MakerBot Industries

It’s going to be a big weekend for everyone attending Maker Faire Bay Area. Here are a few quick ideas for what you could make to be fully prepared for the festivities.

Card holder by eM5

Business Card Holder with Top by eM5

I saw one of these on Annelise’s desk the other day, and I have to have one. If you get a card from me at MakerFaire, it’ll be from one of these suckers!

But here’s why you should have one for MakerFaire. Trading cards! Shawn  Wallace at Make Magazine has designed these awesome 3D printer trading cards for this weekend. There’s no word on whether there will be actual cards – looks like these are just designs right now – but in case some enterprising person turns these into cards, you’ll be prepared with your card holder!

Mustache and Monocle by chefmaki

Disguise!

Are you supposed to come into the office on Saturday, but you’re planning to sneak over to Maker Faire instead? You need this Mustache and Monocle by chefmaki, just in case your boss shows up. Also, if I see you walking around Maker Faire with this thing, I will feature you on the blog, no questions asked.

Whistle by madkite

A Whistle, either this one by Zaggo, or this slightly modified one above by madkite. If you’re bringing your kids to Maker Faire, and if they have a tendency to run off, you can use your whistle to get their attention. Or perhaps you can use it to referee some robot basketball. These are just ideas; a whistle is always useful.

Nepenthesis by Ecken

A beautiful Nepentheses Planter by Ecken. One thing I want to do at Maker Faire if I get the chance is visit some of the gardening booths. I like the idea of making these Guerilla Garden bombs full of wildflower seeds and throwing them around my neighborhood. Maybe you could leave the planter at home, but it would be a great home for some of the flora you might pick up over the weekend.

Trebuchet by jam4ar

Trebuchet

When does one need a reason to make a trebuchet? Make this and launch things; at Maker Faire. Case closed. Here’s one from jam4ar.

If you are a mover, a shaker, and a Maker, let us stamp your passport! We’ll have our passport stamps at Maker Faire this weekend, including a special edition Robot Petting Zoo stamp. If you don’t have your passport yet, you can grab one from Adafruit. Collect stamps, prove your cred.

It’s about to get really Maker Faire-ish on this blog! The MakerBot team is gearing up for our trip to San Mateo this week, where we will be throwing down some awesome with Makers from around the globe. Whoa-I-can’t-wait-why-isn’t-it-Saturday-yet?

If you’re going to be a part of Maker Faire this weekend, please stop by and say hello to us. But be prepared for MakerBot staff to be super interested in you and what you like to make.

Lots more info to come, but here are our Top Five Makers this year that we can’t wait to visit. Notice: this list is subject to change before the day’s out.

Cory Soto’s Dalek — building a “Dalek Mutant Vehicle…on a Yamaha G9 gas engine”. He’s been documenting his progress here.

Christian Ristow’s Face Forward — oh come on you have to be kidding me! A 12-foot tall robotic human face controlled by a bunch of joysticks. “Members of the public may operate the levers and play their part in the orchestration of an ongoing “river” of facial expressions.”

Wearable Computing Fashion Show by Lynne Bruning – “A fashion show that features wearable computing, soft-circuits and eTextiles from multiple designers, innovators and makers.” What more can I say?

Andrew Kaye’s 8x8x8 LED Cube — MORE LEDs!!!!! Filling a giant box with 512 LEDs is one of the best things one person can do for another person. Awesome.

Evil Mad Scientist’s High Tech Pumpkins – electronic, robotic pumpkins this Halloween. This is the world we want to live in. Evil Mad Scientist is going to show us how.

The MakerBot 3D design team is building a Robot Petting Zoo to bring to this year’s Maker Faire. In this video you’ll get a behind-the-scenes look at how they conceptualized, designed and created these amazing DIY robots! To see the robots in full-effect meet us at Maker Faire Bay Area on May 19th and 20th, 2012. Hope to see you there!

