In case you missed it, our own Michael Curry gave a great interview to Engadget this weekend. Find out why we decided to make a Robot Petting Zoo, and what we plan to do with it now.

The MakerBot booth at Maker Faire Bay Area 2012 is taking shape. For all the updates on where we are and what we’re doing, watch our twitter @makerbot. There will be lots of reasons to keep an eye on us tomorrow, if you catch my drift (…prizes!).

If you are headed down to the San Mateo Event Center, I’ve doctored some maps to help you find us.

We’ve already gotten some visits from other Makers who are setting up today, including the MakerBot superfan Schuyler St. Leger.

Maker Schuyler St. Leger gets an early look at the Bot Farm

Banners are being unrolled:

And the dance floor is installed:

We’re almost ready to roll. Come join us!

The May 10th installment of MakerBot User Group New York (MUGNY) will offer MakerBot operators, Thingiverse makers, and Parsons students a rare glimpse into the working methods of two revered Thingiverse designers: Cushwa and PrettySmallThings. For the many of you who wrote in asking for in-depth design demos — these two demos will deliver knowledge and then some!

Special thanks to Parsons for inviting MUGNY to host this meeting in their beautiful space — a great chance for students using the Parsons MakerBot to learn more about the community of makers they are joining.

Where:

The New School
Parsons School of Design
“Masters in Design & Technology Thesis Show”
6 E 16th Street
12th Floor, Room 1200

 When:

6:30pm – 8:00pm
MakerBot will provide light snacks and refreshments.

Kacie Hultgren – “PrettySmallThings”

Kacie Hultgren, also known as PrettySmallThings on Thingiverse, is a scenic designer in New York City.  She uses her MakerBots to build scale models for set design models.  Kacie works as an associate on a variety of Broadway, US Tours and West End productions, in addition to pursuing her own design work in NYC and around the country.  At the May MUGNY, Kacie will share her work process and showcase scale models she has been working on.  She’ll also speak about how to harness the design constraints of printing with MakerBots to create models that bend the rules and push the limits of DIY 3D printing.

Tom Cushwa – “Cushwa”

Tom Cushwa, known as Cushwa on Thingiverse, is a 15 year veteran of the computer graphics, specializing in creating 3D models for film and television. He has worked with major studios all over the world. Tom has created characters for national ads, Superbowl spots, and major motion pictures. Always trying to stay ahead of the curve, Tom dived into 3D printing this past fall, creating models for the Thingiverse Playsets projects to be printed for the MakerBot CES booth. Recently, Tom created an Owl statue for Thingiverse that has now been downloaded over a thousand times, with over 40 people posting pictures of printed Owls on the site. Check out a small sample of his work as Big Character Inc. here.

Parsons The New School For Design

A pioneer in art and design education since its founding in 1896, Parsons has cultivated outstanding artists, designers, scholars, businesspeople, and community leaders for more than a century. Today, when design thinking is increasingly being employed to solve complex global problems, Parsons is leading new approaches to art and design education. Students at the Design & Technology program pursue forward thinking, creative, commercial, research-based, educational, and art-based career paths. Areas of study include Interaction, Physical Computing, 2D and 3D Animation, Motion Graphics, and Digital Filmmaking.

Mother’s Day: Say It With Flowers

Mother’s Day is fast approaching and MakerBot wants you to say it with flowers — 3D printed flowers!

Mother Nature has decorated our planet with an endless variety of flowers, trees, ferns, and vines. Let’s model some original, printable flowers for the awesome Mamas in our lives– maybe even some that can sing, dance, or squirt water in her face — and share them on Thingiverse.com!

We’ve asked our own Mothers to *pick* their favorites, so c’mon, MakerBotters! Let’s make ‘em proud. 

How to Participate

1. Create a flower design and share it to Thingiverse.com with a Public Domain or Creative Common license.
2. Tag your flower design : “thanks mom“
3. Submit your entry by 11:59 pm. EST on May 10th, 2012
4. Our jury of MakerBot Moms will review the submitted work and pick their top 5 favorites.
5. We’ll announce winners and send out some swag!

At MakerBot, we love new designs, but we also love to see existing designs printed beautifully on a MakerBot 3D printer — so in addition to rewarding for designs, we shall grant many thousands of Internet points to those who print out any of the designs and share them with a loved one.

A Few Good Flowers — Some Inspiration

Looking for some inspiration? We have also assembled a quick-and-dirty playlist of favorite flowers from Thingiverse below.

