MakerBot Business Idea #5

I’ve had a few ideas about how one can build a business around a MakerBot.

  1. Advice for a Makerbot based business
  2. Thingiverse based business idea
  3. Custom plastic cookie cutter business idea
  4. RepRap crowdsourced parts business

Well, here’s my latest idea.  Small custom replacement parts.  Not a new idea, right?  Well, it’s all about the marketing and how you reach and pitch to your target market.  Who is always out looking for small replacement parts?  When they do, where do they go?  What are their alternatives when they can’t find a replacement part?

I found the answers to all of those questions when I needed a replacement window latch.  Here’s the business model:

  1. Print up some universally useful parts, prime examples of your ‘bot’s ability to print
  2. Take said parts to your local neighborhood hardware store and ask to talk to the manager1
  3. Explain that you can quickly and cheaply fabricate nearly any small replacement part out of sturdy plastic2
  4. Ask them if you can put up flyers for your business and maybe even leave a few samples3
  5. Put up a website with a few examples of what you can print, how you solve problems with your Makerbot, things you’ve fixed, things you’ve replaced
  6. ???
  7. Profit!

What do you think?

  1. You’ll probably have much better luck with a mom-and-pop store than a big chain [↩]
  2. Throw or jump on said ABS specimen [↩]
  3. I’d even offer them a percentage of net [↩]

MakerBot Origami

Or, “Design Constraints and Creativity”

Origami is another of my hobbies and it is all about design constraints. 1 The rules are simple2 – one square sheet of paper only manipulated by folding. 3  Yet, within these rules it is theorized that a sufficiently skilled artisan can design and fold any arbitrary figure.  I find folding origami to be at once cathartic and contemplative. 4

Pondering the design constraints within origami reminded me of one of my own recent designs – the 3x2x1 Rubik’s style puzzle cube.  Quite apart from the medium or subject matter, I really liked the idea of a single print job resulting in parts that could be immediately hand-assembled without tools to form a useful object.  Then I thought – if the design constraints are one of the things I like about this design, what else is possible within these same constraints?

Thus, I propose a new style of “MakerBot Origami”:  One MakerBot print5 , multiple components6 , no tools or hardware7 .

What’s the coolest most awesome thing you can design within these constraints?

Update:  Cyrozap – sory fore mispellnig yoru mane.

((I waffled on that title.))
  1. I waffled on that title. [↩]
  2. Modern origami rules, anyhow. [↩]
  3. Designing an origami model is not about figuring a way to cheat those rules – rather a way to work within them to achieve a desired goal. [↩]
  4. I recall one origami master referring to the folding of a particularly difficult and rewarding model as invigorating. [↩]
  5. Or, as Cryozap Cyrozap calls them, “production file.” [↩]
  6. Otherwise, people would be making whistles. [↩]
  7. Thus, no bottle openers [↩]

Make(rBlock)Shift #1: MakerBot, Mineshaft, Tiger Solution

The recent Make(rBlock)Shift #1 posed this conundrum:

You’ve got a MakerBot, a laptop, unlimited plastic and electricity.  You are trapped in a mineshaft with a tiger.  How do you get out?

Dave’s suggestion was close, but no cigar.  The correct answer is:

  1. Design and print a second mineshaft.
  2. Throw tiger down second mineshaft.
  3. Design and print a tunnel to the surface.
  4. Walk out of mineshaft.

((This reminds me of an old “quiz” attributed to Andersen Consulting.))

Electrical design help?

I recently bought the MAKE: Electronics: Learning Through Discovery book.  Unfortunately, I haven’t had a lot of time to really absorb it and certainly not enough time to figure out how to design things.

Thus, I look to you kind reader.

I would really like to have a circuit board design that incorporates a four-position switch (either rotating to four positions or a push button with four settings) that goes from Off, to powering a red LED, to powering a white LED, to powering a UV LED.  Ideally, it would run off an AAA battery, as it would fit my project as well as make use of my surplus AAA batteries from work.  (Perhaps with a joule thief?)1  Since I know very VERY little about electronics, I’d appreciate some diagrams, descriptions of parts, etc.

