Broken headband, fixed headband

Days before Christmas my daughter brought me her favorite headband.  With teary eyes and a quavering voice she explained that something had rolled over headband, cracking it.  The green ribbon had unraveled and the broken plastic interior had a clean break and was clearly beyond repair.  After helping her dry her eyes I told her I would see what I could do.

After about five minutes of measuring the broken pieces and some quick and dirty OpenSCAD design, I had a file ready for my Replicator. ¹  I had my daughter sit with me as I unwrapped the ribbon from the broken plastic insert and re-wrapped it around the new printed headband insert.  I ended up having to twist and destroy one of the larger pieces of the original plastic insert to get it completely out of the tightly wrapped ribbon.

Besides learning with her about how her headband was manufactured and what could be done to repair it, we discovered how easy it would be to create an entirely new headband using another plastic insert and some ribbon.  I think my favorite part of the process came when I told her that I would have to destroy the remaining part of the original insert in order to “remake” the headband.  While a simple clean crack was enough to evoke tears, she didn’t flinch at the prospect of watching her headband further deteriorate so we could create a new one.

1. Due to the size of the headband and its low footprint, I had to use several “mouse ears” to keep it adhered to the build platform while printing.  If you’re not designing your parts with these handy little additions, you may want to give this a shot. [↩]

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?”

Untitled by MakerBlock

This thing brought to you by

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.

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.

Untitled by gwygonik

This thing brought to you by

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!

Untitled by jag

This thing brought to you by