Hey everybody – it’s the big day, so I sure hope you have your costume all sorted out! We’ve been ready for awhile now, as you can see in this special Make Live segment, which features many MakerBotters showing off their finery, and a real Space Kitty!
Not too impressed? Wow, you must have something really super all lined up. Well then – you’d better share your amazing costume with us in the comments!
| Tagged with | costumes, halloween, make live | 2 comments |
Recovering from a bear attack
There are a lot of reasons for needing to 3D print things. You broke it, it wore out, or perhaps you lost it. But, what about…
“After the bear stipped the mirrors of my 85′ bus, trying to get in”
This is easily in the top 10 reasons for needing to print things in plastic at home. Bear attack. 1 Thank you to 1oldclow for his printed car mirror and this bit of wisdom.
| Tagged with | bear, bear attack, car repair, mirror, mirror repair | One comment |
Autodesk, the developer of Maya and 3DS Max, is helping out the 99% with their improved Assistance Program.
The program has always been available to students and educators, but they’ve expanded it to include veterans, and unemployed architects, engineers and designers.
Awesome, Autodesk!
This guest post is part of Project Shellter.
Tip o’ the hat to Blake at CG General Store!
| Tagged with | 3ds Max, 99%, assistance program, Maya, software, unemployed, veterans | 3 comments |
Zydac is back with another clever design: printable night light covers! And they’re snarky. Pictured above is an evil IP lawyer waiting to issue cease and desist letters to DIYers. Looks a bit like Henry Kissinger, doesn’t it?
Also in the set: bad economic times, bedbugs, and losing a fancy argument. Nasty stuff!
Luckily, none of these things could ever possibly happen, so we can all sleep well!
| Tagged with | nightlight, Thingiverse, zydac | Leave a comment |
Once in a while an item comes up on Thingiverse that I just have to print. Immediately. Eried‘s awesome fastening system was one of those items. Using raised knobs spaced perfectly apart, this fastening system differentiates itself from the hook and loop system we all know.
By his own admission the system is not yet perfected, but Eried’s got a great start on his design. I’ve printed some out (you should too!) and have had fun testing its strength and the sound it makes when taking two sides apart. Make sure to join the discussion to offer suggestions for improvements and naming!
| Tagged with | stuff we printed, Thingiverse | 4 comments |
Project Shellter has been getting a lot of love from the media this week. At this rate, Paris Shellton and Tori Shelling (the stars of the Brooklyn crabitat) will be international superstars in no time!
Check out some of the coverage that’s run so far:
This guest post is the second part of a two part interview with Project Shellter research advisor, Dr. Katherine V. Bulinski. Part one is available here.
Miles Lightwood (ML): Another idea you shared was an alternate approach to addressing the shortage with printed shells. Please explain.
Dr. Katherine Bulinski (KB): One approach that was initially considered is that these printed shells could be distributed in the natural habitat if a hermit crab shortage had been identified. We discussed the use of biodegradable plastics for such an application so that the environmental impact should be less than if you used a non-biodegradable plastic. I think it is very important to be wary of manipulating a natural ecosystem by introducing man-made (or in this case, machine made) products as we may not recognize all of the possible effects of our actions.
Another more immediately practical approach would be to encourage people that have hermit crabs to use the printed shells instead of the natural shells available at pet stores. Part of the reason for the shell shortage in some parts of the world is over-collecting of shells in different regions. In the natural environment, empty snail shells would either be used by a hermit crab, be broken apart naturally to become carbonate sand, slowly dissolve into ocean water, become buried or become a surface for small organisms to grow on. When possible we should try to leave natural ecosystems as untouched by people as possible, so printing shells for commercial use so that natural shells can remain a part of the ecosystem would be a positive goal for this project.
ML: Is there any advice or insight on hermit crabs or their shells you can provide for Project Shellter contributors?
KB: Hermit crabs evolved over time to use the shells of certain species of gastropod as homes. Most snail shells curve to the right and hermit crabs evolved to have an abdomen that curves to the right to make effective use of the shape of the snail shell. In my paper I cite research that shows crabs select shells based upon several criteria:
When printing shells for this project it may be necessary to experiment with any or all of these properties to create a shell that a hermit crab will call home. Additionally, the interior surface of a natural shell is smooth, so the lines I see on 3D prints might need to be sanded or otherwise smoothed.
ML: Do you have any last thoughts to share with Project Shellter contributors?
KB: Hermit crabs play an important scavenging role in both marine and terrestrial ecosystems and I hope this project helps to conserve the snail shells that are found in their natural habitat. I wish all contributors success and am looking forward to watching the project unfold!
ML: One more thing: do you think a printed shell will have the sound of the ocean in it like a real one?
KB: (Laughs) I don’t know, but there’s only one way to find out!
Thank you Dr. Bulinski for acting as research advisor! I look forward to sharing the crowd-sourced science of Project Shellter with you.
Project Shellter is social! Follow, share and contribute to help save hermit crabs by keeping natural shells in the wild!
| Tagged with | dr. katherine bulinski, hermit crab, hermit crab shell, miles lightwood, project shellter, save the hermit crabs, shell, shells, shellter, shelter, teamteamusa | One comment |
Guess what?! I got a fever, and the only prescription is more USB cables!
