MakerBlock

There’s a couple of reasons that come to mind.

• Bragging rights
• Spare parts
• LED lit PLA MakerBot
• Removing the fiddly bits

I really like Webca’s faithfulness to the MakerBot Cupcake design.  However, once you are free of the constraints of trying to build a 3D object out of lasercut pieces – the possibilities are endless.  The small lasercut assembled bits underneath the X stage and the entirety of the Y stage could probably be printed up as a single chunk of plastic.  This would reduce the steps, materials, and dexterity required to assemble some of the fiddly bits of a MakerBot.

The recent Bre/MakerBot MakerFaire video mentioned that there were about 10 people running their MakerBots at this year’s MakerFaire.  According to the MakerBot Map, there’s only 10 MakerBots in the larger Bay Area…  Since I’m on that map and I know I didn’t go, there must be SO many more people who have MakerBots in the Bay Area!

Hey!  You!  Why not put a pin in the MakerBot map?  What if it turns out there’s another MakerBot operator across the street?  Wouldn’t that be great?

It’s a dream of mine to kinda live off the grid.  I say this is a dream, but really, it’s probably more about a vague goal and ideal.  Being a 21st century digital boy, I’d want some nearby cell towers and a satellite internet dish next to my solar panels and windmill powering my green house at the absolute outer edge of Amazon’s delivery capabilities.  And, as long as I had a crazy supply of ABS and a big enough RepStrap, I could make any freaking thing I wanted.  (Bruce Sterling’s article/short story on this point is an interesting read).

Part of the dream is about where I live and my lifestyle – it doesn’t say much about what I want to do.  I’d like to spend my time inventing and building cool thing and being clever.  :)  One of the most interesting things about my professional career is that it affords me the opportunity to be clever.  Perhaps it is due to a streak of narcissism or speaks to a need for attention, but damn I love seeing and doing clever things.

If you’ve seen Fight Club, you know Tyler Durden doesn’t think much of being clever.  I, on the other hand, think it’s cleverness that sets us apart from the animals.  At first we thought it was words or tools – but we’ve also found animals that use both (in their own way).  In the end, it probably comes down to being clever – using and sharing what you know, teaching others, and learning and thinking up new ways to do things.

There are a few times in my life when I recall seeing or learning something so clever, that I felt smarter for having experienced it.  I remember seeing a calculus T.A. point out a new way of looking at a problem which made all the difficult bits melt away.  The most recent was probably when I assembled my MakerBot.  I actually felt smarter for having assembled this machine – sometimes wondering at design decisions only to later realize the deeper purpose for this notch or that peg.

I suppose it would technically be my favorite MakerBot quote from the last month, but I only saw the video today.  The internet has made time such a squishy thing…

Bre:  “You can’t get a whistle from Germany to Brooklyn in half an hour unless you use a missile.  That’s a bad idea.”

In a way, it’s sad that the proliferation of MakerBots is going to adversely impact the intercontinental missile package delivery business.

(Crap.  I’m watching this video as I’m typing.  Bre asked if I was present in the audience @ 11:50.  I was not. :(  )

How quick could you build a MakerBot?

I assembled mine over the course of about a week – but that includes priming, painting, getting a few miscellaneous parts, and a fair amount of hesitation as I fretted over an unfamiliar building process outside of my expertise.  If I were to start over again, and I were skipping the priming/painting I figure I might be able to assemble one in about 8 hours or so.

Bre recently posted someone’s time lapse build video.  (Have I mentioned how much I love time lapse build videos???)

Bre wrote he could put one together in about four hours.  That’s amazing!

It’s actually pretty easy.  Since I own my own domain, in this case MakerBlock.com, all I have to do is tell my server that I want all mail that would normally bounce to be redirected to a default address.

The upshot is that I can make up ANY e-mail address I want, and be assured the resulting e-mail will come back to me.

How does this help me avoid e-mail spam?  Easy!  When I give my e-mail address to a website, in this case Ponoko, I make sure the e-mail address is sufficiently descriptive so that I’ll know who gave out my e-mail address.  Suffice it to say, I’m receiving a fair amount of pharma/romance related spam to an address I gave Ponoko.  Giving them the benefit of the doubt, they didn’t sell my e-mail address – but either their server, database, or someone’s address book was compromised.  This is only a mild consolation.

However, this just tells me who is sending me spam.  To shut it off, all I have to do is set up a filter for that address or shut it off at the server.   Turning it off at the server is a little more work, so I usually just create a mail filter that tosses everything to that address into my junk/spam folder.