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!

From Twists to Knots

I still wanted the wavy circles based on a twisted torus, so I placed a series of spheres (one every degree around a circle) using the translate command to move the sphere from the centre position to the radius distance from the centre and then I used the rotate command to rotate that sphere to its position around the circle. Because each of the spheres was larger than the 1 degree spacing on the radius, the resultant shape looked just like a thin torus. All of these operations had been applied based upon a vertical centre line, that is, they had been applied to the x and z planes. So I had my rotated extrusion, now I needed the twist. So I applied the same principal to the x and y planes, but using a smaller radius, this twisted my torus, so I had my wavy line going round in a circle, all I needed to do was change the frequency of the twist rotation and I would generate lots of different twists.

My original idea was to create a cylinder of interlinked wavy lines, but as I had the wavy torus I first played with creating a knotted torus to do this, I changed some of my fixed distances to variables and wrapped the whole thing in a module that way, I could call it with one set of parameters and translate the result to a position, then call it with another set of parameters, until I had a whole set of different shaped knots.

Given that the first knot I put on Thingiverse had been liked, printed, modified and re-printed, I thought people would like to be able to modify these knots themselves easily (rather than modifying the STL file as previously) so I put up the OpenSCAD file. I also noticed that the modified version of the original knot (with the base removed) had been printed by more people than the original, so I made sure people could remove the base easily and I published that.

3D Knot by MakeALot

3d Knot printed on a Thing-O-Matic 50x40x40 mm

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Parametric Knot by MakeALot

An adjustable printable knot on a plinth The first image is a 2,5 knot the other individual one is a 2,3 knot, the other images show some of the knots you can achieve.

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Twists and Knots to Rope Braids

Looking at some of the more complex knots reminded me of a “turks head” knot. I remembered seeing rings and bracelets in this design made of rope and leather, so I opened up the major radius of the torus to create the bracelet design. It looked a bit plain, so I added a twisted torus going in the other direction and published that. I still intend to make a coaster (cup mat) using the same principle, but I will need to gradually increase the minor radius and flatten the y scale to get something that really looks like a “turks head.”

So back to my original idea, I placed a series of twisted toroids on top of each other (well just below and rotated to make them looked linked) and placed a cylinder on the bottom to make the second Spiral Cup.

Twisted bracelet by MakeALot

Twisted bracelet I finally managed to generate the STL for this, it took 15.5 days and needed an Ubuntu installation on a machine with 4G ram and the latest CGAL libs.

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Spiral Cup II by MakeALot

Another Spiral Cup, this one with the links going around the cup

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OpenSCAD and POVRay

As far as using OpenSCAD, I have been a great fan of POVRay for many years, preferring to position my objects in 3D space using numbers rather than my 3D mouse (Oh, I don’t have one of those, maybe that’s why I use numbers). It was my first introduction to constructive geometry (I was given a book with a cone, a sphere and a cylinder on the front about Ray Tracing and POVRay was included on the disk in the rear cover) I used it for years (under DOS) creating graphics for UI components (I design software for a living) and splash screens, logos etc. I did use Moray for a while when it first came out, but I needed to program my objects, so I went back to basic POV. I still use it today. When I saw OpenSCAD, it seemed like home to me. I also tried Blender (wow, what a UI, too much for me!), SketchUp (sort of hippy CAD), and MeshLab for tweaking a few things, but, like POVRay, OpenSCAD just suits my way of thinking.

Mark Durbin's Thing-O-Matic bot

MakerBot Operators MicroInterview

Q:   What brought you to 3D printing/MakerBot?

I am the very proud owner of Thing-O-Matic number 44. I have been waxing lyrical to anyone who would listen for years about laser sintering, material deposition, companies like Shapeways, etc. and always gone on about the $100K price tag. Last year while in the U.S. I mentioned to a colleague that you could now get one for $10K, so he brought me in a copy of Make Magazine #21 with a Makerbot on the front. As soon as I had the cash, I ordered one: the Thing-o-Matic.

On December the 28^th, my kit arrived. We had visitors, we had to go out to parties and the like, so I finally got to put it together on January 2^nd. I originally worked in electronics and manufacturing, so the assembly was just my cup of tea. I stayed up all night and put it together. In the morning, I installed the latest firmware, ran the start-up tests, set my z height and printed a 20 x 20 x 10mm cube. Ah, to sleep, perchance to dream, of ABS shapes…

When I’d re-introduced myself to my family and eaten a hearty breakfast (as is my want), I set about printing. That day, my first Thingiverse prints were born: some chess pieces.  Now skipping forward to Monday of this week, my MK6 Stepstruder arrived! Oh yes, come to daddy. Calm, calm, don’t blow anything up… I’ll build/install it this weekend ….

