Tag: MakerBot

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. [↩]

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 [↩]

Ball bearings

A standard MakerBot Cupcake CNC requires:

  • 8x 608 bearings for the four X axis threaded rods
  • 2x 608 bearings for the two Z axis pulleys
  • 1x 608 bearing for the X axis pulley
  • 1x 606 bearing for the Y axis pulley

With all the cool things that could be built with the addition of bearings to a MakerBot toolkit I wanted to pick up some additional bearings.  I figure I could print an improved version of my retractable spring loaded tape measure, the microlathe, and other cool things.

But, where to find these things?  My local hardware store didn’t carry them.  I went to a hobby shop nearby which had exactly two bearings for $5.  It sounded expensive, but I’d never priced bearings before and I really just wanted the two at the time.

A few weeks later I had a brainstorm.  Where could I find cheap skate ball bearings?  Well, why not a place that sells cheap skates!  I called my local used sporting goods store and they had a 16 pack of bearings for $5.  Right on.

Ball bearings
Ball bearings
Test