MakerBot Industries

Wheel repair by mrbenbritton

Thingiverse citizen mrbenbritton clearly put a lot of thought into this simple toy stroller wheel repair.  While admitting up front that the entire stroller was probably not even worth $6, mrbenbritton designed and printed this replacement wheel for a previously repaired stroller. ¹  Even if this was a $6 toy, the value to a kid is sometimes entirely out of proportion to the intrinsic value of an object.

About six months ago I fixed a very small foam sailboat for my daughter when she lost the mast. ²  To this day she will come up to me randomly and thank me again for having fixed her boat with a piece of black ABS filament as a mast replacement.

I suspect that mrbenbritton will be happy to find out that his daughter will probably remember her dad would always fix her toys long after the $6 stroller is forgotten.

Wheel repair by mrbenbritton

This is my first thing. A new wheel to replace one that broke on a toy stroller. The stroller was only worth $6 and is already held together by bamboo and gaffer tape so not really worth repairing but I did it anyway and my daughter loves it!

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1. I love this so much that I think a new slogan for MakerBot may just be in order.
   • “MakerBot.  When duck tape and bamboo just aren’t enough.”
   • “Even Macguyver has an off day.”

   [↩]

2. Actually what happened was that she found a hole in one of her larger molded plastic toys, pulled the mast out of her sailboat, inserted it into the hole to see if it would fit, and it disappeared forever.  I wasn’t about to chop apart a large plastic toy to get a thin black plastic stick. [↩]

Juice Box Weirdos by gwygonik

These “Juice Box Weirdos” by gwygonik (aka Gregg Wygonik) are one of my new all time favorite things on Thingiverse.  From the description of his inspiration, multiple variations on his own ideas – including some blanks so you can expand on them, with suggestions on how you could take his ideas even further, to the more full explanations in his own blog, this is what Thingiverse is about.  I don’t think we even have any juice boxes in my home, but I’m sure as heck going to go buy some now. ¹

Recently, while looking for how to best make a salsa-jar snow globe, I saw that a lot of people were turning juice boxes into boats and other cute objects by using stickers or paper. And I thought: “Wait a minute! What if I printed pieces for juice boxes? What if you could mix and match the pieces too?!”

I would be totally remiss if I didn’t mention Gregg’s blog detailing his adventures with his family and MakerBot 3D printer.  Gregg, if you’re reading this, I’ve followed you on Twitter and added your blog to my “must read” RSS feed.

Juice Box Weirdos by gwygonik

Recently, while looking for how to best make a salsa-jar snow globe, I saw that a lot of people were turning juice boxes into boats and other cute objects by using stickers or paper. And I thought: "Wait a minute! What if I printed pieces for juice boxes? What if you could mix and match the pieces too?!" Surprisingly, I was unable to find a commercial product that did this. This seems like a gold-mine to some mass-produced toy company (which is why I was going to set the license to non-commercial, but decided that if folks wanted to make and sell on Shapeways or similar, feel free :-) I was going to title these "juice box heroes", but there is a musical band by that name (apparently doing children-friendly versions of classic songs). Given that I made an owl with goggles on, "weirdos" is more appropriate. More info and pictures at my blog: myplasticfuture.com/one-for-the-kids-and-kids-at-heart These are more for sparking imagination than being "things" on their own. Which is why I've included a plain, basic end-cap for YOU to make your own things on: pirate ships, aircraft carriers, cats, alligators, dinosaurs, mars rovers, you name it! I have included all the SketchUp files to use as a launching point.

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1. For, um, my kid. [↩]

Toggles by larsie

But that day shall not be today, thanks to larsie for his son’s shoelace toggles.

Hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution, billions of dollars in the footware industry, and using small ropes to lash bits of leather and rubber to our feet is the best we could come up with?  Tying knots in shoelaces has got to be one of the most ridiculous activities in the world.  It’s difficult to learn as a child,¹ the laces always come undone at inconvenient times, you can trip on them when they do, and you never notice until its too late.  Thankfully I don’t remember the days when I was frustrated with the vagaries and inefficiencies that are shoelaces. ²

Can you imagine putting yourself in larsie’s son’s place? ³  The poor guy was so frustrated with tying his shoes that he didn’t want to wear them on the way to kindergarten!  Thus, today’s MakerBot hero is larsie for leaping into action and realizing he could design and print spring-operated toggles so quickly he could get his child to school on time!

