It’s time for TED2012!  MakerBot’s CEO and co-founder, Bre Pettis, is among the TEDFellows speaking at the conference in Long Beach, California this week.

Bre’s talk today focused on the importance of  community and co-creation in making something that seems impossible, possible. Case in point:  the open-source collaborative design phenomenon where 3D printed clocks were developed collectively  by MakerBot’s Thingiverse users. Remember the Clock-a-Thons? Well kids, we successfully made a clock!

Thingiverse users from around the world began uploading their designs for the pieces of a clock, and the final stages of construction happened here in MakerBot’s Brooklyn workshop, with clock mastermind, Syvwlch himself in attendance, over a meeting of minds and some shared food.

Want to make a clock of your own? Download the files from Thingiverse, get your bot warmed up, and start printing! The clock does have a few necessary non-printable parts, but fear not – MakerBot is selling these parts in our online store! In the kit, you’ll even get a laser cut wooden shelf stand signed by Bre Pettis himself!

For the inside scoop from TED2012 follow Bre on Twitter – @bre!

Parametric Involute Bevel and Spur Gears by GregFrost

Today I was trying to design something with one large and one small gear making use of Cbiffle’s awesome Spur Gear Fitter Script and Greg Frost’s Parametric Involute Bevel and Spur Gears script.  Unfortunately, whenever I tried to create a large and a small gear, I always ended up with the small gear having no teeth! ¹²

Cbiffle’s script is really useful if you don’t want to get too deep into the math of making gears, but do want gears with a certain gear ratio that will mesh well.  It basically takes care of all of the math you would normally need to get good fitting gears from Greg Frost’s script.

I asked Syvwlch for advice about my toothless gear problem.  He suggested there was a bug in the Spur Gears Script that would cause gear teeth to disappear in certain circumstances.  His way of getting around this problem was to use a non-integer for the number of teeth!  I tried 9.99 teeth (which failed) and then 10.001 which worked!

Untitled by GregFrost

This thing brought to you by

Untitled by cbiffle

This thing brought to you by

http://store.makerbot.com/stepstruder-mk7-complete.html

1. And, thus, the importance of flossing! [↩]
2. I included the flossing reference because it was amusing.  But, really flossing isn’t relevant if you’ve got a MK6 or MK7 extruder. [↩]

Poor Man's OpenSCAD Screw Library by aubenc

Screw Library by syvwlch

This morning, you are waking up to two OpenSCAD screw libraries, released within hours of each other. While they were created for slightly different purposes – aubenc‘s focused on traditional 3D printed hardware and syvwlch offering a tool that works for generating threaded rods or lead screws with custom threading angles — we are the richer for having both of them available to us.

If you haven’t yet dived into this parametric design application yet via the OpenSCAD Institute of MakerBlock tutorial series, then this is a great time. These new libraries, and a host of other recent innovations by WilliamAAdams, offer some pretty broad shoulders to stand on to unlock the mysteries of OpenSCAD.

Or you can simply take advantage of the work they’ve done and simply 3D print that bolt you’ve been needing!

Untitled by syvwlch

This thing brought to you by

Untitled by aubenc

This thing brought to you by

As incredible as RustedRobot’s print of Syvwlch’s printable parametric clock is, a single still photograph just doesn’t do it justice. Two weeks ago there was no such thing as a 3D printed clock. Today you get to watch one in action. Sure, it’s powered by a drill and running a little fast… but this is progress! In the history of the world, there has probably never been a clock that has gone from concept to actuality and run through so many iterations so quickly. Syvwlch has been crunching through versions and derivatives of derivatives of this clock just about as quickly as OpenSCAD can render.

Thingiverse citizen rustedrobot has printed, assembled, and in the true cooperative spirit of open source design provided feedback to the designer to help improve the designs for everyone.

Syvwlch’s work on a printable clock has been one of the most exciting ongoing projects on Thingiverse.  He’s just upload what might be a final version of his work.  This version includes the escapement, pendulum, gears for the seconds, minutes, and hours, and a set of nested concentric gears to provide the corresponding second, minute, and hour movement.  And, let’s not forget he’s made this entire clock parametric in OpenSCAD – in case you need to print up a grandfather clock or a teeny-tiny watch.

As quickly as he’s been developing this project, it hasn’t been without it’s obstacles.  Syvwlch explained some of the benefits to designing such a complex mechanism in OpenSCAD:

There are none of the usual frustrations.  If you made a mistake a few steps back, it’s not a big deal.  I had the math on how to size the thing to fit inside a MakerBot completely wrong.  It took me two minutes to fix it.

As if designing a printable clock weren’t enough, Syvwlch has also set up his OpenSCAD file so that it will kick out STL’s for easy printing on just about any 3D printer AND so that it can show you an animated diagram of how the parts fit together and operate.  I can’t wait to start printing up these parts.

Untitled by syvwlch

This thing brought to you by

Rubber-Band Escapement Test Jig by syvwlch

I’ve been really hoping someone would design a printable clock for a while now.  I need hope no longer!

Syvwlch has been long absent and long missed from Thingiverse.  After a sabbatical of about two years, he’s back and posting parts for a printable clock.  He’s making copious use of math, science, and OpenSCAD in the process.  I’d also point out that in the span of about 24 hours he went from just one component to three in three versions – and I can’t wait to see what’s next!  Click through to his offerings and leave a comment of encouragement or some feedback on how these parts printed for you.

Untitled by syvwlch

This thing brought to you by

Who has been rocking Thingiverse and doing cool and amazing stuff?  The Thingiverse All-Stars!

Most Derivatives - Syvwlch

Thingiverse citizen Syvwlch has uploaded an amazing 13 derivatives works.  The ability to make, remix, and improve upon the hard work of others is part of what makes Thingiverse and open licensing great.  Without the original designs, perhaps Syvwlch wouldn’t have thought to make some of his derivatives.  And, without Syvwlch we would have far fewer choices of things to print out from Thingiverse.