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Candlemaking molds with a MakerBot

Posted by on Monday, June 20, 2011 in Thingiverse
Candle of Android's Mascot by mah_digilife

Candle of Android's Mascot by mah_digilife

When I saw the above image I first thought, “Gah!  Have we learned nothing from the flaming bunnies!”  After reading the entire description, I was greatly relieved and excited to see mah_digilife was using their MakerBot for printing molds, not candles.   His description, list of materials, instructions, and numerous pictures should be enough to help anyone get started in candle making.  These directions could probably be used to help make molds for candles, soap, and probably even little silicone objects as well.  What a great new use for a 3D printer!

Candle of Android's Mascot by mah_digilife
Derivative of thingiverse.com/thing:7188 . I made the candle from the mascot of android's print. It might be good for the candle making?
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We <3 the MakerBot Operators: Mark Durbin (United Kingdom)

Posted by on Wednesday, March 30, 2011 in Human Friends!, MakerBot Operators

Mark Durbin's Busy Modeling Station

Recent MakerBot Operator Mark Durbin (MakeALot at Thingiverse) has been shaking up the Thingiverse scene with a tremendous number of models and prints uploaded since January of this year when he put together his MakerBot Thing-O-Matic kit. In particular, we have him to thank for a number of the now iconic braided and knotted vessels, statuettes, and bracelets that he has been coaxing out of OpenSCAD. His more intricate designs have become key models MakerBot Operators with Stepstruder MK6s use for challenging their stepper extruders to print multiple disconnected regions: reversal techniques for string-free printing to the max!

I emailed Mark around the time he released his second spiral cup to ask him about his working process and tools.

A Study in Spirals

Looking at the linear and rotated extrusions in the OpenSCAD manual, I thought it might be interesting to combine both of these, imagining a wavy line going round in a circle, but of course, “twist” isn’t available on the rotated extrusion.  I tried to create one with a section of linear extrusion, laid it on its side and rotated copies of it about 360 degrees, but it didn’t look good. While playing with this, the idea of the pencil cup came to me, originally with all the spirals going in the same direction, but then I thought of flipping each alternate one to link them, so I fiddled about with the distances and the angles of rotation for a while and when it looked right, I added a cylinder for a base and a torus for a top edge. The spirals themselves intruded into the centre and out of the cup a long way, so I flattered them using the scale command. I was so pleased with the result, I set it printing and published it at the same time.

Spiral Pencil/Candle/Toothbrush Cup by MakeALot
Desktop pencil cup made from interwoven spirals or Candle holder made from interwoven spirals or Toothbrush holder made from interwoven spirals or ... made from interwoven spiralsUpdate: I had it printed in ceramic to see what the quality would be like, I'm happy with the results - in ABS and ceramic.
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Much more interview, after the fold! Read the rest of this entry »

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Meet the MakerBot Operators Video 001: Meet Nick, Winter, and “Lola”

Posted by on Wednesday, July 21, 2010 in MakerBot Operators, Video

For the first video in the Meet the MakerBot Operators series, I talked with the brilliant Brooklyn teacher and NYC Resistor member Liz Arum about the students working with “Lola,” the MakerBot her school purchased for class and student use at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn. I recorded this video earier this year when Nick (then a senior) and Winter (then a freshmen) were still in school.
This is an experiment and I’m planning on making more of these kinds of videos. I’d love to get your feedback. Tell me what you think about the video in the comments!

(Music: composed for and performed on a MakerBot by Bubblyfish, used with her permission.)

When talking to friends about MakerBots, I often get the question “What are most people looking to print with it?” With the list of potential uses long enough to boggle the mind, those asking me this question are looking for a sense of the culture of printing: what are people in the community of operators doing with their MakerBot?One exciting factor about working in a new frontier is that there is no cut and dry answer to this question. If you are designing and/or printing objects for the MakerBot, you are contributing to this discussion-in-progress. And the rapidly expanding community of people leaping into personal desktop fabrication are laboring everyday to broaden the list of possible answers.

Take a look at the thousands of objects up at Thingiverse.com, with all of the new custom “truders,” printheads, and other modifications: how do I answer the question “what is the MakerBot for?” without skipping over a number of purposes that are the very reason operator x or y assembled her MakerBot in the first place?

In the series Meet the MakerBot Operators, I am attempting to give a suitable, practical answer to this question by taking it directly to the community, by visiting this new breed of “MakerBot Operators” to meet their bots and do mini-interviews right there in their printing nooks. Most will be printed interviews posted here (with photos), but with every once in a while I plan to work on more videos: “Meet the MakerBot Operators” (profile) and “MakerBot Operators Tips” (collaboratively co-created with the subject).

And along with any activities I do (limited, at least at first, to the northeastern United States), consider this an open call for the community to jump into this discussion by introducing yourselves. Post your own “Meet the MakerBot Operators” and “MakerBot Operators Tips” blog entries, photographs, and videos and drop me a note about it at griffin at makerbot dot com.

– Matt Griffin

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