Bloom Energy's Bloom Box
You know, with a Bloom Box, a MakerBot, and enough plastic and time I could go completely off the grid.
Away from the things of man.
MakerBot + Bloom Box = Off the grid
Monthly Archives: February 2010
How much for that doppleganger in the window?
Suppose you had a one MakerBot and just had to have a second. How much would the rest of that MakerBot cost assuming you were willing to design and print every possible printable part? 1 Perhaps it would be in line with the $575 laserless MakerBot Cupcake CNC kit. Then again, perhaps it would be the cost of the $750 MakerBot Cupcake CNC Basic kit less the $50.00 lasercut plastruder parts and $200.00 lasercut body parts, which would clock in at $500.00. 2
Are you really just $500.00 away from a second MakerBot? That’s about half the cost of a Deluxe kit! This brings to mind an even MORE interesting question.
What would you have done if MakerBot offered this deal: Buy one Cupcake CNC Deluxe kit and get a Cupcake CNC Basic kit half off?
Well, if you already own a MakerBot, it’s like they gave you this deal anyhow!
- Including a printable Y stage. [↩]
- Admittedly, this assumes zero value to the lasercut external parts. So, let’s pretend you have a box of the appropriate dimensions. [↩]
C is for Catalyst
I purchased the MakerBot Deluxe Cupcake CNC kit – which came with plenty of tools and TONS of plastic. The Deluxe kit came with things that you’ll need to operate your MakerBot such as the USB2TTL cable, power supply, and ethernet cables.
However, the wrenches and hex keys could be reused to build another ‘bot. Parts printed up on a MakerBot could be used to print several very useful, and sometimes expensive, parts for another MakerBot. The plastruder toolhead is $125.00 without the circuit board. If you could print up the dinos, printstruder, idler wheel, and insulating retainer ring, you’re replacing all of the lasercut acrylic parts ($50.00 at MakerBot). A persistent person could even replace all of the plastic spacers, wooden or plastic pulleys, the various wooden holders (Z rod caps, Z stage guides, X end rod caps), and probably even the entire Y stage with printed parts. 1
Heck, if you had all of those parts you would basically just need a box in which to install them all.
Hmmm. Anyone feel like designing a printable Y stage?
- In fairness, the Y stage would have to be printed up in several pieces due to size limitations. [↩]
Patience grasshopper
Patience grasshopper, patience
Recent posts to the MakerBot Operators group show some people’s frustrations with this growing company. 1 Yes, they’re out of stock of electronics and other parts, but they’re also doing their best to crank out as many kits as possible.
Overall, I’d rather have them churning out robot kits than keeping spare parts in stock. The plans for all of the electronics are open and free – you could have someone else fabricate them or build them yourself. Still others have started up businesses selling lots of replacement parts and even upgrade kits.
We might be impatient for our kits, but they’re literally devoting their weekends and free time to getting these kits to us. In fact, it’s their feverish dream to get a MakerBot kit into your hands. You’re just not going to get this kind of devotion and service anywhere else.
I have one piece of advice if you’re waiting for your kit to arrive or replacement parts to be back in stock: start designing stuff right now. You already know what you want to build. Just create a library of things you want to churn out. Upload them to Thingiverse, get feedback modify, and improve them. Heck, improve designs posted by others.
Your kit will be here before you know it and you’ll be happily (and woozily) sniffing ABS fumes too. :)
“Tea” – a retrospective
Tony Buser has posted a set of pictures on his blog showing MakerBot #481 “Tea” from box to building to printing to Mendel parts.
It has a high school graduation montage feel to it – in a good way – like watching your little robot grow up. When I saw the cracked insulating retainer, cracked idler wheel, and busted extruder I could almost hear the auditorium around me going “oooooohhhh” that that special pain only another RepRap/MakerBot operator has known.
I’m still continually amazed that a box of plastic, metal, and electronic bits has been assembled by my own clumsy fingers to build all of the crazy amazing things I can dream up.
Best quote of the month
“There’s really no middle ground with you, is there? You either don’t care at all or you care 100 and crazy percent.”
“Time for this fawn to strap on a machine gun, spread its wings and fly!“
Have you printed in HDPE?
I just noticed MakerBot discontinued their 5 pound rolls for HDPE. This page is essentially taken down. However, when it was last up it contained the following product description:
Update: Discontinued. It’s not fun to print with this stuff.
This is HDPE plastic aka High Density Polyethylene aka Milk Jug plastic. This is a nice, smooth, high quality plastic. It comes as a filament in 5lb coils with a diameter of 3mm.
This plastic is cheaper than ABS, but has a higher shrinkage factor which makes printing large objects more difficult. It does have a much lower coefficient of friction so you can print things that are very smooth.
I’ve never printed with this stuff. Have you? A higher shrinkage factor than ABS sounds pretty awful. Then again, I mostly print fairly small parts, so then again I might not care. And, for the last listed price of $30 for a 5 pound roll… it’s a dirt cheap printing option.
And neither one is Atlantis
We’re still missing two continents.1
I put up a collaborative MakerBot Map yesterday. As of this moment we’re still missing MakerBots in Africa and Antarctica.
Oh, and what the hell is up with Greenland? Why can’t they be their own continent?! Those guys need a better lobbyist.
- I suppose the title of the post would make more sense here… [↩]
MakerBot Game: Thingiverse Roulette
So, here’s the one and only rule when you play:
Good, bad, or ugly, you print the very next thing posted to Thingiverse!1
- It’s a lot safer than either the Vegas or Russian variants [↩]
Dangit!
So, I was *in* San Francisco yesterday for work and I didn’t even think to try to stop by Noisebridge. :/ I’ve always wanted to see that place. It was the one year anniversary of “Five Minutes of Fame” too!