As a part of making the debut “Meet the MakerBot Operator” profile video, I worked with the Nick and Winter to co-create the “MakerBot Operators Tips” video released here.
When downloading objects from Thingiverse.com, Nick and Winter take time to repair manifold (“water-tightness”) issues with models in blender before feeding them into Skeinforge to create printable gcode.
After Nick and Winter fix the model to make it well and truly manifold, they take the time to re-post the fix back to Thingiverse as a derivative to help others print the object more easily. This is, in my opinion at least, a pretty awesome community service that helps everyone print objects more easily.
For the first video in the Meet the MakerBot Operators series, I talked with the brilliant Brooklyn teacher and NYC Resistor member Liz Arum about the students working with “Lola,” the MakerBot her school purchased for class and student use at Saint Ann’s School in Brooklyn. I recorded this video earier this year when Nick (then a senior) and Winter (then a freshmen) were still in school.
This is an experiment and I’m planning on making more of these kinds of videos. I’d love to get your feedback. Tell me what you think about the video in the comments!
(Music: composed for and performed on a MakerBot by Bubblyfish, used with her permission.)
When talking to friends about MakerBots, I often get the question “What are most people looking to print with it?” With the list of potential uses long enough to boggle the mind, those asking me this question are looking for a sense of the culture of printing: what are people in the community of operators doing with their MakerBot?One exciting factor about working in a new frontier is that there is no cut and dry answer to this question. If you are designing and/or printing objects for the MakerBot, you are contributing to this discussion-in-progress. And the rapidly expanding community of people leaping into personal desktop fabrication are laboring everyday to broaden the list of possible answers.
Take a look at the thousands of objects up at Thingiverse.com, with all of the new custom “truders,” printheads, and other modifications: how do I answer the question “what is the MakerBot for?” without skipping over a number of purposes that are the very reason operator x or y assembled her MakerBot in the first place?
In the series Meet the MakerBot Operators, I am attempting to give a suitable, practical answer to this question by taking it directly to the community, by visiting this new breed of “MakerBot Operators” to meet their bots and do mini-interviews right there in their printing nooks. Most will be printed interviews posted here (with photos), but with every once in a while I plan to work on more videos: “Meet the MakerBot Operators” (profile) and “MakerBot Operators Tips” (collaboratively co-created with the subject).
And along with any activities I do (limited, at least at first, to the northeastern United States), consider this an open call for the community to jump into this discussion by introducing yourselves. Post your own “Meet the MakerBot Operators” and “MakerBot Operators Tips” blog entries, photographs, and videos and drop me a note about it at griffin at makerbot dot com.
What is the Tested MakerBot building? I’d suggest going over to Thingiverse and studying up and then watch the video and see if you can guess what it is before it’s done! Via Tested!
Looking at a time lapse really gives you an idea of what’s involved in putting together a MakerBot.
This is certainly not an over-engineered machine. Rather, it is designed to be just enough — finding a careful balance between cost and functionality — and that is what makes this such an elegant solution. The design of the MakerBot is very clever, primarily using laser-cut plywood that bolts together.
I can make one in around 4 hours, but Joel Miller’s 11 hours is pretty typical of how long it takes to put one together the first time. Thanks Joel!
Check out our Fail Force test rig at the MakerBot R&D lab- We test out the maximum push strength of the new MK5 Drive Gear! Watch the results in real time!
Charles Pax of NYC Resistor has been experimenting with a conveyor belt design that would allow him to fully automate the build process and create a ‘print queue’ of sorts. Here’s his latest results:
Michael Overstreet posted two videos featuring a Sumobot chassis created using the Makerbot 3D printer, and the results look really professional. For a complex, relatively large, part taken right out of the Makerbot, Michael’s chassis is surprisingly good, even without any additional clean-up, sanding, or other finishing processes.
And the Makerbot cranking out the Sumobot chassis: