MakerBot Industries

TOM Tentative Sound Damper by Bluemetal

One of the most interesting lessons I’ve learned from Thingiverse is the importance of sharing.  Take, for instance, Bluemetal’s “TOM Tentative Sound Damper.”  Although the design didn’t have the hoped-for impact, reducing operational noise, there were two very important side-effects.

First, it looks AWESOME.  Whether or not it works, the springloaded feet and just cool.  Secondly, Bluemetal’s designs prompted MakerBot’s own Nick Starno to share a handy little hardware tweak.  Nick suggests:

I was able to eliminate a lot of noise by cutting some of the rubber tube that comes with the ABP into <1mm “washers” and compress them between the rods and rod covers. 6 total, one for a single end of each rod, and the difference in sound is quite significant.

If it wasn’t for Bluemetal’s post, Nick wouldn’t have posted that comment, and we might never have known about this quick trick!

TOM Sound Damper by Bluemetal

Inspired by thingiverse.com/thing:14802 and trying to find ways to reduce the noise on my TOM, I decided to create this TOM shock absorber in the hope it would help. After all the testing was done, there was actually some reduction on the loudness of the Y stage due to less contact with the desktop where the printer is sitting :) A way to test the potential reduction is to raise the printer away from the desktop and see if it makes less noise. If it does then the dampers will help a bit. The TOM seems now ready to start moving about and with the top up like in my case is starting to resemble a wood and plastic WALL-E. :) If you have the backside spool holder ( thingiverse.com/thing:7105 ) installed you will need to move it elsewhere as one of the back feet colides with it. The SketchUp file is included for others to tweak with it.

This thing brought to you by

Thing-o-Matic Alternate Front Panel by dougkeenan

Sometimes a simple hack is all it takes.  Just look at dougkeenan’s “Thing-o-Matic Alternate Front Panel.”

Why would you want a front panel that has a little divot in the left side?  Well, if you’re rocking a MakerBot Automated Build Platform, you already the know the answer.  The MakerBot ABP has gears that advance the conveyor belt so that it can keep printing part after part.  However, those gears on the side rob the operator of a few precious millimeters of build space in the X direction.¹  My making a little cut out, dougkeenan has effectively increased the build area for his Thing-O-Matic.  One of the cool things is that you could even just cut this little piece out of your front panel and gain the extra build area too!

Thing-o-Matic alternate front panel by dougkeenan

panel outline is slightly trapezoidal, with a notch for the ABP gears

This thing brought to you by

1. Left and right. [↩]

Wireless Cupcakes! (Who would want anything else???)

Caleb Cohoon has put together a truly amazing tutorial on the MakerBot wiki about on how to add a bluetooth adapter to your Cupcake CNC in order to allow wireless communication. ¹  Caleb has checked all the boxes on making a great tutorial – he’s got detailed instructions and pictures of every step,  links to resources, screenshots where appropriate, instructions for Macs and PC’s, and a friendly tone that let’s you know, “Hey!  I could do this!”

Awesome work Caleb!

1. Doesn’t Bluetooth Cupcake sound like an awesome dessert? [↩]

Simple fix for ABP gear slip by tc_fea

Tony Cervantes brings us this tiny timely tale of tragedy and triumph on Thingiverse:¹²

I ruined the snap fit slot on my MakerBot Automated Build Platform while I was learning to use the ABP. (Tranlated to English: I had to replace the belt several times due to my screw-ups.)

The wooden snap fit slot holding the geared roller loosened to point where the motor gear would force the roller gear out of the slot and slip.

Tony’s fix involves cutting a two inch section off of a standard paperclip and bending it around the metal motor and the metal for the conveyor belt.  Apparently his hack has lasted through at least 14 builds.

If this has happened to your Automated Build Platform, you might want to try off a new side panel using Chooch’s Printable ABP.

1. Today’s post has been brought to you by the letter “T” and the number “5″ [↩]
2. There’s no particular reason for the alliteration – I just started typing and got carried away. [↩]