Category: For Sale

MK4 plastruder parts for sale [01/10/2011]

[I ended up donating all these parts years ago to someone affiliated with Noisebridge :) ]

Since upgrading to a MK5 Plastruder my MK4 gear has been just sitting there unused and unloved.  While pulling out the motor from my MK4, I took apart the rest of my MK4 Plastruder except for the hot end assembly.  I then realized that I had a fair amount of MK4 stuff that I’m just not using.   I’ve got:

  • MakerBot MK4 hot end assembly.  This includes the nozzle, barrel, nichrome wrapping, thermistor, nichrome and thermistor leads, insulator, insulator plates, nuts, and bolts all fully put together.  I basically loosened the four bolts holding the MK4 in place and removed the entire assembly as-is.
  • Extra replacement parts including insulation, nichrome, nozzle, barrel, and Kapton tape.
  • A MakerBot MK4 spare parts kit
  • A MakerGear operator’s pack (I forget which one, but I can check if you’re interested)
Drafts Zero - The Lost Blog Posts
  1. Misnamer [11/28/2010]
  2. The Lost Blog Posts
  3. Plastruder! [Draft 12/25/2009]
  4. UNTITLED [Draft 12/25/2009]
  5. Preparing to print [Draft 12/27/2009]
  6. More prints [Draft 01/04/2010]
  7. Prototype Pricing [Draft 01/19/2010]
  8. MakerBot tuning [Draft 01/20/2010]
  9. Plastic Screw Anchor [Draft 02/02/2010]
  10. Magic [Draft 02/03/2010]
  11. How are you printing with PLA? [Draft 02/16/2010]
  12. Rebuilding my extruder [Draft 02/16/2010]
  13. MY robot [Draft 02/18/2010]
  14. more things i learned [Draft 02/20/2010]
  15. First commissioned piece! [Draft 02/22/2010]
  16. MakerBot: Toy or Tool? [02/25/2010]
  17. Idea for Skeinforge settings… [Draft 03/27/2010]
  18. RepRap and MakerBot alternatives [Draft 04/05/2010]
  19. RepRap Parts for Sale [Draft 04/07/2010]
  20. Where is the Othercutter? [Draft 06/08/2015]
  21. Mendel Parts – Printed, Cast, CNC’d, Lasercut or Injection Molded? [Draft 04/12/2010]
  22. MakerBot Operator’s Manual [06/04/20210]
  23. MakerBot on CBS! [07/07/2010]
  24. New Print: Soft-Pawed Albino Stoat of South Wales Cookie Cutter [07/07/2010]
  25. House calls [07/11/2010]
  26. Digital assistant? [08/05/2010]
  27. MakerBot + Junk = Stuff! [08/06/2010]
  28. Design choices in RepRap, Goals of RepRap [08/14/2010]
  29. Upgrades and obsolescence [08/25/2010]
  30. Dear Anonymous [08/25/2010]
  31. The ultimate in customer service [08/26/2010]
  32. Open Source Makes You Smarter [08/27/2010]
  33. Getting my Plastruder MK5 running [09/06/2010]
  34. Weird new kind of spam [09/19/2010]
  35. An open letter to Ms. Word [10/18/2010]
  36. Printing with PLA again! [10/18/2010]
  37. Halloween costume too [10/27/2010]
  38. Dream jobs [10/29/2010]
  39. The nuances of time travel [10/31/2010]
  40. Printed Pink Panther Person [11/22/2010]
  41. Skein them all and let ‘Bot sort them all out [11/24/2010]
  42. The Patents for disc shooters [12/10/2010]
  43. Princess Bride with Lightsabers [12/13/2010]
  44. Dilbert comic [12/13/2010]
  45. Ultimachine PLA review [12/15/2010]
  46. Mendel to the power of 101 [12/21/2010]
  47. Potential improvements for Leonardo Voltron [12/27/20210]
  48. You can keep your filthy money [12/28/2010]
  49. I watched Primer the other night [12/30/2010]
  50. 10 Printing Predictions for 2011 [01/03/2011]
  51. I’d rather be making [01/04/2011]
  52. Best use for the MakerBot Unicorn? [01/04/2011]
  53. There’s just something profoundly meta and wrong with this. [01/05/2011]
  54. MK4 plastruder parts for sale [01/10/2011]
  55. Phone conferences… [01/10/2011]

Every Body Needs a Skull

Delicious brains
Delicious brains

Is there anyone out there who built their own Polargraph, but does not have a plastic case for it?1

In designing my own I’ve got two perfectly serviceable cases that I’m not going to use.

Each case fits Sandy Noble’s PolargraphSD which consists of an Arduino Mega 256 clone plus an LCD touch screen and his custom shield for running the drawing robot.  I’m also going to be taking my current Arduino Uno plus Adafruit Motor Shield powered drawing robot apart.  When I do I will have another plastic case.

If interested, please drop me a line.

Oh, what’s with the skull and brains?  Well, if you have a robotic brain, wouldn’t a nifty plastic skull go nicely with it?

Default Series Title
  1. Photo courtesy of chotda [↩]

It’s still extruding…

Spacexula is selling his RepRap on ebay.

It’s one thing to buy a kit and it’s another thing altogether to buy a fully assembled fully operational machine.  This machine was built and operated by one of the most vocal RepRap champions and prolific RepRap bloggers around.  So, it’s not insignificant that this machine comes backed his promise of helping you getting this machine running.  If I recall correctly, his last machine sold for a little over $1400.  At the time of this post, this RepRap Prusa Mendel one is going for $510.00.

Also, here’s my favorite video from Spacexula:

MOAR CUPCAKES! Or, am I being a glutton?

MakerBot just announced they’re dropping the price on the MakerBot Cupcake CNC Ultimate kits to a ridiculously low $455.00.