My end goal is to install this device into a MakerBot made replica of the 11th Doctor’s Sonic Screwdriver.

If you’re interested in this project or just want to help, I’ll gladly accept any assistance.  Let me know if I can help with any printing projects in return.

Thanks!

  1. Why do I get the feeling I’ve seen the guy on the right before??? [↩]

3x2x1 Rubik’s Cube Production File

My prior copy of this 3x2x1 Rubik’s Cube was printed a few parts at a time – I’d print one part, test it, print up another, etc.  Last night I was able to use my production file to generate all seven pieces in one go.  It took 1 hour and 45 minutes to complete the print job, but well under three minutes to clear most of the pieces of the raft off the parts and assemble the puzzle.  In order to help people modify and improve upon my design, I’ve upload the original Sketchup files, the STL I used, as well as my own GCode.

Owenscenic on Thingiverse asked,

I am interested in trying your gcode, how did you generate it? How well does it minimize strings between the printed parts? I’ll look at is to see how it starts and the temp…

In case you’re wondering too, the answers are as follows:

  1. I generated the Gcode using my slightly tweaked RepG v18 built-in Skeinforge settings for ABS with a raft, with a build temperature of 220C.
  2. The Gcode does pretty well with minimizing stringing.  However, some of the credit has to go with the part placement in the STL production file as well as the nature of the object.  As soon as you assemble it and start to rotate the parts, most of the remaining strings and little blobbies will pop right off.

Owenscenic, please let me know how your print of this turned out!  Please post a picture!

What’s the cost of printing with a MakerBot?

I’ve wondered for a while about the cost of operating a MakerBot.  Let’s break it down and see what happens:

  • Plastic. According to some calculations on the MakerBot Operators group, the cost of MakerBot ABS is around $0.03 – $0.04 per cubic centimeter based upon a price of $70 for 5 pounds (or 2268 grams) of ABS, a density of 1.2 grams per cubic centimeter. 1  Using the current prices of $81.36 for a 5 pound coil after shipping, I calculate the price of ABS at $0.035 per cubic centimeter.  Since we’re talking about such large numbers, let’s just round on up to $0.04/cc.
  • Time. Skeinforge has been estimating about 85 minutes to print 19 cc of plastic.  This comes to about 4.5 minutes/cc.
  • Electricity. At at $0.20/kWh, a MakerBot probably draws around $0.03 per hour.

Thus,we may estimate the cost of operating a MakerBot in terms of consumption of goods and resources (excluding computer, human, and MakerBot time and wear and tear) as follows, where V is the volume of the extruded object in cubic centimeters or “cc”:

Supposing I wanted to recoup the entire cost of my MakerBot to date and spread it across the entire life of a single 5 pound roll of ABS. 2  Let’s round the cost of the MakerBot, all repairs, and all extra MakerBot related materials up to $1,500.00.  One 5 pound coil would have 1890 cc’s of plastic.  This would come to $0.794 per cc of plastic.  So, I would suggest the cost of buying a MakerBot and printing off an entire coil of plastic would probably end up costing you about $0.85 per cubic centimeter of plastic.

Resource cost of printing a 19cc totally MakerBottable 3x2x1 Rubik’s Cube is $0.80.

Actual pro rated cost of printing a 19cc totally MakerBottable 3x2x1 Rubik’s Cube is $16.15.

Absolute cheapest MakerBot usage I’ve seen anywhere at Metrix:Create for members printing from Thingiverse is $0.30/minute, which would print the totally MakerBottable 3x2x1 Rubik’s Cube for $25.65.

