Thanks to the generosity of my family I placed an order for a bunch of the MakerBot1 parts for which I’ve been pining away. Ordered on August 10th, the box arrived on August 16th. One of the things ordered was the MegaRainbow ABS plastic pack.
However, the box contained something else – fluorescent red ABS and a spare parts kit!
Thank you MakerBot Industries!!! I have, indeed, had a happy birthday. :) 2 I promise to only use these parts for good. 34
Perusing Capolight’s recent post about his LCD screen made me pine for an LCD display/simple SD print selection for my MakerBot. I think Zaggo was working on something similar a while back. Of course, there’s the RapMan with an integrated OLED screen.
I’m guessing I’m not the only one who would be interested in such an add-on for my MakerBot. It’s not a terrible burden to have a computer constantly connected, but it would be nice to have the MakerBot slightly more independent of a computer. Just bring plenty of plastic, electricity, and an SD card with your favorite things.
There’s a new poll to the right. Basically, “Should Makerbot hire MakerBlock to blog for them?” So, take 5 seconds and cast your vote. Then, on to pictures of dinosaurs with lasers!!!
Dear lovely wife,
I never meant for this to happen. It just sort of happened. It all started so innocently – reading about the RepRap project, going to the MakerFaire, buying a MakerBot, starting this blog, extra plastic here and there… and then MakerBot advertised for a blogger.
Tell the kids I love them, don’t forget to feed the dog, and there’s a post-it on the dresser for my boss.1
If you need to reach me, I’ll be camped out 87 3rd Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11217 until they let me in and hire me.
Love,
MakerBlock
Update 3/28/2011: The Ultimaker is available for pre-order!
Erik de Bruijn along with a newly formed Dutch RepRap group have put together this new design for a low cost RepRap alternative. The stated goal of their blog is “designing/developing an easy to build low cost 3D printer with a small form factor but large build envelope.” Erik has invited everyone to comment on this beta design. It’s interesting to see their progression of prototypes in their second blog post.
The interesting thing about this model is that it combines some of the best parts of Darwin and MakerBot and what appears to be a Bowden extruder.
The very nature of FDM1 means that the robot will only move the Z axis a little bit every once in a while. One of the design drawbacks to the Darwin was that the heavy extruder head (motors, gears, heating elements) were so heavy that the entire robot would rock or vibrate with the lateral XY movements. MakerBot got around the heavy extruder head problem by moving the platform in the XY and moving the extruder head only up and down. This design decision isn’t without it’s tradeoffs, however. One downside is that their build area is much smaller than a Darwin. Another downside of the MakeBot design is that once the object being built reaches a sufficiently large volume or height, moving the object around quickly on the XY platform causes it to vibrate, shake, and become somewhat unstable.
One of the main improvements inherent in the Bowden extruder is that it allows you to take the heaviest parts of the extruder head, separate them from the rest of the extruder head, and move those heavy pieces to a different location. Using a Bowden extruder makes a Darwin style robot much more feasible – the small moveable print head won’t have the mass to cause the robot to become unstable.
It seems that combining either of the X or Y movements with the Z probably won’t matter all that much, since the Z axis will only move about 0.33mm or so per layer and the Z axis typically doesn’t operate at the same time as either the X or Y axis. Combining the as the new RepRap version II, Mendel, design shows us that combining the Z axis along with either the X or Y axis, but not both, can lead to a very stable configuration.
What I like about the Ultimaker design is that it would appear to incorporate some of the best parts of the MakerBot and Darwin designs. It appears to have a bolt/nut/T-slot MakerBot style assembly structure using thin lasercut wood pieces for the body. I found these parts to bolt together very quickly. Contrast this to the Darwin/Mendel structure using lots of nuts and threaded rod and printed plastic parts to hold it together. At the same time, by making use of a Bowden extruder and the Darwin body shape, it appears to be able to use most of the interior volume for printing.
I suspect it probably uses fewer parts than a typical Darwin, but I can’t be sure. I also have to wonder about the cost of lasercut wood versus the cost of nuts and threaded rod.
Nice find RepRap Log Phase!
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.
