Paris Shellton, one of the hermit crab stars of Shellter East here at MakerBot Industries, got tired of her drab gray winter shell this weekend and decided to take on something more Spring-timey – a Daffodil Shell!
Check out the video of Paris adopting her MakerBotted shell:
Follow, share and contribute to help save hermit crabs by keeping natural shells in the wild! Use the hashtag #shellter or the shellter tag to let others know you are participating in this crowd-sourced science experiment!:
We believe that this Thingiverse should commit itself to achieving the goal before the month is out of landing MakerBot People on the moon, and housing these daring adventurers there safely and productively in sight of the distant Earth, their home….
So stated President R.Maker in a recent address to the Congressional Assembly of Benevolent Moderators and the Citizens of Thingiverse… and we have breaking news to report. There has been touch down on the moon. I repeat, the MakerBot mission to the moon has now landed, and the MakerBot People are having a great time.
Yesterday, we introduced Michael “Skimbal” Curry’s MakerBot Fairytale Castle Playset. Now, we transport you thousands and thousands of miles away — to the MakerBot Moonbase Playset! Michael has clearly outdone himself with this lovely Flash Gordon / Buck Rogers / Tintin-inspired 1950s rocket playset centerpiece. Gizmodo declared this playset: “The Best Use of New MakerBot“!1
Forward Brave Astronauts!
Journey into the farthest reaches of the Cosmos and be among the first humans to see the wonders of our Thingiverse.
Your daring MakerBot crew risks all for science, adventure, and our distributed-manufacturing future!Created by Thingiverse user Skimbal, designer of the Turtle Shell Racers, MakerBot Botmobile and the Gothic Cathedral Playset.
Greetings Bold Adventurers!
I know you must be pretty excited right now, but please try to contain yourselves while we get thought this final pre-flight briefing....
Your rocket is just coming out of the Replicator now. And let me be the first to say, she’s a beauty. This new model you’ll be flying has that stunning red-and-white color scheme, and a much lower risk of sudden occupant liquefaction.
We’ll be sending you on a daring voyage of exploration and discovery. You're going out into the furthest reaches of the known Thingiverse, with only your wits and those little helmets for protection. We have no idea whats out there... or if it's friendly. But here at MakerBot Space Exploration our engineers have decided its best to just say positive.
Remember, it's the dream of every spool of filament to one day be printed into an astronaut, and you are the lucky few who get to live that dream. Go forth my brave astronauts and see all there is to be seen! Discover all that can be discovered! Meet new prints and learn their ways! Yours is the greatest adventure of our time!
And be sure to take lots of pictures, you know we love a good slide show. Created by Thingiverse user Skimbal, designer of the Turtle Shell Racers, MakerBot Botmobile and the Gothic Cathedral Playset.
As a special treat for CES this year, MakerBot posed a set of provocative questions:
Remember the playsets, dollhouses, action figures, army figurines, and plastic ponies you played with so passionately in your youth? Dreaming up secret worlds — or creating narratives with friends, neighbors, classmates, and siblings?
Well, what if you could produce these tools of imagination with the push of a button? And what if you could roll up your sleeves and invent your own characters, furnishings, and buildings — and share them not only with your children, nieces, nephews, neighbors, or friends, but also, and instantly, with the rest of the world?
Handcrafted dollhouses are nothing new to the serious Maker, but MakerBot is taking steps to make this practice easier and more widely adopted than ever before. For the rest of January, MakerBot and a squadron of Makers will be introducing the MakerBot Playsets to the Thingiverse: 1:18 scale dollhouses as full of imagination and mischief as craft, modeling techniques, and cleverness.
MakerBot’s own design superstar Michael “Skimbal” Curry, creator of such Thingiverse megahits as the Turtle Shell Racers and Gothic Cathedral playset, starts the ball rolling by architecting a pair of MakerBot Playset buildings. Introducing two new Thingiverse superstars: Cushwa and PrettySmallThings are doing a tremendous job furnishing these playsets with their imaginations.1
Long Long ago in a land far away, there was a little castle surrounded by an industrious town. The townspeople loved their little castle and wanted it to be perfect. But the little castle was empty. Its owner had left long ago, taking all the fine things with him and locking them away.
