MakerBot Industries

Chocolate Bunny Ear Mold by rweaving

Thingiverse citizen rweaving is now the proud winner of all the prizes and privileges that accompany a design challenge win!  There were four possible ways to win this challenge and rweaving has fulfilled three of them – first to design a plastic mold for chocolate bunny ears, print the plastic mold, and create chocolate bunny ears from such a mold!  (You can still win for “First to directly print bunny ears out of chocolate”))

I hereby confer upon rweaving all the powers and privileges that accompany such a design challenge victory – 27,000 internet points, mad blog nods and kudos, and three everlastings of fame on the internet.  Awesome work!

Chocolate Bunny Ear Mold by rweaving

This is a mold to make the most desirable part of a chocolate bunny. If you want to make an entire bunny make thingiverse.com/thing:17507 Enjoy...

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Army of Bunnies by zxqueb

As everyone knows, the top of a muffin is easily the most desirable and delicious part.  This is reason for muffin-top pans.  So, it occurs to me that a bunny’s ears are clearly the most delicious part of a chocolate bunny.  With the season of chocolate bunnies and eggs on the horizon, Thingiverse should really have some kind of chocolate mold for bunny ears.  The prizes consist of blog-nods, major kudos, 9000 internet points, and everlasting fame on the internets.  One prize to each of the following:

• First to design a plastic mold for chocolate bunny ears (look to Chris Palmer’s work for inspiration)
• First to print a plastic mold for chocolate bunny ears
• First to create chocolate bunny ears out of a printed plastic mold
• First to directly print bunny ears out of chocolate (use a frostruder or some other kind of chocolate extruder)

Here are a few items from Thingiverse to help you on your way:

3D Scan of Chocolate Bunny by CocoNut

Simplified 3D laser scan of a chocolate bunny that I made a while back. PS. I'd love to see pictures if anybody builds the bunny with a MakerBot!

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PolyChocolate | Icosahedron Alpha V.03 Five Part by chriskpalmer

The first of a series of molds to be made with a makerbot to make chocolate polyhedra. Modified to lay down so there are no overhangs during build. Makes an Icosahedron 3 cm from corner to corner.

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PolyChocolate | Icosahedron V.02 by chriskpalmer

Two part hollow. Try this first. Modified to build from back so there are no overhangs. edit: fixed by hoeken to make it printable.

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Army of Bunnies by zxqueb

This is a remake of the bunny trouble game, which had some hard time printing for me due to the angle of the ears. Also, I wanted the bunny to be a but more chunky in relation to the hex base.

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OpenSCAD Bathtub Sailboat

The hardest part of cranking out a Thing-A-Day for me is coming up with new ideas.  When I have an idea for a printable thing, I typically just design it, publish it, and get it out there on Thingiverse.  However, that means I generally don’t have many ideas left over for creating something new each day.

Thankfully, I have my daughter.  After explaining that February was Thing-A-Day month and that I wanted to design something that was printable on our 3D printing robot, I asked her what she would like me to design.  A saildboat for the bathtub was her answer. ¹

In many ways the challenge of coming up with something that will meet her arbitrary and completely unpredictable specifications is actually easier that thinking up an idea for something each day myself. ²

Thing-A-Day #2: OpenSCAD Bathtub Sailboat by MakerBlock

After explaining Thing-A-Day to my daughter, I asked her what she would like me to design for her for day 2. Answer: A sailboat for the bathtub. Designed in OpenSCAD, but not very parametric.

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1. Actually, her answer was a paper sailboat.  I reminded her it had to be something out of plastic, so she revised her response. [↩]
2. After all, the spirit of the exercise is to create a new thing each day, not necessarily come up with the ideas for them yourself [↩]

MakerBot Industries has partnered with 3D Artist Magazine in the UK for an exciting design contest! Our challenge is to design your own pet monster – whether it’s an adorable companion or a fearsome crittter, use your imagination to create the pet you wish you had. Each design will be judged on its creativity, character and ‘MakerBot-ability’, by a judging panel of 3D Artist and MakerBot Industries staff. The winner will receive a custom, fully-assembled MakerBot 3D printer, and the top 3 runners up will have their models printed, photographed and mailed back to them.

How to enter

You can submit as many designs as you like. Simply:

• Create a free account at Thingiverse
• Upload your original design files and ready-to-print STLs (under an Attribution – Share Alike – Creative Commons license) plus at least 3 non-textured renders
• Tag your creation with ’3D Artist mag’
• Submission deadline is 1 March 2012

Use any tools you like to design – 3ds Max, Blender, Maya, modo, Rhino, SketchUp or ZBrush, for example. The goal is to generate a manifold (watertight) mesh model (STL file) that can be printed on a MakerBot (consider that thin elements like feathers, amll joints, thin clothing etc are difficult to fabricate on a MakerBot). See a tutorial here from 3D Artist Mag on how to make a model for 3D printing.