Q:   What is your favorite thing you have printed so far?

I’ve mainly printed my own designs, although a few others have caught my eye, the maze box, the iris box. My head is still full of stuff I want to design and print  but don’t have the time to do it. The Android device rests were nice and simple and fitted well with my love of all tech, including my Android devices. My daughter also likes them as they appear to smile. I previously made some more functional looking stands, a few shot glass type things, and made some initial passes at an idea I have for dual mouse/cording device that will remove the need for both keyboard and mouse and allow me to place my arms anywhere (I have a mild fear of RSI as I spend 18 hours a day in front of my computer). Ultimately, I expect to be able to project my display in front of me and be able to work anywhere, but that’s for another day.

A-Mazing Box, printed by MakeALot

Iris Box v2, printed by MakeALot

Android Honeycomb Device Rest, created and printed by MakeALot

Q:   What object do you most want to design (or download from Thingiverse.com)?

Is this a wish? I want to be able to deposit different types of particles on the nano-scale, and effectively construct any material I need from some basic raw materials, I want to be able to scale it up to house size, leave a Makerbot on a lot with a few tanks of ingredients and come back three weeks later to find the open source house I designed sitting there waiting for me to move in. I want to have a machine that takes these structures apart, back into their original raw materials and separates them for re-use so that I can change things as I please, feeding the old devices in one end and getting my new ones out the other, all running on solar energy. But next week, I’ll settle for a working MK6 extruder.

<h4 style=”clear: both;”><em>Thanks for taking the time to talk with me, Mark! Below I share a few of my favorite Mark Durbin, aka “MakeALot,” non-twisting models up on Thingiverse!</em></h4>

Offset Bowl by MakeALot

Bowl for bits and pieces

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Extending Tube by MakeALot

An extending tube printed as a single print. Extend, twist and push to lock in place.

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Ball Maze by MakeALot

3x3 ball maze inspired by thingiverse.com/thing:1542 Not exactly an intellectual challenge, but an interesting print! I still find it amazing that it's possible to print these vertical columns.

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Bracelet IV by MakeALot

Oval slotted bracelet

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Bracelet VI by MakeALot

Slotted concave bracelet

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Maker Logo Bracelet IX by MakeALot

Bracelet with MakerBot Industries Logo. Homage to the Exsteptional, nay Exstrudinary MakerBot.

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If you have a great story to tell or know of someone we should feature here, drop us a message to support at makerbot dot com, subject line: MakerBot Operator Hero!

Most Derivatives - Syvwlch

Thingiverse citizen Syvwlch has uploaded an amazing 13 derivatives works.  The ability to make, remix, and improve upon the hard work of others is part of what makes Thingiverse and open licensing great.  Without the original designs, perhaps Syvwlch wouldn’t have thought to make some of his derivatives.  And, without Syvwlch we would have far fewer choices of things to print out from Thingiverse.

While capturing media for a new “Meet the MakerBot Operators” profiles series, I have been microphoning MakerBots in the BotCave while printing objects. As an unexpected fruit of my labor: I am  issuing “MakerBot Sound Library 001: The Pulley” @ Thingiverse to encourage attention to the bots’ sound/music-related properties. This #001 edition focuses on the sounds associated with printing the pulley object.

What does your print sound like? Does your bot have a voice, a lisp, a rattle that you want to share with the world?

• Pulley part 7.
• Y-axis shift.
• Z-axis shift.
• Finished printing “bark.”

The community is encouraged to make use of these sounds in video/sound/music/etc projects associated with their print projects — and share back by issuing compositions, shaping sounds and beats, creating beat loops/battle breaks and instruments, etc, as derivatives of the pertinent Sound Library edition. Or how about sharing your MakerBot recordings as a Sound Library of your own so that others can take a listen? (Grab the next consecutive Sound Library edition number and go for it.)

Over Memorial Day weekend, MakerBot MakerBot staffer Isaac has been evangelizing the MakerBot as tool for sound at Movement: Detroit’s Electronic Music Festival, and I am exciting about the possibilities. I simply have no idea yet what need or use exists for MakerBot sounds, and I count on you to grab the samples and go for it — create Ableton Live instruments, chiptunes-friendly encodings, ringtones, startup-tones, pbx voicemail menu trees …

• X-axis long cross.
• Tweezers.
• The Raft.
• ABS filament extrusion.

The original recordings are largely mono, 48k, 24bit .wav files using a boom microphone, contact microphone and Marantz handheld recorder. This edition being the first audio-only thing @ Thingiverse, please share feedback about what sounds and media format (bit rate/sample rate/format/codec) you need with me.