The Townspeople resolved to re-furnish there castle. They learned to craft and create. Making chest and chairs, tables and beds, gadgets and gizmo's, they filled the castle with things that reflected themselves and their experiences. They created so many things that at the end of each day it looked like little castle couldn't hold any more.
But the castle had a secret. Every night, it grew. Sprouting new towers, chambers, and cellars. The town's people would awaken and rejoice, ready for another day of crafting and creating. The town was proud of its magical castle, and everyone wanted to fill it with the best that they could offer.
But wasn't a magical castle, it was a MakerBot Castle.
Each night the daring Damsels deftly deployed their wondrous Replicator, creating new rooms to extend the structure. Floor by floor they built up into the sky. Until one day the little castle had become the tallest and grandest in all the Thingiverse.
And the small town around the castle had grown into a great city, filled with the incredible things and spectacular ideas. The Makers, Crafters, and Hackers had learned from furnishing the castle. They had perfected their crafts and honed their skills. When they looked out on the world from the tallest tower, and saw that it too was a place they could rebuild. And they spread across the land, sharing their knowledge and teaching others how to improve the world around them.Created by Thingiverse user Skimbal, designer of the Turtle Shell Racers, MakerBot Botmobile and the Gothic Cathedral Playset.
The daring MakerBot Damsels are in no manner of distress -- they deftly define their own world of wondrous wizardry. Making, Creating, and Crafting, they dexterously develop designs for castles, creatures, and contraptions.
Deploying Cupcakes, Thing-O-Matics, and Replicators, dozens of Damsels distribute production precisely for punctual perfection.
Dastardly deed doers and nefarious ninja gnomes beware, the Damsels don’t take kindly to klepto capers and would-be kidnappers.Created by Thingiverse user Skimbal, designer of the Turtle Shell Racers, MakerBot Botmobile and the Gothic Cathedral Playset.
A picture is worth a thousand words – here are a few more…
Kendall, one of the five “sisters” living at the Shellter West crabitat, seems happy in her Project Shellter shell. She’s one of two crabs sporting printed Oxystele sinesis shells in the crabitat.
Here she is adopting it for the first time:
Follow, share and contribute to help save hermit crabs by keeping natural shells in the wild! Use the hashtag #shellter or the shellter tag to let others know you are participating in this crowd-sourced science experiment!:
UPDATE 2011-12-13 07:23Kylie Karshellian adopted a print of this shell today! See it happen here with annotations and music: youtu.be/LtvlLBQnEc0UPDATE 2011-12-07 21:35Kendall Karshellian adopted a print of this shell today! See it happen here: youtu.be/QpCusZ_q0wwUPDATE 2011-12-04 19:11The original oxystele.stl had spiral holes in it. After running it through cloud.netfabb.com the holes are gone. If you downloaded the file before, please re-download it.
Another one of M. B. Cortie's greatest hits sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/009784939390054D!
Modeled on the shell of the Oxystele sinensis sea snail, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxystele_sinensis, will Coenobita clypeatus - "Purple Pincher" - hermit crabs like this? Only experimentation will tell!
It was created using Maya's shellNode plugin, which is based upon Cortie's model, and thickened using Blender's Solidify modifier blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-256-beta/solidify-modifier/.
The goal is a workflow using open source tools, but this shell surface required a commercial tool. Thanks to a tip from thingiverse.com/mesheldrake, the conversion to a solid is now handled by an open source tool. :)
Cortie's model and many of its resultant shells have been written in Maple maplesoft.com/applications/view.aspx?SID=3851&view=html. Porting them to an open source tool such as Sage or Blender is the last step in creating a complete open source workflow.
Any python ninjas up to the task‽
Follow Project Shellter progress here:projectshellter.comtwitter.com/ProjectShellterbit.ly/ProjectShellterbit.ly/ProjectShellterCamsbit.ly/ProjectShellterVideos
After nearly 2 months of ongoing experimentation by the Project Shellter teams, on Wednesday December 07, 2011 at approximately 04:23 PM PST at the Shellter West crabitat in Los Angeles, Kendall adopted a printed shell!
Similar to the shells suggested by hermit crab caretaker and commentator wodosorel, the shell is modeled on that of the Oxystele sinensis sea snail.
Watch the entire fascinating process as she examines, switches, and adopts a 3D printed shell!
Got red/blue anaglyph glasses? Click the “3D” below the playback bar to see it happen in the third dimension!
