Clips for attaching plastic box to bike rack by eM5

When a friend of eM5′s needed help with finding a way to attach a plastic milk-crate style box to his daughter’s vintage bicycle, eM5 was more than happy to oblige.

I don’t know if this will be of any use to anyone else because it is so specific, but I thought it was an elegant solution and a perfect use for my Makerbot.

My friend asked me for suggestions on a wobbly installation he had done.  His daughter wanted a plastic storage box attached to the back rack of her vintage bike. As a college student in theater, she carries lots of materials back and forth on her bike, and a girlish basket she had just did not cut it.  My friend had attached the box with wire and was not happy with the results.

So I took some measurements and two versions later I had these clips.  They’re working well so far, and they look 100% better than the wire solution.

Okay, why the wacky subject line to the post, then?  The above plastic clips for attaching a plastic milk create to a vintage bicycle got me thinking, “Hey, you really could attach any thing to anything.”  If that is true, then all of sudden the world becomes a wacky mad libs kinda place.  “I went to the megaphone store and bought some lampshades.  But, when I got home, I found they didn’t fit!  So, I fired up my wooden robot printed a binder to dollhouse connector, and had a very smelly afternoon.

Untitled by eM5

This thing brought to you by

In this XtraSpecial episode of MakerBot TV grandiose guest host Xzibot shows you how to use your bot to deck out your bicycle (or tricycle for that matter)! Don’t miss out! Bot Your Bike!

Huge thanks to Jonathan Monaghan, Stef Shapira, Sam Gruen, Michael Curry and John Ditamos. Thank you also to devellison for the sprocket design, dreameredeemer for the light clamp design, gaarden for the tire lever, tamberg for the handlebar plug, jsadusk for the valve cap, aylr for the ipod case, and jonmonaghan for the cupholder and spoke beads. Music by Simon Stålenhag.

Nylon Bicycle on BBC

Take a look at this coverage of a Bristol-based engineering outfit that have released a nylon, 3D-printed bicycle to demonstrate the strength of 3D printed products to British manufacturing industry. The vid contains an excellent demonstration of selective laser sintering applied to a much classier model than you typically see supplied by the industry.

The discussion at end about the potential role for 3D printing to bring manufacturing back to the UK by closing the gap between innovation and end product is also worth a listen. And it mirrors conversations I’ve had with DIY 3D printing evangelists about the economic opportunities offered by local, small scale 3D-printed manufacture as a way to eliminate off-shore manufacture and boost local economies.

I’d also like to mention that I have received a number of support emails today asking when a MakerBot designed affordable selective laser sintering product will be available…..