MakerBot Industries

Pirate Hook by SuperAmi

Thingiverse citizen and MakerBot dad SuperAmi has shared what is sure to be a Halloween favorite – a parametric pirate hook!  One of the most amusing things about this picture is that it really looks like SuperAmi’s son is running at top speed.  In my family the refrain of “You’ll put your eye out!” has been passed down through generations.  I can just picture this pirate tyke responding, “No I won’t!  I’m wearing an eyepatch!”

Parametric Pirate Hook by SuperAmi

This is a parametric pirate hook I made for my son's birthday party. It fits the paw of a 4-5 year old very well. It consists of three prints, the cup for around the hand, the hook, and then the grip and joining piece. My son really likes it, although the hook is a little primitive. I've included the SCAD. The cup file is parametric, and while not greatly laid out, it should be easy enough to scale up or down. Its also relatively tall, and could easily be shortened by a centimeter or two. The other files are not parametric, because I was in a hurry, but they should be easy enough to adjust.

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Mechanical Animals by sconine

Thingiverse citizen sconine has just shared some really amazing toy mechanical animals.  Colorful, playful, and whimsical, each of these hand crank toys is sure to delight a child. ^1 2  Guaranteed not to wet the carpet, bite, or require you to let them out in the middle of the night these creatures would make excellent pets for any kid.  Interestingly, since the coolest instances of these toys is with multiple colored components in each toy, this is one of the few multi-piece prints that would not be well suited for printing plates!  I especially like how each of these toys has a distinctive motion to them.  I can’t wait to see what other little mechanical toys Sconie shares!

Also, over the last two weeks or so I’ve gotten into the habit of handing out imaginary and arbitrary points.  10,000 awesome MakerBot dad points to Sconine!

Mechanical Animals by sconine

These are 3 different machanical animals. They are all pretty basic mechanical devices that turn rotary motion into more of a linear motion. My kids (and their friends) have gotten a real kick out of them. I drew them all in sketchup.Jumping Prairie Dog Turn the crank and make the prairie dog jump up and down.Diving Dolphin Turn the crank and watch the dolphin dive through the waves.Wood Pecker Turn the crank and see the wood pecker peck away. (This was originally posted as a pecking bird, but my kids all call it the woodpecker, so I'm putting it up as part of this collection).

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1. Or, as in my case… the child-like. [↩]
2. They are also very reminiscent of the popular Trammel of Archimedes [↩]

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. [↩]

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. [↩]

Gardening wire frame clip (the printed one is on top)

My wife and daughter planted a little summer garden recently.  This little garden in large parts is surrounded by some tall green metal wire frames for providing support to growing plants and provides some minor protection against very large animals and small children.  The wire frame support kit, as you might imagine, came with the exact number of the little plastic clips used to assemble the structure.  In it’s third year of use, we finally lost one of those little clips.

And now I had an excuse to bring out my calipers, whip up some OpenSCAD code, and fire up the 3D printer.  Admittedly, I spent more time than was reasonably required to over-engineer the result.  Since these little clips were going to be in use throughout the summer and be visible the entire time, I wanted a design that would match the originals as closely as possible.  After printing out a test piece in black, I printed another forty or so in clear PLA.  These new parts look as good and work just as well as the originals and are biodegradable to boot.

It’s a funny thing, living in a post-3D printing world.  I certainly don’t want to misplace any of the original plastic clips the wire frame set came with.  However, losing a little widget is no longer a cause for alarm, some expensive replacement, or a temporary fix with duct tape/zip tie/twist tie.  While duct tape and zip ties have their place, being able to create a permanent fix for a problem is a pretty amazing thing.

Gardening Wire Clip by MakerBlock

My wife planted a small garden in pots in our backyard. This is a replacement plastic clip for the wire frames.

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Here’s a great video of Schuyler and his dad at Maker Faire! Got a story to relate about using a MakerBot with your kids or parents? We’d love to hear those stories! Drop us a note!

3D Printing for Fathers Day!

This is an unheard-of 3D Printing bargain, the likes of which shock even me, your dear narrator. On Sunday 6/18, The CupCake CNC Ultimate Kit is dropping to a brain-freezingly low price. We love the CupCake CNC and know what a st/deal this is, so take advantage and get one soon! These are the last units of the CupCake, and we have run out of space for them here at the BotCave. Yesterday an avalanche of printed parts temporarily blocked access to the bathroom, and the decision was made. “Sell, sell, sell!” called Commander Bre. The big wheel keep on turning, and Fathers Day is looming! So get cracking and get the all-time best bargain in DIY 3D printing history. It’s everything you need to get started 3D Printing with a fun build, a great device, and a great Fathers Day gift! This is a limited time offer so carpe diem!

Here at the support desk, we like to ask our customers what they’re going to be using their MakerBots for, and every once in awhile, you get a fantastic answer.  I was helping one customer out recently (Andrew) and here’s what he said when I asked him about his plans:

The next things I’m planning on scanning are parts for my classic car (a la Leno), and more importantly, scanning my kids!

Now I am all for scanning your children — after all they’re growing and they won’t be small for very long; I think all of us will be scanning our children very soon (if we’re not already.)  But I have to admit that I was a bit more intrigued by the car stuff.  So that’s what I asked about…to which Andrew replied:

The car I’m printing parts for is attached in this mail (internal door lock parts, plus a few impossible to get bits). I’m scanning one side of the car, mirror, then print, you get the idea.

That’s when he sent this photo of the 356 Speedster.  Well, apparently the Thing-O-Matic isn’t the coolest toy in Andrew’s household, but it gives me a warm feeling inside just knowing that our humble little machines are helping keep something like that in good running order.

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 wanted to make sure our 8 month old son felt welcome in our new home, and what better way than by putting his name on the door of his room in Makerbotted letters!

I looked on Thingiverse, where there are more than a few sets of letters for blocks and for including in OpenSCAD, but it turns out that it is super-easy to make 3D extruded letters in Sketchup.

1. Download and install Google Sketchup, if you haven’t already.
2. Make sure you have an STL export plugin installed. I use this one but there are others.
3. Start Sketchup
4. Go to the Tools menu and select 3D text
5. Type your text (it can be a single letter)
6. For your dimensions, 0.075m for height will fit nicely in a Makerbot. 0.01 extrusion is good to start with.
7. Press the Place button
8. Select your letter, and find the STL export option. If you used the plugin I linked to, it’s in the Tools menu.
9. Select millimeters as your export unit
10. Select STL as your export format
11. Open the STL in ReplicatorG
12. Use the Move button, and then Center + Put On Platform to get it all lined up
13. Print!