Follow, share and contribute to help save hermit crabs by keeping natural shells in the wild! Use the hashtag #shellter or the shellter tag to let others know you are participating in this crowd-sourced science experiment!:
UPDATE 2011-12-13 07:23Kylie Karshellian adopted a print of this shell today! See it happen here with annotations and music: youtu.be/LtvlLBQnEc0UPDATE 2011-12-07 21:35Kendall Karshellian adopted a print of this shell today! See it happen here: youtu.be/QpCusZ_q0wwUPDATE 2011-12-04 19:11The original oxystele.stl had spiral holes in it. After running it through cloud.netfabb.com the holes are gone. If you downloaded the file before, please re-download it.
Another one of M. B. Cortie's greatest hits sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/009784939390054D!
Modeled on the shell of the Oxystele sinensis sea snail, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oxystele_sinensis, will Coenobita clypeatus - "Purple Pincher" - hermit crabs like this? Only experimentation will tell!
It was created using Maya's shellNode plugin, which is based upon Cortie's model, and thickened using Blender's Solidify modifier blender.org/development/release-logs/blender-256-beta/solidify-modifier/.
The goal is a workflow using open source tools, but this shell surface required a commercial tool. Thanks to a tip from thingiverse.com/mesheldrake, the conversion to a solid is now handled by an open source tool. :)
Cortie's model and many of its resultant shells have been written in Maple maplesoft.com/applications/view.aspx?SID=3851&view=html. Porting them to an open source tool such as Sage or Blender is the last step in creating a complete open source workflow.
Any python ninjas up to the task‽
Follow Project Shellter progress here:projectshellter.comtwitter.com/ProjectShellterbit.ly/ProjectShellterbit.ly/ProjectShellterCamsbit.ly/ProjectShellterVideos
Shellton John is checking out a printed shell in Shellter East right now!
He’s climbed inside of a MakerBotted shell while still wearing a shell of his own!
Keep an eye on the DropCam today to see what happens!
Thingizen deeeep conducted a Project Shellter workshop at TEDxYouth@Flanders last week. The enthusiastic kids envisioned all sorts of fantastical shells for hermit crabs. Now they need to be modeled so they can be printed and introduced to the crabitats!
Will the Karshellians like a multi-room shell? Will Paris Shellton dare to wear a shell adorned with wings? There’s only one way to find out: empirical science!
Are you a Blender ninja or a Sketchup wizard? Maybe your Maya-fu is legendary. If you’re looking for a unique challenge please consider helping out by modeling one of the drawings produced at the workshop.
Drop a comment here if you take on the challenge then upload a finished model to Thingiverse and tag it with shellter.
The kids and crabs thank you!
Follow, share and contribute to help save hermit crabs by keeping natural shells in the wild! Use the hashtag #shellter:
On Sunday 20th November 2011 we did a workshop for 30 kids about 3D printing and while they were there we asked them to draw out their ideas for a shell for the hermit crabs.
Some amazing designs came in, but we had no people available with CAD skills to convert these sketches into 3D models.
My appeal to all of you in the thingiverse community is to see the sketches and convert some of them into workable printable 3D models, so that we can have them printed and put in the East and West coast Project Shellter aquariums.
This would mean a lot to the kids who poured their imagination onto paper to help out the hermit crabs!
Some other ideas were put up by some participants whose drawing skills were not as rich as their imagination: one girl wanted a shell in the shape of a plant-pot, which could grow seaweed for camouflage, another shell was in the shape of a piece of coral reef so that when the crab hides it looks like coral reef debris.
Also look at thingiverse.com/thing:14046 for a rendition by MagicDan...
Buy all 3 of the brand new MakerBot Projects today and drive your own 3D printed RC car, generate electricity, and conquer the world with your windup robots!
Today we’re launching MakerBot Projects with 3 fun projects. The MakerBot Wind Up Walkers, The MakerBot Dynamo, and the MakerBot Botmobile Remote Control Car. (Store Link)
MakerBot projects is an ongoing collection of kits to make everything in your world with your MakerBot printer. We’re on a mission to give every MakerBot owner the parts and instructions for making everything in their lives.
