Airing this Tuesday, June 18, on NPR’s All Tech Considered  and on NPR.org’s website, will be a feature on Robohand, the amazing story of a mechanical hand printed with a MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer. The hand was designed for those who have lost or were born without fingers. The original concept and design was created by a two-man team separated by 10,000 miles: Ivan Owen, a prop master from Washington State, and Richard Van As, a master carpenter from Johannesburg, South Africa.

As part of the Robohand Project, one of MakerBot’s lead designers, Michael Curry, worked with Rich and Ivan to refine the assembly instructions. Together, they were able to make the assembly easier and make a derivative Robohand almost entirely 3D printed without hardware.  While Michael’s snap-together version might not be quite as durable as the original Robohand, it is pretty amazing. Moreover, Michael Curry’s version demonstrates the power of 3D printing and the 3D printing community who work together to make lives a little better. You can check it out on Thingiverse.

“The goal of this is to be a point of departure for experimentation,” says Michael Curry. “I want to see designers create better, more ambitious Robohands.” Check your local listings for the show’s airtime on a NPR station near you.

The MakerBot Replicator 2 is coming to Amazon.com! MakerBot Desktop 3D Printers will now be available on Amazon’s recently launched online 3D printing store. As an official reseller of MakerBot Desktop 3D Printers, Amazon will offer a limited number of the top-selling 3D printers later this month.

We are excited to see Amazon embracing 3D printing and devoting an online store to the technology.  To learn more, click here.

NEW TO THE FAMILY
You’ve asked for them, and now they are here. Introducing MakerBot’s True Blue, True Black, and True Purple PLA Filament. We have loaded these colors into the Replicator 2s in our office, and the results are gorgeous.

We love PLA for the MakerBot Replicator 2 because it is luscious to work with. It performs well with minimal peeling, curling or shrinking; it’s an environmentally friendly, renewable bioplastic made from corn; and it smells nice! Our entire Filament library is now fully stocked, with no lead time on shipping. Take a look and order today.

VOTE!
Since the MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer launched last September, requests for new Filament colors have gone through the roof.  We’re developing a range of new colors to meet this demand and want to hear from you! Cast a vote for the colors you want to see, and we’ll follow your lead. Happy 3D printing.

A few weeks ago, MakerBot TV producer Annelise brought you the amazing story of the Robohand, a mechanical hand designed for those who have lost or were born without fingers. As the Robohand’s fame has spread all around the world, people have been emailing its creators, Rich and Ivan, volunteering their time and their MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer to make Robohands for those in need.

Rich was bombarded with requests for hands, but his reach was limited to his native South Africa. Now one volunteer, Jon Schull, has created the “Helping Hands Database,” an interactive map that allows MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer owners to volunteer. Submissions have been coming in from France, Australia, Germany, Spain, New Zealand, and from all over the United States. You can print your own Robohand by downloading the design off of Thingiverse.

It’s that time of year again when people who make things and people who make things that make things come together in a giant festival of fun and education. Maker Faire!

This year, we at MakerBot are thrilled to share space with one of the hands down leaders in 3D design software, Autodesk. Our partnership was first announced at SXSW, where we showed off 3D printed figures that were masterfully designed in Autodesk’s 123D Creature app and made with a MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer. This month, the integrations and collaborations deepen, and Maker Faire is the place to see it all.

Come join us at the Autodesk booth, #120, to see what’s new. There will be a showcase “Fix It” wall of some everyday things designed with Autodesk software and printed on MakerBots. You’ll also see a special edition MakerBot Replicator 2, with a custom faceplate and build plate designed exclusively for sale through Autodesk. It looks awesome!

MakerBot and Autodesk products have gotten closer, too. Now you can design something in Autodesk 123D Design, 123D Make, or 123D Catch and use the “Print to MakerBot” button right inside the app. This is a huge step for a 3D modeling program. We’re excited it will be even easier for people to design great things and hold them in no time.

Autodesk is offering sweet membership packages for the 123D apps that include discounts on a MakerBot purchase, or even the custom MakerBot Replicator 2 shown above. Here’s how the memberships break down.

123D Premium membership – Buy a membership to the 123D app suite and get a promo code toward purchasing a MakerBot Replicator 2 via 123Dapp.com.

