MakerBot Industries

Can you even tell which one is really metal?

If you said the razorblade you’re…well you’re right actually, but we now have a plastic that you can at least make something that looks sort of silver!  And, perhaps even better, a whole array of earth tones: light and dark brown as well as tan, in both 1.75 and 3 mm sizes.  We’re launching a brand-new fluorescent yellow in both sizes as well.

You’ve been asking for some of these colors for awhile and we’re happy to finally be able to deliver. As always, make sure you’re buying the right size filament for your extruder; the 1.75 mm versions for MK7 are linked above.  Go to the 3 mm plastic section if you need that size.  Note that silver is available in 1.75 only, and we have a very limited quantity.

We’re all very excited to see what you come up with using these new colors.  Enjoy!

In the spring of 2010, Shapeways got a Cupcake CNC MakerBot with a MK4 extruder. The cupcake is an amazing machine that got 3000 people started in 3D printing, but the MakerBot MK4 Plastruder’s strong point was not printing small things like bunny ears. Shapeways printed out the Bowie Bunny by Rob Parthoens , which is one of their favorite prints and something that they use to compare machine types. It is a small model and stands about an inch tall from tip of the toes to top of the ears. As you can see in the image above, the MakerBot MK4 print of July 2010 left something to be desired.

At MakerBot, we live by the open source saying, “Release early and often!” and so we’ve been hard at work improving the technology since then. Fast forward a little more than a year and we’ve gone through the MK5, the MK6 and have just launched the MakerBot MK7 Plastruder. Look how much the MakerBot print has improved!

A few things that I noticed:

- When Shapeways printed the Bowie Bunny on their Cupcake CNC in 2010 the MK4 DC motor extruder had difficulty with the ears.  Back then printing tall thin parts on a Cupcake CNC required extremely careful calibration of a lot of arcane settings.  The Shapeways grey robust print from July of 2010 on their industrial commercial printer is clearly the superior print.

- In September 2011 the MakerBot print from a Thing-O-Matic with Generation 4 electronics and a MK7 stepper extruder with a 0.4mm nozzle was able to print Bowie Bunny at a layer height of 0.2mm – with stock settings right out of the box!  When shown side-by-side, the print from the Thing-O-Matic is comparable to the Shapeways commercial printer result.

- While there’s still a little ways to go to improving small features like the areas around the bunny’s ears, we’re looking forward to continuing to improve and develop our software so you can get professional quality results from your DIY printer right in your own home.

The difference from before is remarkable and I’m very proud of how far we’ve come in about a year! Thank you to everyone who has used a MakerBot and helped push it forward. We couldn’t have done this without the contributions of many people both internally who work at MakerBot and every MakerBot Operator in the community that’s given us support, feedback, or jumped in and been innovative. The future is bright. Full speed ahead!

While many of you have been swept up in MK7 mania, we know that others of you are sticking with their tried-and-true MK6 and MK6+ Stepstruders.  This is still our #1 extruder design for 3 mm filament, so why not stick with it!

However, when it comes to 1.75 mm filament, it’s true — MK7 is the new champ.  However, don’t count out Mk6 just yet…we’ve just introduced a new, machined one-piece coretube insert for using the MK6 with 1.75 mm filament.

This new coretube will be included with all future MK6+ orders (at a new low price!) and will is also available for purchase as an upgrade for earlier extruders.

Printing plates for Mr. Maker by ErikJDurwoodII

Yesterday I spent some time organizing the parts in the MakerBot mascot entry “Mr. Maker” by ErikJDurwoodII into printing plates.  Afterward, Erik asked how I did this.  While I had posted some tips on creating printing plates earlier, I didn’t really give a decent step-by-step guide.  I like using OpenSCAD to orient the parts, but I’m sure there are other ways.  Here’s my process:

