK, don’t worry — it may still be possible to upgrade.  There’s not much time, though, so email support@makerbot.com immediately if you want to change your Thing-O-Matic order into a pre-order for the Replicator™!

Some of you may have noticed that today’s announcement has taken a toll on our store page as well as the main website…thank you for your patience as we knock the bugs out of our data tubes.

We’ve all been there, right: you’re tired from a rough night of the rock’n'roll lifestyle so you decide to bring only one axe to your gig.  Halfway through the second jam in your set, *bwanngggg!* — you pop your B string during a solo…bummer, right!

And now there you are, sweating through one of your drummer’s terrible jokes while you’re winding up the new string.  If only you had a string winder, like this one by Thingiverse’s own mclisp!  You could have been finished before he got the the part about the alligator bartender.  And since it’s a MakerBotted part, you wouldn’t even have suffered through an annoying upsell from a big-box guitar store checkout dude.

Rock on, Thingiverse-style!

guitar strings winder by mclisp

it's so boring to change guitar string so you can use this winder for do it faster.good rock

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Print colorful stuff!

Hey MakerBotters!  Quick note for those of you who want to print colorful stuff: we just received a shipment of 1.75 mm plastic in various colors!

Print some bright orange or green toys with that MakerBot you got under the tree, or some cool multi-color games like this old-school number puzzle by Clax.

Get it while it’s hot!

Hello fine people of MakerBot and welcome to 2012, a year for which we all have great hopes.  Here’s one of Thingiverse’s first contributions, a welcome message from user misan. We’ve also updated our customer service page with the days we’ll be closed in the upcoming year — which does include this Monday, January 2nd.

The whole MakerBot crew will be back starting January 3rd to answer your emails, ship your packages, and just make the future a bit more awesome.  2012 should be a good year for the whole MakerBot community, so hold on to your hats, folks — it’s going to be an exciting ride.

Happy 2012 by misan

Send your congratulations for the new year the 3D way.

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Minimal Lenscap holder!

One of my favorite Thingiverse design evolutions this year has been the “Lens Cap Holder” thing.  Since kitlaan posted his original (parametric) design several months ago, we’ve seen a host of variations, up to and including the elegant solution seen here from Thingiverse user joo.

While it’s a simple design, this really shows the power of a parametric design.  There are alternate versions like this one, or individualized designs for particular cameras, straps, and bags.  You can see some of the variations here.  A favorite of mine, from user Crypto, incorporates a peace sign as a structural element.

Kudos to everybody involved in this vibrant Thingiverse thread!  We all look forward to more back-and-forth exchanges like this in the new year.

Camera Lens Cap Holder by kitlaan

A (parametric) buckle that you can attach to your camera strap, which lets you (hopefully) stop losing your lens cap. The STL is sized for a 58mm lens cap, and a ~40mm strap width. The printing layers make for a great friction catch for the lens cap. But there's a designed-in lip overhang to make it a little more aggressive.

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Minimalistic lens cap holder by joo

Minimalistic 52mm lens cap holder attached to the thin part of the camera strap. The print shown in the picture was done on an eMaker Huxley with supply3Dpla.com black PLA using 0.3mm layers. Shot with Olympus E-P1/Canon FD F1.4 50mm lens, also the combination i made the cap holder for.

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Camera Lens Cap Holder by Crypto

This is a copy of a lens cap holder (58mm). I needed one to fit a Crumpler "Four Million Dollar Home" bag which has a 50mm strap. I took the opportunity to mod the design a tad. This one's for all the war photographers out there. Peace.

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