MakerBot Industries

While 10 million people were downloading Angry Birds Space over the weekend, Thingiverse user xpekted was designing an Angry Birds chess set for the MakerBot/Tinkercad chess set design competition!

Angry Birds Chess Set by xpekted

Who else is tempted to print these little guys and use them with this Thingiverse classic, the slingshot by Batist?

Slingshot by Batist

#Chess #Tinkercad Anger Birds by xpekted

This part was made with Tinkercad. Edit the part online at: tinkercad.com/things/kcqZg5bBikp I had the idea of using the 6 birds from Angry Birds and using them as chess pieces. The King was the original red bird, because he's useless, but he's still the classic angry bird. The Queen is the black/kamikaze bird. The Rook is the Yellow Bird, because it shoots itself forward. The Egg/White Bird, in my head, traveled diagonally in the game (dropping the egg). The Knight is the Green/Boomerang Bird, because it moved in the L shape that a knight on the board does. The pawn was obviously the small, innocent looking baby blue birds, but just like pawns, can be vital at the right times. This is actually my first time tinkering on tinkercad, so I hope it's all printable. I was under the advising that it is...lol. Sorry, I've already deleted two revision. I'm happy with it now though haha. rescaled twice, for competition. sorry didn't realize i could make it bigger The name's an inside joke lol. UPDATE: Angry Birds Space: thingiverse.com/thing:20143

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Slingshot by Batist

I tried to print this one, but I scaled it to big... and it was warping a lot. Perhaps printing a mini version? UPDATE: Today I printed a smaller one, and it works like a charm! When I was a child I made slingshots out of wood... Living in a city nowadays (Ghent, Belgium) I can relive my youth by printing them. I hope one day my children will use tools like this to explore their creativity :-).

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Thingiverse and Tinkercad.com have been exploding with awesome this week. The source? Some of the wildest, wackiest, most wonderful chess sets we’ve ever seen. Bonbons? Check. Bob-ombs? Double check. Connecting pieces and moveable parts? Check yeah!

Let’s review some of the contenders, shall we? And remember, there’s still plenty of time to get on board. Just don’t wait too long, the contest ends April 1st.

Conic #Chess by hybot

Tinkercad Chess challenge entry. This part was made with Tinkercad. Edit the part online at: tinkercad.com/things/ff93qymLPqr

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Bob-Omb #chess by Tags

This part was made with Tinkercad. Edit the part online at: tinkercad.com/things/as8hAMgbGO3

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Choco #Chess by MakeALot

This part was made with Tinkercad. Edit the part online at: tinkercad.com/things/gzm4eM322K1

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In case you missed the announcement on Monday, MakerBot and Tinkercad have teamed up to offer the chance to win a MakerBot Replicator! Create your own chess set in Tinkercad — like the one above from Pekka — and upload it with the appropriate tags in Thingiverse.

There are already some great entries that you can browse on our Pinterest contest board, but be sure to refer back to the small set of rules on our blog or the Tinkercad Blog.

The contest ends April 1st, so start Tinkering!

It’s time! Find out who has been lucky enough to win their very own 3D printer, courtesy of MakerBot Industries…

We collaborated with 3D Artist for the competition and giveaway and were charged with judging the 48 fantastic submissions. It was a tough decision, but we have winners!

The competition asked entrants to design their own pet monster – this could be an adorable companion or a fearsome critter; the idea was to encourage artists to use their imagination, to be innovative within a small footprint.

Artists could use any 3D software to design their monsters, but they had to generate a manifold (watertight) mesh suitable for 3D printing. This meant things like feathers, small joints and thin clothing was going to be a particular challenge.

Characters also had to be designed within 100x100x120mm, with the ability to have different parts printed in different colours. ‘Makerbotability’ was an important part of the design – and judging – process.

Runners up

Our three runners up have each had their designs 3D printed at the MakerBot Industries HQ, soon to be shipped to the talented creators. We can’t wait to see the photos of the winners with their new 3D-printed pets!

Runner up #1: Ben Malouf – aka BenitoSanduchi – with Fat Bunbun. 3D Artist says: “What a monstrously greedy bunny? We could easily imagine this little fella sat on the 3D Artist desks, munching away. Just as long as he sticks to carrots – we’ve got first dibs on the chocolate biscuits!”

Runner up #2: T. Shawn Johnson – aka Whystler – with Teacup Dragon Puppet. 3D Artist says: “This is such a clever idea! While a dragon isn’t a new concept, it’s been scaled down to live in a teacup designed to move: turn her head and make her speak using a tiny rod below her body.”

Runner up #3: Matt Thorup – aka Redbeard – with Pug Monster Pet. 3D Artist says: “This is adorable: cute from the front, nasty on the reverse! We love his quizzical expression and helpless pose – can we adopt him, please?”

And the winner is…

Andreas Böhler – aka andreas – with Pet monster Blobby. Andreas submitted a handful of charismatic monsters, making the hardest part of the judging process choosing which of his entries was the ultimate winning design!

Andrea submitted a lot of  awesome monsters to the contest! This one prints really well and got a lot of likes on Thingiverse!

