MakerBot Industries

Under the guidance of Professors Alberto Valero PhD and Juan Gonzalez PhD, students at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid have been taking advantage of an optional seminar, which focuses on the study of 3D design and printing. Using Open Source tools, this new program is the first of its kind in Spain, and the early returns have been tremendous.

Studying OpenSCAD for designing, and building a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic (named Madre) for printing, students have been looking at how to create and improve upon robotic mechanisms. Inspired by items on Thingiverse, the students have been printing their designs for over three months, eight hours per day, and to date, have gone through over 12kg of plastic! They have even been using it more than their industrial 3D printer. Professor Valero summed it up pretty well: “THIS IS PLASTIC VALLEY.”

You can see a sampling of their work on Thingiverse, under the tag, UC3M. One of the more challenging projects for now and for the future has been to take obijuan‘s MiniSkyBot and make adjustments to make it capable of moving through a sand box.

After a successful introduction to 3D design and printing, the university will soon be expanding to include even more classes, and MakerBots! One class in particular, “Designing and Printing of Mechanical Parts with Open Source Tools’ for the Robotics and Automation Master program looks very promising. Based on what we’ve seen so far, we have high hopes for the program’s future!

Caterpillator by Olalla

This is a printable caterpillar robot with gear wheels and links -kind of tank-like ;) . This is part a project developed in the UC3M university in which we are designing printable robots. Here, we have together all the pieces that form this robot, but you can have a look at the different parts pages to see some other people modifications -specially at the links. Take into account that this is a work in progress.Though this robot works as it is designed now, it can be improved a lot -and this is in what we are working right now. Some of the pieces -in their own pages- are parametrized, while others are still pending. Designers: Olalla Bravo thingiverse.com/olalla Daniel Gómez thingiverse.com/dannynoc A special thank you to Obijuan thingiverse.com/obijuan for printing us the pieces, providing useful advice and remarking us some obvious design mistakes and, in general, leading us into the nerdy way =p . Another thank you also to our other professor Alberto, for his advice,patience and invitations to have some coffee. Individual pages for the pieces: Gear wheels and links: thingiverse.com/thing:7209 Chassis: thingiverse.com/thing:7681 Parametric gear wheels: thingiverse.com/thing:7794 UPDATE: We've got a video of the robot in motion!!youtu.be/gRsKRrQQHos Update 4/13 23:52 The chassis now includes four drills in order to hold the PIC with the micro that controls the servos above the chassis. Also, the hole that it had so that some material could be saved has been removed in order to sustain better the PIC. Update 4/14 14:08 Added the parametric version of the gear wheels that we are using in the design. Update 4/20 00:28 The comments of the links scad file have been translated into English. I hope this will help to understand better the code and that it will make easier modifications of the file.

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Sylvan Heumann, or Syl by those who know him, has always been at the forefront of designing, using, and adapting new technology. Like many MakerBot operators, he was born “with an intense curiosity about how stuff works.” This insatiable appetite just had to be fed. And fed. And fed. From acquiring his Ham Radio license in 1950, to building his very own computer (IMSAI 8080) in 1976, he’s never shied away from the latest and greatest. It’s no surprise that he just added a Thing-O-Matic (assembled it himself of course) to his workshop.

Syl’s journey into the world of fabrication did not begin in school. Studying Business Administration, and pursuing a career outside of the sciences, Syl relied on his own devices to get his creative fix; he built up his workshop, which in addition to his Thing-O-Matic, consists of a beautiful lathe, a CNC mill, electronic test equipment, and a plethora of other gizmos and gadgets. He’s taken on photography, boating, and even flying.

Over the years Syl has designed and built engines, argon lasers, and countless other projects, but his long term interest has been telescope design and accessories. He’s taken some absolutely gorgeous images of the moon with a telescope and digital camera.

So what does he have in store for his MakerBot?

[My] main motivation in building the Bot was to understand the technology. But I have amazed some of my friends with a few of the items from Thingiverse! Right now, I am making Coke can holders for a friend’s boat.

Less than two weeks ago, Syl turned 86 years young (can anyone top that?), and when he’s not working on his next project, he can be found cruising down the highways of California in his Ferrari F430. What does he have to say to all of those tinkerers, hobbyists, inventors, and designers out there?

My advice – when something doesn’t work or you don’t understand it, never quit trying. Put it aside for a short while, but come back and try again until you dominate. Never shy away from getting help. The satisfaction will erase all the frustration!

It’s quite clear that Syl has put an enormous amount of time into educating himself and pushing the limits of DIY. He is an inspiration to us all and we thank Syl for being a MakerBot Operator and friend to the community!

Pencil Case for Exactly 10 Pencil

After my daughter and I were drawing the other day I commented to my wife how cool it would be to carry around a few colored pencils of my own for when I feel like doodling or sketching. ^1 2  A few days later she presented me with an excellent selection of 10 short colored pencils that were duplicates from my daughter’s collection. ³⁴⁵⁶⁷

However, now that I had these ten little pencils, I was faced with the challenge of how to carry them around.  After measuring them with my trusty calipers, I found they were 7mm from flat side to flat side on a cross-section.  The above design uses a “width” of 7.2mm, which has resulted in an excellent fit.  Each of the pencils falls/slides easily into a vacant hexagonal slot.  The printed cap could be printed by increasing the “width” of the pencils.  ⁸  I’ve included the OpenSCAD file for anyone to peruse.  Before you try to render it, please note it uses the MCAD library of shapes for OpenSCAD to create the hexagons. ⁹

