MakerBot Industries

A father-and-sons team of MakerBot Operators have just put together their first bot — and completed their first print. Jeremy, Ishan, and Akash sent in the video they made of this experience to the Customer Support team.

Watching the video this morning reminded me of my first day interning at MakerBot, watching an idler pulley print on a production CupCake with a MK4 toolhead. Pure magic. I particularly enjoy how this team keeps busy during the entire print, experimenting with spool holders and doing their best to keep their fingers out of the machine, despite overwhelming curiosity.

Congrats to Jeremy, Ishan and Akash!

For many MakerBot users, the plethora of downloads available on Thingiverse is more than enough to satisfy their printing needs. For other users, the MakerBot serves as a tool with which they can express themselves.  Geoffrey Wardman is one of the second class of MakerBot user: he’s been using his CupCake to help with design and testing of the Magnetic, interconnecting, Modular, Mounting system – or MiMMs.

This simple, elegant, yet brilliant design has gone through months of testing to create a mounting system for all of the portable electronics in your life. His CupCake allowed him to make modifications to his idea, offering an affordable way to prototype his designs. As he put it himself, “This is a product that was fully enabled by Makerbot – without my Cupcake it would only be an idea.”

Cheers, Geoff!  One of MakerBot’s goals was always to make industrial prototyping faster, cheaper, and more accessible.  Thank you for being an inspiration to all the inventors out there!

If you want to find out more, or get your hands on a set, Geoff is using kickstarter to get his product to the next level.  Best of luck!

Maker Bot No.4421 Timelapse from crypto_b on Vimeo.

As you know, we can’t resist a nice timelapse here at MakerBot, so when Thingiverse user Crypto sent me a time-lapse of his assembly process, we couldn’t NOT post it here.

It looks like Crypto’s build was a single 16-hour marathon session crunched down to about 10 minutes — pretty impressive stamina, and the video ends with a successful print.  My favorite part might watching the housecat wandering around at high speed, but that’s probably just me.

DocProfSky, aka Schuyler St. Leger, helped get the crew at Noisebridge psyched for Maker Faire Bay Area 2011 during their “5 Minutes of Fame” lightning talk series on May 19, 2011 by giving an encore performance of his critically acclaimed hit, “Why I Love My 3D Printer.”  While his original presentation at Ignite Phoenix was in front of a crowd of 850 people, the original video posted to YouTube now has more than 120,000 views.¹  Schuyler has been an amazing advocate for helping explain how 3D printing can be accessible and useful to anyone of any age.

1. Not to diminish this, I’m pretty sure several thousand of those views could be traced back to the BotCave… [↩]

Gate Latch String Guide by 3dprinterbot

What did Scott Pierce aka 3dprinterbot do when his gate latch string kept breaking?  What any 3D printer owner would do!  He designed, printed, and installed a fix!

The string on my gate was breaking because it rubbed against the wooden post of the fence. This string guide gives the string a smooth surface to rub against and hopefully will prevent it from breaking so often. I put one on each side of the fence.

I like this hack because it makes use of a plastic part for a physical property other than strength.  Since a well-printed plastic part will be much smoother than just a hole drilled into wood, it won’t wear away at the cord nearly as quickly.

There are also some very interesting directions to take this idea.  Since this type of latch isn’t really about security as much as it is about ensuring a gate is actually closed, there’s no special need for the parts to be metal.  The entire latching mechanism could be printed, except for the screws.  Additionally, since the cord still needs to be fed through a hole in the wood panel, a small plastic tube could be fashioned to further reduce wear-and-tear on the cord as it travels through the panel.

String Guide by 3dprinterbot

The string on my gate was breaking because it rubbed against the wooden post of the fence. This string guide gives the string a smooth surface to rub against and hopefully will prevent it from breaking so often. I put one on each side of the fence.

This thing brought to you by

Viktors Nyckel (spare key for piggybank) by snrk

What does a MakerBot dad do when his kid loses the key to his piggy bank?  Design and print a new one!