Toggles by larsie

My son is not very good at tying his shoe laces, so I made him this thing instead. It's basically a well known device from shoes, jackets etc, that are apparently called toggles (thanks). It could be redesigned in all sorts of ways, maybe even showing a head or some other object. This was made quite quickly, since he didn't want to wear his shoes on the way to kinder garten. :-) I have made another version and have added the STL files for this also. It's called toggles.stl. This one is smaller and has a slightly different shape.

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1. Wait, wait, wait…  the bunny hops where?  Why?  What did he see?  Why didn’t he go the other way around??? [↩]
2. But, mom, why CAN’T I have velcro shoes?! [↩]
3. I had to physically restrain myself from making the obvious pun here… [↩]

Cardboard Dragon with 3D-printed feet

I can honestly say I didn’t understand just how cool these simple 3D printed feet were until I saw this picture.  Drawing an animal for a kid is one great.  But being able to turn that drawing into a toy for them to play with is just so much cooler.  Thingiverse user and MakerBot dad guru has provided his method for creating quick and fun characters for use with these plastic feet.  In the true spirit of Thingiverse, he’s also shared his OpenSCAD designs for printing your own feet.

Also, I would be remiss in my duties if I didn’t mention SuperAmi‘s own game piece foot which serves a similar purpose. ¹

Feet for Cardboard-Figures by guru

I made some cardboard-figures from the delivery-boxes of a very famous book-seller and needed some feet. So i fired up my makerbot and printed some local-guru.net/blog/2011/10/12/Cardboard-Dragon-with-3D-printed-feet

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Game Piece Foot by SuperAmi

At the flee market this weekend I found a board game from my childhood, so of course, I bought it for my child. Unfortunately it was missing one of the plastic feet for the game pieces. So, I broke out the calipers and got scading. The piece is designed for the great game Mausefalle (http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/25097/mausefalle), but it should work with little or no modification with many a great board game with cardboard cutout game pieces. (ie: Candy Land) Now I just need to find the rules for Mausfalle, since I don't remember how to get out of the mouse holes...

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1. I suppose, SuperAmi’s foot is for monopods and guru’s feet are for bipedal and quadrupedal creatures? [↩]

Pirate Hook by SuperAmi

Thingiverse citizen and MakerBot dad SuperAmi has shared what is sure to be a Halloween favorite – a parametric pirate hook!  One of the most amusing things about this picture is that it really looks like SuperAmi’s son is running at top speed.  In my family the refrain of “You’ll put your eye out!” has been passed down through generations.  I can just picture this pirate tyke responding, “No I won’t!  I’m wearing an eyepatch!”

Parametric Pirate Hook by SuperAmi

This is a parametric pirate hook I made for my son's birthday party. It fits the paw of a 4-5 year old very well. It consists of three prints, the cup for around the hand, the hook, and then the grip and joining piece. My son really likes it, although the hook is a little primitive. I've included the SCAD. The cup file is parametric, and while not greatly laid out, it should be easy enough to scale up or down. Its also relatively tall, and could easily be shortened by a centimeter or two. The other files are not parametric, because I was in a hurry, but they should be easy enough to adjust.

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Mechanical Animals by sconine

Thingiverse citizen sconine has just shared some really amazing toy mechanical animals.  Colorful, playful, and whimsical, each of these hand crank toys is sure to delight a child. ^1 2  Guaranteed not to wet the carpet, bite, or require you to let them out in the middle of the night these creatures would make excellent pets for any kid.  Interestingly, since the coolest instances of these toys is with multiple colored components in each toy, this is one of the few multi-piece prints that would not be well suited for printing plates!  I especially like how each of these toys has a distinctive motion to them.  I can’t wait to see what other little mechanical toys Sconie shares!

