Tag: MakerBot

And neither one is Atlantis

We’re still missing two continents.1

I put up a collaborative MakerBot Map yesterday.  As of this moment we’re still missing MakerBots in Africa and Antarctica.

Oh, and what the hell is up with Greenland?  Why can’t they be their own continent?!  Those guys need a better lobbyist.

  1. I suppose the title of the post would make more sense here… [↩]

Too much information

Have you read The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy?  Of course you have.

You remember that bit where they put Zaphod in the machine designed to drive people insane by showing them the entire universe all at once?  Well, that’s how Google Wave feels to me.  There’s a LOT of freaking information there.  I made the mistake of looking directly at the MakerBot wave.  It was like falling into the gaping maw of eternity.  I’ll stick to RSS feeds, MakerBot Operators group, and Twitter, thankyouverymuch. 1

  1. You can find it in your Google Wave account by looking for “with:public makerbot”…  If you dare! [↩]

Marco!

Polo!

I’m always curious to see where other MakerBotters are located.  Sure, I could always check out the RepRapMap. 1  However, sometimes I may want to know where just the MakerBot are.  Someone on the MakerBot Operator’s group was looking for some pulleys for his homebrew MakerBot – and was pleasantly surprised to find out there were so many semi-local MakerBotters.

This morning I created a collaborative open MakerBot Map.  Stick a pin in it and let everyone know where you are!

P.S. Party at your house.  We’ll be there at 6.

  1. Gotta love the alliteration [↩]

Why make blocks?

Making blocks with a MakerBot is almost counter productive.  Why would you want to make something out of plastic that can be used to make other things out of plastic?  Why not just print the final plastic object as a single piece all at once?

I like the idea of being able to physically play with the design of something.  Sketchup is easy to use, but legos are even easier.  I never worry about an operation that I can’t Ctrl-Z my way out of.  Plus, it’s even easier to go from idea to objection with physical building blocks.  I think it would also be a very interesting way to get around the overhang and size limitations of a CupCake CNC.

What would you print with colored ABS?

I was trying to think about what I would print with new ABS colors from MakerBot.  Here’s my list:

  • Green: Little green army men, dinosaurs, a green lantern ring?
  • Yellow: Yellow safety whistles, a yellow ring to defeat the green lantern ring
  • Red: Red clown noses, red dice, replacement monopoly houses
  • Blue: Naked smurfs

Yeah, I suppose that last one was unnecessary…

Vouyerism

One of the interesting things about following along on other people’s MakerBot/RepRap/RepStrap blogs is seeing their workshop/work areas.  Some people have super organized, labeled boxes, and a clean clear uncluttered work space.  Others… are more like me.

  • Photos: I take photos of parts sitting on a sheet of white A4 paper that is being propped up against something.  With a light source it makes for a very clean photo.
  • Working on small parts: I have a long shallow wooden box – about 4′ x 8″ x 2″.  It’s small enough I can put it on nearly any surface, or even the floor.  It’s long enough to give me plenty of work space.  It’s shallow enough that it’s as easy as working on a regular surface – but has the short walls that prevent small pieces from rolling or falling away.
  • Working on large parts/Storage: I own a VERY large library card catalog (it’s a long story).  It’s about 6′ long, with 60 drawers on the front and another 60 on the back.  It stands about 4.5 feet tall and is about 3.5 feet deep.  It’s basically perfect for storing an enormous amount of small parts of … whatever.  I’m only using about three of the drawers so far for MakerBot parts.  It also serves as my large work surface.

Z axis wobble from bearings?

I’ve seen it suggested on the MakerBot Operator’s group (I forget who…) that Z axis rod wobble can be introduced where the bearings fit on the Z axis rods.  This is an interesting possible source of error… and a solution!

It would seem that if the placement of the bearing on the rod can introduce warp, it might be able to slightly counteract warp as well.  I’ve gotten my Z axis wobble mostly under control.

MakerBot Cupcake CNC print resolution

Some people have asked me about the MakerBot’s print resolution.  Although this information can be found on the MakerBot wiki, there’s no harm in disseminating this data. 1  Before I get into some of the technical stuff, let me just say this – the print resolution is pretty freaking good for a $750 DIY robot and it will give a $15,000 commercial printer a run for it’s money.

As a printer that can create objects in three dimensions the normal two-dimensional printer resolution jargon of “DPI” or “dots per inch” doesn’t mean much.  The printing resolution for the X/Y axes is 0.085mm and the resolution for the Z axis is 3.125 microns.  Most of the time you’re going to have a Z axis resolution of about 1/3 of a millimeter.  If you print with layers much smaller than that it will take forever to print without a huge increase in quality.

Or, to put it another way…  if you were to hand me two objects one printed on a MakerBot and one printed on a commercial printer, I’m going to ask you why the heck one of them costs $14,000 more than the other.  I’ve printed some pretty intricate and detailed stuff on my MakerBot.  As I tune it I hope to improve it even more.

  1. If you haven’t poked around the website, I highly recommend it.  There’s a lot of information about the Cupcake CNC, RepRap, fused deposition modeling, robots, and all sorts of stuff. [↩]
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