Tag Archives: replacement parts

MakerBot: Toy or Tool? [02/25/2010]

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or this post could be titled …  “Open source intern tells all!”1

A review of the MakerBot Industries Cupcake CNC today from a former MakerBot intern discusses the MakerBot’s use as a tool.  Some of the comments bring to suggest its usage as an expensive toy.  I’ve used my MakerBot as a tool to print tools and as a tool to print toys.  I suppose at the point I’m using it to print up toys I’m really using as a toy.

I’m fairly confident my MakerBot will pay for itself.  That’s not a claim most people can make about their toys.  I have printed replacement parts for toys, broken parts around the house, and broken tools – thereby saving me those replacement costs.  This probably doesn’t amount to more than $20 or so.  That’s not a great return on an investment, but it is returning

Drafts Zero - The Lost Blog Posts
  1. The Lost Blog Posts
  2. Plastruder! [Draft 12/25/2009]
  3. UNTITLED [Draft 12/25/2009]
  4. Preparing to print [Draft 12/27/2009]
  5. More prints [Draft 01/04/2010]
  6. Prototype Pricing [Draft 01/19/2010]
  7. MakerBot tuning [Draft 01/20/2010]
  8. Plastic Screw Anchor [Draft 02/02/2010]
  9. Magic [Draft 02/03/2010]
  10. How are you printing with PLA? [Draft 02/16/2010]
  11. Rebuilding my extruder [Draft 02/16/2010]
  12. MY robot [Draft 02/18/2010]
  13. more things i learned [Draft 02/20/2010]
  14. First commissioned piece! [Draft 02/22/2010]
  15. MakerBot: Toy or Tool? [02/25/2010]
  16. Idea for Skeinforge settings… [Draft 03/27/2010]
  17. RepRap and MakerBot alternatives [Draft 04/05/2010]
  18. RepRap Parts for Sale [Draft 04/07/2010]
  19. Where is the Othercutter? [Draft 06/08/2015]
  1. …  ’cause, you know, it was all… open source. [↩]

Optimal RepRap sizes

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To my thinking there’s basically two optimal RepRap sizes (in terms of build area):

  • A small RepRap with a build area just large enough to replicate it’s largest part, one at a time
  • A large RepRap with a build area large enough to print all of it’s own parts in a single print job

Random tangent:  wouldn’t it be cool if all RepRaps came with the designs for their own printed parts already on board?  Just fire it up for the first time, calibrate, and start printing replacement parts.  (I realize this isn’t quite feasible – in order to be ready-printable the files would need to be in S3G format and the machine would have to run the STL’s through it’s own Skeinforge settings).

Patience grasshopper

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Patience grasshopper, patience

Patience grasshopper, patience

Recent posts to the MakerBot Operators group show some people’s frustrations with this growing company. 1  Yes, they’re out of stock of electronics and other parts, but they’re also doing their best to crank out as many kits as possible.

Overall, I’d rather have them churning out robot kits than keeping spare parts in stock.  The plans for all of the electronics are open and free – you could have someone else fabricate them or build them yourself.  Still others have started up businesses selling lots of replacement parts and even upgrade kits.

We might be impatient for our kits, but they’re literally devoting their weekends and free time to getting these kits to us.  In fact, it’s their feverish dream to get a MakerBot kit into your hands.  You’re just not going to get this kind of devotion and service anywhere else.

I have one piece of advice if you’re waiting for your kit to arrive or replacement parts to be back in stock:  start designing stuff right now.  You already know what you want to build.  Just create a library of things you want to churn out.  Upload them to Thingiverse, get feedback modify, and improve them.  Heck, improve designs posted by others.

Your kit will be here before you know it and you’ll be happily (and woozily) sniffing ABS fumes too.  :)

  1. Photo courtesy of changhg [↩]