MakerBot Industries

DocProfSky Gets a Thing-O-Matic

Those of us who had the pleasure of seeing Schuyler “DocProfSky’s” iGNiTe Phoenix presentation “Why I Love My 3D Printer” a few weeks ago are thrilled to see the above photo and an update from DocProfSky’s dad:

Can you say Thing-O-Matic? @DocProfSky now can!

Schuyler, we can’t wait to see what you will do with two 3D printers at your disposal!

Tim Bartlett Grabbing Visuals for SXSW Dorkbot/Ignite 2011 at NYCR

MakerBot friend Tim Bartlett¹ came over to Craft Night at NYC Resistor last week to shoot real time visuals for a little performance this coming Friday in Austin, Texas.

He is the real-time video artist for the band Ghost Ghost, who will be the house band for the Dorkbot/Ignite event in Austin Music Hall, opening night of a wee festival called SXSW Interactive….

Thanks to  Matt Mets for his late, late night assistance hacking on old pen plotters to get more visuals! And to NYCR for welcoming Tim in and sharing oscilloscopes and laser-cutters. And to Keith Ozar for helping us setup and experiment.

Check out this video post card that features some of the visuals he captured on MakerBots.

1. Thanks for lending us your Canon 7D for so many MakerBot videos! [↩]

Schuyler St. Leger’s iGNiTe Phoenix presentation was such a hit here at the BotCave and around the world, that it deserves a repost now that it’s in HD quality and edited to enhance the experience! Schuyler’s presentation was so successful he received a first ever iGNiTe Phoenix standing ovation, and the original video went viral and now has over 56,000 plays. Check it out- Thanks Schuyler and iGNiTe!

4 happy MakerBots a MakerBotting at Modelab

Four 3D printers lit in three colors printing in three colors of plastic at Modelab.  That’s just pretty.

A hacker-friendly sea change of little CupCake CNCs

MaximumPC Magazine has unleashed its expose on MakerBot Industries online! If you’ve been wondering about the origins of MakerBot, or are exploring how to take a design from idea to printed object, this is a fast orientation with the links you’ll need. The MaximumPC guys talk about their build- from design, to the output of a branded 3D product. Somehow they lucked out and were in the BotCave the exact time Webca released his printed MakerBot on Thingiverse, so there’s a quick telling of that event, and some other stories about MakerBot. Thanks to MaximumPC for coming to the BotCave and a cool article!

Mark de Vinck's cat Chester helps install the X and Y stage

Did you just get your Cupcake CNC in the mail? Is it sitting in your living room, unopened, waiting for your attention? Are you a little nervous about opening it and putting it together?

Have no fear, Make Magazine is here! Mark de Vinck has completed his 13-part series on how to MakerBot. Comments and questions are encouraged and welcomed!

• Part 1: Introduction & background
• Part 2: Unboxing
• Part 3: Electronics
• Part 4: Update & burning the bootloaders
• Part 5: Pulley & enclosure finishing
• Part 6: Building the enclosure
• Part 7: Building the Y-stage and adjusting the Z-stage
• Part 8: Building the X stage
• Part 9: Installing the X & Y stages
• Part 10: Building and installing the Z stage
• Part 11: Building the plastruder & testing
• Part 12: Installing the electronics & software
• Part 13: First print!

Thanks for this excellent series, Mark! All we need now is a how-to on the Thing-o-matic…

How many bots could you build if you were building bots in Belgium?

On October 9 – 10, 2010 Timelab.org and Wim Vandeputte¹ ran a MakerBot build weekend at the “IF … Innovation Festival Kortrijk” during the “Yes! We’re Open” expo by Thomas Lommee in Kortrijk, Belgium.  Lots people registered and showed up to assemble MakerBots during this two-day festival.  By the end of the weekend they had 11 fully operational MakerBots!

Bart Grimonprez and several design students from the HoWest design group cut a transparent amber acrylic case.  Lieven Standaert modified the MakerBot Cupcake designs to work with 5 mm plywood, which is easier to obtain in Belgium. ²

One of the winners of the MakerBot Teacher Giveaway³ Walter Janssens from the Karel de Grote-Hogeschool assembled a MakerBot from scratch with the help of a large group to give him a head start for when his ‘bot arrives.

1. Seen here standing next to his MakerBot, “Pinky” [↩]
2. They promise the design files will be up on Thingiverse once it’s up and running! [↩]
3. We gave away MakerBots, not teachers [↩]

The temperature is dropping, and so are the leaves. That can only mean one thing – Halloween is ominously looming. To get you in the spirit of the season, we want you to design Halloween things – anything ghoulish, spooky, creepy, and cool. Be creative! Blow us away with your innovations.

A few parameters

1. Must be .stl file uploaded to Thingiverse and tagged with “Halloween”
2. Must be a new design as of 8 October, 2010
3. Deadline is Monday, October 18th at 11:11 p.m.
4. Must be innovative, spooky, and and printable with a MakerBot
5. Bonus points for requiring the Makerbot 3D Scanner v1.0 Kit, Unicorn, or Automated Build Platform

The best designs will be judged by our expert panel of holiday spirit guides, and creators of the best designs will receive a one pound roll of ABS!

Looking for inspiration? Check out some of these spooky designs already up on Thingiverse:

Whoodoo Box by Whystler

Spider ring by builttospec

Halloween smilie bob by deherzog

Ghost Bookmark by Mark A

Eyeball Monster by Zomboe

MakerBot Operators are not afraid to hack their bots. This machine out of the Robots and Dinosaurs hackerspace appears to use the relay component in a 200-in-one kit instead of a relay board. Bonus points for the green tape. More bonus points for the Spaghetti Monster themed MakerBot decorations!

Did you ever print something on your MakerBot and love it so much that you wanted to cast it in bronze?

That’s exactly what Livejournal user and designer jarkman did recently.

Lost-wax casting is a 5,000 year-old process. Back in the day, it was used used to turn hand-made sculptures into permanent bronze or brass pieces. It gets its name from the part of the process where a hollow wax cast is burned out from a fire-proof mold, or “lost” during the casting.

In this case, jarkman printed his design with the standard MakerBot ABS plastic, instead of shaping it from wax. The plastic seemed to burn out just fine. Check out this step-by-step picture gallery to see how to transform your latest MakerBot print into metal!

What would you cast in bronze from your MakerBot? Tell us in the comments below!