MakerBot Industries

We’ve been working overtime getting our Turtle Shell Racers ready for Maker Faire!  If you didn’t hear the news, we’re going to have a lot of racers running at our booth, and, as you can see in the above slideshow, it’s been a group effort to get everything ready.

Is something like this going on at your home?  If you’ve at home working on your own amazing, 3d-printed racing creation, we are inviting you to bring it to our Maker Faire area and run it around the track for a chance at weekend bragging rights.  Who says track days are only for car nuts?

Firefly Bracelet by neurothing

I love everything about this thing.  It’s jewelery, it’s a bug, and it’s got an LED.  What’s not to like?! While this isn’t the first insect on Thingiverse, it is easily the shiniest.  It’s a four-part print – bracelet, two wings, and body that are assembled with hot glue.  I rather like the contrast in textures created by the different build orientation of the four printed pieces.

As with any multi-part print, I wonder whether this design could be modified to print all of the parts in a single plate and assembled without tools or glue.  Given that the body is printed upright (Probably to accommodate the cavity for the LED, battery, and leads) , I’m fairly confident all of the parts could be arranged to be printed as a single STL file.

Neurothing mentions his plans to sell these at the upcoming Maker Faire in New York.  Just imagine – if this design could be assembled without additional tools or glue, nuerothing could print them before your very eyes, peel the raft off the build platform, drop the parts into a bag with the LED and battery, and send you on your way.  The production of the thing could become part of the sales experience, rather than just a precursor to the transaction.