1. Orient.  Make sure all STL parts are centered and flat on the build surface.
1. The easiest way to ensure this is to open the STL in ReplicatorG, click “Move” in the bottom right corner, then “Center” in the right panel.  Matt demonstrates how to do this in MakerBot TV episode one @ 2:56.
2. Sort.  Sort all STL’s by the number of times each part needs to be printed.  I like to put them into folders labeled “1″, “2″, “3″, etc.
3. Make a Plate.  I use a simple OpenSCAD command to create a transparent representation of the build area.  I like to use an 80×80 mm square so that I can be sure everything is going to fit.  Here’s the command I used:
1. % cube([80,80,0.01],true);
4. Practice Moving/Spinning.  Using just the OpenSCAD translate and rotate commands, you’ll be able to move, spin, and place any part.
5. Plan for Multiples.  Looking at all of the parts that need to printed multiple times, see if you can place them together so that printing a single plate more than once will give you the proper number of parts.
6. Biggest Parts.  The largest parts that can’t be included with other large parts will essentially determine the number of printing plates you need.  Place each large part onto it’s own plate.
7. Medium Parts.  Once you have a general idea of the number of plates you need, as determined by the biggest pieces that can’t be combined with other parts, try to fit the medium pieces in and around other parts.  If you can’t fit them around the large pieces, you’ll need to create a plate of medium parts.
8. Small Parts.  The smallest parts can be sprinkled in and around all the large and medium parts.
9. Pro Tips:
1. If you have a part that needs to be printed an odd number of times, consider putting a single occurrence of this same part into a plate that needs to be printed only once.
2. Sometimes it helps to have extra parts, so printing an even number of a piece that you need an odd number of isn’t actually very wasteful.
3. Consider mirror-flipping a part if it won’t fit.  Some parts won’t fit onto a plate unless they’re flipped, but are just as functional either way.
4. Consider printing small parts multiple times if you can fit an extra instance onto a plate.  Small parts can rip off the build platform, get deformed, break, or get lost.  Printing an extra small part along with larger parts doesn’t add that much time or plastic and will probably save you a lot more time down the road.
5. Save yourself some heartache and make sure you use a Stepper based extruder that will allow you print without a mess of strings between all the parts.
6. Always include the individual STL’s for parts even if you’re uploading printing plates.  Sometimes people just need to print or reprint one little piece and it can be a real pain to carve one out of a printing plate.
10. Rock Star Tips:
1. Some parts such as complex gears or external pieces can better benefit from high resolution, slower printing, or different infill ratios than other simple or internal pieces.  Consider organizing the parts so that certain pieces that need similar resolution/speed/infill ratios are printed together.  Thanks to Bobbens for including this tip in his Mini servo gripper plate.
2. How about creating the entire GCode setup for printing everything using an Automated Build Platform?
3. If you’ve got a MK7 Dual Extruder setup with soluble support material, you could stack parts on top of one another.  This means you could turn a multipart print into one single long print task, print everything as one big chunk of plastic, drop the result in water, let the PVA dissolve, and pull out all of your parts.

Do you use production or printing plates?  What program do you use to make them?  What additional tips do you have?

That’s right folks, it’s finally here: the monumental, extraordinary Stepstruder MK7.  It’s extraordinary in that this is our first extruder designed from the ground up for 1.75 mm filament, and monumental in the sense that it’s…well…smaller than any of our previous extruder designs.  So small, in fact, that it might just be possible to use two of them for experimental Dual Extrusion!  (Ssshhhh….)

They said it couldn’t be done, and we said they’re wrong.  We have the technology.  We knew we could make a better extruder, one that’s smaller, more reliable, and easier to put together.  And has a higher number.

So tell me: do you feel lucky, punk?  Well do you?  Because you don’t need to: the MK7 will make it easier than ever to get great results from your MakerBot Thing-O-Matic.  The Stepstruder MK7 takes care of the luck for you!  Just choose the normal complete kit or one with a stepper driver if you’re upgrading from a MK5.

In all seriousness, a lot of work has gone into the design of this new extruder, and we’re really excited to release it.  Head on over to the store and check it out! ¡Awesolenté!

See that compact grid of 36 white LEDs in the picture? It’s called the openVolver. Just about the size of a wrestler’s fist, the openVolver can store thousands of animation patterns on a memory card that you can design individually on just about any computer.

Friends, this is no ordinary blinky project.  Those 36 LEDs are diffused, have 255 levels of thumb-wheel controlled brightness, run on a single 9V battery and can be worn on a lanyard (oh, you’ll be noticed).  We’ve already included 59 separate animations with intriguing names like ‘edgewerks‘,  ’snuggles_butts‘ and ‘4 drunks‘. I’ll give you a hint on that last one, 4 friends (as LEDs of course) trying desperately to find each other in the night, but never quite pulling it off.

