I’d really like to see a robust printable open source interconnecting building block system for the MakerBot. Something than can build large (or small and intricate) rigid structures with moving parts. So far there’s:
- The lazzor-cutable metabrick from metalabs.
- Lego compatible laser cut blocks by clothbot
- The printable metabrick by wizard23
Of the one printable variety, it doesn’t really lend itself to rigid structures as it uses a round clamp to attach to a round pole. Don’t get me wrong, it is a very cool piece and I’m really glad someone designed it – it just isn’t what I’m looking for.
I’m wondering if a slot/groove system might work – similar to the system used in Zaggo’s prinstruder or the modular boxes by Domonoky.
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As a kid I preferred Construx to Legos. Construx allowed me to build large objects with moving parts in three dimensions. Whereas Legos main point was that it came in better colors.
I’ve designed a few Construx pieces I’m looking forward to building. The only problem is that at least one of them may be too large for me to print with my current set up without significant warping.
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Having printed a few legos, I haven’t printed any more. I’d certainly like to – but the print resolution isn’t quite there yet. The pieces don’t stick to each other very well and stick to real legos even less well. Official legos are engineered to ridiculously exacting standards, so they always fit together. I mean, have you ever seen a lego piece that didn’t fit other legos? I’ve never even heard of such a thing.
My latest batch of MakerBot tweaking may have brought me closer to the dream. I printed up a new Vader head, which turned out beautifully. I had lowered the one particularly warped Z axis rod below the top toothed pulley edge by about 1mm – which has nearly eliminated the Z axis wobble.
With printing from an SD chip, eliminating wobble, reducing slack on the X and Y belts… I think I’m ready to take another run at printing up a lego piece.
By the way, as fun as it was to print up four 2×2 lego blocks using the Skeinforge multiply feature, I don’t recommend it. There’s a lot of cleanup between pieces that just makes it not worth it.
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