MakerBot Industries

Success!

Thingiverse user arkatipe recently posted their designs for a “device to repair plastic hangers.”  The device itself is little more than a hollow plastic cylinder.  However, the way arkatipe used this simple PLA cylinder is particularly interesting.

This is intentionally a little bit smaller than the hanger diameter. I’d recommend that you clean it up, drop it in a cup of water, then stick it in the microwave for a minute or so. After it’s softened up, press it on the hanger and hold it in shape until it hardens.

PLA softens at a much lower temperature than ABS and tends to hold the heat a little longer, staying malleable.  Having a little plastic part that can be printed very close to what you need, softened, molded, and then left to cool and harden could be incredibly useful.  It really opens up a world of possibilities.  If there were a particular shape that one could foresee being very useful, you could print up several of them and keep them on hand.  When you’re read to use them, moisten, nuke, mold, harden.

Thanks arkatipe!

Device to repair a plastic hanger by arkatipe

Because hangers cost $1.00, and the plastic to fix them is less than $0.01. Design is intended for PLA. Additionally, this can be used to justify the expense of your 3D printer to your significant other, provided you have several hundred broken hangers.

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Even Walt thinks the LoBotomy Clinic is a good idea

Do you remember the days of old?  Will you tell your grandchildren of the days when a robot with problems was left to fend for themselves with no chance of improvement feeding on stray bits of plastic, smelling of burnt hair and ABS.   This are things that will be lost in time, like tears in the rain, like the sound of a connecting modem or a hard drive spinning up.  For, our modern times have brought us the LoBotomy Clinic!  No longer will your ‘bots question your awesome makin’ skillz. ¹  Here’s the latest from the LoBotomy Clinicians:

lo·Bot·o·my
noun 1. A series of radical and invasive physical therapies, used to treat ailing robots.

Sad robots make sad humans. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, you could call the A-Team. Or you could check your robot into the LoBotomy Clinic. You can fill out the Intake Form in advance or just show up with your busted bot and we’ll help you diagnose and troubleshoot to get it in tip top shape. Learn the best tips for 3D printing and preventative maintenance, or drop by if you just want to see some finely tuned bots in action. We are looking forward to seeing you at Botacon 0!

Even if your ‘bot doesn’t need any TLC, you have to take a look at that sweet Intake Form.

1. “Can the maker repair what he makes?“ [↩]

Tracing the key fob

The last post covered my decision to remake/repair my mother’s car key. Frankly, I’m surprised I haven’t been fired from this job for not having fixed this problem immediately. In my defense, from the moment I learned of this issue I dropped everything to begin working on it.

A critical step to printing a replacement part is measuring your existing parts to make sure the replacement components will fit well.  I find the easiest way to start doing this is to simply trace the existing parts on a white sheet of paper.  Once this has been completed, I flesh out the “sketch” a little and draw in all of the measurements.

Marking the dimensions of the key fob

Once the measurements have been taken down and associated with the relevant areas on the existing parts, I like to create a digital representation of these parts.  Doing so allows me to use those existing components as a basis for developing the replacement parts.  With printing tolerances, a little ooze, and some very minor Z axis wobble I find that 0.5mm – 1.0mm room on all sides is sufficient to develop parts that print and fit together nicely.

Next up:  A first draft

Posts in this series:

• MakerBot Hero:  Car Keys I
• MakerBot Hero:  Car Keys II
• MakerBot Hero:  Car Keys III
• MakerBot Hero:  Car Keys IV
• MakerBot Hero:  Car Keys Epilogue

Key fob, apart

My mom had been a public school teacher for all of her working life until she retired several years ago.  It was just before she retired that she bought herself a nice new car.  Yesterday she came to visit and she handed me her car keys to grab something from her trunk.  I was horrified at what I saw.  Her car keys, which have a built in electronic car lock/unlock remote, was wrapped in cheap packing tape.  On top of that, it was old packing tape.  So old that it had become stringy and oozey.

I asked what happened only to be told that while at her school she had dropped her keys which immediately cracked at the point where the metal key met the plastic housing for the electronic guts.  The school maintenance worker had kindly offered to fix it up the only way he could – with public school¹ packing tape.

This conversation ensured:

• MakerBlock: “How long has it been like this?”
• MakerBlock’s mom: “Oh, a looong time.”
• MakerBlock: “How long?”
• MakerBlock’s mom: “About two years.”
• MakerBlock: “Two years?!  Mom, you do know I have a machine in the other room capable of just making you a new plastic housing for your keys, right?”²
• MakerBlock’s mom: “Oh, that never occurred to me.”
• MakerBlock: “This is just unacceptable!  You can’t live like this.  I’m making you a new one.”

With the careful application of a utility knife to remove the packing tape and precision screwdrivers to take out the one lone screw, the key fob revealed its secrets, as depicted above.

Next:  Designing the replacement

Posts in this series:

• MakerBot Hero:  Car Keys I
• MakerBot Hero:  Car Keys II
• MakerBot Hero:  Car Keys III
• MakerBot Hero:  Car Keys IV
• MakerBot Hero:  Car Keys Epilogue

1. Read: cheap [↩]
2. 3D printers has essentially been all I can talk about, or write about for that matter, since hearing about them for the first time in April of 2008. [↩]

3D printed blender fix

When Laszlo’s blender stopped working, he did what any self-respecting owner of a 3D printer would do – he took it apart.

A quick look at the broken part, 15 minutes with OpenSCAD, and he was ready to print the replacement part!  Perhaps best of all, he’s uploaded his designs to Thingiverse for anyone else who needs to fix their blender.