Design | MakerBlock

Plastruder MK5 plans released!

The plans for the Plastruder MK6 look downright wicked

MakerBot just released the photostream and wiki instructions for the Plastruder MK5. 1 This looks like a total overhaul of their original designs. 2

It is based on Charles Pax’s Paxtruder which has such a small form factor that it is possible to squeeze two extruder heads into one Makerbot. The Paxtruder also uses a delrin plunger which is used to push the filament against the extruder pulley, rather than the previous idler wheel design. I like the delrin plunger idea since it would be a lot easier to adjust tension and remove/insert filament. The idler wheel held in by a large bolt and nut works… but is finicky and sometimes prone to fussiness.

Out are the big/small/weird and whimsical dinos in favor of lasercut acrylic “arches.” There may be a benefit to the arches over the dinos, but I’m not sure what it would be.

The entire heater element and extruder head has been redesigned as well. I don’t recall seeing any published designs which reference this new system. We’ve all seen power resistors in use in RepRap/MakerBot projects – but they’ve usually been relegated to heated build platform designs. Now a pair are being used as the full heating element in place of tempermental3 nichrome wire. The problem with the old nichrome wire wrapped around the barrel system is that if you need to rebuild the heater, you’ve got to toss out the old nichrome since the insulation is going to get peeled off as soon as you pull it off the barrel.

The new MK5 system uses a PTFE sleeve to feed the filament down into the heater. Interestingly, the PTFE sleeve is encased in a snug metal tube which should prevent any bulging problems.

My understanding of the instructions is that the MK5 is far less prone to failure than the previous MK4 model Plastruder. I’ll grant the Plastruder is easily the most4 challenging component of the Makerbot to get working.

The instructions also hint at Generation 4 electronics. Right now I’m rockin’ the Gen 3 which have served me quite well. I wonder what the Gen 4 has in store? One thing I have to really like about the electronics is that I know they’ll never really be obsolete. 5 If I wanted to upgrade to Gen 4, I can always print off a Mini-Mendel or Mendel, and swap in the new electronics.

However, if this new system is as resilient as the instructions describe, I’m on board. I’m probably not going to have a good excuse to test out this new Plastruder design for a while since my Plastruder has been behaving itself since the last time I rebuilt my Plastruder and I just scored some spare MK4 parts. 6

Photo courtesy of Johnson Cameraface [↩]
A close tie for the photo was “Number 5 is alive!” a la Johnny 5 from Short Circuit. I’m just too much of a Doctor Who fanboy to NOT use an “You will be upgraded” joke. [↩]
Pun intended!!! [↩]
Dang. I’ve already used temperamental, finicky, and fussy… Where’s my thesaurus? Oh, that’s right – he’s out EATING Tony Buser’s Laser Dinosaur! [↩]
Bite me Cybermen! [↩]
Thanks again guys! [↩]

Lazzersaurus Rex, I choose you!

Tony Buser, my origami laser dinosaurs accept your challenge.

SyFy Movie: MakerBlock origami laser dinosaurs Vs Buser's Laser Dinsosaur

Oh. Dang. That did not appear to go well for Team Buser. 1 You probably didn’t realize the scale of those origami dinosaurs before issuing your challenge. See, that’s a laser canon, not a laser pointer.

Also, sorry about your robot dinosaur. I’ll print you a new one. :) 2

You see, I use EVIL origami paper. [↩]
Friends again? [↩]

Sonic Screwdriver progress

I just redesigned the printable screwdriver in order to make the parts fit together better and be more printable.

It should be easier to see how these parts go together.

Basically, you take the “mid-handle” at the far end of the build sheet, turn it upside right, clamp the two “lower handle” pieces on either side of it, and slide that bottom ring onto the lower handle.

I still need to redesign the upper handle, hollow out the mid-handle, and make sure there’s enough room inside for the GoodFET / electronic sonic screwdriver guts.