The MakerBot Botmobile is the first open source remote control car. MakerBot’s own designer Michael Curry, took everything he learned from creating the Turtle Shell Racers which were featured on the track at Maker Faire, and created the Botmobile kit. All you need to do is get the kit, print out the parts from thingiverse and you’ll have your own RC car. It’s got a great 12 volt motor, a 2 channel radio controller, a tiny servo for steering, rubber racing tires; all rolled into a a ready-to-go kit. The BotMobile kit requires no soldering, all the parts snap together – It really is a perfect weekend project. The body design is a slick dune buggy – and it’s already on thingiverse (link), ready to be printed. You want to change it or customize it? The design files are open source and are ready for you to turn it into a hot rod.
The MakerBot Dynamo is a wonderful project that shows how hand motion is converted into electrical energy. The kit comes with a toy motor, 3 metal screws and 3 large bright LEDs – you print the big gears and a handle on your MakerBot (thingiverse link). Simply put it all together following our assembly instructions to make a simple science project that showcases some basic principles of engineering and energy production. We can’t keep our hands off this thing at the office, and have put in 100s of hours of electricity generation while fidgeting in meetings.
The MakerBot Windup Walker was inspired when Bre declared: “everything on Thingiverse should be able to walk”. The Windup walker pack comes with 5 barebones windup feet, ready to start walking. They’re cool, but they’re mostly soulless and require your creativity to bring them to life. Need a robotic posse? Fire up the MakerBot and start printing them out! Elliot Cohen here at MakerBot modified R.Maker for you to get started (thingiverse link), but we expect a flurry of windup walker designs to start popping up on thingiverse as soon as you start designing the next greatest wind up toy.
Today and through end of day Monday we are offering a limited time special deal. Buy the Botmobile and the Dynamo, and get the windup walkers for free (Store Link) – We know you’ll like them as much as we do!
Project Shellter welcomes various levels of participation based upon interest and skill. Here are six ways from casual to dedicated in which you can participate:
Interested but don’t have a lot of time?
Participate on a casual basis by observing the time-lapse videos of the crabitats and logging any crab encounters in the comments. Who knows, you might be among the first to see a crab “try on” a printed shell! New crabitat videos are available every day at youtube.com/ProjectShellter.
Have 3D modeling skills? You can review Dr. Bulinski’s interview to get guidelines on what makes a great shell and then upload yours to Thingiverse.com so it can be printed and tested in a crabitat. You can see what others have created at bitly.com/ProjectShellterShells. Remember to tag your shell with shellter so everyone can find it!
Interested in programming or advanced mathematics? Sweet! Help convert these shell formulae from the commercial Maple software to the open source Sage, Blender, or Shapesmith software to allow more people to design, explore and print sea shells. Hermit crabs the world over will chirp your praises!
Are you a hermit crab caretaker? Fantastic! You can help test the shells. Just introduce yourself on the MakerBot Operators Group and let the community know you can help test shells. MakerBot Operators are friendly, helpful and located around the world.
Have a 3D printer and hermit crabs? Awesome! You’re a self-contained Project Shellter machine! Please print out the shells at bitly.com/ProjectShellterShells, introduce them to your crabs, and share your observations and experiences at projectshellter.com or @ProjectShellter!
However you choose to participate, your contribtions are encouraged and welcomed!
Follow, share and contribute to help save hermit crabs by keeping natural shells in the wild! Use the hashtag #shellter or the shellter tag to let others know you are participating in this crowd-sourced science experiment!:
We are organizing a workshop for kids from 11 to 18 year old during the TEDxYouth@Flanders event in Belgium.
The idea is that the kids will sketch out their ideas for the shells and then some of them will get picked and made in CAD and printed. I will try to post the sketches and CAD files on thingiverse once they are done, so everybody can enjoy them and the kids can see their models online and see people liking them and printing them.
Thanks for the interest and support deeep!
We can’t wait to see what shells the kids create! Upload them to Thingiverse and we’ll print them out put them in the @ShellterEast and @ShellterWest crabitats!
If you’re in Flanders on November 20, go check out the event!
Follow, share and contribute to help save hermit crabs by keeping natural shells in the wild! Use the hashtag #shellter:
I love the shape of these vintage erasers. When I saw a whole bag of them for only 99 cents at Office Depot, I had this idea for a little office toy. 3D printing fanatics, here is my gift to you.
All the instructions for this project are on instructables : instructables.com/id/Eraser-ball-3DP/…