Cost = V * ($0.04/cc + $0.0025/cc)

  1. No one has yet quoted me a price on a pint of tears. [↩]
  2. Printing an entire coil would take about 142 hours. [↩]

Measurements of a pen

Pilot G2 Gel Pen

Pilot G2 Gel Pen

Pictured are:

  1. The pen end and handle. 9.89mm in outer diameter. 8.06mm in inner diameter. 76.92mm in length, when the button is totally recessed.
  2. The pen front. 68.00mm in length. 8.25 in outer diameter at the middle. 7.91 in outer diameter at the screw threads. 6.35mm in inner diameter.
  3. The spring. It is 19.67mm tall, uncompressed. 6.36mm, compressed. 5.53mm in outer diameter, 4.54mm in inner diameter. The wire is 0.47mm in diameter.
  4. The rubber grip. 1.3mm thick. 8.41mm inner diameter. 37.77mm in length.
  5. The ink cartridge. It is 6.03mm in diameter. 110.47mm in length.  Filled with ink.

Why am I telling you these things?  Stay tuned…

Thing idea: Crayon mold

Crayon Mold v0

Crayon Mold v0

Problem: Broken crayons, useless crayon bits, or crayon shavings.  Crayola has their own crayon making system – a cross between an easy-bake-oven and little molds.  However, I don’t think it is quite versatile enough.  Plus, why pay $20 for what could be accomplished easily for $0.20 worth of plastic parts?

Solution: A printed crayon mold!

Description: Crayons melt at about 128 – 147 degrees Fahrenheit, or up to about 66 degrees Celsius.  ABS won’t melt until around 88-125 degrees Celsius, so there’s a wide margin for melting the paraffin wax crayons without distorting the mold.1

I would want at least three different molds – the normal crayon size, the fat crayon size, and then a triangular non-rolling crayon size.  I’m picturing a two part mold for each, with the seam of the two parts running along the crayon lengthwise and a half funnel for pouring.

In addition to the half-mold, I’d also design a snug fitting square block for fitting the assembled mold into.  That way you could stand it up and pour crayon wax into it.

Another potential use for this would be to place the pieces of crayon inside the mold, close it up, then heat.  This would allow you to mend a broken crayon.

Usage: I can think of several different ways to use this mold.  Frankly, I’m not sure which is easiest/most advisable/least advisable.  There are easily several considerations:

  1. Assembly:
    1. The mold could be assembled with crayon inside to be melted and repaired.
    2. Crayon pieces could be melted and then poured into the assembled mold.
    3. Crayon pieces could be placed in the funnel at the top of the mold, the entire system heated and crayon allowed to melt down into the mold.
  2. Melting:
    1. Crayon could be melted in a test tube or similar container in the oven, microwave, hot water bath (such as on the stove) or perhaps even open flame and poured into the mold.
    2. Crayon could be melted while inside the mold by placing the mold in a heat source (oven, microwave, hot water bath).
    3. Crayon could be placed in the funnel and allowed to melt down into the mold with the application of a heat source (oven, microwave, hot water bath, open flame?, or sunlight plus magnifying lens!)
  3. Cooling:
    1. Allowing to naturally cool to ambient room temperature.
    2. Placing in fridge.
    3. Placing in freezer.
    4. Placing in cold water bath.

I’m not sure which method of heating and cooling are optimal.  Though I’d suspect it is preferable to apply the least amount of heat over the shortest period possible.

Variations: It would be interesting to create these molds in different shapes besides cylinders.  You could top each one with a geometric shape, the head (or tail!) of some kind of animal or character, or something else entirely.  You could mold crayons into spheres, blocks, chips, or little figurines.  While not particularly sturdy, you could even mold them into building blocks or components of some larger device.  A clever person could use some left over nichrome wire to build a heated metallic funnel.

  1. That said, my extruder isn’t pumping out plastic until it hits 200 degrees Celsius at least. [↩]

How do upgrade your extruder firmware

Just as an FYI for anyone who’s having trouble upgrading your MakerBot Cupcake CNC plastruder firmware, the instructions built into ReplicatorG don’t tell you to unplug the TTL cable from the motherboard and plug it into the extruder board.

So, save yourself 5 minutes of frustration and googling for the answer…  and just plug the TTL cable into the extruder board.  :)