Also, over the last two weeks or so I’ve gotten into the habit of handing out imaginary and arbitrary points.  10,000 awesome MakerBot dad points to Sconine!

Mechanical Animals by sconine

These are 3 different machanical animals. They are all pretty basic mechanical devices that turn rotary motion into more of a linear motion. My kids (and their friends) have gotten a real kick out of them. I drew them all in sketchup.Jumping Prairie Dog Turn the crank and make the prairie dog jump up and down.Diving Dolphin Turn the crank and watch the dolphin dive through the waves.Wood Pecker Turn the crank and see the wood pecker peck away. (This was originally posted as a pecking bird, but my kids all call it the woodpecker, so I'm putting it up as part of this collection).

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1. Or, as in my case… the child-like. [↩]
2. They are also very reminiscent of the popular Trammel of Archimedes [↩]

How to justify your Thing-O-Matic to your significant other!

As everyone knows, any good relationship involves negotiation and compromise.  Thingiverse citizen Bluemetal was able to justify the purchase of his Thing-O-Matic 3D printer by pointing out all of the things around his house he’d be able to fix.  This has lead him to fix his car’s luggage compartment cover (a savings of at least $550!) and a rotary sprinkler (a savings of at least $9.99).  This doesn’t even begin to contemplate the amount of time, travel, gas, and wear-and-tear on his vehicles he’s saved by just making the replacements he would otherwise have to go out and purchase.  While Bluemetal certainly isn’t the first person to use their MakerBot to print up replacement parts and save themselves money, he appears to be the first to be keeping a running tally of the amounts saved by using it.  It sounds like Bluemetal is well on his way to having his Thing-O-Matic pay for itself.

Here’s Bluemetal in his own words:

Being (or trying to be) a maker is not easy. Justifying your investments to your Significant Other requires some careful planning ( measure twice – cut once! ). My infra-red camera was justified with potential savings in our heating bill as I used to find cold air leaks around our +100 year old house.

The 3d printer was not that easy at first. I tried the cute things like a Gear Heart with some success but the real opinion former was to repair the cover for the luggage compartment in my car. After trying super glue and loosing the broken piece, I tried to buy just the plastic part and was informed that it was not possible and that the whole cover would set me back some USD 550.

My Thing-o-Matic saved the day! Using Google SketchUP I was able to create an exact piece (in 2 parts later glued together) to fit in the broken cover and secured firmly in place in some screws. The repair (made in orange plastic on purpose) is barely visible when in use but it has been shown several times to my Significant Other – who now feels that my investment in the 3d printer has been partially justified. I just need to find some USD 1000 worth of broken things fixable with pieces of plastic!

Even if you don’t have a significant other, there are still lots of ways you could justify a purchase of a 3D printer to someone who would be willing to help.  Some have created Kickstarter campaigns, while others have lobbied their parents, schools, or even employers.  Like Bluemetal, just think of some ways you can use your 3D printer to make or save money, resources, or time and put together a persuasive argument.

What’s your best 3D printer justification story?

How to justify your TOM to your significant other! by Bluemetal

We have all been there! How do you explain a several thousand dollars investment into another "toy"? My significant other (SO) had some issues with the amount of money and specially time I spent with the TOM. Not even thingiverse.com/derivative:9461 won her over (though it did get some extra time credit over all).I needed something significant ( in monetary terms ) to bring her over to our side. In my case, I had the (mis)fortune of breaking the end of my cars luggage compartment cover. The cover can be used in the 5 and 7 seat configuration so it has extensions that lock to the ends to make it longer for the 5 seat set up. The broken piece that connected to the left extension was around a bit and I tried the usual super glue cure with terrible results - not only it did not glue properly, it actually made me loose the broken piece altogether (now I see it was divine providence!). Upon contacting the dealer to try to buy the offending plastic part and after being politely told to stop being foolish and that Plan B (a whole new cover) was going to cost USD 550, I saw the light! :0What if I fixed the cover and saved USD 550 (plus tax)? Hero for a few days maybe and even, just maybe a "isn't nice that you bought the 3d printer thingy?" Lofty goals but the difference between courage and ignorance is usually not that big.

