MakerBot Industries

Jetpacks are nice and all… but what I really want is one of those hoverboards promised by Back to the Future II.

Thingiverse citizen and education superstar Chris Connors has created and shared a printable Mendocino Motor on Thingiverse.  A Mendocino Motor is a “solar-powered magnetically-levitated electric motor.”  Even though a Mendocino Motor is more of a curiosity than a useable motor you can put to work, it’s certainly a step in the right direction.

And, with a few solar cells, bits of wire, some magnets, and some quick printing plastic parts, you can have your very own hover motor.

3D Printed Mendocino Motor Parts by connors934

The Mendocino Motor is a solar powered, magnetically levitating electric motor. I've used this project in my classroom for a while. Since I no longer have a woodshop in my class, I'm reworking it as a 3D printed design. Here are photos: flickr.com/photos/connors934/sets/72157629433089119/ The pictures show the process of iteratively developing the idea, and not all designs will be represented in these files. 2-24-12-This zip file contains some developments. The most significant part added is the four way connector that fits inside the magnets, and also has three holes sized to fit a standard pencil. 3-6-12 Connectors4 and MirrorConnectors are the two 3D printed parts you'll need along with two standard pencils to make the base. The G code is for a Makerbot Cupcake with Heated Build Platform. 3-31-12 Video: youtu.be/gR2-wXdhSDc

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Printable 3D Skill Badge by Belfry

Sometimes the coolest things on Thingiverse are the result of challenges between user.  For instance, there’s the Printable 3D Skill Badge and the subsequent 3D Badge – Building a 3D Badge by Belfry.  The challenge went like this:

• Belfry:  Too much time on my hands?… – This is a 75%, a 100%, and a 125% printings. Does this mean my printer is working OK?
• TheNewHobbyist:  Haha, now it just needs to be re-modeled so it’s a 3D printing badge, printing a 3D printing badge, printing a…
• Belfry:  Oh NO – why did you have to go and say that?!?!?

Printable 3D Skill Badge by TheNewHobbyist

Inspired by the awesome Skill Badges from Adafruit, It only seemed right to have a 3D printable version of the 3D printing badge. Now you can REALLY earn that 3D printing badge!

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3D Badge - Building a 3D Badge by Belfry

If you can print the original 3D badge - then try this one. I added a few parts to the original design.

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Nickel Stand for Role Playing Portraits by Gilgamesh82

I just love this printable plastic stand for role playing portraits by Gilgamesh82. ¹  Given that the pieces are plastic and paper, the idea of using a nickel for weight is a really great innovation.

With just a regular black-and-white 2D printer, a nickel, and a little bit of plastic you can have a really amazing functional game piece for just about any kind of game.  Why play Clue with boring pieces?  Why play Candyland with some generic looking figures?  Why not include pictures of the players themselves?

Nickel Stand for role playing portraits by Gilgamesh82

Print out 1x2 portraits of characters or monsters and snap them into these re-usable stands and use them instead of minis for pen and paper role playing! There is a nickel snapped into the base to give it weight.

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1. It reminds me of the cardboard creature feet featured on this blog a few months ago. [↩]

Action #Chess by Cymon

Thingiverse citizen Cymon has entered the TinkerCAD Chess Set Design Challenge with a bang.  This Voltron-esque creation combines all 16 specially designed chess pieces per side into a single robotic behemoth.  As always, this contribution to Thingiverse only got better with people printing the pieces, trying to assemble the robot, providing feedback, and with further revisions by Cymon.  The benefit to all is clear – even those without a 3D printer can benefit from collaborations through Thingiverse.  Way to go Cymon!

Action #Chess by cymon

Now you can battle your chess two ways. Traditionally on a chess board or combine your powers to form the ultimate chess fighting robot. Had this idea a while ago and this contest gave me the perfect opportunity to make it happen. Having to use Tinkercad to make it happen was wonderfully educational too. It's a limited tool in many way and the limitations were in their own way liberating. TinkerCad Files: Scaled: tinkercad.com/things/dm5lLLYUl1q Original Size: tinkercad.com/things/beTFmjGvzMu EDIT: Updated STLs with new versions to fix printing problems in original versions. Now on v1.2. Old plate renamed "V1" for historical purposes. EDIT2: Discovered that some of my pieces, most notably the knight, exceeded the dimensions stipulated in the contest rules. Added a scaled down plate that fits the contest requrements. Called it "1.2 small". Individual pieces are still the larger size. EDIT3: 1.3 small added that thickens the connections to the pawns and removes the tabs connecting them. 1.2 (big) not tested yet, I have no reason to believe it won't work as is so I'm leaving it. EDIT4: Taking this off WIP status becauase any future work will be in version 2.X. (See deritives)

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Thingiverse citizen MAF (Miguel Ángel de Frutos) has shared their designs for their GarabatoBOT (or, to use their translation, DoodleBOT) on Thingiverse.  What I really like about this MakerBot printed drawing robot design is that the motors, electronics, spools, bluetooth antenna – all the interesting parts – are all built into the “drawing gondola.”  While such a design requires an on-board power supply¹ , the benefit is that the remainder of the setup is quite simple – just connect the two lines to either side of a whiteboard.

