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Here’s another cool thing: a 3d visualization of the great depression.  No, not this one, silly!  The one your grandparents lived through, with the black and white movies of people sneaking onto trains!  And the snappy dialog.

While the dialog might not fly as fast these days, we do have very clever data visualizations, thanks to people like Zydac.  I’d love to see a similar version of the recession we’ve just been through — as bad as it has been, I suspect it wouldn’t be as deep or dark as what we see here.

Economic Spiral by Zydac

Enough gloomy talk about the economy already! Why don't you make something! What should you make? How about this conversation piece? What's the conversation? The Economy of course! Aaargh!

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Tardis : Laser cut cardboard version by t4obrien

So, here’s the deal.  I’m a Doctor Who fanboy.  I think that show is awesome.  And, I like blogging about awesome things.  So, if you share something related to Doctor Who on Thingiverse, however tangentially, I’m probably going to start gushing about it.

This detailed and thoughtfully laid out laser-cuttable cardboard version of a TARDIS by t4obrien totally qualifies as awesome.  I don’t own a laser cutter, but I just found the perfect excuse for buying one.  And, if you don’t glue the pieces together, you could open it up so that it is larger on the inside…

Tardis : Laser cut cardboard version by t4obrien

Ever wanted your very own Time Lord technology to fly around the universe and save the day with? Be your own Doctor and make this Tardis out of a bit of cardboard.

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Klein Bottle from simple primitives by MakeALot

First, I need to preface this by saying I can’t believe I overlooked coasterman’s low-polygon count Klein Bottle posted about a year ago.  Although created in Sketchup, this design is about as low-poly as you can get.  Now!  On to the imaginary awards show!

• First to upload that wasn’t me:  MakeAlot with a Klein Bottle from simple primatives for uploading his designs within about 3 hours of the challenge being posted.
• Fewest lines of code:  MakeAlot with a Klein Bottle from simple primatives with just 33 lines of code.
• Fewest facets:  Low poly (but still) klein bottle by aubenc with just 40 faces!
• Most resembling a traditional Klein Bottle:  MakeAlot with a Klein Bottle from simple primatives for his very curvaceous OpenSCAD designs.

Building on the work of these fine designers, can you design a Klein Bottle in OpenSCAD that uses fewer lines of code, has fewer faces, or is even more traditional looking?

Klein Bottle from simple primitives by MakeALot

A more traditional looking Klein bottle made from torus halves and tubes.

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Low poly (but still) klein bottle by aubenc

Quick, easy and dirty OpenSCAD to make a low poly klein bottle. Ehem... Quick? Not as much as I thought (1h-1h30) Easy? Easy would have been using cylinders $fn=3 instead of polyhedrons! Dirty? Yes! It looks like a parametric thing but it's NOT! Low Poly? Neither, OpenScad reports 40 faces but there's some misalignment that's adding 4 more than needed.

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OpenSCAD Klein Bottle by MakerBlock

Yes, I realize I declared this challenge and am entering it myself. ( makerbot.com/blog/2011/10/11/openscad-challenge-klein-bottle/ ) I didn't start designing this until well after I had already posted it. Since there are no real prizes, I figure you'll forgive me claiming the "first to upload", "fewest number of facets" and "most resembles either Kelsorj’s Klein Bottle ( thingiverse.com/thing:5217 ) or RotoScan’s Klein Bottle ( thingiverse.com/thing:11976 )" The bottle could be rendered with even fewer facets by just reducing the number of faces on the cylinders in the OpenSCAD file. Also, I hereby claim 9000 internet points! Mu-ah-ha-ha! Also, a shout-out to CloudSCAD is in order for letting me draft this up from my browser.

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Mechanical Animals by sconine

Thingiverse citizen sconine has just shared some really amazing toy mechanical animals.  Colorful, playful, and whimsical, each of these hand crank toys is sure to delight a child. ^1 2  Guaranteed not to wet the carpet, bite, or require you to let them out in the middle of the night these creatures would make excellent pets for any kid.  Interestingly, since the coolest instances of these toys is with multiple colored components in each toy, this is one of the few multi-piece prints that would not be well suited for printing plates!  I especially like how each of these toys has a distinctive motion to them.  I can’t wait to see what other little mechanical toys Sconie shares!

Also, over the last two weeks or so I’ve gotten into the habit of handing out imaginary and arbitrary points.  10,000 awesome MakerBot dad points to Sconine!

Mechanical Animals by sconine

These are 3 different machanical animals. They are all pretty basic mechanical devices that turn rotary motion into more of a linear motion. My kids (and their friends) have gotten a real kick out of them. I drew them all in sketchup.Jumping Prairie Dog Turn the crank and make the prairie dog jump up and down.Diving Dolphin Turn the crank and watch the dolphin dive through the waves.Wood Pecker Turn the crank and see the wood pecker peck away. (This was originally posted as a pecking bird, but my kids all call it the woodpecker, so I'm putting it up as part of this collection).

