I’ve printed up pieces uploaded this morning to Thingiverse, tried them together, broke two pieces, modified them, printed, and fit some together. I’ve just modified the STL for what I hope is the last time. However, I have the barbell fit snugly into the center cube. It rotates relatively freely and does not want to pop out. (Of course, I’m sure it could/would if I applied enough force). This leaves the outside cubes. I modified the semicircular tabs a little and will reprint them later.
The only problem is that it takes about 40 minutes for my machine to print up two cube parts and a barbell, since they’re so solid.
The important thing is that I’ve just been able to print up and assemble the crucial mechanisms for this puzzle. I think the next iteration may be what I needed.
This version incorporates the prior improvements as well as designing a connector system inspired by R3bbeca‘s beco block connectors.
This has enabled a totally printable toy. This just makes me happy. 1 The idea that I can crank out a set of these parts, clean them up a little, and just snap the toy together is just amazing.
TomZ‘s original 1x2x3 “friendlier” Rubik’s cube designs were also totally printable – but required a printed pin that was later glued in place. I like the ideal of all printed parts – but strongly prefer a design that can later be disassembled easily. And, as I mentioned above – the ability to hand assemble the toy is important to me.
I wasn’t able to recreate R3bbeca’s female connector designs2 so I made a simplified version that should suffice.
The simplified connection mechanism is essentially two plastic fingers that will (hopefully) pinch the barbell into place. This was made by designing the outline of the gripping “fingers,” creating a horizontal cylindrical hole slightly larger than the intended end of the barbell, then creating a vertical cylindrical hole in the center for the barbell to be inserted through, then a bit of cleanup.
The biggest potential problem is that this design will require a carefully tuned ‘bot. The center cube pieces have a lot of stuff packed in there – semi-circular slots for the semi-circular tabs, connectors for the barbell, and thin walls separating things. With those thin walls and interior overhangs, this may be a difficult design to print.
I think Bender is up to the task, but we’ll see in a few hours. :) I can’t wait to print this!
For me, having a MakerBot is like waking up to Christmas every morning.
I really like the Pilot G-2 gel pens. They’re basically all I use at work. Although we buy refills, I still end up with a surplus of the pens.1 The pens, although technically disposable, use a small metal spring as part of the mechanism. While swapping in a refill the other day, I thought it was such a shame that this little spring is destined for a landfill. 2
Thus, I propose a contest! I think of this as a repurposing and/or recycling contest. What’s the most awesome MakerBot printable thing you can design that re-uses any of the parts from this pen? 34
How to enter?
To enter upload your designs as an STL and the original design files to Thingiverse
Then leave a comment on this post with a link to your design!
What are the rules?
The design must incorporate one or more parts of the Pilot G-2 gel pen.
Must be MakerBot printable. So, keep in mind size, time, overhang, and resolution requirements.
The prize will be a print of your choice of either anything I’ve designed and posted to Thingiverse (except the Unblended Mendel – I didn’t really design that) or your winning design!
What it really boils down to is that I’m a pen thief. I walk into a room, pick up a pen, start writing something, put it into my pocket without thinking about it, and then walk away. LRR. [↩]
Of course, there are also other little bits that could theoretically be useful. [↩]
This is one of those things where I can think of a thousand reasons to NOT do something and only one reason to do it. In the “NOT” column would be the long commute (CA to NY), I’m not a professional programmer1 , and the job requirements are a little beyond my abilities.
That said, the reason in favor is… it would be awesome.
However, I do have some mean WordPress plugin chops [↩]
I’ve made all of the cubes solid. I think it will just work better with solid parts. I had left the four end cubes mostly hollow to:
Improve printing time
Use less plastic
Possibly make an interesting hiding place for something very small
I’ve shortened the “stem” that connects the semi-circular tab to the end cube to allow for a more snug fit.
I’ve made the semi-circular groove in the center cubes narrower, to allow for a more snug fit.
Make these cubes solid so that they slide against each other easier.
