MakerBot Industries

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.

Clips for attaching plastic box to bike rack by eM5

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.

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Symmetric Keyed Spans / Connector by relet

Thingiverse citizen relet has uploaded a derivative of the ridiculously comprehensive Yazzo project by WilliamAAdams with his symmetric keyed spans and connectors.  Designed in OpenSCAD, my absolute favorite solid 3D modeling program, relet’s connectors allow the easy inclusion of dovetail connections into any design.  I can definitely see myself making use of this design when it comes to making modular or multi-part designs of my own.

One of the more interesting things about relet’s contribution is that it is the third “exploitable” on Thingiverse in the last four days.  While none of these contributions by themselves is that interesting to print, they can form the basis for some really wacky and useful mashups.

With more and more “exploitables” becoming available people are going to have more choices for the “building blocks” they use to realize new creations.