Here’s what I take away from this small poll:
If you truly don’t have the money or a way to save up, there’s not much that can be done. However, if you are one of those who doesn’t have the money yet, but does have surplus time there may be hope. If you can lay your hands on the money for a MakerBot, you can crunch out parts for Mendels and Mini-Mendels. While the prices have fallen significantly, the selling point of these parts is still a lot higher than the cost of plastic plus electricity and wear-and-tear on your robot. Your robot can pay for itself. In fact, if you have a good enough idea you might even be able to open an Etsy store, your own storefront, eBay store or something similar selling prints of your ideas.
To those of you who are waiting for improvements – don’t. Yes, the MakerBot will be getting continually more awesome as people contribute to it in the future. But, no one is going to stop working on this open source project any time soon. They are going to be incredible improvements for years to come. Your MakerBot is essentially obsolescence-proof. Yeah, you might want to purchase an upgrade here or there in the future – but you don’t have to. You can be the person who figures out a simple solution to an existing problem you find with the MakerBot and you can fix it. I have zero expertise when it comes to electronics – but I’ve uploaded a few small improvements2 You just aren’t going to know how you can help yourself and others with this project unless you jump right in. Your MakerBot will never be obsolete. 3 Irrespective of improvements, I can tell you right now that building, designing for, operating, and even repairing a MakerBot is just plain fun. Don’t rob yourself of a fun weekend, just go purchase one right now. 4
Finally, to those of you who think you don’t have what it takes – I wasn’t sure I did either. Assembling it really is on par with putting together Ikea furniture. Go to the wiki, look at the build pictures, and read the instructions and troubleshooting guides. Once assembled it will take a little bit of work to get running – but there are lots and lots of people out there who will help you. Why not find someone nearby on the MakerBot map and e-mail them? Lots of us have websites and blogs – we’re happy to talk about our MakerBots. 5 There are also regional groups and hackerspaces. I don’t know for sure, but I strongly suspect if you get one and no one at your local hackerspace has one yet, they’ll be falling over themselves to help you get it operational.
Look, if I can do this, so can you.6
I had a dream last night which featured my MakerBot. 1 2 3 I had a dream I was working on my MakerBot in some fashion, I don’t remember how. Then some neighbor I don’t really have in real life came over. We talked for a while about something I don’t remember. A little later we went over to his house and saw his work cart. It looked like a pretty standard large heavy duty plastic cart.
As I’m looking at the cart I somehow don’t really notice anything that’s on it or how it has been altered. Then my non-existent neighbor presses down on a large square section of the top shelf of the cart. It presses in slightly and then I hear a hydraulic hiss as two square shelf sections, about the size of a MakerBot footprint, raise upwards. He presses down on it again and it lowers. Think of the pressure applied when using an entertainment center door – you press in, click, it pops out. Press in, click, it stays closed.
I immediately think, “Wow! It would be really neat if you could bolt a MakerBot to this hydraulic raising panel, include a power strip, a laptop/netbook and/or a USB cable, spool(s) of plastic, tools, supplies, replacement parts, and little drawers for keeping things in.” At this point, still before 5am PST, I still think this would be neat. When not in use, just lower the ‘bot into the cart and roll away. 4
Of course, looking back on this dream through the eyes of mild sleep deprivation5 other ideas come to mind. Put solar panels on top and roll it outside for greener MakerBot printing. Power it with a large6 battery. Attach a motor for mobile MakerBotting and drive the entire MakerBot Cart to 7665 Commerce Way
Eden Prairie, MN and make heckle the guys at Dimension. 78
And, my all time favorite idea: Attach larger wheels and some kind of suspension to the MakerBot Cart, or at least some kind of suspension to the platform that suspends the MakerBot itself, install solar panels and/or a battery, attach to a bike hitch and a bike, and bike around a MakerFaire printing and giving away stuff.
I think that would be pretty cool.
Thanks to MakerBot for retweeting my MakerBot poll. The number of responses basically doubled in a single day. It’s been a busy day so I’ll go into more detail this upcoming weekend. For now, I’m going to close the poll and show the questions:
This poor guy gal known as “noobcake” had gotten so frustrated with his her MakerBot CupCake CNC that he she was getting ready to either strip it for parts to start work on a RepRap or just sell the entire thing on eBay at a loss. It read like most of his her problems were coming from improper Skeinforge calibration. Anyhow, that made me very sad.
And then I scrolled down. Spacexula helped noobcake get his her Skeinforge calibrated and MakerBot printing reliably. That’s really really fantastic, man. Kudos.
Edit: Apparently I have as much difficulty telling girls from guys online as in real life. Sorry noobcake. My bad.
