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!

via Makerbot Mousetrap Challenge: July Update – Cathal Garvey.

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.

Download the curtain holder by Schmarty.

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!

Lullaby for a Makerbot from haeyoung kim on Vimeo.

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.

It turns out youtube now has 3D movies and these viewers work perfectly!

There is an interesting phenomena on Thingiverse lately: Surprise Boxes! It looks like an ordinary box right? But the secret is that there will be something 3D printed inside the box! What will it be? You won’t know until you make it become a reality on your MakerBot or other 3D printer!

The way it works is that it is a box with something special inside, but to find out what it is, you have to make it… and even then only you will know what’s inside because the surprise gets sealed in! What a awesome idea!

This is so cool. What an innovative idea by Conrad2468 and it’s already been repeated by Owenscenic!

Update: from the comments it appears that at least Conrad2468’s box has such a thin top that it won’t 3D print, so while it is impossible to see into the box in the Thingiverse preview, you’ll be able to print it and be able to see in at the end. For the record, I think it would also be cool to make it entirely enclosed so that someone would have to destroy the box to get to the inside.

Update Update: Owenscenic’s surprise is set up so that it prints a enclosure over the top of the objects. So cool! These boxes are the coolest!

The winners have been announced on the Make: Blog!

Folding Guitar Stand by juniortan

Robotic Hand by armjunkie

MakerBot Defender by DemonDust

Pinhole Camera Mark II by NoUseForAdventures

Mecanum wheel by Zaggo (also used in ROB K636’s bot)

Motorized half automatic pano head by Fx_CAD

Printable Modular Machine Components by pandelume

Interesting Geared Device by nicholasclewis

Citrus Press by TomZ

The Prosthetic Hand Kit by spedzero

Iron Man should be renamed “3D Printed Man” according to Fabbaloo! I’m pretty sure that the parts for the glove could all be designed and made on a MakerBot by a digital designer.

Blockbuster film Iron Man 2 has a direct 3D printing connection: Iron Man’s suit, as well as that of arch-nemesis Whiplash, were produced on a 3D printer. And they didn’t just print a mould for the suit parts, they printed the actual suit components. After a bit of paint, they were ready to be worn!

The Iron Man technology has advanced significantly since the first film, and not just on the screen. Apparently actor Robert Downey Jr. was in “constant discomfort” wearing Iron Man 1’s gloves, which had been made in the conventional manner. Their tightness caused pain and difficulty moving and flexing. Iron Man 2 technology involved a 3D scan of Downey’s hands to “create flexible gloves no thicker than a dime”. The scan enabled the creation of gloves that precisely fit Downey’s hands.

via Fabbaloo – Fabbaloo Blog – Printing The Iron Man, And More.