If you’re too modest to wear it on your chest, we’ve included a plexiglass faceplate that can turn it into a great desktop companion (it’s very easy to use with a DC power supply). And if you have access to a makerbot, we can’t wait to to see what kind of holders and cases you’ll upload to Thingiverse.

The openVolver comes as a kit that anyone with some modest soldering skills can build. To get a sense of it, take a look at the clearly laid out instructions and the animation software right here.

the openVolver is a lovely design by our very talented friends at the New York art collective Image Node . They’ve been making the openVolver in various incarnations and taking them to Burning Man for many years – so we know this Blinkytronic  can in the very least withstand playa dust.

So why wait? Go to the makerbot store and order one today!

Hey folks!  This Monday brings a product announcement that should be exciting for some of you bleeding-edge types: a new, experimental 0.3mm nozzle for the Stepstruder MK6 and MK6+.

This is the smallest nozzle we’ve ever offered, and while we’ve decided that the 0.4mm nozzle is the best choice for general use, we wanted to get these nozzles into the hands of advanced MakerBotStars to see what they can do with them.  These nozzles have the same geometry and the same anti-stick coating as our other nozzles, but the a smaller opening does mean that it won’t work with the default printing profiles.  You’ll need to use Print-O-Matic in ReplicatorG 25 or roll your own custom Skeinforge profile.  Also, if you don’t have a stepper-based extruder, this isn’t going to work for you.

If  experimenting until you’ve got the perfect settings to get some of the best MakerBot prints ever sounds like loads of fun to you, then head over to the store and pick one up.

The Fully Assembled MakerBot. In Stock Now.

This is a momentous day, one that has been requested by our users since the beginning! We can now proudly provide a fully built and tested custom MakerBot Thing-O-Matic in the store.

MakerBot has grown enough to be able to lovingly hand-assemble each Custom Thing-O-Matic. Our skilled technicians will build and test each machine after you place your order!

With each Custom Fully Assembled Thing-O-Matic, you will receive:

- A Thing-O-Matic built in-house at the MakerBot BotCave hand assembled by our skilled technicians, and fully tested prior to shipment
- A Generation 4 Interface Controller pre-built and wired for use. Control your Bot without a computer!
- MK6 Plus Steptruder pre-built and tested
- Heated Build Platform with Aluminum Surface installed, and a (1) roll of Kapton SuperWide 120mm tape included
- Pre-assembled 4th Generation Electronics, installed and tested
- Customer’s Choice of Color LED’s installed. (red, blue, green, yellow, or white)
- Customers choice of 1kg Spooled Plastics (ABS or PLA)
- One hour live setup and personal technical support from the assembler via Phone or Skype
- SD Card loaded with 4 prints
- A printed spool holder created by your machine. Other test prints included.
- Tools kit with all the hex keys, wrenches, and other bits for tuning your bot!
- USB cable – so your computer can talk to your bot!
- Carefully packed and shipped insured to your location

So if you just don’t have time to build your Thing-O-Matic, or you just want to leave it to the professionals, this is the machine for you!  This is a premium MakerBot, with the best accessories. Get awesome!

Available in store.makerbot.com now!

Getting Started with MakerBot

Coming later this year from MAKE and O’Reilly Media, Inc., Bre and MakerBlock have teamed up on a new book: Getting Started with MakerBot.  Here’s just a little blurb to whet your appetite:

Get a hands-on introduction to the world of personal fabrication with the MakerBot, the easiest and most affordable rapid prototyper available. This book shows you how the MakerBot open source 3D printer democratizes manufacturing and brings the power of large factories right to your desktop. Not only will you learn how to operate MakerBot, you’ll also get guidelines on how to design and print almost anything you can imagine — including models, mechanical parts, puzzles, and toys.

What’s more, this book is coming out under a Creative Commons license, and you can read the text of the book as it’s being written,¹ through the magic of O’Reilly’s Open Feedback Publishing System.  The book is available right here.

1. No pressure, right? [↩]

Hey it’s Friday!  In light of that, we’ve whipped up another addition of Robot Hospital, which we hope you’ll enjoy.  We’ve got a new product announcement (new Nema 17 motors), a report from the Blip festival, where we’ll be demoing bots tonight and tomorrow, and the final installment of Matt’s squirrel modeling tutorial.