Bender Bending Rodrigquez

Meet “Bender,” MakerBot Industries CupCake CNC #465.  (The name “Flexo” was a close second).

It is an open source robot for printing objects in 3D.  The MakerBot wiki is a great resource for learning more about open source projects, hacking (the good kind!!!), and replicating rapid-prototyping robots.

Right now #465 is waiting to be assembled.

Right now #465 is partially assembled. Next step – plastruder and opto-endstops!

Right now #465 is fully assembled and awaiting the first attempt at extrusion with the plastruder installed!

Right now #465 is fully assembled, has extruded, has made some valiant attempts at printing, and is still being calibrated.

MakerBot Bender (#465) successfully printed its first object (a mini-mug) on 12/31/2009 at 9:00PM.

In the picture to the right you can see I’ve moved the plastruder/extuder board to just above the motherboard.

Since this photo I’ve also removed all of the opto-endstops and the endstop ethernet cables, freeing Bender from his obligations to the three laws of robotics.