MakerBot Industries

ParentBots and their Robot Masters, living in harmony

Dr. Techniko recently posted a really great way to introduce kids to programming.  By having the children’s parents act like the robots and giving the children a “Robot Language Dictionary” of simple action commands, the children can write down instructions for their robots to carry out.  This is a fantastic way to teach kids planning, creative and logical thinking, and problem solving.  One of the amazing things about Dr. Techniko’s write-up is his descriptions of how the children will naturally develop and discovery certain programming practices such as parametrization, composition, abstraction, and testing all on their own!

If you want to try this out for yourself, Dr. Techniko has made the instructions and entire “Robot Language Dictionary” free to download!

A lot of MakerBot owners out there have kids. After all, the busy parent may understand best how sweet it is to set a print for a screwdriver, rather than making an extra stop at the hardware store after work.

One MakerBot parent out there may have inadvertently created the biggest superfan we’ve seen to date. World, meet Beckham.

Beck’s dad Joe got a Thing-o-Matic in January of this year and spent three weekends with his then 6-year-old son putting it together. Now two months later, Beck, having transitioned from the folly of youth to the practical, industrious, prime-numberness of 7, is “obsessed and that’s all he wants to do. … It’s makerbot 24-7.”

Need proof? Here’s a picture of Beck’s birthday cake, for which his mom iced out a picture of a Thing-o-Matic, complete with bunny print — by request.

So far the father-son duo have mostly explored objects available in Thingiverse, but lately Joe has tried his hand importing designs into Cinema4D. The printing is still supervised by parents, but Beck keeps a watchful eye to make sure everything is on track.

As it’s our great interest that MakerBot’s be used in educational settings, I couldn’t resist asking what Beck’s classmates think of the machine.

…it’s the first thing that he shows his friends, then he shows his collection of prints that he keeps in a special box. We haven’t brought the bot to school just yet, but he has brought pictures of the replicator as well as some prints to show and tell.

So Beck’s a big fan of the MakerBot. What kid wouldn’t be, right? Yes; but have you ever seen a 7-year-old react like this to a spool of plastic?

That type of enthusiasm is contagious, and exactly the reason why more kids should get their hands on a MakerBot. Are you a parent? Share your stories with us in the comments!

Bespoke Glowstick Connector

In some ways, it’s almost easy to take inspiration from something that’s right in front of you.  When asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest, George Mallory famously replied “Because it’s there.”  That mountain would always be there.  However, it’s at least as important to recognize when something isn’t there, to ask your self why something isn’t some other way.  Sometimes the answer is, no reason at all or that no one has thought of it before.

A few weeks ago my daughter was playing with glowsticks.  We had made necklaces, bracelets, hoops, and wands.  But, then she tried to tuck a single glowstick under the bracelet on her wrist.  Since her wrists are much smaller than the bracelet, they just slipped right out.  She asked whether we had any connectors that would allow her to attack the second glowstick at 90 degrees from the one on her wrist. ¹  My reply was, simply “No.”

I waited for a little while… hoping.  And then the question came, “Why don’t we have one?”

Thing-A-Day #7: Glowstick connector junction by MakerBlock

These are a tight fit for the glowsticks we have, so I shoved my needle nosed pliers in each aperture, rotated, and scraped the holes until the glowsticks fit. Story to be continued on the blog...

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1. Actually, she asked nothing of the sort.  She articulated it mostly by showing me what she wanted to do.  I described it for you, dear reader, as above since you have a better grasp of geometry than my 5-year-old. [↩]

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 [↩]

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.

[simple_series title="The Toothbrush Case Adventures"]

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

[simple_series title="The Toothbrush Case Adventures"]

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.

[simple_series title="The Toothbrush Case Adventures"]

…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: wp.me/p2hTaI-M 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.

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1. For, um, my kid. [↩]

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.

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Cardboard Dragon with 3D-printed feet

I can honestly say I didn’t understand just how cool these simple 3D printed feet were until I saw this picture.  Drawing an animal for a kid is one great.  But being able to turn that drawing into a toy for them to play with is just so much cooler.  Thingiverse user and MakerBot dad guru has provided his method for creating quick and fun characters for use with these plastic feet.  In the true spirit of Thingiverse, he’s also shared his OpenSCAD designs for printing your own feet.

Also, I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t mention SuperAmi‘s own game piece foot which serves a similar purpose. ¹

Feet for Cardboard-Figures by guru

I made some cardboard-figures from the delivery-boxes of a very famous book-seller and needed some feet. So i fired up my makerbot and printed some local-guru.net/blog/2011/10/12/Cardboard-Dragon-with-3D-printed-feet

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Game Piece Foot by SuperAmi

At the flee market this weekend I found a board game from my childhood, so of course, I bought it for my child. Unfortunately it was missing one of the plastic feet for the game pieces. So, I broke out the calipers and got scading. The piece is designed for the great game Mausefalle (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/25097/mausefalle), but it should work with little or no modification with many a great board game with cardboard cutout game pieces. (ie: Candy Land) Now I just need to find the rules for Mausfalle, since I don't remember how to get out of the mouse holes...

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1. I suppose, SuperAmi’s foot is for monopods and guru’s feet are for bipedal and quadrupedal creatures? [↩]