I’ve noticed that the nut and bolt I installed into either side of the center cubes were pushed sufficiently well inside that they don’t want to come out or rotate. This is a very good thing for this design! It turns out that if you rotate it too much in one direction, you can just rotate it back a few times and it will be tightened back up! It also makes for easy disassembly/reassembly – just rotate the puzzle until it comes apart and rotate it back together to reassemble.
I am also attempting to start up a small business with the focus on providing low cost, custom parts. I have one customer now but have struggled trying to “reach the masses”. Any thoughts?
Hi Pete!
Well, you asked for it!
First and foremost, absolutely, positively, get a copy of Guy Kawasaki’s Reality Check. At $20, it is the best investments you’re going to make in your business, hands down. This book distills his advice from his several other books and insanely fantastic blog posts on starting a business, business development, etc. He gives simple actual concrete advice on how to take yourself from someone with an idea to a person who has their own business. I own two of his books and follow his blog and the ideas and suggestions in his book have been invaluable to me as a small businessperson and entrepreneur. You’re going to read and re-read this book, refer back to it, pour over it’s index, write in the margins, and dogear pages. It’s that good.
Invest in your own domain name, installation of WordPress, and a new theme. It’s cheap and seems more professional. There are hundreds and thousands of free themes. Once you get people to your website, you want them to stick around.
Tell people about yourself! Blog, tweet, and other stuff! Talk about the things about your MakerBot you’re enthusiastic about. Your enthusiasm will show through. Don’t just re-post or post a link to someone else’s information. Blogs are so much more than that. Put your own spin on it. They’re additive forms of communication, people keep building on things others have said or done and contribute to the conversation. You’ve posted a link because you find it interesting – tell us why.
Every week more and more people are searching for information about MakerBots and RepRap. What is a MakerBot’s print resolution? How hard is it to put a MakerBot together? What do I need to build a RepRap? Answer the questions your potential customers have and they will come to you.
One of Kawaskai’s best bits of advice is, “Let a thousand flowers bloom.” Basically, try anything, try everything, see what works, what doesn’t, learn and improve. I’ve done some prototyping for people with my MakerBot and am now running a pseudo-auction for a 3x2x1 Rubik’s Cube. I didn’t plan on selling this prototype – but it occurred to me that it was a fairly popular thing on Thingiverse, I won’t have need of this as I work on better designs, perhaps someone would like to own it? Try out some new ideas. You could focus on printing small-run custom parts – but what if there’s a better use or market for your MakerBot? Perhaps you might find it more lucrative to print Mendel or Mini-Mendel parts. Keep your eyes and ears open for new possibilities and new ideas and new markets.
Use your existing customer. Ask your current customer what they want, how they use things, how you can help them more, what other ideas they have.
I recently posted the results from my MakerBot poll. There’s a lot of good information in there about what people like about MakerBots and why they’re interested. This would be a good resource if you wanted to create a business geared towards these people or just write more content you think they would enjoy.
After playing with this puzzle for a few days I’m really happy with how it turned out and I think the above improvements will make the next version a little bit better. This reminds me of Forrest Higgs’ recent commentary on engineering with a RepRap in the design cycle. It’s so easy to test out a new design that I don’t hesitate to whip something up, print it off, SEE and FEEL how it works and any unintended nuances of that design, and then redesign with these revelations in mind.
I saw this video the other day (I think as a result of someone’s Tweet?) and just around to watching it now. The things people built using data that had been opened up from the government was pretty incredible.
Interestingly, I have a totally different website that operates by only using data that is already freely available from the government. If I had more data from the government, my site would be even more useful to my demographic.1
All of this, the video, my own website, got me thinking – if the data from the government can be released as “open data” – in what ways is our government already open source? We know the laws that supposedly govern us and our administrators… I suppose, open source is the ideal upon which our government was founded in the first place.
I think there are enough interesting things on Thingiverse that a MakerBot/RepRap operator could make a little bit of money printing some Thingiverse models for a fee.
