Category: MakerBot

All things MakerBot! MakerBots, RepRap, and robots!

Repairing ABS parts

The spout on the black teapot on the left snapped off as I was trying to clean the model.  I don’t have any ABS glue lying around so I tried white glue – which didn’t work at all.  Later I held up the broken piece and the body of the teapot to my hot extruder barrel and melted them back together.  Clearly not a recommended way to repair a part – but it’s been pretty effective.

Funny AND sad!

We’ll call it a traumedy!  (Or comma?)

I have several websites, but only blog on two.  This one, of course, which is really only about two and a half months old.  And the other which is a little over two and a half years old. 1  75 days versus 900 days.

After 75 days, this site has significantly more actual followers.

Oh jeez – was this another post about posting?

  1. It has nothing whatsoever to do with MakerBot, RepRap, or anything interesting. [↩]

New thing idea

I want to design a printable plastic wall anchor.  I’m posting the thought here in case I get hit by a bus and don’t get around to modeling one of these.

Like my zip tie (seriously, it was totally worthless – don’t bother to print it), I like the idea of having a library of every day stuff I could print if I suddenly have the need.  For instance, remember that day last week when you were wandering around your place wishing you had an extra SD chip blank?

Anyhow, it reminds me of the matter compilers from Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age.

I failed in convincing someone to buy a MakerBot

It was going pretty well, actually.

  • MakerBlock: “Yeah, listen, I’ve got no technical skills – it was basically a bolt together system.”
  • Dude: “Seriously?!  So, what, when you’re ready to print you just send it an STL file?”
  • MB: “Um, well, not quite.  I have to take the STL, make sure it’s printable, convert it to GCode, and then convert it into an S3G file, and for maximum resolution/quality save it to an SD chip which I then put in the ‘bot and then…  Hey, where’d you go?”

The fact that it’s not yet a USB plug-n-play system kinda scared him off. 1  I’m confident we’ll get there some day.  And, even if we don’t, I’m still having a hell of a time.

  1. Well, that and I heavily suggested my ‘bot could violate any of the three laws at any moment… [↩]

It’s not just me!

See!  Spacexula has discovered the hard way she’s a wicked temperamental woman!

Shattered acrylic plastruder…  Yikes!  I printed up one of Zaggo’s Prinstruders – but it appears to be optimized for an early MakerBot Batch 5 with large/small dinos.  If I wanted to use my printstruder I would need to pick up some of the extra parts required and essentially print up a small dino.1  However, I think I’d like to start replacing parts out of my MakerBot with printed parts so that I can keep the originals as backups.  However, I have a feeling a prinstruder out of ABS is going to be much more robust/resilient than the layered acrylic plastruder.  What do I need?

  • 2x 626 ball bearings.
  • 4x M4 bolts, 60mm long
  • 4x M4 nuts (optionally two of them as wingnuts)
  • 1x M6 bolt (30mm long)
  • 1x M6 nut
  • 3x M3 bolts (30mm long)
  • 3x+ M6 washers
  • 3x+M3 washers
  • 4x M4 washers

In addition to these parts, I’ll also need to measure my ‘bot for a small dino equivalent.  Since my extruder barrel is out of commission and the plastruder is just lying on the platform, this is as good a time as any to measure it up.

  1. Shopping list below [↩]
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