Flower in Vase by Andr0id

Ok, I first started out seeing if my Thing-O-Matic could print Tony Cervantes's flower thingiverse.com/thing:5883 . To my surprise, it did. So I modified it a little to add a base to the flower so that I could attach a stem, and then created a vase to put it in. Yes, the vase printed to my surprise also!

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Blooming Flower by bongoboy23

***IMPORTANT*** Check back for updates as I revise the files This is an amazing blooming flower! Turn the gear on the bottom and the flower blooms, exposing the beautiful flower within! Original purpose for this design was creating something to turn rotational movement into linear movement, using something that could be printed on a Makerbot. Figured the easiest to design was something screw-like, but with overhang restrictions, I was unsure whether a tight screw design would work. And it turns out it does! ***DESIGN VERSIONS*** There are two different versions. First version uses glue and filament as the hinges for the petals. Pros to this is the petals are much tighter, and don't wiggle around alot. Con is that it requires more glue. Second version uses links as the hinges. Pro is that less glue is needed. Cons are that it wiggles alot more, because the links require some give to snap into place. Also, when snapping into the base, the base links have a significant chance of breaking off. I have added supports and fixes to prevent this from happening, but there is still a chance. Extra stl for broken links to glue on in case this happens. ***DIFFERENT GEARS*** NOTE: Applies only to large flowers In order to turn the gears, I designed two different gear systems. First version allows the entire bottom to turn, but is more difficult to get on the base. Second version is easier to get on, but the gear is slightly more difficult to get to, and could prove more difficult for some people to turn. ***FILES*** Files are placed in zip files, for easy organization. Credit where credit is due, flower in center is from:thingiverse.com/thing:5883 Internal screw is 1 rotation per 20mm rise. Design files included. (I apologize for the messy designs, didn't organize or rename anything in the ipt files :P ) NOTE: For those who want to design a different center piece without the cap, the rod in the center is 5mm diameter. This way you can design the hole directly into your variation. ***UPDATES*** UPDATE 7/7/2011: Edited Version 1-Large Flower-Base updated. EDITS: Forgot to edit the top ring of the small petals, they were 1mm too wide. Also the main circle of the base is several millimeters too small, causing the small petals to be too close to the center shaft. Sorry to those who have already printed this. UPDATE 7/8/2011: Edited version of Gear 1 for Large Flower uploaded. 1 zip with all current STL Files as of 7/8/2011 uploaded. EDITS: Center shaft is not long enough on Gear 1 bottom (Gear 2 is fine). Really sorry I missed this.(Note it says v1, but it is also for v2) UPDATE 7/9/2011: Edited version of large flower petal for v1 uploaded.....hinge was too big.... Re-upload of Large V1 zip with correct STL Files. Revised version updated. UPDATE 7/12/2011: Makerbot out of commission ATM, can't test any of the un-built files, but they should work just fine. UPDATE 7/22/2011: Hooray! Got my replacement parts, TOM is back up and running, will start printing some new flowers in the next few days! If you find any other mistakes, please message me.

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Flower - Push Puppet by Renosis

This is a Collapsible Flower or push puppet. You push the button on the bottom and the flower goes limp. Designed in OpenSCAD, Source Files included. *** UPDATE *** I have made a change to the Button... which is located in Flower-Red.stl and also on the Flower-Tray.stl. I have also uploaded a new version of the OpenScad file with the changes. Basically, it makes the button shorter, which allows for more movement in the pot, which will make the flower go even limper! It makes it look much nicer. New video posted below! Here is a Video of the flower in action:youtube.com/watch?v=PjEeOx-yp4o Updated Video Showing the old and new versions of the flower:youtu.be/K2dZtu1U94U

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Flower Pot by tc_fea

This flower pot, stem and flower is the result of ideas from multiple people. Android came up with the concept and parts to turn my flower (thing:5883) into a complete system. See flower, stem and vase thing:6504. Android added a base to the flower so that a stem could be added and the parts list calls for his flower. I used tbuser's beautiful pink flower and green stem colors shown in his copy of thing:5883.

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Thing7 by Zomboe

Reminiscent of a lotus flower or maybe an artichoke. Due to its delicate nature, it is purely decorative. More than anything else I've printed, this one was really mesmerizing to watch print. When printing, try to eliminate oozing and strings through software as much as possible. Be careful when cleaning up any remaining strings. The second set of petals is especially fragile. Dimensions: Thing7:      87.5mm x 87.5mm x 63.5mm tall Thing7Small: 70mm x 70mm x 50.8mm tall

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Daffodil Light Fixture by tamarshall

I modeled this daffodil in sculptris awhile back and discovered it looks pretty cool with an LED shining in it. For awhile I was playing around with some solar LED path lights and trying to create a solar lamp you could set in your window that resembled a potted plant. Update: Added new pictures for a better illustration of the solar light as potted plant idea.