During the winter, my son lost the key for his piggybank. I tried to print a new one this January out of ABS, but that didn’t work. Today, he nagged me for another try, and with a little downsizeing, and PLA in my new Stepstuder, the key actually forced the pigs security system. Big win!

Hurray for snrk, dad and MakerBot hero!

I’ve been using a 1/16″ aluminum build surface on my Thing-O-Matic for weeks, with really good results. Now you can buy an aluminum platform from Makerbot, and cover it with wide Kapton tape for the ultimate build surface. I’ve been using this combination on my Cupcake CNC for a while, and it is great: parts adhere really well and there is no warping. (Top tip: wipe the platform with acetone before printing for even better adhesion.)

However, this poses a challenge: sometimes parts stick to the platform so well that it can take a real effort, and a lot of force, to get them off. On the Cupcake, I would just detach the build platform and lever the piece loose. However, on the Thing-O-Matic, the platform is fixed, and you end up applying a lot of force to the X&Y platform as you try to release the piece.

One solution is to just double up the aluminum plate, and hold it on with bulldog clips, as described here. However, I went for a quicker solution in the short term.

Wing nut holding heated build platform for easy removal

I just put M3 wing nuts on the bolts holding the platform (you only really need 4, one on each corner, not 6). When I’m done printing, I can just detach the HBP connector (power off first!) and quickly unscrew the wing nuts. This allows for easy access to the printed piece from all sides, plus I can apply quite a bit of force without affecting the structure of the Thing-O-Matic.

At some point, I’d love to see a quick release mechanism for the Thing-O-Matic platform, like this one, but for now this is really saving me a lot of time and effort.

CRASHspace will be hosting the L.A. MakerBot monthly meeting.  Bring your MakerBot, RepRap, or other DIY 3D printer to work on, print with, or just show off.  If you don’t have one yet, it’s a great chance to see a 3D printer in action and learn more.

At 7:30 PM will be a MakerBot 101 class – learn the history of 3D printing and how to print with a MakerBot.  This is a hands-on workshop and everyone gets a chance to print something to take home. Space is limited to 5 seats. More information on the MakerBot 101 class here.

Sunday, May 15th 2011
2pm – 5pm L.A. MakerBot Monthly Meeting
7:30pm MakerBot 101 Class

CRASHspace
10526 Venice Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
(424) 241-3379

Get scanned by MakerBot Artist-in-Residence Kyle McDonald at the 3rd Ward MakerBot Make-A-Thon

MakerBot User Group New York – it’s time to meetup!

The 3rd Ward MakerBot Make-A-Thon is your chance to meet other MakerBot users, print awesome 3D objects and even a 3D portrait of yourself.

MakerBot Artist-in-Residence Kyle McDonald will be presenting his work turning the Xbox Kinect into a 3D Scanner. He will scan you in his 3D Photo Booth, then print you using the MakerBot.

Learn more about Kyle McDonald’s Xbox Kinect hack in this 3rd Ward blog post.

Bring your MakerBots and your favorite objects for a MakerBot user show and tell.

Giveaways! There will be giveaways, including LEDs!

MakerBot User Group New York

As a special treat this week while we compile and film follows up to your questions from earlier in the week, we share a quick mini-doc featuring a project MakerBot Operator Michael Felix created with the assistance of the MakerBot BotFarm and MakerBot BotFarm guru Herb Hoover.

Michael, “Principal of Effalo,” was commissioned to create a gigantic geodesic dome for a high-energy music video directed by Emily Wormley for the song “Fireball” from upcoming album “Flux Outside”¹ from the band Royal Bangs. MakerBot Operator community members Mark Cohen, Aaron Double, and MakerBot staff members Herb Hoover, Keith Ozar, and David Neff helped Michael print and assemble what has to be, to date, the largest thing build mostly from MakerBot printed parts to date.

UPDATE: Rumors have it that this dome will find its way into the luggage of the MakerBot team heading over to MakerFaire Bay Area 2011. And Matt, who created the first video, already has a draft going for a supplementary video going into more of the practical how-to elements so you can build your own geodesic domes….

1. which probably raises different associations for this readership than elsewhere [↩]