Check out a bunch of other wonderful entries on Thingiverse.

As our fellow citizens at Thingiverse have proven time and time and time and time again, printing your own custom chess set can be one of the greatest joys of owning a MakerBot. Have you got a brilliant design for a chess set that you want to share? Want a MakerBot Replicator?

Ready, set, CHALLENGE!  

Model all six characters in Tinkercad: pawn, king, queen, knight, bishop and rook. Start from scratch or use the chess set template to build your characters. The best entry will win a brand new Makerbot Replicator! Just upload your design to Thingiverse tagged with #chess and #tinkercad.

Contest ends midnight, April 1st PST.

Jury: designers from both Makerbot and Tinkercad.

Prizes: Winner receives one MakerBot Replicator.

Honorary mentions: glory and fame in the Maker community. Read the rest of this entry »

How to: Grow a Portrait Gourd

Apparently, growing gourds in molds is an ancient 500 year old Chinese artform!  By creating a mold of a sculpture and placing that mold around a young gourd, the gourd will grow and take the shape of the mold.  While this artform was almost lost in the 1970′s, the craft was revived by Mr. Zhang Cairi and the basics have now been condensed into this instructable by Make’s Tim Anderson.

This is one of those times when I’m just surfing the ‘net and realize, “Hey, that would be PERFECT for Stephen Colbert!”  I know there are Colbert chocolate mold makers out there.  Is anyone game for creating a Colbert gourd using a 3D printed mold?

From Instructables via Make Blog!

Alright, soothsayers, who’s going to print a Caesar bust today? Dare I dare you to attempt a mashup?

Look of Disapproval Glasses by plasma2002

How awesome are these emotive glasses by first-time Thingiverse contributor plasma2002?!  We’ve all seen those “Today I feel…” fridge magnets.  But, it seems silly that a refrigeration device would have such a range of emotions.  Wouldn’t it make much more sense to wear glasses that expressed how you felt on a particular day?  The emoticon possibilities alone are endless.  The most obvious would be a wink “    ” or tear ” ) ; “.

Here’s what I’m thinking for an emoticon glasses challenge:

• Be the first to upload any kind of emoticon glasses to Thingiverse with the tag “emoticonglasses“.
• Be the first to upload a particular kind of emoticon glasses to Thingiverse with the tag “emoticonglasses“.
• Be the first to tweet a picture of yourself wearing emoticon glasses at a bar with the hashtag “#emoticonglasses“

Anyone who completes any of the above three challenges gets 9000 internet points and everlasting online fame!

Look of Disapproval Glasses ಠ_ಠ by plasma2002

ಠ_ಠ I needed some Look of Disapproval glasses in a pinch, and ended up drawing a pair and cutting them on my laser. Afterwards, I noticed Thingiverse was missing the ever-so-helpful Look of Disapproval, so I figured I would fill the gap :) The idea came from a pair of the same type of glasses I had previously purchased from another maker, Tim Saylor. These are not a copy of his design, but rather a new, hand drawn, rendition of the famous Look of Disapproval. --------------------JUST WANT TO PURCHASE A PAIR? A few people have asked me if I could just sell them a pair. For this reason, you can now buy the glasses straight from our Etsy shop (in limited numbers, of course) here: [REDACTED] ---UPDATE: Instead of me selling you the glasses, I suggest you instead head over to Tim Saylor's Etsy shop to buy his original design. He did come up with the idea, afterall. I just remade it. Look of Disapproval Glasses - By Opticalawesome: etsy.com/listing/79821028/look-of-disapproval-glasses

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"Okay" by cyclone

Using the really excellent information over at Sandy Noble’s Polargraph website and with help from John Abella and a few others I’ve built a drawing robot.  While I’m very happy with the printed gondola John designed, I thought that it might be fun to have a gondola in the shape of a hand.  I have no idea if it would work well or terribly, but I do know it would be fun.  Here’s the challenge:

• Design an STL of a printable scanned copy of a human hand in the position of holding a pen for drawing/writing.
• The hand would need to have a way to attach to two lines of thin monofilament on the left and right.
• The hand would need to have a way to hold pens of slightly varying diameter.
• Upload your designs to Thingiverse with an open license and tag it “drawbothand“

The person who uploads a hand gondola gets 9000 internet points and, if they wish, a picture drawn by my robot!

"Okay" by cyclone

Let people know that the "situation" is "normal." This is a high resolution model of the A-OK hand gesture (Or a salute if you are from United Macedonia) I'm not responsible for any other meanings than the "Okay" one.

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Are you cooking up a wild and wacky new iPhone accessory in your brain skillet? Serve it up for a chance to win your very own Replicator!

Together with our friends Adam and Josh over at  Engineer vs. Designer, we’re kicking off the Absurd iPhone Accessory Design Contest! Slap on that thinking cap and upload your oddest, awesomest iPhone accessory design to Thingiverse and tag it ‘EvD’ to enter. Submit your design by March 19, 2012 and see it (and you!) featured on the Engineer vs. Designer blog.

Details after the jump!
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