A few colleagues and I had a truly great time up in Westport, Connecticut last weekend, where we were part of that state’s first ever Maker Faire event. This Mini Maker Faire was held on the giant lawn outside the Westport Public Library. The only downside there was that a bunch of the guests and makers at Saturday’s event probably didn’t get a chance to go inside that gorgeous facility.

Anyway, I just wanted to thank everyone for stopping by to see us. I learned a lot from all the visitors to our table. For example, Dr. Raimund Herzog stopped by to discuss some challenges he was facing with his Thing-O-Matic extruder. He didn’t realize it, but he was giving me an education in the history of extruders.

Ray also shared a really helpful tip that I think bears re-mentioning on the blog: when assembling your TOM, it’s always a good idea to have a magnetic wand on hand, such as the one he received along with his Weller soldering station.

If you’re about to embark on an assembly adventure, get one of these. I assembled a Replicator the other day and found myself wishing I had one on hand. The guys and girls in the Bot Cave use them a lot, in case you’re wondering about the tools of the trade.

Here’s a shot of Ray showing us how useful this tool was in putting together his Filament Spindle Box, and another shot below it from our Support pages showing another angle.

Thanks, Ray!

A new week begins and I have a few items to put on your calendar. These concern Saskatonians, New Yorkers, Washington, DC, and Connecticuters.

First things first: if you’re in the New York City area and you’re interested in some basic MakerBotting education for free, reserve a spot now at our class at Tekserve on Thursday. You can see the invitation and RSVP here.

What — 90 minute class with MakerBot Education guru Liz Arum
When – Thursday, April 26; 6:30-8:00 p.m.
Where — Tekserve in New York City; 119 West 23rd Street. New York, NY 10011

If you are anywhere near the nation’s capital this weekend, there are a couple chances to Kinect (see what I did there?) with our MakerBot road crew, Matt, Keith, and Nick. The guys will be hanging out on Saturday and Sunday for the USA Science and Engineering Festival, which bills itself as “the most compelling, exciting, educational and entertaining science festival in the United States.”

This is a jam-packed festival that basically anyone could enjoy. For example, page 6 of the list of stage shows includes an hour session by Bill Nye. THE SCIENCE GUY! If Bill Nye’s on page 6, you know the rest of the lineup has to be pretty exciting. There’s an Electronic Fashion Show, a talk from actress and neuroscientist Mayim Bialik, a panel discussion with CIA scientists, a Harry Potter magic demonstration, and dozens and dozens of other shows, not to mention exhibits like ours where kids and families can interact with fun science of all kinds.

The MakerBot booth will have our latest 3D printer, The Replicator, and we will be scanning and printing visitors with the Xbox Kinect and ReconstructMe, and more! Come see us!

What – MakerBot booth at a giant, awesome science fair in Washington, DC
When – April 28, 10:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.; April 29, 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Where – Walter E. Washington Convention Center; 801 Mount Vernon Place, NW. Washington, DC 20001

While the crew is down in D.C., they plan to party Saturday night close to the Convention Center at The Passenger. We have rented a room from 6:00-8:00 p.m., and will be offering food and drinks on us, first-come-first-served, until we run out!

What – A chance for MakerBot Operators to come together and hang out with Keith, Matt, and Nick
When – April 28, 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Where – The Passenger; 1021 7th St NW, Washington, DC 20001

For any readers near Saskatoon, Canada — often considered the Edmonton of Saskatchewan — come see MakerBot at The Man Show 2012. This is a lifestyle trade show geared subtly toward men. Okay, frankly, this looks awesome. It’s a giant exhibition of gadgets and tools. It will be a great chance to check out The Replicator in the midst of a bunch of other really cool things. Tickets are $10.

What – Chance to see The Replicator and speak with an expert on our 3D printers
When – April 26-27, 4:00-10:00 p.m.; April 28, 1:00-9:00 p.m.
Where – Credit Union Centre; 3515 Thatcher Avenue. Saskatoon, SK S7R 1C4, Canada

A second group of MakerBot staff is also thrilled to attend the Mini Maker Faire in Westport, Connecticut. We’ll be rolling from 10:00 a.m until things wind down at 4:00 p.m. Come visit us (including me!) and say hello to our 3D printers.

