MakerBot Industries

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 10, 2012 (Brooklyn, NY) – MakerBot Industries is excited to announce the launch of its latest product, The MakerBot Replicator™, which will debut at CES in Las Vegas, NV on Tuesday, January 10th. Available in the MakerBot store for pre-order today!

The MakerBot Replicator™ is the ultimate personal 3D printer, with MakerBot Dualstrusion™ (2-color printing) and a bigger printing footprint, giving you the superpower to print things BIG! Assembled in Brooklyn by skilled technicians, the MakerBot Replicator™ is ready within minutes to start printing right out of the box. Starting at $1749, The MakerBot Replicator™ is an affordable, open source 3D printer that is compact enough to sit on your desktop. Want to print in two colors? Choose the Dualstrusion™ option!

With a build envelope that’s roughly the size of a loaf of bread, The MakerBot Replicator™ gives you the power to go big. Make an entire chess set with the press of a button. Friends, classmates, co-workers, and family will see the things you make and say “Wow!”

The MakerBot Replicator™ creates anything you can imagine with the new MakerBot Stepstruder™ MK8, the extruder is the part of the machine that turns raw feedstock, like ABS (what Lego® is made of) or PLA (a biodegradable material made from corn), into the objects you desire. You can order your MakerBot Replicator™ with single or dual MakerBot Stepstruders on it. By choosing the dual extrusion option, you’ll print with two different colors at the same time. MakerBot Dualstrusion™ unlocks the ability to make beautiful combinations of colors and opens the door to experimenting with with multi-material objects.

The MakerBot Replicator™ is ideal for personalized manufacturing, providing a new way to make the things you want and need. It is also an essential tool for children and students; parents and educators with a MakerBot Replicator™ offer the next generation an opportunity to learn the digital designing skills required to solve the problems of the future. Students with access to a MakerBot have an edge in the future job market. Just like the youth of the 1980’s, who had access to computers, children with access to a MakerBot Replicator™ will become the leaders who make a better tomorrow.

The MakerBot Replicator™ is the tool from tomorrow, today. In the two years since the company was founded, the capabilities of a MakerBot have grown from printing cupcake-sized objects in 2009 to printing things as large as an entire loaf of bread today on on the MakerBot Replicator™. MakerBot Industries continues to demonstrate its dedication to putting the tools of creativity into the hands of the those brilliant and bold enough to bring their imagination into the physical world.

Press Kit: View and download photos of The MakerBot Replicator™

View product specs and pre-order your MakerBot Replicator™ today!

Children's Tent Joiner by darthcarter

Thingiverse citizen darthcarter has shared their designs for this Children’s Tent Joiner.  Darthcarter’s friend’s children had broken a corner bracket for their play tent and this quick printing fix is the solution.

What struck me about this fix is that I remember fixing a friend’s kid’s tent about two years before I had purchased my first 3D printer.  Unlike the elegant fix¹ above, my solution was a mess of tape, plastic cut from a 2-liter bottle, was frustrating to create, and didn’t work very long at all. ²

What would you have fixed if only you had a 3D printer at your disposal?

Children's Tent Joiner by darthcarter

A friend of mine has two young kids, and, as is normal some of their toys aren't indestructible. 3D printing to the rescue, and there is now a compatible corner part for "Free Time 4 Kidz" Tent. She also suggested the excellent category of "Replacements for stuff that kids break"

This thing brought to you by

1. Seriously, that’s probably seven lines of code! [↩]
2. Then again, not much works for very long once you toss a 2-year-old inside… [↩]

Dorm Doorstop by Tetnum

Tetnum and his fellow college dorm students tried every doorstop he could find to work on their doors to no avail. The commercial doorstops were too short, would slide, or just plain didn’t work.¹ The ones on Thingiverse were getting destroyed by the door closers. Undaunted, Tetnum designed and printed on his trusty MakeBot Cupcake CNC a taller gripping door stop that incorporated the school’s logo.

My cupcake has been running nonstop to make enough for my floor. the doorstops have been in use for 4 weeks and are all holding up.