Now I’m wondering if it is also possible to make this a piece of MakerBot origami – and make it printable on one build sheet…

Real life sonic screwdriver

This morning I received an e-mail from Bre out of the blue introducing me to Travis Goodspeed. Apparently Travis has been working on building sonic screwdriver guts out of the GoodFET, a universal JTAG programmer, a “sonic screwdriver of hacking.” Travis suggested a GoodFET could be programmed to act as a TV-B-Gone, light show, or any number of other things. Given that his circuit board is about 3″ x 0.85″ x 0.2″1 , there shouldn’t be a problem finding space for it in the sonic screwdriver I’m in the middle of designing. 2

Freaking sweet.

So, here’s my real life sonic screwdriver wishlist:

Lights. Red LED3 , white LED4 , green LED5 , and a UV LED6
An actual screwdriver bit or spot where you can attach a screwdriver bit. It would just be cool to have a sonic screwdriver that could be used as a screwdriver.
A shakey Tic-Tac container style recharger. Having a sonic screwdriver that doesn’t need batteries would be awesome.
A tiny speaker that played the sonic screwdriver sound.
A tiny magnet. I remember watching Doctor Who back in the day, black and white old school episodes, where he used his sonic screwdriver to take screws out of things, bolts out of doors, etc in the worst stop motion animation the BBC could get away with. Still, if this sonic screwdriver had a magnet, it could actually affect a physical change via magnetic force.
TV-B-Gone. On the episode “Midnight” Doctor Who shuts off a bunch of TV’s using his sonic screwdriver. This would be an INCREDIBLE feature!
Flash drive and/or mini-memory card reader. Perhaps with the entire library from PortableApps.com installed.

For those of you non-imperialists out there: 76.2mm x 21.59mm x 5.08mm [↩]
TBuser, if you want to help, lemme know! [↩]
For night vision. Also, there are suggestions that a sonic screwdriver can have a “red setting.” [↩]
As a flashlight. [↩]
The 11th Doctor’s screwdriver has a green light. [↩]
For making things fluoresce such as secret messages, blood stains, and monsters. [↩]

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.))

I waffled on that title. [↩]
Modern origami rules, anyhow. [↩]
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. [↩]
I recall one origami master referring to the folding of a particularly difficult and rewarding model as invigorating. [↩]
Or, as Cryozap Cyrozap calls them, “production file.” [↩]
Otherwise, people would be making whistles. [↩]
Thus, no bottle openers [↩]

I really shoulda known

If I’m printing an object with a 0.5mm thickness, chances are the very first time there’s a slight overhang it will go pear shaped. When the walls are that thin, there’s almost nothing underneath even a very slight 20-30 degree overhang.

Duh.

Printable Sonic Screwdriver progress

STL sheet for printable sonic screwdriver

Off to the left is a picture of what the finished sonic screwdriver should look like. Here’s a picture of the parts I’ve designed so far. Assembled properly, these parts should be able to be assembled into the lower half of the sonic screwdriver.

I’ve arranged the parts so that they have a less than 60mm x 60mm footprint on the build platform. I would really like it if the final product could be printed all on one build plate and assembled without tools or additional non-printed pieces.

After my recent design-print fail, I’m going back to the drawing board (slightly)1 wiser. If nothing else, I like to think what I have so far is pretty neat. 2

Make that very slightly. [↩]
Even if it doesn’t work at all. [↩]

Design-print fail

I’ve been slowly working on the design of a printable (and fully MakerBottable) sonic screwdriver. This model of the sonic screwdriver is built up of a number of concentric cylinders, has several significant overhangs well in excess of 45 degrees, and is larger than the MakerBot’s built capacity. In order to deal with these design problems, I modeled it in sections.

In order to make the overall result something I could just pop/snap/slide together I designed it making some sections which were split vertically and other sections which slide around those sections to keep them together. In order to make the parts quickly printable I designed all the parts at around 0.5mm thickness.

About 40% of the way through the print one of the vertical sections wasn’t coming out properly – probably because it was too thin. The parts were too thin and flexible and ended up tearing between layers and just being too flimsy.

I also noticed something odd – the extrusion was too thin on that side of the model. I can’t be sure why this is happening – but I suspect it’s due to the extruder not getting a good enough grip. Perhaps I need to floss the extruder pulley or install a new extruder idler wheel. However, it doesn’t explain why the extrusion was too thin on just that one side and no other spots.

Suggestions?

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:

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.
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!