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Gardening wire frame clip (the printed one is on top)

My wife and daughter planted a little summer garden recently.  This little garden in large parts is surrounded by some tall green metal wire frames for providing support to growing plants and provides some minor protection against very large animals and small children.  The wire frame support kit, as you might imagine, came with the exact number of the little plastic clips used to assemble the structure.  In it’s third year of use, we finally lost one of those little clips.

And now I had an excuse to bring out my calipers, whip up some OpenSCAD code, and fire up the 3D printer.  Admittedly, I spent more time than was reasonably required to over-engineer the result.  Since these little clips were going to be in use throughout the summer and be visible the entire time, I wanted a design that would match the originals as closely as possible.  After printing out a test piece in black, I printed another forty or so in clear PLA.  These new parts look as good and work just as well as the originals and are biodegradable to boot.

It’s a funny thing, living in a post-3D printing world.  I certainly don’t want to misplace any of the original plastic clips the wire frame set came with.  However, losing a little widget is no longer a cause for alarm, some expensive replacement, or a temporary fix with duct tape/zip tie/twist tie.  While duct tape and zip ties have their place, being able to create a permanent fix for a problem is a pretty amazing thing.

Gardening Wire Clip by MakerBlock

My wife planted a small garden in pots in our backyard. This is a replacement plastic clip for the wire frames.

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Thingiverse citizen Chris aka TheNewHobbyist just posted a fantastic new video in his “Everyday Fixes with MakerBot” series.  There are a lot of great things about this post, but one of my favorites is just how quickly he goes from photograph of the object to fixed tacklebox. ¹  He basically took a top-down view photograph of the clip, imported it into Google Sketchup, traced it, scaled it to size, exported as a standard STL file, then printed it FTW.²  Chris has also uploaded his work to Thingiverse so you can benefit from his ninja Sketchup design skillz.

I almost want to go out and get a tacklebox just to use some of these clips.

Tackle Box Replacement Clip by TheNewHobbyist

This is a replacement clip for a tackle box I purchased. The model can likely be scaled to fit your needs, though I'm not sure if there are any "standard" clip sizes. I modeled the part from the original manufactures piece using a photograph, a digital caliper and Google Sketchup. This may be a good candidate for OpenSCAD but I've yet to learn how to use it. The replacement I printed actually snaps and holds tighter than the clip from the manufacturer! Here's a link to my blog post showing the modeling/printing of the part: thenewhobbyist.com/2011/06/everyday-fixes-with-makerbot-3-tacklebox-clip/

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1. I can only hope that he uses this tacklebox to keep all the clips that have fallen off of his other tackleboxes. [↩]
2. For the win, natch. [↩]

Gate Latch String Guide by 3dprinterbot

What did Scott Pierce aka 3dprinterbot do when his gate latch string kept breaking?  What any 3D printer owner would do!  He designed, printed, and installed a fix!

The string on my gate was breaking because it rubbed against the wooden post of the fence. This string guide gives the string a smooth surface to rub against and hopefully will prevent it from breaking so often. I put one on each side of the fence.

I like this hack because it makes use of a plastic part for a physical property other than strength.  Since a well-printed plastic part will be much smoother than just a hole drilled into wood, it won’t wear away at the cord nearly as quickly.

There are also some very interesting directions to take this idea.  Since this type of latch isn’t really about security as much as it is about ensuring a gate is actually closed, there’s no special need for the parts to be metal.  The entire latching mechanism could be printed, except for the screws.  Additionally, since the cord still needs to be fed through a hole in the wood panel, a small plastic tube could be fashioned to further reduce wear-and-tear on the cord as it travels through the panel.

String Guide by 3dprinterbot

The string on my gate was breaking because it rubbed against the wooden post of the fence. This string guide gives the string a smooth surface to rub against and hopefully will prevent it from breaking so often. I put one on each side of the fence.

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