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1. Or, as in my case… the child-like. [↩]
2. They are also very reminiscent of the popular Trammel of Archimedes [↩]

Drumroll please…

Mr. Maker by ErikJDurwoodII is now the official MakerBot mascot. We judged this challenge based on creativity and 3D printability. It’s a very cute mascot, it’s simple enough to be easy to print and has a playful, creative character that embodies the MakerBot spirit. Congrats to ErikJDurwoodII, we’ll be sending him a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic kit and we can’t wait to see what he does with it! Check it Mr. Maker on GrabCAD and Thingiverse. If you have a MakerBot there are printing plates that will make it easy for you to churn this design out!

With so many awesome entries, this was a hard contest to judge. We’ve got 10 runners up and we’re going to be printing out their designs over the next month and sending them out to them as runners up gifts.

Mikey

Replicant JR Also on Thingiverse and on plates.

MakerBot Transformer Also on Thingiverse.

Botbot Also on Thingiverse.

makerbot-084824-65-7

Mambo

Mark II Also on Thingiverse.

mrobot

Mascot 5 Also on Thingiverse.

Make-a-bot Also on Thingiverse.

There were almost 100 entries into this contest and there was so much creativity in all the entries. Check them out too!

MakerBot’s own Bre Pettis is the latest profile for Time.com’s Game Changer series. The crew from Time visited the MakerBot Workshop and the BotCave for a behind-the-scenes look at what we do here every day. The video also shows off some awesome objects we’ve printed recently including pliers, zaggo’s whistle, sconine’s  starfish, and the just-finished zoetrope project that artist Takeshi Murata is showing at London’s Frieze Art Fair.

Check out some of the other Game Changer profiles – Bre is in good company!

Klein Bottle by kelsorj

I recently posted about a Klein Bottle shared on Thingiverse by RotoScan. ¹  This got me thinking – are there any OpenSCAD versions?  After poking around Thingiverse a bit, I haven’t found any.

The challenge for you is as follows:

• Design a Klein Bottle using OpenSCAD.
• Upload an STL and OpenSCAD design file to Thingiverse.
• Tag your design with “openscad,klein bottle,openscad klein bottle”²

Do you want to join the ranks of the OpenSCAD design challenge winners?  Do you want to bask in the glory that is everlasting internet fame?!  Internet points, the sum of 9,000, shall be awarded to:

• The first to upload an OpenSCAD Klein Bottle
• The person who uploads an OpenSCAD Klein Bottle with the fewest lines of code
• The person who uploads an OpenSCAD Klein Bottle with the fewest number of facets
• The person who uploads an OpenSCAD Klein Bottle that most resembles either Kelsorj’s Klein Bottle or RotoScan’s Klein Bottle

As always, the use of OpenSCAD libraries is allowed and encouraged.  If you’ve got a rules question, just post it here! ³⁴⁵

1. For the unfamiliar, a Klein Bottle is an object that essentially has just one continuous surface. [↩]
2. That will actually create three tags.  Mostly so that it will be easy for people to find your work in the future! [↩]
3. No purchase necessary! [↩]
4. Void where prohibited! [↩]
5. Offers not outside of the continental United States or two-dimensional space [↩]

Everybody knows clock projects are pretty sweet — I mean, why would you have a boring clock with hands when you could instead have an amazing gear piece like this! Not only is it mostly 3d-printed, but it also has working gears!

It is a simple but very cool project — just print the parts, assemble, and snap it on to your salvaged/purpose bought wall clock.  Well done, PrintTo3d!  I foresee telling time with one of these very soon.

Gear O'Clock by PrintTo3D

NEW VIDEO! youtube.com/watch?v=gCGmpHHC0Ag It's a 3D printed clock! WOOT! It consists of 12 number plates, 2 gears, and 1 mount. All units are inches. In the zip folder are two versions of the main drive gear and clock base (10" gear). The gear I sectioned into four pieces (print two of each) and a version of the drive gear that does not need supports. This should main clock base should fit on most hobby printers. I made everything so that it requires no support and fits within a 4x4" box.

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Laurie Anderson joins the growing roster of artists creating original work on a MakerBot, with her latest exhibit, “Forty-Nine Days in the Bardo.” The multimedia exhibition is running now through November 19^th at the Fabric Workshop & Museum in Philadelphia.

The team at MakerBot performed a 3D scan on a clay model of Laurie Anderson’s dog Lola, creating a virtual 3D object.  From this object, we printed out over 20 plastic models of the scan. The pack of plastic dogs is currently on display in the museum’s lobby, alongside a Thing-O-Matic.