MakerBot Industries

From the winner of the EvD iPhone accessory design competition, Thingiverse user aubenc, this beautiful picture of a MakerBot habitat. There’s a Thing-O-Matic on the desk in the back, and a Replicator with safety tags still attached in the foreground. I love that the picture has MakerBotted goodies around the room, including a full display of aubenc’s paper windmill design in many colors. Ferre and Kamil are also too engrossed in the planetary gears they just popped of The Replicator’s build platform to pose for a picture.

Also, in case you missed it, Jamie and Adam Tested had a featured video of those planetary gears in all their glory. This is one cool Tinkering Dad.

 

UPDATE: I just got schooled by our eagle-eyed support staff member Gavin. That is a Cupcake CNC in the background, not a Thing-O-Matic as I said. And it looks like that Cupcake is still running strong!

 

I’ve shared the video before of Toronto agency Teehan+Lax making its first thing on a MakerBot. Now they have a new video focused on a smart milk carton that alerts you when you’re running low on milk, and they prototyped it on a MakerBot.¹

 

On one hand, having a MakerBot gives you the power to create things for yourself, and Thingiverse is filled with thousands of examples. But then you have people who use it to create things for others, especially the first-through-tenth versions of a new thing. Teehan+Lax is not just making pretty things, but also real world products, with The Replicator. Sweet!

I would say, “this is going to become a trend,” but it already has. I just saw this post from twitter: the Swedish design group People People now have a Replicator, too.

We are finally up and running with our Makerbot Replicator! It will be a great tool for us making prototypes in the various stages of the design process.

 

Look how they’ve marked their Left and Right extruders. Let’s hope People People will be showing us some sweet Dualstrusion sometime soon! Speaking of, I’d love to know what colors design agencies use the most when they’re MakerBotting.

 

1. hat tip Shapeways Blog [↩]

If you enjoyed that delightful scone cutter video a little while back from TheNewHobbyist, whose work we’ve also featured here, here, here, and here, perhaps you’d like to see where this Thingiverse genius does his work. Looks like a happy home for a MakerBot, and this picture really gives a feel for the room. Chris seems to MakerBot by lamplight.

I’ll share these in the mornings now (that’s New York Time!), just as long as you all keep sharing them with me.

From John:

Check out this nice array of machines. On his blog, John writes that the Prusa Mendel (left) and the Tantillus (right) are both using parts made with his Thing-O-Matic. That’s a family photo if I’ve ever seen one! Thanks for sharing, John.

Shane Graber has another fantastic post on using a MakerBot for your aquarium hobby. In case you missed it, check out his last post about making various elements necessary for coral fragging. It’s so useful, and a great example of how a person can discover a new application for a MakerBot.

This latest article from Shane is helpful especially because of the cost comparison he provides. While you could buy a brine shrimp hatchery for “anywhere from $10 to $15,” you could easily make one using his design files and a MakerBot for around $2. If you need to make multiple hatcheries, that’s over 80% savings that could really add up.

The file is on Thingiverse here and the assembly is a breeze.

 

Another use for a MakerBot Shane has found is making your own sponge filters. The process for making this on your own is just as simple.

This sponge filter requires three components:

1. 3D printed base
2. A 8 inch length of 3/8 inch rigid airline tubing
3. Two zip ties
4. Porous sponge salvaged from an old powerhead or purchased from your local fish store

Download the model from Thingiverse and print it. Obtain the additional parts listed above and assemble it by pushing the rigid 3/8 inch airline tubing into the 3D printed base, wrap the sponge around the central tube, and then zip tie it into place. Now simply hook up your airline and air pump and you are done. Use it as you would any other sponge filter in your larval tanks.

What hobby do you use your MakerBot for? Tell me.

 

Virginia Tech has a vending machine in their College of Engineering that spits out dreams. This is my favorite thing for the day. Check out the VT DREAMS Lab to track more of their research. The group says they

are driven by a vision of the future wherein the layered fabrication techniques of today’s “rapid prototyping” technologies are of a maturity to be considered as viable platforms for the manufacture of end-use artifacts.

That reminds me of a conversation we were having on the blog last week about what makes a product “real”.

 

 

There’s a new post up at 3DPrinting@UMW, the blog about the MakerBotting adventures of a couple faculty members at University of Mary Washington in Virginia. I hope Tim won’t mind me nabbing his picture; this result from a Kinect scan is just too good.

 

The post says he sat in a spinning chair and turned slowly while the Kinect grabbed the image, and then used Christoph Heindl’s program ReconstructMe to turn the scan into a 3D mesh. The bust you see above was made on a TOM. Nice. It’s good enough for me to read the expression on Tim’s face, and I would bet he ruffled his shirt a bit to show how well the combination of Kinect, ReconstructMe, and a Thing-O-Matic could capture reality. Tim also gives fair credit to the pretty fantastic instructional video from our Tony Buser on how to clean up a model.

Also, I love this closing thought:

In many ways it feels like the advances being made in this field are so incredibly fast moving that it’s hard to keep up. The great thing is it feels closer to magic than reality, and how often do you get to say that about the work you do in higher education?

“Magic” seems to be a bit of a theme on this blog.

3D printing is one of the truly revolutionary things you can witness. I’m reminded of Arthur C. Clarke’s third law “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” While showing the devices to undergraduate art students in a sculpture class those words rang truer than ever as their eyes lit up in wonderment. The power to create objects in a virtual space, print them, and hold them in the physical is unbelievable.

I’m really looking forward to seeing what comes out of this group when they get their Replicator in the fall. Make on, UMW!

 

This does not require a funny quip. These Cornell students used a MakerBot to make the casing for their wrist watch.

But this isn’t an ordinary watch.

TicTocTrac is a wristwatch that doesn’t just keep time, but measures your perception of it, allowing you to track changes over the course of days or even months.

You’ll have to read their fantastic documentation to understand how exactly the watch captures your perception of time, rather than the progression of time. But I can tell you that they used our friend Jeremy Blum‘s MakerBot to print the case for their project.

Love it!

 

 

Okay, I’m not the only one getting truly excellent first prints out of The Replicator. Check this video from Teehan+Lax Labs in Toronto. This bust looked great right after they took the support material off, but beautiful after some quick finishing.

Design firms, you’re on notice. This is how it’s done.

 

Also, what are these gears for, guys?! So glad you’re off and running.

Printing gears off the @makerbot for our next project – bit.ly/KpJ9yN

— Teehan+Lax Labs (@tllabs) May 10, 2012

 

You gotta love this. Have you heard about the Pebble Watch? Eric Migicovsky’s company Pebble has raised a record-breaking $10 million+ on Kickstarter¹ — with a week left in its campaign — to produce its Bluetooth supported smart watch.

They thought they’d raise enough money to make 1,000 of these beautiful and highly sought after watches. Well, now it looks like they’ll have to produce 85,000. That’s a tall order, except that they say they’ll use The Replicator to help the production process.

The team has smashed the Kickstarter record for funding, and collected its initial goal of $100,000 in a matter of two hours, and had surpassed $200,000 within four hours.

The Pebble crew is a ten person startup, which Migicovsky says is working around the clock on perfecting the software. Regardless of the team’s heavy workload, Migicovsky assures that backers will receive a Pebble in the order in which they were purchased. In the future, says Migicovsky, the production phase will bolstered upon the purchase of a MakerBot replicator.

More proof that a MakerBot is an essential tool for the entrepreneur.

via Digital Trends

 

1. !!!!!!! [↩]