MakerBot Industries

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

This triangle would be a little harder to explain (Penrose Triangle Illusion by chylld)

This morning I was helping my daughter brush her teeth.  As I was putting toothpaste on her toothbrush, she told me she had composed a song for me.  Her song went like this:

“I love making toys with my daddy
My daddy’s robot goes zoom zoom when it makes things out of triangles”¹

Several weeks ago I was trying to explain to her how my Thing-O-Matic converts our designs into physical objects.  I told her I save our designs as STL files.  I explained that any thing we see in the world could be expressed as a bunch of polygons.  I then explained that any polygon could be expressed as a bunch of triangles.  So, really, anything we could see or draw could be described as a bunch of triangles.  And, once we have our file that is comprised of a bunch of triangles, we give it to our robot² to build into our toys and tools.

1. It has kind of a Francis song sort of a tone to it [↩]
2. Flexo, the Thing-O-Matic [↩]

Wheel repair by mrbenbritton

Thingiverse citizen mrbenbritton clearly put a lot of thought into this simple toy stroller wheel repair.  While admitting up front that the entire stroller was probably not even worth $6, mrbenbritton designed and printed this replacement wheel for a previously repaired stroller. ¹  Even if this was a $6 toy, the value to a kid is sometimes entirely out of proportion to the intrinsic value of an object.

About six months ago I fixed a very small foam sailboat for my daughter when she lost the mast. ²  To this day she will come up to me randomly and thank me again for having fixed her boat with a piece of black ABS filament as a mast replacement.

I suspect that mrbenbritton will be happy to find out that his daughter will probably remember her dad would always fix her toys long after the $6 stroller is forgotten.

Wheel repair by mrbenbritton

This is my first thing. A new wheel to replace one that broke on a toy stroller. The stroller was only worth $6 and is already held together by bamboo and gaffer tape so not really worth repairing but I did it anyway and my daughter loves it!

This thing brought to you by

1. I love this so much that I think a new slogan for MakerBot may just be in order.
   • “MakerBot.  When duck tape and bamboo just aren’t enough.”
   • “Even Macguyver has an off day.”

   [↩]

2. Actually what happened was that she found a hole in one of her larger molded plastic toys, pulled the mast out of her sailboat, inserted it into the hole to see if it would fit, and it disappeared forever.  I wasn’t about to chop apart a large plastic toy to get a thin black plastic stick. [↩]

A pink toothbrush case with a handle

A little while ago my daughter asked me to help her make a very specific kind of toothbrush case – a pink one with a bulbous end and a handle.  She and I worked together on the design until we arrived at something that was acceptable to my patron as well as possible in a mere 3 dimensions.

She was very happy with the final result.  I was actually a little disappointed that they turned out so well with the first print.  When printing things with my daughter, I like having a version that is sub-optimal in some way that we wouldn’t have realized before holding a printed version of our digital designs.  Having an initially defective result gives her¹ a way to look at an object and start thinking about how it could be improved.  In retrospect, I should have added a small hole to each end to allow for drainage. ²

Then again, there’s also something to be said for thoughtful design and careful planning culminating in a successful initial result.  It may not surprise me that she parlayed this success into her next request – a way to make her flip-top toothpaste tube easier to open.

1. Well, both of us, really [↩]
2. However, these can always be added with a drill or drill bit later. [↩]

Thingiverse Rendering of Fancy Toothbrush Case

When my daughter said she wanted a very specific toothbrush case, I was really only too happy to help out.  While integrating someone into the design process who has a shorter attention span than myself¹ does make things more challenging, there are some benefits.  If you ever have the chance to design with a child, you’ll probably notice a lot of “feature creep.”  The good news is that since their idea of what they’re looking for is so flexible, as long as you make a good faith effort and are trying they’ll be pretty happy with the results.  And, since much of initial designing efforts consists of just putting big chunks of objects into the approximately correct place, there’s no harm in having your muse walk off and talk to a cat for a while.

There are certainly opportunities for education as well.  We had to measure the diameter and height of her toothbrush with calipers, with her reading off the numbers to me.  She had to think about how the final object would look and how she would use it.  Her initial explanation had no opening to put the toothbrush in or take it out.  After discussing the options, she settled on a style involving two-halves as shown above.

Designing with OpenSCAD is shockingly kid friendly.  While SketchUp was good for quickly sketching out an idea, it was not very easy to revise it.  With OpenSCAD all I have to do is change a few parameters and the entire design can morph into something new.  My daughter was able to select her favorite handle width and height by comparing just a few options in very quick succession.

Once the design had been approved, it was ready to print.

…to be continued

1. Oooh!!  Shiny!! [↩]

A few days ago my daughter began to ask me about toothbrush holders.  Toothbrush holders are the kinds of things to which adults rarely give much thought.  99.9% of the time they just sit in a drawer waiting for that 0.1% of the time when you go on a trip and it gets tossed into your travel case.

But, to a 5-year-old, a toothbrush holder is a thing of magic, beauty, and ceremony.  Its appearance heralds adventure – since it is only brought out when they’re about to go on some exciting trip.  So, I suppose, it shouldn’t be all that surprising that she wanted one of her own.  However, there were specifications…

The toothbrush holder must have a bulbous end.  The toothbrush holder must have a handle.  And, above all else, the toothbrush holder must be pink.  PINK!