Your character design can be made up of one or multiple parts, but must be smaller than 100 x 100 x 120mm when assembled. Different parts can be made in a variety of colors.

The ‘MakerBot-ability’ of your model will be an important factor in the judging – the challenge is to be innovative within a small footprint!

Turkey Cookie Cutter by wstrinz

First off, I want to give a shout-out to pomalin for their Bucket Of OctopSTA and second entry in the “moregangsta” challenge.  As the first-challenge-uploader and first-to-upload two separate entries, Pomalin receives 27,000 internet points AND bragging rights^3!  ¹

Second, how about another lightning design challenge?!  Can you design and upload a turkey design² before midnight on November 24, 2011?  9000 internet points, bragging rights, and mad blog-nods to:

• First to upload
• Most realistic
• Most awesome

Please be sure and tag your entries with “turkeyday2011” so everyone can find your contribution.  Also, don’t forget to add other appropriate other tags to your designs.

Turkey Cookie Cutter by wstrinz

I made this for thanksgiving biscuits. It's not really in season now, but you could print one out for next year

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1. That’s just “bragging rights” to the power of three, not to the power of “3!” [↩]
2. With an open license please! [↩]

Joshua Pierce sent us email about his contest.

You are invited to participate in a design competition for development of sustainable technologies and their components for printing on open source 3-D printers.

The goal of the contest is to facilitate an open exchange of 3-D sustainable technology designs that can be printed to meet various
needs in the context of sustainable and self directed development. 3-D printers such as RepRap and open sourced innovation hold great promise for development of appropriate technologies to help millions of world’s poorest communities reach a better standard of living. Designs will be judged on the technical printing viability, feasibility and functionality of the innovation, as well as sustainability from ecological, economic and social perspectives.

Anyone can enter the competition but the contestants must post their digital designs on Thingiverse under an open license (e.g. CC-BY-SA). The contest is funded by the Queen’s Applied Sustainability Group and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC).

There’s no website for the contest that we can find, but there is a pdf!

hipsta by pomalin

Thingiverse citizen pomalin is the winner of 9000 internet points and bragging rights for being the first to upload a “moregangsta” challenge mashup! ¹ The one I was really hoping someone would upload first was a HipSTA – and thanks to pomalin  now there is one!

There are still more points and bragging rights to be had!

hipsta by pomalin

First try for an hipsta, don't know yet if it's printable without raft, because I run out of filament, but will try as soon as I have some. Hipsta-third uploaded, it's a three parts print, should print better, and be taller. edit : Bobble head hipsta uploaded edit 2 : add each three parts to fit a thing-o-matic

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1. Pomalin also gets another 9000 points for being the first to upload one of the specific models for the challenge. [↩]

snakesta by cibomahto

Thingiverse’s all time most-mashed up model on Thingiverse has got to be the “gangsta” by Yzorg.  However, there are a number of things on Thingiverse that really should be mashed up with a gangsta.

1. STAtue of Liberty – She stands for liberty and freedom…  and slouching.
2. The ThinkSTA – He’s thinking… about his life as a gangsta.
3. DeathSTAr – The ability to destroy a planet is insignificant next to the potential of the gangsta.
4. NatashSTA the pen holder -  Don’t mess with her.  She’s carrying… a pen.
5. GnomeSTA – Because it would be so cool to have a bunch of GnomeSTAs lounging around a garden.
6. Project ShellSTA – Because even hermit crabs need a gangsta hideout.
7. Bucket of OctopSTA – What has eight arms and is more gangsta than you?
8. SkullSTA – Nothing has more gangsta street cred than an actual skull.
9. STArfish – Sure, there’s already a *sta, but don’t you want a gangsta that’s a little more… fishy?
10. HipSTA – Because I really really really want a HipSTA.  I want to put it on the edge of my desk and wait for someone to ask what it is.  “Oh, it’s this mashup-meme.  You’ve probably never heard of it.”

This challenge is pretty easy with 10 possible winners.  All you have to do is mashup the gangsta with one of the models above.  Tag your entries with “moregangsta.”  Please also be sure to add appropriate other tags to your designs.  It’s also good form to add derivative links to the designs of others’ you use.  9000 internet points, bragging rights, and a blog-nod to the first-to-upload-a-challenge-entry and to each first entry in one of the 10 categories above.

Good luck!

Just a reminder that there are only 12 days left to enter the New Museum MakerBot challenge!

Ever wished you had a device or object that doesn’t really exist? Ever used something like a bottle opener or door handle and thought you can make it better? Now is your chance, you can win a Thing-O-Matic and be featured in the New Museum Store! Now is your chance to show off your skills as a designer!

Have a look at some of the best submissions, and then get to work — only 12 days left!

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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