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Hyperdimensional Rose by fros1y

My idea of what the 3D shadow of a higher dimensional flower should look like.

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Fractal Pollen - Cored by DonWhitaker

This is an algorithmically generated, 3D fractal shape. A geometric curiosity.

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And, just because:

Water Drop; José Manuel Suárez

Did you know that 1.1 billion people in this world live every day without a supply of clean water, and that 3,900 children die on a daily basis of water borne diseases?¹

Something really exciting started this week, and YOU are at the heart of it. In collaboration with MakerBot and the UK-based rapid prototyping firm Econolyst, techfortrade is offering up a $100,000 prize for a groundbreaking, world-changing innovation. This is an opportunity for all of our brilliant readers, you engineers and scientists, moms and dads and kids and everyone in between, to share your ideas for reducing poverty and growing local communities in the developing world.

Consider this — in 2006, the World Health Organization estimated that unsafe injection practices caused 1.3 million early deaths worldwide, or a more sobering “26 million years of life” lost. But an auto-disable syringe now in use in some locations may prevent the possibility that blood-borne diseases spread through contaminated needles. Could you have prototyped that syringe on your MakerBot; or better yet, can you make a better one?

What you need to know

Techfortrade is an organization that aims to energize small businesses in the developing world using mobile phone technologies. Did you know that by 2015, an estimated 400 million mobile phone users in Africa alone will not have electricity regularly supplied by a power grid? Accordingly, entries in the Challenge should

…exploit developments in 3D printing, mobile phone based scanning technology and web based design applications to improve the incomes and livelihoods of people in developing countries.

Are your gears turning yet? Techfortrade offers a couple ideas:

…entries could involve using 3D printed models and parts to improve agriculture practices, water supply or filtration processes, or energy supplies for rural or impoverished areas. An example suggested by techfortrade is creating parts on a 3D printer for broken waterpumps that can then be easily fixed by locals, rather than having to source parts and repairs from elsewhere. The technology could also be used generate income by manufacturing entirely new products from re-cycled plastic.

We’ve seen some great stuff at MakerBot along these lines. For example, this water purification system or the Freedom system that connects rural farmers with 3D printers. But we know there are many more seeds of ingenious devices waiting to be released into the world.

The participating organizations are eager to help participants brainstorm their ideas with each other and with industry experts. MakerBot will be hosting a workshop at our headquarters in New York City, and other events will take place in London, Nairobi, and Johannesburg. We’ll have more details on the New York workshop closer to the day, but here’s the full schedule.

New York, MakerBot Hedquarters – 12th May 2012
Johannesburg, Hackerspace – 22nd May 2012
London, Westminster Hub – 17th May 2012
Nairobi, Nairobi University FabLab– 25th May 2012

Click here for full information on the 3D4D Challenge.

1. According to the World Water Council

First things first: if you’re in the New York City area and you’re interested in some basic MakerBotting education for free, reserve a spot now at our class at Tekserve on Thursday. You can see the invitation and RSVP here.

What — 90 minute class with MakerBot Education guru Liz Arum
When – Thursday, April 26; 6:30-8:00 p.m.
Where — Tekserve in New York City; 119 West 23rd Street. New York, NY 10011

If you are anywhere near the nation’s capital this weekend, there are a couple chances to Kinect (see what I did there?) with our MakerBot road crew, Matt, Keith, and Nick. The guys will be hanging out on Saturday and Sunday for the USA Science and Engineering Festival, which bills itself as “the most compelling, exciting, educational and entertaining science festival in the United States.”

This is a jam-packed festival that basically anyone could enjoy. For example, page 6 of the list of stage shows includes an hour session by Bill Nye. THE SCIENCE GUY! If Bill Nye’s on page 6, you know the rest of the lineup has to be pretty exciting. There’s an Electronic Fashion Show, a talk from actress and neuroscientist Mayim Bialik, a panel discussion with CIA scientists, a Harry Potter magic demonstration, and dozens and dozens of other shows, not to mention exhibits like ours where kids and families can interact with fun science of all kinds.

The MakerBot booth will have our latest 3D printer, The Replicator, and we will be scanning and printing visitors with the Xbox Kinect and ReconstructMe, and more! Come see us!

What – MakerBot booth at a giant, awesome science fair in Washington, DC
When – April 28, 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.; April 29, 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Where – Walter E. Washington Convention Center; 801 Mount Vernon Place, NW. Washington, DC 20001

While the crew is down in D.C., they plan to party Saturday night close to the Convention Center at The Passenger. We have rented a room from 6:00-8:00 p.m., and will be offering food and drinks on us, first-come-first-served, until we run out!