I already own a Cupcake CNC, named “Bender.”  He’s been fully upgraded with an automated build platform, MK5, and a few printed upgrades as well.  (Right now it has a Unicorn instead of the MK5 installed.)  I already own a Thing-O-Matic, named “Flexo.”  My Thing-O-Matic is fully upgraded with a MK6 stepper extruder and a few minor printed upgrades.

Do I really need more plastic printing production capacity?  I don’t know.  Do I have a new name for a potential new robot lined up?  No, I really don’t.

Do I really want another 3-axis CNC robot?  Yes.  Yes, I do.

What’s the best MakerBot sample you can think of?

Okay, what’s the best thing you can think of that exhibits the possibilities of a MakerBot or RepRap? 12 If y0u’re going for something that shows off the utilitarian potential, then a bottle opener or thin profile whistle might be it.  If you’re going for something that shows off what you can achieve with just printed parts – a Leonardo Robot or Rubik’s cube clone.  And, if you’re going for something that shows off the precision and detail that is possible, it’s got to be a Pink Panther Lady.345

When judging such things heavily weighted by print time, I suspect the thin profile whistle might be one of the best options.

What do you think?

  1. Yes, I know I ended the subject of this post with a preposition, but what the heck.  The first amendment protects “free speech” not just “correct grammar.” [↩]
  2. Amiright or amiright? [↩]
  3. And, really a bottle-opening-pink-panther-whistle-lady-that-transforms-into-a-dinosaur-and-voltron that shoots open-source-lazzors might just be the ultimate thing to print ever. [↩]
  4. Mind, it should shoot lazzors, not lazzor beams. [↩]
  5. Remember kids, lazzor beams can be dangerous. [↩]

What would you charge?

I know some people use their MakerBots as small scale rapid prototyping services.  What I don’t know is what or how they charge for providing these services.  Obviously, there’s a cost associated with the plastic, electricity, wear and tear, failed prints, etc. 1 Setting aside the intrinsic value of what you have produced 2 , what’s a reasonable way to set the price of an object printed on a MakerBot?

I can think of several ways to look at this:

  • Resource cost. $0.04 per cubic centimeter, of pure cost in terms of just MakerBot ABS/PLA.  Electricity is probably around $0.02 per hour of print time.  The laptop connected to the MakerBot is capable of multitasking, so there’s no real opportunity cost there.
  • Shapeways. Their gray ABS is $2.50/cc.  They also have a white nylon polymide for $1.50/cc with a $1.50 start up charge.  Their colored prints are made with a plastic powder that is relatively fragile.  At $2.50/cc and assuming it takes 4.5 minutes to print 1cc, this comes to $0.56/minute.3
  • Ponoko. Their UV curable resin is $2.76/cc and their white nylon polymide is $0.80/cc. 4 Their colored prints are made with a plastic powder that is relatively fragile.  At a MakerBot’s printing speed, $2.76/cc comes to $0.61/minute.
  • Metrix:Create. They charge $0.50 per actual minute of build time.  However, Metrix:Create members get 20% discounts and anything printed from Thingiverse gets a 20% discount.  Without any associated discounts and assuming we print at the same speed, this comes to $2.25/cc.

I believe transparency makes for a better customer experience.  That way a customer can see right up front what they may be spending, avoiding “sticker shock.”  It is probably a lot easier for the average customer to estimate the volume of a digital design than it is for them to guesstimate how long my printer would take to print such a thing.

What metric and pricing structure do you use to charge for your printing services?  Do you go by volume, weight, plastic used, machine time, or something else entirely?

  1. It takes about 4.5 minutes to print one cubic centimeter of ABS or PLA.  This is a rough average of several different types of settings, but assumes a roughly 0.36mm layer thickness. [↩]
  2. Pretending 19cc of a puzzle cube is worth exactly 19cc of a toy rocket, window latch, or plastic part that will fix the international space station. [↩]
  3. This is more of an analogy to a MakerBot’s printing speed than an actual assumption of the printing capabilities at Shapeways. [↩]
  4. There are discounts for their “prime” members. [↩]

Unbelievable deal on Cupcake CNC’s

Apparently MakerBot is getting ready to launch a new 3D printer and is putting their Cupcake CNC’s on sale.  I’ve had an absolute blast with my MakerBot over the last nine months.  I bought the Deluxe Kit for $950.  With shipping and taxes it came to just over $1,000.  I haven’t confirmed it with MakerBot, but it looks like their new Cupcake Starter kit is the same thing as their Deluxe kit except it doesn’t have the extra 5 pounds of plastic.  Sure, this kit doesn’t have the MK5 plastruder, heated build platform, or automated build platform – which means it’s basically identical to Cupcake kits sold a year ago.  Oh, and the Starter kit is only $650.

If you’ve been looking for an excuse to buy a 3D printer anyhow, this is your chance.  I don’t know what the new printer is, but $650 is a crazy deal for a kit with everything you need.1

  1. Yes, I now write for the MakerBot blog, but all I really do is post what I would have written here anyhow over on their blog.  I don’t get kickbacks or anything for saying how awesome I think this deal is. [↩]

What’s the minimum cost to upgrade to a MK5 Plastruder?

I figure to upgrade my Batch 9 MakerBot to use a Plastruder MK5, I’ll need the following:

$106.00 isn’t too shabby to upgrade to the most badass Plastruder2 money can buy. 34

  1. I’d ask Zaggo, Webca, or jrombousky to design it… [↩]
  2. Edit: Plastruder kit [↩]
  3. Especially when you essentially get to keep your Plastruder MK4 as a backup. [↩]
  4. You’d still need a few spare parts – but I’m sure that’s nothing we can’t scrounge from leftovers… [↩]

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 [↩]
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