MakerBot Industries

4-Color Self-Portrait by br3ttb

Not only is br3ttb an OpenSCAD Challenge Imaginary Prize Winner, but he’s also doing some crazy amazing stuff by printing in FOUR colors.  Similar to the printing processes of old, br3ttb set down one color at a time on top of another to form a four-color picture, using just one extruder.  The result is a very lightly textured and posterized version of br3ttb’s own portrait.  In the true spirit of Thingiverse, he has shared lots of information about his software toolpath¹ and design process so you can try it out yourself.

I’m also reminded of a recent Thingiverse contribution from RichRap where he achieved a similar effect by cutting and joining different colored filaments and then printing a model that would reveal different colors at different heights.

I suppose if you had an apparatus that could select, cut, join, and feed filaments in conjunction with a LOT of custom firmware and GCode, you could print in 8 bit color!

4-Color Self-Portrait by br3ttb

I needed a new profile image. While I'm proud of the project that lead to my former "TV face" image, it didn't really say "Thingiverse" Having just successfully created a 3 color bottle opener, I knew the time for a multi-color portrait had come. This is my first attempt at mashing colors together on the same layer like this. I'm really happy with the results. Hopefully others will take this technique and run with it. Turns out you don't need dual extruders to make a multi-colored part! tv-face: brettbeauregard.com/blog/tag/hdtv-mount/ 3 color opener: brettbeauregard.com/blog/2011/09/three-color-3d-print/

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Multicoloured Rainbow filament test by RichRap

This was an experiment using some great coloured Faberdashery PLA filament. It was not just designed to look pretty as I added lots of sections for filament bridging and thin layers for colour change. Skeinforge finds bridging on curves hard as it decided on an angle for the direction of bridge and does the whole section the same angle, so at points along the curve filament is going straight into the gap, this makes it a hard test especially when done at high speed, that’s why you can see a few gaps and dips in the model surface. I could make it look much better with a different Rainbow design but this was testing how the filament would perform on my Prusa Mendel ‘Bling’ machine. You can see it printing in this video here - youtube.com/user/RichRap2011#p/a/u/1/UA97cC1QfM8 More info on my Blog - richrap.blogspot.com

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1. OpenSCAD, you say?! [↩]

Tek Jansen by OhadReiter, printed by Tony Buser

Let’s just go ahead and compare that print to the 3D rendering by OhadReiter:

Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen by OhadReiter

Frankly, when I saw OhadReiter’s model for the first time, I just assumed no one was going to print it.  Although the final print was rather small, Tony was able to print it with an amazing amount of detail.  Tony‘s print just goes to show the level of detail that can be printed with a well calibrated machine and a MK6 Stepper Extruder.

Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen by OhadReiter

Tek Jansen, based on his appearance in Stephen Colbert's Tek Jansen #1 from Oni Press ( onipress.com/title/stephen-colberts-tek-jansen-1 ).

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Frequently, we find ourselves bragging about the MakerBot Operators for the incredible models they continue to upload to Thingiverse.com. Well, it is high time to direct attention to the prints they are posting as well. In particular, prints accomplished using our latest toolhead, the MakerBot Stepstruder MK6.

Just in time for the coming of spring¹, here’s a fashion-forward lookbook of recent, gorgeous MK6 prints. Printing these items on a MakerBot before the MK6 would have been a feat.

emmett, twotimes, MakeALot and many others are truly rocking their MK6 and giving us all prints² to aspire to.

Spiral Pencil/Candle/Toothbrush Cup printed by emmett

3D Knot (hi-res) printed by emmett

Diagrid Bracelet printed by jag

domekit printed by twotimes

Truss Bridge Kit printed by Herb Hoover

Iris Box v2 printed by MakeALot

Nick Starno, lead designer on the MK6, has been watching the experimentation of the users of the new toolhead eagerly. “This is just the beginning,” he says.

Here’s a detail from Operator emmett from one of his photo notes, with insight into his process:

Printed beautifully on a TOM, Mk6, raftless with no support. I did have to remove the first few mm of the stl though, just so it had some decent flat areas for adhesion to the belt.

Are your Stepstruder prints really rocking? Share the photo at Thingiverse and then drop a message to us at support at makerbot dot com with a link to your prints!

1. Spring is coming after all, right? [↩]
2. and skeinforge settings [↩]

colorbroken's Film Advance Crank

Colorbroken on Thingiverse just uploaded a 120 Film Advance Crank.  Replacement cranks and knobs are nothing new to Thingiverse.  Replacement cranks and knobs are probably the first repair people think of when looking at a MakerBot.  They’re easy to model, small enough to print without too many problems, and relatively easy to print.

What makes this particular knob special is how colorbroken designed it.  A typical knob design would include a thin cylinder sitting atop a flat… knobby bit.  Using Skeinforge, you would then set the desired fill ratio of plastic.  However, there are different benefits to different fill ratios. ¹  The problem with a heavy fill is that the part uses more plastic, takes longer to print, and is heavier – the upside being it will be a more sturdy part.  The problem with a low fill is the part is more sparse and potentially weaker² , but it prints much quicker and conserves plastic.

But what if you need one area of the part to print quickly and another area of the part to be extra sturdy?

Well, colorbroken thought of an interesting way around this problem.  By putting a hollow core inside the axle for the knob, the MakerBot printed a thick ring inside the axle.  The end result is the knob is whatever fill he specified, but the axle has a thick sturdy hard core running all the way through it providing additional strength and durability.  I love this design tip for its simplicity and effectiveness.

Thanks for the idea colorbroken!

1. Fill ratios aren’t rocket science.  I use 20% fill on all of parts unless I absolutely have to change that setting. [↩]
2. Although, I’ve printed amazingly sturdy parts using a fill as low as 10%.  It’s really a testament to the strength of ABS. [↩]