Crutch Tip by Darthcarter

I sprained my ankle on Friday and have a bright and shiny pair of crutches to show for my troubles.  After combing through Thingiverse, I was able to find only one crutch accessory – Darthcarter’s crutch tip featured above.

Thus, I propose an OpenSCAD design challenge – please create for me some accessories for my crutches.  They can be anything at all – perhaps an attachment for crutches that would give it a gripper claw extension, maybe a hook for holding the crutches up on a wall when not in use, or perhaps a clip for holding the two crutches together when I set them down.  This is my first time using crutches, so I’m sure there are a million little improvements for them.

9000 MakerBlock-backed certified internet points to the first person to design some kind of a crutch accessory or improvement in OpenSCAD and upload it to Thingiverse.¹  9000 additional MakerBlock-backed certified internet points to the most practical crutch accessory or improvement.  Please tag your Thing with “makercrutch” so that I can find them!

FYI, this is my challenge alone and not from MakerBot Industries.  I am the only source of MakerBlock backed certified internet points and imaginary currency.

1. One of the reasons I’m making this an OpenSCAD challenge is that I can’t hobble around my workroom looking for my calipers in order to measure my crutches! [↩]

Here is a lovely morning treat for you: The Engineer vs. Designer-MakerBot challenge has ended and the winners have been named! Find out here!

The contest called for a upload an “ironic, backward, cynical, or comically self-defeating 3D designs in watertight stl format,” and indeed brought out some of the most creative Things on Thingiverse of any competition we’ve been a part of.

At stake were a Makerbot Replicator, a one-year Cadjunkie Pro Membership, and an EvD Tshirt!

The gents at EvD have a special edition podcast up today that you must listen to! The very enjoyable 26 minutes features Al Dean of Develop3D Magazine who said the competition saw submissions that he “not only want[s] but need[s] and lust[s] after.”

After reviewing all the 183 (one hundred eighty three!) submissions that cadjunkie’s Adam O’Hern said primarily sought to “insult, denigrate, damage and destroy” iPhones, SolidSmack.com’s Josh Mings says he was overjoyed with the members of Thingiverse for having “more wit and sarcasm than any community I know.”

Without any further ado, please direct your ears to Episode 33 of ENGINEERvs.DESIGNER, where you will hear all the hilarious highlights of the contest and an interview with the winner!

UPDATE! The judges announced in the podcast that the winner of this contest was Thingiverse user aubenc, for his perfectly-executed design iFlail! The description says it’s a perfect accessory, if you’re into medieval war. Plus, as aubenc notes, “you will most probably have no pockets in your armor.” Genius.

Look of Disapproval Glasses by plasma2002

How awesome are these emotive glasses by first-time Thingiverse contributor plasma2002?!  We’ve all seen those “Today I feel…” fridge magnets.  But, it seems silly that a refrigeration device would have such a range of emotions.  Wouldn’t it make much more sense to wear glasses that expressed how you felt on a particular day?  The emoticon possibilities alone are endless.  The most obvious would be a wink “    ” or tear ” ) ; “.

Here’s what I’m thinking for an emoticon glasses challenge:

• Be the first to upload any kind of emoticon glasses to Thingiverse with the tag “emoticonglasses“.
• Be the first to upload a particular kind of emoticon glasses to Thingiverse with the tag “emoticonglasses“.
• Be the first to tweet a picture of yourself wearing emoticon glasses at a bar with the hashtag “#emoticonglasses“

Anyone who completes any of the above three challenges gets 9000 internet points and everlasting online fame!

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"Okay" by cyclone

Using the really excellent information over at Sandy Noble’s Polargraph website and with help from John Abella and a few others I’ve built a drawing robot.  While I’m very happy with the printed gondola John designed, I thought that it might be fun to have a gondola in the shape of a hand.  I have no idea if it would work well or terribly, but I do know it would be fun.  Here’s the challenge:

• Design an STL of a printable scanned copy of a human hand in the position of holding a pen for drawing/writing.
• The hand would need to have a way to attach to two lines of thin monofilament on the left and right.
• The hand would need to have a way to hold pens of slightly varying diameter.
• Upload your designs to Thingiverse with an open license and tag it “drawbothand“

The person who uploads a hand gondola gets 9000 internet points and, if they wish, a picture drawn by my robot!

