Colorbroken on Thingiverse just uploaded a 120 Film Advance Crank. Replacement cranks and knobs are nothing new to Thingiverse. Replacement cranks and knobs 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. ((Fill ratios aren’t rocket science. I use 20% fill on all of parts unless I absolutely have to change that setting.)) 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 weaker ((Although, I’ve printed amazingly sturdy parts using a fill as low as 10%. It’s really a testament to the strength of ABS.)) , 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 it’s simplicity and effectiveness.
This is the original soap dish from Pottery Barn. It rests in a fixture attached to the wall, from which it has fallen many times and broken. It can’t be replaced because the line has been discontinued, but I want to continue to use the fixture, since the pedestal sink doesn’t really have room for a soap dish.
Ian designed a replacement soap dish in halves, so it would fit on the MakerBot print platform and asked Will Langford to print the parts for him. He then glued the two halves together with black ABS drain pipe cement from the hardware store, dipped the dish in an ABS cement/acetone bath to smooth out the texture, sanded it smooth, painted it with his ABS dip to give it a glossy finish, and then gave it several coats of white liquid plastic. For more information on Ian’s exact process as well as his photos of the intermediate stages, check out his photostream.
You can still see the faceting on one end that was a result of my not creating my model at a high enough resolution. I could have smoothed that out with enough filling and sanding, but didn’t want to bother. It’s only a soap dish after all. An indestructible soap dish.
Until I saw Ian’s finished product, I had no idea just how good a MakerBot printed object could look. You can bet I’m going to use this process in the very near future.
I hung out with Mary at Maker Faire last weekend and he’s emphasized how awesome it is to have a MakerBot in your life to just make anything that needs fixing. Broken things that you can fix with a MakerBot in the house means that someone gets to be a superhero. Daryll fixed his dishwasher with a MakerBotted part. Awesome!
[Daryll Strauss'] dishwasher had some problems that he traced to a worn out part on the upper spinning arm. The hackerspace he belongs to has a Makerbot and he though this would be the perfect opportunity to print his own replacement part. He picked up some inexpensive digital calipers and set to work mapping out the dimensions of the broken piece. He took his hand-drawn cross section and built a replica part in Blender. Once he had it just right he generated the g-code and printed the part. His replacement works very well, and it’s a bit thicker (by design) than the original so hopefully that means it will hold up longer.
Cathal Garvey is working his way through the mousetrap designs!
I have printed the Claptrap, and await further instruction from WorldGnat before I test it because I don’t know how he intended it to be used. I have printed the Tower Bridge trap from Starno, and it’s in front of me now. I’ll share a picture here. It’s awesome. I printed and tested the Merry-Go-Round trap, which sadly didn’t work though I reckon with a redesign, it would!. And as I write this, I am preparing to try printing the next trap in full: The Mouse Motel from TeamTeamUSA.Sorry again, as I’ve been saying for too long. I can’t wait to be done printing these traps and testing them. The designs are really amazing, even when they don’t work. They show imagination and resourcefulness that inspires me in my own designs, and I consider each a victory even when no captive mouse results.
If you haven’t seen the mousetraps on Thingiverse, check them out!
No need to win it all to know how it feels to hold the World Cup trophy. drayde from Germany has made it easy for all football (soccer) fans by uploading designs for the World Cup trophy on Thingiverse.
To some it’s a curtain holder for your curtain rod. To others it’s freedom from the inefficiencies of the modern consumerism!
It’s a story that can happen to anyone. You move to a new town and leave your shower curtain behind. “No problem,” you think, “I’ll just pick up a new liner at the pharmacy down the street.” So, you trek to the local pharmacy and find the shower curtain liner you were looking for, only to discover that they are out of shower curtain rings, hooks, anything made for holding up a shower curtain! Facing down defeat and the very real possibility that you will have to take a dirty, inefficient bath, you come to a stunning realization: You’re a MakerBot owner. You live for these moments.
I was in the studio talking with Shelly Palmer Tuesday morning showing him the MakerBot in Action. He’s a guy who is obsessed with technology and he totally gets 3D printing and quickly extrapolated the possibilities of personal manufacturing!
One of the things he brought up is the cultural change that’s coming as digital designs become commonplace. Personal manufacturing is a real experience for the more than 1600 MakerBot Operators in the world who design and download and print 3D objects!
Bubblyfish is working with us this summer researching the musical capabilities of the MakerBot and as far as I can tell this is the first original composition of music made specifically for the MakerBot. If you like this make sure to check out the rest of her videos.
Imagine a violin that you can play with a matchstick! Recently uploaded in Thingiverse by MaskedRetriever, its created quite a buzz. Inspired by the comic XKCD, its really cool so if you have not seen it yet, here it is. Now fiddle on!!!
I printed a stereoscopic viewer by Kongorilla and it took about 6 hours of printing time and it fit together great. I lasercut some acrylic mirrors and slapped them in and supperglued it shut since I didn’t have the right screws on hand. It works great! We’ll have these on hand at Maker Faire! If you haven’t seen Kongorilla’s pdf of images, it’s freaking awesome. Check it! Kongorilla won a runner’s up prize in the MakerBot Giveaway. This is a super fine design and great documentation.
So far my favorite thing to do is watch a slideshow on flickr.
