Well, it’s Monday morning after Maker Faire Bay Area and I’m already wishing the festivities could go on a bit longer. There’s just so much to learn and see, and so many makers to meet in such a short amount of time. We brought a ton of Awesome to this year’s faire including a MakerBot BotFarm, as well as a Robot Petting Zoo, a Photo Booth and Awesome Toss’Em (a MakerBot carnival game). In this special Maker Faire edition of MakerBot TV, R.Maker takes you on a tour of the faire and then we chat with a few of the many MakerBot Operators we ran into over the weekend. Thank you so much to everyone who joined in the fun! Keep it awesome!

Today we’ll meet with MakerBot operator and Broadway set designer Kacie Hultgren. Kacie has made a number of incredible contributions to Thingiverse under the user name PrettySmallThings including her well-known Queen Anne Chairs, the oversized armchair, her SciFi Control Room and whole array of beautiful and delicate tiny pieces of furniture. Find out what she’s doing with all of her prints and why she considers the MakerBot an ideal tool for someone who uses their apartment as a workspace.

Kacie will be doing some guest blogging for us in the coming weeks, so keep your eyes on our blog for some really helpful insights into her process!

One of the questions I hear a lot when I am out at events – showing MakerBots to people who have never seen them before – is, “What is the cost of materials for a MakerBotted object?” Sure, filament is inexpensive, but how much filament are you using when you print? In this episode I’ll show you exactly how to calculate that cost. I’ll also reveal the number of chess pieces that can be printed with a single spool and the cost of MakerBot plastic by cm³ and inch³. All that and more on this week’s episode of MakerBot TV.

In this episode we’ll meet MakerBot operator Steve Conine – known to Thingiverse as sconine. Steve is most famous for designing Thingiverse’s Mechanical Animals, Toy Train Sets, Log Cabins and Starfish. Check out some of the many toys that he has designed and printed with his children and find out why he decided to bring a MakerBot into the family.

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A new episode comes out every Monday!

 

You’ve probably heard us talk about the fact that we’re an open source company – but you may not know exactly what that means or why a company would choose to follow an open source model. In this episode of MakerBot TV you’ll hear from Bre about how he got hooked on open source and you’ll learn how you can participate in the open source revolution!

PS. Speaking of open source – did you see that the design files for The MakerBot Replicator™ are now on Thingiverse?

In this episode we visit the home (/printing factory) of MakerBot enthusiast Mark Cohen. When I met with Mark he had 5 working MakerBots in his garage (he now has 7!). Find out how he’s managed to sustain his hobby of printing by… printing. And treat yourself to a tiny dose of awesome MakerBotted stop motion animation.