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Are you cooking up a wild and wacky new iPhone accessory in your brain skillet? Serve it up for a chance to win your very own Replicator!

Together with our friends Adam and Josh over at  Engineer vs. Designer, we’re kicking off the Absurd iPhone Accessory Design Contest! Slap on that thinking cap and upload your oddest, awesomest iPhone accessory design to Thingiverse and tag it ‘EvD’ to enter. Submit your design by March 19, 2012 and see it (and you!) featured on the Engineer vs. Designer blog.

Details after the jump!
Read the rest of this entry »

Chocolate Bunny Ear Mold by rweaving

Thingiverse citizen rweaving is now the proud winner of all the prizes and privileges that accompany a design challenge win!  There were four possible ways to win this challenge and rweaving has fulfilled three of them – first to design a plastic mold for chocolate bunny ears, print the plastic mold, and create chocolate bunny ears from such a mold!  (You can still win for “First to directly print bunny ears out of chocolate”))

I hereby confer upon rweaving all the powers and privileges that accompany such a design challenge victory – 27,000 internet points, mad blog nods and kudos, and three everlastings of fame on the internet.  Awesome work!

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Army of Bunnies by zxqueb

As everyone knows, the top of a muffin is easily the most desirable and delicious part.  This is reason for muffin-top pans.  So, it occurs to me that a bunny’s ears are clearly the most delicious part of a chocolate bunny.  With the season of chocolate bunnies and eggs on the horizon, Thingiverse should really have some kind of chocolate mold for bunny ears.  The prizes consist of blog-nods, major kudos, 9000 internet points, and everlasting fame on the internets.  One prize to each of the following:

• First to design a plastic mold for chocolate bunny ears (look to Chris Palmer’s work for inspiration)
• First to print a plastic mold for chocolate bunny ears
• First to create chocolate bunny ears out of a printed plastic mold
• First to directly print bunny ears out of chocolate (use a frostruder or some other kind of chocolate extruder)

Here are a few items from Thingiverse to help you on your way:

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Turkey Cookie Cutter by wstrinz

First off, I want to give a shout-out to pomalin for their Bucket Of OctopSTA and second entry in the “moregangsta” challenge.  As the first-challenge-uploader and first-to-upload two separate entries, Pomalin receives 27,000 internet points AND bragging rights^3!  ¹

Second, how about another lightning design challenge?!  Can you design and upload a turkey design² before midnight on November 24, 2011?  9000 internet points, bragging rights, and mad blog-nods to:

• First to upload
• Most realistic
• Most awesome

Please be sure and tag your entries with “turkeyday2011” so everyone can find your contribution.  Also, don’t forget to add other appropriate other tags to your designs.

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1. That’s just “bragging rights” to the power of three, not to the power of “3!” [↩]
2. With an open license please! [↩]

hipsta by pomalin

Thingiverse citizen pomalin is the winner of 9000 internet points and bragging rights for being the first to upload a “moregangsta” challenge mashup! ¹ The one I was really hoping someone would upload first was a HipSTA – and thanks to pomalin  now there is one!

There are still more points and bragging rights to be had!

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1. Pomalin also gets another 9000 points for being the first to upload one of the specific models for the challenge. [↩]

Klein Bottle from simple primitives by MakeALot

First, I need to preface this by saying I can’t believe I overlooked coasterman’s low-polygon count Klein Bottle posted about a year ago.  Although created in Sketchup, this design is about as low-poly as you can get.  Now!  On to the imaginary awards show!

• First to upload that wasn’t me:  MakeAlot with a Klein Bottle from simple primatives for uploading his designs within about 3 hours of the challenge being posted.
• Fewest lines of code:  MakeAlot with a Klein Bottle from simple primatives with just 33 lines of code.
• Fewest facets:  Low poly (but still) klein bottle by aubenc with just 40 faces!
• Most resembling a traditional Klein Bottle:  MakeAlot with a Klein Bottle from simple primatives for his very curvaceous OpenSCAD designs.

Building on the work of these fine designers, can you design a Klein Bottle in OpenSCAD that uses fewer lines of code, has fewer faces, or is even more traditional looking?

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