I could totally see this doorstop as a must-have dorm essential for any incoming college freshman. It’s thin and can be stowed away anywhere in a small dorm room, useful for keeping the door open or from letting it swing open accidentally, and personalized for their college. In a dorm room where space is at an absolute premium, it makes sense to have a 3D printer where you can create objects on demand, rather than have to stock up on things in advance. Rock on Tetnum!

working doorstop by tetnum

In the dorms we have industrial carpet on the floors and all commercial doorstops people have or bought slid, were too short or failed. So I turned to Thingiverse and printed every door stop on here and they unfortunately they were destroyed by the door closers or did not work. So I designed a saw like door stop that was taller and did opt have any large openings to get crushed instead it has columns to direct the force to the carpet and grip tighter. I also incorporated the schools logo in to the door stop. My cupcake has been running nonstop to make enough for my floor. the doorstops have been in use for 4 weeks and are all holding up.

This thing brought to you by

1. Do you remember that super-low pile carpet from dorm rooms? [↩]

One-line portrait of a MakerBot by Yao Xiao

Here’s an amazing one-line drawing of a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic by Yao Xiao.  Fluid and evocative, this single-line drawing does an amazing job of conveying the essence of a 3D printer.  But, I wonder…

Who’s ready to upload a Unicorn pen plotter TSP single-line drawing of Yao Xiao to Thingiverse?

Thanks to Molly Crabapple for the tip!¹

1. Get your own Molly Crabapple here! [↩]

CUBE -The 3D printed 3D printer by Webca

Thingiverse champion Webca has done it again.  First he printed an entire Cupcake CNC on his Cupcake CNC.  Now, he’s used that printed printer to print another printer.  His creation has a much larger build area, linear bearings, custom heated build platform, used more than 15 pounds of plastic, cost around $3,000.00 (which I’m sure does not include his time) and eight months of printing.  Webca suggests this might be the largest multi-print to date.  He’s got me convinced.

Here’s a video of it in action:

3D Printing for Fathers Day!

This is an unheard-of 3D Printing bargain, the likes of which shock even me, your dear narrator. On Sunday 6/18, The CupCake CNC Ultimate Kit is dropping to a brain-freezingly low price. We love the CupCake CNC and know what a st/deal this is, so take advantage and get one soon! These are the last units of the CupCake, and we have run out of space for them here at the BotCave. Yesterday an avalanche of printed parts temporarily blocked access to the bathroom, and the decision was made. “Sell, sell, sell!” called Commander Bre. The big wheel keep on turning, and Fathers Day is looming! So get cracking and get the all-time best bargain in DIY 3D printing history. It’s everything you need to get started 3D Printing with a fun build, a great device, and a great Fathers Day gift! This is a limited time offer so carpe diem!

In this episode Keith takes us on an awesome tour of RobotFest 2011 at the National Electronics Museum, Ethan pushes the extreme limits of acrylic T-Slot construction, and Matt traps and traces a massive squirrel- Check it out!

In this episode Ethan gives you a worms-eye view of perfecting your build surface, Matt gives you an nifty intro to solid modeling withTinkerCad, and Isaac runs down the latest notables from Thingiverse! Check it out!

After months of intensive research and development, MakerBot Industries is proud to announce a newly realized capacity of the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic 3D Printer- the ability to print listenable vinyl records from the desktop.

“The process of transcribing an audio file into a vinyl record is so simple, anyone can do it.” Said Chief Audio Engineer Isaac Dietz. “Right now, I’m using the Automated Build Platform to rip my entire MP3 collection to individual records!”

“It’s an exciting innovation for MakerBot, as we all grew up listening to vinyl. We all wish that more records were available with the latest hits,” said Audio R&D Associate Marisol Murphy. “I can never get enough Justin Bieber or Rebecca Black until I listened to them on my turntable.”

The process utilizes the MakerBot 96khz AudioNozzle™ technology to print audio waveforms in real time. Using the MakerBot Generation 4 Electronics microstepping capacity, the AudioNozzle™ modulates the amount of plastic deposited to create a high-fidelity waveform. The results often surpass the dynamic range of 24-bit recordings and can contain frequencies up to 57khz — even higher than the Nyquist frequency for 96khz digital recording. You can even record directly to your 3D Printer by attaching a microphone to your computer, and singing into it.

Says Ethan Hartman, Vice President of Audio Operations: “MakerBot’s pioneering spirit has always hearkened back to early inventors like Thomas Edison. We are honored to be able to re-invent the audio record for the personal manufacturing space in the burgeoning 20-teens.”

Pre-orders for the 96khz AudioNozzle™ will be available shortly.

MakerBot 3D Printed Vinyl Records can be downloaded from Thingiverse here.