Without my trust Thing-O-Matic at the ready, I would never be able to find the perfect little pencil case for these pencils.  And, not taken a very large sample reading of other pencils¹⁰ I wouldn’t even know if a case for other pencils would fit these little ones.  Perhaps my favorite part about this design is that when you slide these little pencils into the case, you just know this case was custom made for these ten pencils.¹¹

Pencil Case for 10 Pencils by MakerBlock

A simple pencil case for exactly 10-pencils. *** Here's my set up: * Thing-O-Matic ( store.makerbot.com/makerbot-thing-o-matic.html ) * Stock Teflon coated 0.5mm nozzle ( store.makerbot.com/catalogsearch/result/?q=nozzle+teflon ) * MakerBot PLA, 3mm ( store.makerbot.com/pla-4043d-1kg-spool-3mm.html ) * Automated Build Platform ( store.makerbot.com/automated-build-platform.html ) * Settings from my ProfileMaker ( makerblock.com/profilemaker/ ) Extruder at 188C, ABP heated to 80C, a 40mm ducted extruder fan ( thingiverse.com/thing:8955 ), 0.36mm layer height, and the sides of my 'bot enclosed with white paper to reduce drafts

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1. As opposed to working. [↩]
2. Which is pretty much always. [↩]
3. She’ll never miss them. [↩]
4. In part because she has so many.  In part because it will still be a year before she can read and a few more years until she could find this blog post. [↩]
5. “Those pencils, honey?  Oh, those are daddy’s pencils.” [↩]
6. Actually, I already know what the true price of these pencils will be.  My daughter will request her own little pencil case – which I will be only too happy to print for her. [↩]
7. “What color, honey?”  “Pink!  PINK!“ [↩]
8. The cap pictured is from the prior draft print. [↩]
9. If only someone would get off their bum and write a tutorial about OpenSCAD libraries! [↩]
10. That is to say I didn’t measure any others… [↩]
11. You probably know, but in case you don’t: – bespoke. [↩]

Here’s something a bit different: a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic features prominently in Adri Schokker’s installation “Reconstruction of a Catastrophe.”  As you can see in this video, the the Thing-O-Matic is used in conjunction with a novel video interface to create human figures for the installation.

The piece deals with the human connection to disastrous events; it uses the MakerBot-created items to actually place the viewer in the recreated scene.  The piece is not graphic, but the relationship it creates to the piece is an uncomfortable one for the viewer; it’s a bit darker than most of the projects we share here, so use your judgment before showing it to younger people.  That said, this is an innovative and thoughtful piece of art; we’re glad that a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic helped in its creation.

As many of you here in New York know, the Afro-Punk Festival is coming up this weekend, and we’ve been busy getting ready by scanning some of the awesome people who are involved.

The concert has a great lineup, including Brooklyn’s own Das Racist and Toro y Moi.  And best of all, we’ve managed to convince a few of these very cool-looking people to sit and be scanned, including DJ Dances with White Girls (above) and Jahka of Ninjasonik (below.)

We’ll be at the show printing some of these scans in UV-reactive plastic, so look for our booth if you’re there.  Hopefully no upcoming weather events will interfere…

Jahka by Afro-Punk

Jahka - Ninja Sonic

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Turtle Shell Racer by Skimbal

Weeks ago my daughter came to me with a toy catalog to show me a pink kitchen set she wanted. ¹  I suggested that she use her existing pink kitchen set.  She pointed out that this particular kitchen set had a microwave where hers did not.  I offered that she and I could design and print one to go with her existing set.  She responded that she would need it large enough to match the rest of her set.  I explained that one of the only people I knew who was capable of printing something that large was Michael Curry and that we might need to ask him.

Fast forward to yesterday after work.  She wanted to draw plans for things we could print on our Thing-O-Matic.  One of her requests was a blender.  We drew one and then she asked if we could really print it.  I suggested that we could – but that we’d need to do it in big pieces and might need to ask Webca for help.

Then she piped up, “Or Michael Curry.”

Webca, Michael Curry – you guys are heroes in our house. 

1. By way of context, my daughter is a little over four years old. [↩]

The tireless innovators of blablabLAB are taking it to the streets again, this time in Stortorget (that’s “the Main Square” for us anglo-speakers) of Malmö, Sweden, this Thursday and Friday, August 25th and 26th.  If you’re hanging out in Malmö, and you haven’t seen the blablabLAB “Be Your Own Souvenir” project, or just want to see some Thing-O-Matics in action, head on over.  Hopefully there’ll also be a korvkiosk so you can pick up a tunnbrödsrulle…

The awesome folks over at blablabLAB just took their show on the road to Romania, where they continued their “Be Your Own Souvenir” project, this time printing the scans on their brand-new Thing-O-Matics!

Check out the video about their project here.

They sent along a few pictures, and I’m struck by the fact that this looks like a very fun event.  More photos after the jump!

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One-line portrait of a MakerBot by Yao Xiao

Here’s an amazing one-line drawing of a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic by Yao Xiao.  Fluid and evocative, this single-line drawing does an amazing job of conveying the essence of a 3D printer.  But, I wonder…

Who’s ready to upload a Unicorn pen plotter TSP single-line drawing of Yao Xiao to Thingiverse?

Thanks to Molly Crabapple for the tip!¹

1. Get your own Molly Crabapple here! [↩]

Michael Curry's display at Detroit Maker Faire 2011

It’s little wonder that Michael Curry, of the Cowtown Computer Congress, was the recipient of an Awesome Award at this year’s Detroit Maker Faire for showing off his Mario Cart racing cars (with remotes!), Christmas Lego men, Bathtub U-Boat, and a Portal sentry turret.

Thanks to Jon Speicher for the photo!