I pointed out that there was no reason for a toothbrush holder to have a bulbous end or for it to have a handle.  toWhile she understood there was no reason for such things to be, she understood equally well that there were no particular reasons for them not-to-be either.

With the issue resolved, she drew the above schematics.  The most amusing part of this for me is that it never occurred to her that she couldn’t have such an impossible toothbrush holder.  From the moment the idea of a bespoke toothbrush holder popped into her head, she knew full well that her father need only be properly instructed in the design for the toothbrush that he might, in turn, so instruct the household robot.

And with that, we embarked upon the adventure of the toothbrush case.

…to be continued

Juice Box Weirdos by gwygonik

These “Juice Box Weirdos” by gwygonik (aka Gregg Wygonik) are one of my new all time favorite things on Thingiverse.  From the description of his inspiration, multiple variations on his own ideas – including some blanks so you can expand on them, with suggestions on how you could take his ideas even further, to the more full explanations in his own blog, this is what Thingiverse is about.  I don’t think we even have any juice boxes in my home, but I’m sure as heck going to go buy some now. ¹

Recently, while looking for how to best make a salsa-jar snow globe, I saw that a lot of people were turning juice boxes into boats and other cute objects by using stickers or paper. And I thought: “Wait a minute! What if I printed pieces for juice boxes? What if you could mix and match the pieces too?!”

I would be totally remiss if I didn’t mention Gregg’s blog detailing his adventures with his family and MakerBot 3D printer.  Gregg, if you’re reading this, I’ve followed you on Twitter and added your blog to my “must read” RSS feed.

Juice Box Weirdos by gwygonik

Recently, while looking for how to best make a salsa-jar snow globe, I saw that a lot of people were turning juice boxes into boats and other cute objects by using stickers or paper. And I thought: "Wait a minute! What if I printed pieces for juice boxes? What if you could mix and match the pieces too?!" Surprisingly, I was unable to find a commercial product that did this. This seems like a gold-mine to some mass-produced toy company (which is why I was going to set the license to non-commercial, but decided that if folks wanted to make and sell on Shapeways or similar, feel free :-) I was going to title these "juice box heroes", but there is a musical band by that name (apparently doing children-friendly versions of classic songs). Given that I made an owl with goggles on, "weirdos" is more appropriate. More info and pictures at my blog: myplasticfuture.com/one-for-the-kids-and-kids-at-heart These are more for sparking imagination than being "things" on their own. Which is why I've included a plain, basic end-cap for YOU to make your own things on: pirate ships, aircraft carriers, cats, alligators, dinosaurs, mars rovers, you name it! I have included all the SketchUp files to use as a launching point.

This thing brought to you by

1. For, um, my kid. [↩]

Thanks to vik for the image!

To all of you who are celebrating the popular winter holiday today, from all of us at MakerBot: Merry Christmas.  We hope that you all are enjoying it in health and prosperity.

If you’ve just unboxed a brand-new Thing-O-Matic kit, welcome to the MakerBot community!  You’ll most likely want to have a look at our build instructions and Quick Start Guide to get started!  I know it’s all very exciting, but make sure you read and understand those instructions before starting your build.  If you do have issues you can’t resolve on your own, make sure that you email us at support@makerbot.com and we’ll get back to as soon as we can.

And to all of those who have just given the gift of MakerBot: enjoy a nice, quiet day, and make sure that your loved one doesn’t forget to feed him or herself.

Happy Holidays!

Tape Dispenser by jag

Here’s the thing – kids LOVE scotch tape.  If you gave a kid their very own scotch tape dispenser, they would just be over the moon.  Nearly invisible, slick on one side and adhesive on the other, scotch tape is basically magic.  Mad props to jag for yet another awesome kid-centered print!

Tape Dispenser by jag

My son is fond of his scotch tape. He wanted a dispenser since the refills didn't fit in his old one. The openscad file is somewhat parametric but is untested it with any other settings. It uses syvwlch's awesome thread library ( thingiverse.com/thing:8793 ) So, you'll need that if you want to use the scad file.

This thing brought to you by

In a Hackerspace, somewhat far away, is a man named Dave Langkamp. A retired industrial designer of 33 years (twenty years designing at John Deere), Dave hasn’t rested on his laurels. One of his creations is this 50′s style UFO (printed on a MakerBot Cupcake) which contains an astonishing 133 parts! It now awaits its finishing coats and killer paint job.

In addition to the UFO, Dave is working on a 1/24th scale Semi tractor and trailer (which will carry the UFO), as well as a glider with a 54 inch wingspan! You can check out Dave’s blog for updates on his projects: http://thetinkersworkshop.blogspot.com/

We’re big fans of Hackerspaces here at MakerBot, and without one, Dave’s projects might have had some trouble getting off the ground. The Quad Cities Collaboration and Hackerspace located in Davenport, Iowa is a haven for for designers, technologists, educators, hobbysits, and anyone who wants to experience a great sense of community. If you’re in the Davenport area, it just might be worth looking up.