One of the coolest features of the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D printer is the enclosed electronics contained entirely within the base of the machine. Not only does it help keep the cables organized and electronic bits out of the way, but it makes for a more polished and clean looking machine when sitting on your desk. Once your bot is assembled, you’re going to be having too much fun making things to ever want to open it up again.
…which is the source of inspiration from today’s Thing-O-Matic pro tip courtesy of resident MakerBot software developer Matt Metts. Matt suggests running an extra USB cable, A to B, to the extruder board inside and leaving it there. That way you won’t have to keep opening your Thing-O-Matic each time you want to update your extruder’s firmware!
| Tagged with | cable, firmware, update, upgrade, usb | 7 comments |
This guest post is part one of a two part interview with Project Shellter research advisor, Dr. Katherine V. Bulinski.
I’ve asked Dr. Katherine V. Bulinski to serve as research advisor on Project Shellter. This interview was conducted via phone and email before and after Dr. Bulinski journeyed to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands as part of her work as a Professor of Geoscience at Bellarmine University.
Miles Lightwood (ML): I was introduced to your work while researching Project Shellter. Would you please describe your involvement with hermit crabs?
Dr. Katherine Bulinski (KB): Sure. I’ve always been fascinated with hermit crabs and had them as pets when I was a kid, and actually still do! As part of my graduate studies I was fortunate enough to work with hermit crabs in a scientific context as a side project greatly differing from my main research area which broadly speaking, is an investigation of the paleoecology and diversity of fossil marine invertebrates.
The hermit crab project began as a part of a field course on predator prey interactions at Friday Harbor Laboratory on Puget Sound in Washington state. I designed a study that tested hermit crab shell selection behavior when subjected to a variety of different experimental conditions including the presence of competition by other hermit crabs and the threat of an active predator. The study revealed that the hermit crabs in the study were least likely to switch shells when exposed to other hermit crabs, which may be an indication that competition for shells is actually a greater danger to the crabs than predators. This study was published with the title “Shell-Selection Behavior of the Hermit Crab Pagurus granosimanus in Relation to Isolation, Competition, and Predation” in the Journal of Shellfish Research (2007). I hope some of my knowledge about hermit crab behavior can be beneficial to the project.
ML: In layperson’s terms, please describe what a hermit crab is and its place within the ecosystem.
KB: Sure. A hermit crab is a type of crustacean (the group that contains lobsters, shrimp and crabs among other organisms) and hermit crabs have a fossil record extending back to the Cretaceous (when dinosaurs were still roaming the earth). Hermit crabs are different from most other crustaceans in that their abdomen is not covered with an exoskeleton. For this reason, the crab needs to cover their vulnerable soft body part with a protective covering, which in most cases is the shell left behind by a deceased snail. As the hermit crabs grow, they need to find larger and larger shells. When adequately sized shells are unavailable, the desperate crabs either occupy shells that are much too small for them, or may occupy whatever they can find: broken beer bottles, shotgun shells, plastic pipe. It’s sad to see.
One of the reasons why I love hermit crabs is that contrary to their name, hermit crabs are very social creatures. In the wild, they can live in groups of hundreds or even thousands (I saw a huge colony while traveling in Panama a few years ago), climbing atop one another while scavenging for food and are frequently investigating shells (whether they are empty or occupied by a snail or fellow hermit crab) as they search for a better “home”. Living in a colony ensures a wide selection of differently sized shells will be available – essential for growing crabs.
ML: We discussed some of the experiment design for the project, and you suggested several interesting strategies.
KB: Yes, well-designed experiments are critical for good science. We recently discussed the layout of the crab habitat, or the “crabitat” and established that if we wish to encourage shell switching behaviors, it should not be setup as it might be for pet hermit crabs. While it is important to provide lots of moist sand, water and food, there should not be any other objects in the crabitat (like sticks to crawl on). The removal of these items would increase the likelihood that the crabs would investigate the printed shells. Once experimentation is over, the various huts and branches that make for excellent additions to a pet hermit crab terrarium can be introduced to the crabitat.
We also discussed that the various models of the printed shells should also be identified in some way. Since the plastic comes in different colors, coloration is an easy way to distinguish one shell design from another. Numbering them is another.
The interest in the use of printed shells can be assessed in a few ways:
Part two of the interview will be available tomorrow!
Project Shellter is social! Follow, share and contribute to help save hermit crabs by keeping natural shells in the wild!
If you’ve been using any recent versions of ReplicatorG, you may be familiar with this dialog box. It’s Print-O-Matic, a feature that was added to RepG in version 0025 (which should be pronounced “double-oh twenty-five,” as in “double-oh seven”) which is designed to make it easier to find workable Skeinforge settings for various layer heights and speeds.
While Print-O-Matic is fairly straightforward to use, we’ve had some requests from power users who wanted to know a bit more about exactly what it does, and some requests from less-advanced users who want to know good strategies for using it. That’s why we’ve whipped up this documentation page which has both sorts of information. You’ll find basic usage info there as well as tips on how to go deeper if you want to.
If you’ve been wondering about that “Print-o-Matic” thing, hopefully this will answer your burning questions.
| Tagged with | print-o-matic, replicatorg | Leave a comment |
Procedurally-generated panpipes for 3D printing. They really whistle, but they aren't particularly accurately tuned. OpenSCAD file included. It'll theoretically play a chromatic scale (12 notes to the octave) but it's too squeaky to know for sure! …
