On 02/08/2010 18:00 there will be a workshop at the tokyo hackerspace taught by Yusuke Yumae of HotProceed.
Learn about the revolution in home product manufacturing using affordable desktop 3D printers!
The CupCake is a commercialized kit based upon the open source RepRap 3D printer. It can make parts, models, and machines using plastic fiber that has been melted and deposited by its robotic hand.
Yusuke will demonstrate the part design and build process from start to finish. Watch as a simple part is created using open source CAD software, then translated into commands to drive the machine. In a few minutes, a REAL plastic part comes out of the machine!
We’re at CES! Last year we won a the NY Tech Meetup Startup Battle and we’ve just arrived. We’ll be setting things up tomorrow and then Thursday the show begins. We’ll be printing stuff, showing off the MakerBot watch, and giving out a few thousand stickers.
Here’s the map! Click on the map to make it big!
Bonus points and lots of stickers if you’re at the show and you can find us and say, “Yarr, MakerBot is the future!”
CrashSpace (the new Los Angeles hackerspace) is hosting a Makerbot Make-In starting noon Sunday Dec 27th and continuing on a few of the following days. This is our first event. We will be building several Makerbots from early mechanical up through first prints (hopefully!!)
If you have a bot (finished or unfinished), come on by and build!
Exact continuance days and times depends on response. Notices will be posted to http://groups.google.com/group/crashspace and http://groups.google.com/group/lamakerbot
Crash Space wiki
10526 Venice Blvd, Culver City CA 90232
(see wiki for map links, etc)
Nancy Kleinrock put together her notes from the most recent TTI Vanguard Conference. Here’s what she said about Bre’s MakerBot Presentation:
The Robot that Sharing Built—Mr. Bre Prettis, Makerbot
• The low-cost MakerBot 3-D printer (kits range $750–$950) generates user-designed physical objects
that are built up in successive layers as the machine lays down heated plastic extruded from a nozzle
that functions like a hot glue gun.
• Beginning with a model created in 3-D graphics software (e.g., Blender), the MakerBot software
analyzes the model by taking cross-sections and determining the proper distribution of solid and
open space in each layer; the hardware then executes the design, building it up layer by layer.
• “It’s kind of magic—you start with nothing and end up with something.”
• An unabashed outgrowth of hacker culture, MakerBot is only available in kit form; Pettis maintains that it
is “a little harder to put together than Ikea furniture.”
• The MakerBot community is indeed a community, with participants freely sharing designs at
www.thingiverse.com, making components for one another, and gathering in hackerspaces to learn,
teach, and share with one another.
• Not only object designs, but the complete design of the MakerBot 3-D printer and all its component
parts are released under the Gnu Public License (GPL), making them forever available for others to
use, copy, and modify; all modifications must be GPL licensed.
• The best way to get started is to download someone else’s design, print it, tweak the design,
and print again; or attend a hackerspace and gain experience face to face.
• Demand for the MakerBot has shot up it was since first released in early 2009, and the user
community is teaming up to supply MakerBot-made parts for new units.
• The company gives back by providing physical upgrades for an initially brittle component by sending
the upgraded design code to owners by email.
• A user-submitted improvement to the plastic extruder (Plastruder) will be included in new units; user-
improved temperature control software was distributed to MakerBot community members.
• “Hackers make great alpha testers.”
• The MakerBot business model: “Bits should be free; atoms you should pay for.”
• “Objects over IP is about as close to teleportation as it gets.”
• Pettis envisions a day soon that, when people need a new object (e.g., a doorknob or a 13/16″
measuring spoon or a whistle or an engagement ring), they won’t think of going to the store to buy
it, but rather will amble to the desk, fire up the MakerBot, and make it themselves.
• Whether this dream is realistic in a culture full of people who no longer cook their own dinner nightly
is questionable, but the dream is part of the journey.
• In the meantime, Pettis and his friends are designing a 3-D scanner to collect dimensions from
already-made objects.
• “Next year you can get the washer/dryer combo.”
• Pettis’s bottom line: “If you’re not having fun, you’re doing it wrong.”
At MakerBot, we celebrate whenever someone orders a machine. When a group of friends gets a machine, we get even more excited because we know the possibilities for awesomeness are directly related to collaboration. When a hackerspace gets a machine, the excitement level goes off the charts!
Ghent is awesome-town, we all know that, but without a Hackerspace it isn’t complete. This workshop was the first meeting of people that are interested in founding a Hackerspace in Ghent. A lot of tech people and artists joined the party and gave the Hackerspace@Ghent idea a boost. As from January we will meet on regular basis. First at TimeLab, later at our own space.
MakerBot got to take the stage at Web2.0Summit this last week in San Francisco. Check it out and then watch the other companies including Daniel Fletcher (CellScope), Rolf Herken (mental images GmbH), Jacquelyn Ford Morie (USC Institute for Creative Technologies), and Dennis Crowley (foursquare).
MakerBot will be a guest on the “Ask An Engineer Chat” tonight!
Our weekly “Ask an engineer chat” is tonight 9/26/2009 – 10pm ET and we will have some special guests – EMSL (Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories) and Makerbot! We will be experimenting with doing our chat “LIVE” and mobile again!
You know what to do, but just in case!
* Visit our new “chat” section on Adafruit at 10pm ET – 9/26/2009
* Or visit our Ustream page
* For old schoolers, you can use IRC, you’ll need a Ustream log/pass, check out the Ustream IRC how-tos here and here
* We are #adafruit-industries6796 on IRC server chat1.ustream.tv
* There will be a trivia question at the end of the night as always!
* Lastly, if anyone can save a log we’d appreciate it
Next week from Wednesday through Saturday Gizmodo is going to be having it’s yearly gallery of awesome tech and MakerBot will be there! I’m planning on being there every day it’s open except Friday! Swing by and say hi, I’ll be printing out objects and giving them away hot off the bot.
Gallery Hours and Special Events Open to the Public:
Wednesday, September 23 through Friday, September 25
12noon – 8pm
- Main Gallery
- Opening Day features Laser Etching ($25 a laptop, $5 a gadget)
Friday, September 25
8pm-10pm
- Public Party, with prizes
Saturday, September 26
11am – 8pm
- Main Gallery
Saturday, September 26
9pm – Live DJ set by Music Director Jason Bentley, KCRW, 100% independently funded radio station
This Saturday, Bre will be giving a MakerBot lightening talk for Software Freedom Day. I feel very strong that the free culture movement is one of the most powerful forces in the world today. If you have one of these events happening in your neighborhood, I highly recommend showing up.
Even though MakerBot is both a hardware and software solution, the ideals and infrastructure that the free software movement has pushed forward has given us the scaffolding to build the 3D printing hardware we share with our community and the world using the GPL license.
More details – Link
When: Saturday, Sept. 19th from 6pm to 10pm.
Where: Please note the new location! 148 Lafayette St, 12th Floor.
RSVP required to joshlevy.ny AT gmail