What – A chance for MakerBot Operators to come together and hang out with Keith, Matt, and Nick
When – April 28, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Where – The Passenger; 1021 7th St NW, Washington, DC 20001

For any readers near Saskatoon, Canada — often considered the Edmonton of Saskatchewan — come see MakerBot at The Man Show 2012. This is a lifestyle trade show geared subtly toward men. Okay, frankly, this looks awesome. It’s a giant exhibition of gadgets and tools. It will be a great chance to check out The Replicator in the midst of a bunch of other really cool things. Tickets are $10.

What – Chance to see The Replicator and speak with an expert on our 3D printers
When – April 26-27, 4:00-10:00 p.m.; April 28, 1:00-9:00 p.m.
Where – Credit Union Centre; 3515 Thatcher Avenue. Saskatoon, SK S7R 1C4, Canada

A second group of MakerBot staff is also thrilled to attend the Mini Maker Faire in Westport, Connecticut. We’ll be rolling from 10:00 a.m until things wind down at 4:00 p.m. Come visit us (including me!) and say hello to our 3D printers.

What — Mini Maker Faire featuring MakerBot and many other exhibitors
When – April 28, 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Where — Westport Library; 20 Jesup Road, Westport, CT 06880

Wilcox vs 3D Printer

Dominic Wilcox’s offhand tweet about racing a 3D printer to make something became a reality this last Friday.  They competed against a 1.5 hour time limit to build a replica of the Duomo cathedral in a competition hosted by WeFab.it.

Click here to view the embedded video.

I would respectfully disagree with Dominic.  The future isn’t just humans – the future is human-robot collaboration!  Just imagine what Dominic could have done with a trusty robot sidekick!

R. Maker - Mark I by ErikJDurwoodII

This is my submission to the MakerBot Robot Mascot Challenge! A few comments: Although I am no stranger to 3D modeling, this is my very first model intended to be 3D printed. I do not own a 3D printer of any sort and I have never 3D printed anything. That being said, I tried my best to research good design practices for FDM printing and I sure hope I did all-right! Anyhoo, this little guy is customizable by having different parts printed in different colors. Also, he was designed to be able to be personalized by the producer being able to place his or her own model in the body to add personal flair. The feet articulate as do the head, arms and claws. Everything should snap together. The spool on his back is Mr. Maker's fuel supply! Take some 1.75mm filament and wind it on the spool (you may have to warm it to be more pliant) then thread the end through the top of his head. Now he's ready to go! I designed this in about 10 hours with Autodesk Inventor 2012. (Many thanks to "techknight" for the advice on re-orienting the models in ReplicatorG!) Also, I would LOVE to know how well this prints. I tried very hard to be mindful of the vertical slopes and tolerances but this being my first design for print, I don't really know for sure. If anybody prints this, I would GREATLY appreciate it if you could explain any issues. THANKS! :) UPDATE! I'm working on the Mark II version as well as an Experimental Mark III body that acts as a stylish enclosure for the Gen 4 electronics guts. I don't own the parts so it's a lot of guesswork at the moment...Along with a new segmented head so it can be wired up with lights or cameras or whatever you can fit in there! (The FOO and BAR lights on the console for example!) The Mark II I'll be uploading soon. Unfortunately not soon enough for the contest, but it was always my goal to create a neat little gizmo that was hackable and modular for ultimate customization! More to come! Update: Name Change! As a nod to robotic lore, this little guy will now be known as R. Maker!

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]]> http://www.makerbot.com/blog/2012/04/23/this-is-why-humans-and-robots-should-be-friends/feed/ 0 http://www.makerbot.com/blog/2012/04/22/makerbot-events-team-report-chicago-il/ http://www.makerbot.com/blog/2012/04/22/makerbot-events-team-report-chicago-il/#comments Sun, 22 Apr 2012 16:05:43 +0000 keith http://www.makerbot.com/?p=54548 From April 13th – 15th the MakerBot Events Team traveled to Chicago to attend C2E2 and bring The Replicator to our community.  C2E2 – Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo ran Friday through Sunday and we showcased The Replicator to more than 35,000 Comic Book and Sci-Fi Fans, Artists, Gamers and Industry.

One of our community members Phroon stopped by our booth with a MakerBotted C2E2 badge holder!  So we began printing these for the crowds immediately.  Check out Nick sporting his safety orange holder.

