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!

The MakerBot and Adafruit communities are now even more intertwined! Customers at the MakerBot Store in Manhattan can pick up three of Adafruit’s top selling DIY kits, the Timesquare DIY Watch Kit, the MintyBoost Kit, and the ever popular Raspberry Pi. For enclosures, and for the watch band and bezel, customers will get files that can then be 3D printed on a MakerBot, which our very own designers cooked up just for this special promotion. They are awesome, and they can be seen in the image above (left to right: Timesquare Time Square, Mintyboost case, Raspberry Pi case, Timesquare Time Square again).

Over at Adafruit’s website, the premier destination for DIY kits and electronics, customers can buy a limited Adafruit edition MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3D Printer! It comes with the three kits mentioned above, as well as a sweet custom build plate (seen below).

Adafruit and their customers have been a huge part of the MakerBot world for a long time now. It’s a dream come true for us to be able to work with this awesome NYC company in this way. Get in on this!

Full details after the jump.

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MakerBot Replicator 2X Experimental 3D Printers have started shipping, so let’s talk a little bit about what some of you are about to get in the mail. In particular, there’s an SD card that you won’t want to miss and we want you to know that you can expect two boxes in the mail.

The SD card in a new MakerBot always has a set of objects that we love to make. They also serve as great test prints for you while you get started. In the case of the MakerBot Replicator 2X, we’ve added some pretty cool dual extrusion models to the regular list: Pet monster Valentine by Andreas; Traffic Cone by CocoNut; MakerBot Cupcake by MakerBot; MakerBot Pendant by MakerBot.

We made the MakerBot Replicator 2X as an experimental 3D printer, and dual extrusion will not be the easiest thing you’ve ever done because printing in two colors simultaneously on a MakerBot is still experimental. It’s come a long way since we launched the original Replicator, but you’ll still see some artifacts in dual extrusion prints.

Check out the images below and remember that we are continually improving our software and hardware, and the number one thing you can do to ensure you have the best MakerBot experience is to stay up-to-date with new MakerWare and Firmware releases.

Here you can see what we call a deposit. It happens during the last 1% of a print cycle when it switches colors and when it happens, an extra amount of heated ABS is extruded on the top of your model. You can remove these pretty easily, but doing so may affect the appearance of your print.

These lines on the side of your object, which we call zippers, will always be vertical. That’s because they occur at the transition point from one layer to the next. Sometimes they are a little rough, and sometimes smooth. Any small nodules can be removed, but again, doing so may affect the appearance of your print.

We’ve worked hard to minimize these artifacts and we’ll keep working on minimizing them. As a purchaser of an experimental printer, you’re on the adventure with us and we can’t wait to see what you’ll make. Please share all your thoughts and feedback (there’s been a ton already!) through our general feedback line, [email protected]. Also, when you share your models on Thingiverse, please use the tag “dualstrusion” so we can see what you’ve been up to!

It’s here! Shipping Day of the MakerBot Replicator 2X Experimental 3D Printer. It’s sort of a holiday at MakerBot, like watching the baby leave the nest.

For those of you who have ordered this machine, hold onto your hats. Batch 1 is on its way out the door and we want you to be ready. Here are a couple housekeeping notes, and then some steps you’ll want to take to get set up.

First of all, go ahead and download the User Manual now. It certainly couldn’t hurt to read up a bit before your shipment arrives.

Speaking of shipments, make sure you keep an eye out for two boxes. You’ll be receiving your MakerBot Replicator 2X in a big box, and the enclosure lid that fits on top of your new machine separately (see below). Depending on the shipping service, these may arrive at the same time or at different times.

You can go ahead and get started printing without your enclosure lid. It’s probably not the best idea in the world, but it won’t break your MakerBot. Remember, you signed up for experimenting. Go ahead and see what happens when you make things with and without the enclosure lid. Try making things with kapton tape covering your build plate, and then try without. Take notes on what works and what doesn’t. You’re in the driver’s seat now, and everyone benefits from what you learn and share.

Oh, most importantly: talk to us! We built the MakerBot Replicator 2X for the people we knew would really test it out and experiment with the technology. If that’s you, we want you to share your feedback with us. We have a general feedback line, [email protected], that’s just waiting for your good ideas.

While you wait, you’ll want to…

1. Make room! Maybe your new MakerBot will sit next to your current MakerBot. Maybe you should clear a space…on your coworker’s desk. Whatever works.

2. Make a profile at Thingiverse.com, if you haven’t already. This is where you’re going to find all the inspiration for what to make on your MakerBot.