1 year membership, includes $40 promo code toward MakerBot purchase – $99.99
2 year membership, includes $90 promo code toward MakerBot purchase – $189.99

123D Premium membership Bundle – Bundle your 123D Premium membership with the custom Autodesk edition of the MakerBot Replicator 2, and get additional MakerBot PLA filament with your purchase.

1 year membership, includes MakerBot Replicator 2 and one additional 1kg spool of PLA – $2,249.99
2 year membership, includes MakerBot Replicator 2 and three additional 1kg spools of PLA – $2,299.99

Get started here: www.123Dapp.com

You know you’re doing something right when MoMA likes your designs!

We’re proud to announce that some 3D-printed pieces from the MakerBot Design Team have been chosen for a special collection at the MoMA Design Store called Destination: NYC — Made in the USA. For those who don’t know, MoMA is the Museum of Modern Art here in New York. The organization has been shining a light on local designers in cities around the world in its Destination: Design series.

Sometimes pieces in the series become top selling items at MoMA Design Stores. At MakerBot, we hope the innovative artists and designers who see our items will be inspired to use 3D printing in their own work. Here’s the set of items all together, including a customized MakerBot Mix Tape and MakerBot Watch designed just for MoMA, along with a bunch of pieces reflecting iconic places and objects in NYC.

Get your hands on these now! The whole Destination: NYC series, including pieces from other amazing local designers, is available from now through August only at MoMA Store locations in New York and Tokyo, as well as online at MoMAstore.org, MoMAonlinestore.co.kr, and MoMAstore.jp.

The full press release is available at the end of this post.

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We’re kicking off a series of updates regarding the MakerBot Digitizer, the Desktop 3D Scanner we launched as a prototype at SXSW. Why weekly updates? Because we want you in on the action.

Our central goal with the Digitizer is to make an affordable 3D scanner that works perfectly with our Desktop 3D Printers. We don’t want scans that you have to clean up and cut flat surfaces into. Off the scanner, into the printer. We know that’s what you want, so that’s what we’re working toward.

Here we go! The first couple of models we have to share are both pretty famous at this point: our Garden Gnome and the Stanford Bunny.

We’re getting some pretty good detail on the scans. The gnome’s beard and suspenders show this off nicely. Again, this is the scan directly from the MakerBot Digitizer, without any repairs to the outer surface.

And here’s the Stanford Bunny.

This is an exciting scan. The bunny’s ears were captured perfectly, with no extra material between them. We look for good results like this that show deep crevices on an object.

Stay tuned for more updates on the MakerBot Digitizer. We also have an email list that you can sign up for at makerbot.com/digitizer. When you’re there, be sure to tell us what you’d scan, and keep your feedback coming in the comments.

MakerBot MakerWare, our 3D printing software package, is an integral part of the MakerBot 3D Ecosystem. Powerful software helps us take the most advantage of our powerful desktop 3D printing and scanning products, as well as developments in our ABS and PLA filament. In other words, MakerWare is a huge factor in print quality.

Our goal is to constantly improve print quality, so how do we make sure that we are constantly improving MakerWare? Above is a picture of one print from our multi-stage testing process. We thought you’d like to know more about how we measure our progress and keep moving forward.

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Here’s some great weekend news for all of you sitting on the fence:

Order your MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer or today, and you’ll have it in 4 (yes, four) weeks.

We’ve been working really hard to deliver carefully, professionally assembled 3D printers quickly to meet the incredible demand. In the past couple of months, we’ve managed to bring down our lead time from 8 weeks to 4.

Buy one today, and then 4 weeks plus 2 hours from now show us what you made! Tweet us @makerbot with #firstprint.

Well that didn’t take long.

A few days ago we and our good friends over at Adafruit announced a limited Adafruit edition of the MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer available for sale. The whole batch sold out in 33 hours. Sweet!

As others have pointed out, this makes total sense. Adafruit customers are total DIY heroes who would naturally want to make their own customized enclosures and components.  You know what’s perfect for doing that? A MakerBot. Boom.

Right now you can pick up three of Adafruit’s most popular kits at the MakerBot Store in NYC: TimeSquare, RasPi, and MintyBoost. To sweeten the deal, we’ve launched our own special designs for the enclosures for these three kits, seen in the photo above, on our own Thingiverse page.

Buy these kits! Download these enclosures! Log an “I Made One” on Thingiverse!