Anthony Daniels AKA C3PO became a MakerBot fan at C2E2 and visited the booth a couple of times.  Rather than talking about Star Wars or revealing who he was (we heard his voice as our first clue) he talked with great enthusiasm about The Replicator and told stories of being a Maker himself.  (His favorite tool: his glue gun. He had multiple burn scars to prove it.)

There were endless numbers of attendees visiting the booth dressed as Superheroes, Villains and Video Game Characters.  They all loved the MakerBot.  And those who created their own costumes or costumes for others left with ideas for how 3D printing could help them take these practices even further.

Even the Mario Bros. powered up at the MakerBot Booth!

We had the Xbox Kinect on hand to scan some of our favorite characters.  “I pity the fool who don’t MakerBot!” – Mr. T

After the doors closed on the first day of C2E2 we ventured out to Chicago’s premier Hackerspace, Pumping Station: One.  They have a Tardis!  Also, this is the hackerspace that created the Power Racing Series.

All eyes were on The Replicator!

Another visit that proved to be amazing was with Tom and Holly at the What It Is Gallery.  Their exhibit “Improbable Objects” featured 3D-printed work from MakerBot Artists Micah Ganske and Marius Watz, among others.

Next stop Washington DC!  We’ll be bringing The MakerBot Replicator to our Nation’s Capitol for the USA Science & Engineering Festival.  This is the largest celebration of science in the U.S. and will feature over 3,000 fun, interactive exhibits, more than 100 stage shows and 33 Author Presentations.  The USA Science & Engineering Festival will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, D.C. on April 28-29, 2012.  Hours are 10am-6pm on Saturday and 10am-4pm on Sunday.

Find out if the MakerBot Events Team is heading to your way; sign up to receive the MakerBot Newsletter!

We’ve got a great thing happening on Twitter right now. For anyone interested in attending the TEDxNYED conference, we’re giving away two tickets ($100 value) to the best two answers to the question,

How will 3D printing change the world?

Here’s some info on the event.

TEDxNYED is independently organized by New York educators. At TEDxNYED, live speakers and TED Talk videos combine to spark deep discussion and connections. TEDxNYED presenters are invited to share their insights and inspire conversations about the future of education. Attendees of the conference participate via networking sessions where they educate one another and, in the spirit of TED, help spread these ideas.

TEDxNYED is operating under license from TED, organizers of the immensely popular TED Conference, an annual event where some of the world’s leading thinkers and doers are invited to share what they are most passionate about. In the spirit of “ideas worth spreading,” TED has created TEDx, a program of local, organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience.

We’ll pick two winners from all the submissions and give each of them a ticket to attend the TEDx event in New York City.

Where Museum of the Moving Image
36-01 35 Avenue (at 37 Street)
Astoria, NY 11106

When April 28, 2012

In order to participate in our giveaway, you have to drop us a tweet. Tell us how 3D printing will change the world in 140 characters or less. Mention us with @makerbot and be sure to hashtag #3DPrinting so we can find your tweet and put you in the running.

UPDATE: These tweets are being accepted until 11:59 p.m. EDT on Monday, April 23. Right around the corner, so share your thoughts with us now!

We have just opened up a few more seats for our awesome free class on “How to MakerBot” taught by MakerBot educator-guru Liz Arum at Tekserve starting this month. This class has been frequently requested by the MakerBot community and we are thrilled to get a chance to give this a try.

Attendees are required to RSVP here and should bring a laptop and external 3-button mouse to the first session on April 19th. Those who show up to the first meeting will have priority to sign up for the following two sessions. April 26th, and May 8th.

MakerBots are part of an evolving modern world of technology that allow people of all ages and skill levels to become producers, inventors and artists. This personal fabrication tool allows you to efficiently and inexpensively take your digital designs into the real world. Because you can hold the objects that you designed in your hand, you will be able to easily understand the strengths and limitations of your work. This process of physical feedback will allow you to incorporate the fixes right back into your design documents, letting you participate in an iterative engineering design process at an accelerated rate. This class will introduce you to 3D printing with the MakerBot Replicator. Create 3D computer models, prepare them for printing, print them out in plastic, and get an overview of the various free 3D modelling software tools that are available online.

No prior knowledge of 3D modeling, programming, or 3D printing is required. Use the class time to create, design, invent, and prototype. Then imagine what you would have done if you had a personal 3D printer at age 11.

Tekserve – Seminar Room
119 W 23rd Street
NY, NY 10011
212-929-3645

Click here to RSVP.

Thursday, April 19th, 6:30pm – 8pm
Thursday, April 26th, 6:30pm – 8pm
Tuesday, May 8th, 6:30pm – 8pm

Laptop and 3-button extra mouse required.