3. Do some reading about dual extrusion, and check out some of the awesome dual extrusion designs uploaded to Thingiverse. Our very own Annelise has made a Thingiverse Collection to get you started.

The way that the MakerBot Extruder works out of the box is that there is a plunger that pushes the filament against the drive gear. We’ve shipped quite a few MakerBot Replicator 2’s into the world, and based on our data we can say that most people are having good luck with the existing design. However, there’s a bit of a sweet spot when dialing in the right plunger tension, and it can be tough to calibrate.

There are certain issues that the wrong amount of plunger tension can cause. For example, too much tension can cause a clicking sound when the end of the filament isn’t able to move past the drive gear. Too little tension can cause the filament to stop feeding altogether.

There should be a design that makes the process much easier.

Enter Thingiverse user whpthomas who came up with an improvement that has really seen some traction. It’s a great mod that makes the machine more reliable over the long haul.

Genius. We love this.

Thing #42250 “Replicator 2 Extruder Upgrade” by whpthomas, is one of these very useful designs. It’s based on an extruder mod from Thingiverse superstar emmett, who based his design on one from another star user, whosawhatsis. The basic idea of this series of designs is to use a spring-loaded arm to squeeze the filament between the drive gear and a bearing.

After extensive testing, we’ve decided that this approach is too good to ignore. We’ve modified this design to reuse the spring we already use for the build plate. We also added in a little bit of extra guidance for the filament where it enters the hot end of the extruder. Take a look on our Thingiverse page to see our adaptation of whpthomas’ great design.

We will be selling an upgrade kit that involves all the parts, including the printed part online this spring. We could have waited to tell you until we have enough to start selling them, but we decided that it would be good to tell folks about the mod.

If you have trouble with this upgrade, get in touch with our Support Team. They’re happy to walk you through some diagnostics, or you could download this design from Thingiverse and give it a try. The assembly instructions are there, too, and here’s a video to walk you through it step-by-step.

Remember, we are eager to hear your feedback, drop us a note at [email protected]!

UPDATE! The hardware parts for this replacement are available for sale in our online store. Grab them here and build your new extruder!

Right now in Las Vegas, attendees of the Consumer Electronics Show are getting to set their eyes on our latest Desktop 3D Printer, the MakerBot Replicator 2X! Click below to read the press release for this new machine, or watch the intro video above.

We call the MakerBot Replicator 2X an Experimental Desktop 3D Printer for a couple reasons. Unlike the MakerBot Replicator 2, which is optimized for PLA filament, the MakerBot Replicator 2X is optimized for the more traditional thermoplastic ABS. So why is a traditional plastic “experimental”? Because it’s a tricky material. ABS requires careful calibration and control to get consistently nice things, and the user of the MakerBot Replicator 2X should be prepared for the challenge. We know that many of you still prefer ABS, so our engineers have worked long and hard to deliver a great tool for the job.

We want you ready for experiments coming in the future, too. The MakerBot Replicator 2X has side-by-side extruders so that you’re prepared for new developments in dual extrusion technology. Want to try making things in multiple colors? The Replicator 2X is ready for the test.

Here’s are a few of the great things in the Replicator 2X:

-  High-tolerance aluminum build plate that’s machined for crucial flatness to make it resistant to warping or sagging that could affect the quality of your prints.

-  New easy-load filament lever makes loading filament as easy as flipping a light switch.

-  Re-designed filament feeding system dramatically reduces stripping, skipping, and jamming.

-  Enclosed sides keep drafts at bay and stabilize the ABS cooling period for less cracking and peeling.

Stay tuned at store.makerbot.com. The MakerBot Replicator 2X Experimental 3D Printer will be available for purchase very soon!

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Last Thursday, most of us said a little thanks for the roofs over our heads. Now we can be thankful for the roofs over our 3D things!

Our Software Team has just released MakerWare version 1.0.3., which solves an issue with the “roofing” of a model when using the High resolution setting. In the previous version of MakerWare, a glitch was causing models sliced at the High resolution setting to have holes and weak spots in the top layers. Version 1.0.3 fixes that issue. The piece on the left was made before the update, and the piece on the right was made after the update.

If you mostly use the Low or Medium resolution settings, don’t worry, this won’t change anything for you. If you were shying away from High resolution in MakerWare because of the roofing issue, try MakerWare version 1.0.3 and see if it solves the problem. You can either download the latest version from our website, or simply choose to download it the next time you open MakerWare on your computer.

As always, if you need a helping hand, be sure to reach out to our Support Team.