What — Mini Maker Faire featuring MakerBot and many other exhibitors
When – April 28, 10:00 a.m.-4:00 p.m.
Where — Westport Library; 20 Jesup Road, Westport, CT 06880

Thank you to all of you who joined us for the April 3rd, standing-room-only MUGNY event. Great start to MUGNY’s 2012 season!

MUGNY might be the “flagship” MUG given its proximity to MakerBot HQ, but this particular event was something of a special case. I assembled a heavy-hitter list of MakerBot colleagues to each deliver a short talk on frequently requested topics. Future MUGNY editions will focus on show-and-tell directed by community members, along with a sprinkling of A-list superstar keynotes.¹

I am following (cue the TV mad scientist hand-rubbing) a secret plan: the plan to generate a number of great talks and tech demos that can be later transposed into full-out tutorials on MakerBot.com to share with our community — so that all of the MUGs can benefit. Those physically able to visit weren’t the only ones attending — despite our same-day notice, we had at least seventy-five visitors via the event’s livestream, chatting with MakerBot blogger Andrew while following the proceedings. And this is just a piece of the MUG-to-MUG exchange that will become possible as more MUGs come online and swap activities with each other. So keep your eyes on this space — I’ll be blogging about these tutorials as we post them. I encourage MUGs to give these tutorials a try at their own events.

Across the planet, dozens and dozens of MUGs have been forming to bring MakerBot Operators together regularly to share prints, models, stories, and (frequently) pizza. Are you on the hunt for fellow MakerBot Operators to meet with in your area? Or maybe you have a group and you’d like to tell us about it? In either case, drop us a message to mug at makerbot dot com and I’ll be happy to follow up with you.

Wanna check out the run down for the night? Click the “read more” link below for the Techniques Swap summary!

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1. I have lined up some really outstanding contributors for the upcoming season! [↩]

Anyone in the Northside Chicago area may be interested to hear there is a Mini Maker Faire coming up at the absolutely incredible looking Carl Schurz High School.

Carl Schurz High School, aka Holy Cow That's A High School?

The event will be held Saturday, April 21, 2012 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and the poster says attendance is free for all Chicago Public School students!

If you are not in the Chicago area, but still want to find a Maker Faire near you, from Ahmedabad to Dublin to Albuquerque, check out this map on MakerFaire.com. There’s a whole lot of making going on!

This is so awesome it needs no additional comment.

MSNBC and Mashable have two good writeups on this Maker Faire project by a group of Bay Area high school students. On their own website, they describe it thus:

Our Maker Faire project for 2012 is “The Viper” — a motion controlled flight simulator inspired by the ship of the same name from the SyFy Channel’s TV Series Battlestar Galactica. The basic idea is to mount the fuselage of a small plane (a Piper PA-28) on a motion control platform that is capable of 360 degree rotation around both the pitch and roll axes. The video above presents the basic design we’re shooting for. This design allows for considerably more motion around the pitch axis than commercial entertainment systems, such as those found at the Smithsionian Air and Space museum.

If the inspiration isn’t familiar to you, this image from their concept art page might help. 

These guys are awesome. Perhaps someone should print them a couple of these Cylon Raiders from Thingiverse and present them at Maker Faire in May!

Cylon Raider by 7777773

Cylon Raider (New BSG) by 7777773

Cylon Raider ship from the newer Battlestar Galactica series. Make sure you have no wireless network devices nearby when this Cylon is printed; these toasters can infiltrate a network in seconds. And they have a plan....

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Do yourself a favor and check out this fantastic episode of Al Jazeera’s social-sourced web show ‘The Stream.’ Bre joins Maker Faire Africa Co-founder Emeka Okafor and host Derrick Ashong in a lively and inspiring discussion of all things #maker, #hacker, and #DIY – all in the time it takes The Replicator to build the Empire State Building. The panel explores how and why maker culture is shaping the future of industry, development, and humanity itself.

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