Miguel explains more about the concept, design, print, and operation on his blog. (Google translated link)

GarabatoBOT (DoodleBOT) by MAF

GarabatoBOT or in english, DoodleBOT, is a little robot that can make simple doodles in a white-board. It's a really simple design: 2 stepper mottors with its drivers pcb, one Atmega328 and a bluetooth modem to control it wireless. There are two ropes linking the up corners to the pulleys. The rope is collected by the pulleys when the motors are turning. The structure has 5 different parts: one main body, two arms and the two pulleys. The grey bag contain the battery (2s-1A) and also is used to go down the gravity center. Watch a video in action: youtu.be/J-kkD-Yr6cY?hd=1 More info in the blog: madebyfrutos.wordpress.com/2012/03/25/proyecto-de-mig-3/aerobotclubderobticadeaeronuticos.blogspot.com.es/ Made by Miguel Ángel de Frutos.

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1. Miguel uses a small Lipo rechargable battery [↩]

Spaghetti Scale by Aliceffekt

I love this little spaghetti scale by Aliceffekt for its incredible simplicity.  It also bears a striking resemblance to a certain kitchen light fix.  I could totally see this as a tool with multiple uses.  Four of them could work as little stands for a warm/cold plate, one could be a taco holder, or maybe even part of a drawer organizer.  Also, Aliceffekt’s spaghetti scale also highlights how important a good illustrative photo can be!

Misc - Spagetti Scale by Aliceffekt

Tired of always cooking too much, I finally made the darn thing.

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The Universal Construction Kit by Free Art & Technology

First, I have to let you know that nothing I can say in this meager blog post will come close to the amazing stuff you’ll read over at the Free Art & Technology (F.A.T.) blog about this project. ¹ They have put together and released under an open source creative commons license a kit comprised of 80 interoperable pieces that will allow 10 different building toys to be used together.  You can pick up their designs on Thingiverse or all the files as a Torrent or Zip from their website.

I grew up with several different kinds of building toys – Duplo, Lego, and my personal favorite, the now defunct Construx.  Since my siblings and I each had our favorites, sharing was never a problem.  My mind boggles at the disagreements and amazing collaborations that would have ensued if a universal construction kit had been available when I was a kid.

This is easily one of the finest things ever shared on Thingiverse – Free Art & Technology, I salute you!

1. You can check out the full sized poster through F.A.T’s original post and PDF. [↩]

Full metal planete replacement part (tank) by pgu5787

One of Thingiverse’s newest citizens, pgu5787, has just shared their design files for a plate of replacement game pieces for a game named “full metal planete.”

While I’ve never heard of this game before, I LOVE these little tanks!  I could totally see losing an afternoon to printing a few plates and arranging them in formation on my desk at work. ¹  Instead of… you know… working. 

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1. Vroom!  Vroom!  Bang!  Pow! [↩]

Pi Cookie Cutter by lemio

Happy Pi Day everyone!¹  Isn’t it about time for you to celebrate with some delicious Pi cookies?

Thanks to Thingiverse citizen lemio for this sweet contribution!

Pi (for making Pi-cookies) by lemio

This is a Cookie slicer in the shape of the mathematical (and greek) symbol pi. Could also be used to decorate your Pi-Pie with sugar. Ideal for Pi-day.

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1. March 14 – as in 3/14 – as in 3.14… [↩]

Look of Disapproval Glasses by plasma2002

How awesome are these emotive glasses by first-time Thingiverse contributor plasma2002?!  We’ve all seen those “Today I feel…” fridge magnets.  But, it seems silly that a refrigeration device would have such a range of emotions.  Wouldn’t it make much more sense to wear glasses that expressed how you felt on a particular day?  The emoticon possibilities alone are endless.  The most obvious would be a wink “    ” or tear ” ) ; “.

Here’s what I’m thinking for an emoticon glasses challenge:

• Be the first to upload any kind of emoticon glasses to Thingiverse with the tag “emoticonglasses“.
• Be the first to upload a particular kind of emoticon glasses to Thingiverse with the tag “emoticonglasses“.
• Be the first to tweet a picture of yourself wearing emoticon glasses at a bar with the hashtag “#emoticonglasses“

Anyone who completes any of the above three challenges gets 9000 internet points and everlasting online fame!

Look of Disapproval Glasses ಠ_ಠ by plasma2002

ಠ_ಠ I needed some Look of Disapproval glasses in a pinch, and ended up drawing a pair and cutting them on my laser. Afterwards, I noticed Thingiverse was missing the ever-so-helpful Look of Disapproval, so I figured I would fill the gap :) The idea came from a pair of the same type of glasses I had previously purchased from another maker, Tim Saylor. These are not a copy of his design, but rather a new, hand drawn, rendition of the famous Look of Disapproval. --------------------JUST WANT TO PURCHASE A PAIR? A few people have asked me if I could just sell them a pair. For this reason, you can now buy the glasses straight from our Etsy shop (in limited numbers, of course) here: [REDACTED] ---UPDATE: Instead of me selling you the glasses, I suggest you instead head over to Tim Saylor's Etsy shop to buy his original design. He did come up with the idea, afterall. I just remade it. Look of Disapproval Glasses - By Opticalawesome: etsy.com/listing/79821028/look-of-disapproval-glasses

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