Tag: repurposing

MakerBot + Junk = Stuff! [08/06/2010]

[In my earliest days of working with my MakerBot, I used it interchangeably with the term “3D printer”.  I think the point I was going to make here was that you could take some everyday stuff, perhaps even waste products, and with a few 3D printed parts turn them into something new or useful.  Unfortunately, whatever thing that did this is now lost to time.  I suppose by scrolling through this blog, looking at the last Thingiverse item number I referenced and the next one I reference, it might be possible to narrow down the universe of things I could have been inspired by.  This is assuming whatever thing is still in the Thingiverse system and wasn’t wiped out by the Thingageddons1 or some of the mass boycotts / exoduses that have happened over time.  Anyhow, all this seems like a lot of work to get into my headspace from 16 years ago.  If I don’t think it’s a worthwhile endeavor, I can’t imagine anyone else would either.]

Yay!  Math! +=

Drafts Zero - The Lost Blog Posts
  1. Misnamer [11/28/2010]
  2. The Lost Blog Posts
  3. Plastruder! [Draft 12/25/2009]
  4. UNTITLED [Draft 12/25/2009]
  5. Preparing to print [Draft 12/27/2009]
  6. More prints [Draft 01/04/2010]
  7. Prototype Pricing [Draft 01/19/2010]
  8. MakerBot tuning [Draft 01/20/2010]
  9. Plastic Screw Anchor [Draft 02/02/2010]
  10. Magic [Draft 02/03/2010]
  11. How are you printing with PLA? [Draft 02/16/2010]
  12. Rebuilding my extruder [Draft 02/16/2010]
  13. MY robot [Draft 02/18/2010]
  14. more things i learned [Draft 02/20/2010]
  15. First commissioned piece! [Draft 02/22/2010]
  16. MakerBot: Toy or Tool? [02/25/2010]
  17. Idea for Skeinforge settings… [Draft 03/27/2010]
  18. RepRap and MakerBot alternatives [Draft 04/05/2010]
  19. RepRap Parts for Sale [Draft 04/07/2010]
  20. Where is the Othercutter? [Draft 06/08/2015]
  21. Mendel Parts – Printed, Cast, CNC’d, Lasercut or Injection Molded? [Draft 04/12/2010]
  22. MakerBot Operator’s Manual [06/04/20210]
  23. MakerBot on CBS! [07/07/2010]
  24. New Print: Soft-Pawed Albino Stoat of South Wales Cookie Cutter [07/07/2010]
  25. House calls [07/11/2010]
  26. Digital assistant? [08/05/2010]
  27. MakerBot + Junk = Stuff! [08/06/2010]
  28. Design choices in RepRap, Goals of RepRap [08/14/2010]
  29. Upgrades and obsolescence [08/25/2010]
  30. Dear Anonymous [08/25/2010]
  31. The ultimate in customer service [08/26/2010]
  32. Open Source Makes You Smarter [08/27/2010]
  33. Getting my Plastruder MK5 running [09/06/2010]
  34. Weird new kind of spam [09/19/2010]
  35. An open letter to Ms. Word [10/18/2010]
  36. Printing with PLA again! [10/18/2010]
  37. Halloween costume too [10/27/2010]
  38. Dream jobs [10/29/2010]
  39. The nuances of time travel [10/31/2010]
  40. Printed Pink Panther Person [11/22/2010]
  41. Skein them all and let ‘Bot sort them all out [11/24/2010]
  42. The Patents for disc shooters [12/10/2010]
  43. Princess Bride with Lightsabers [12/13/2010]
  44. Dilbert comic [12/13/2010]
  45. Ultimachine PLA review [12/15/2010]
  46. Mendel to the power of 101 [12/21/2010]
  47. Potential improvements for Leonardo Voltron [12/27/20210]
  48. You can keep your filthy money [12/28/2010]
  49. I watched Primer the other night [12/30/2010]
  50. 10 Printing Predictions for 2011 [01/03/2011]
  51. I’d rather be making [01/04/2011]
  52. Best use for the MakerBot Unicorn? [01/04/2011]
  53. There’s just something profoundly meta and wrong with this. [01/05/2011]
  54. MK4 plastruder parts for sale [01/10/2011]
  1. More than once something happened to the MakerBot / Thingiverse website / server and a lot of things and/or stats were lost. [↩]

Trash to Treasure

Years ago, like more than a decade ago, I went on a tour of a Tesla facility, which was amazing, and I bought a t-shirt.  Now the idea that I gave that company any money turns my stomach.  While comfortable, the shirt was not cheap and the neck stretched out almost immediately.

Not my shirt, I just forgot to take a picture of it before I got started cutting...
Not my shirt, I just forgot to take a picture of it before I got started cutting…

My youngest had a craft / reuse class where the take-home project was to create a sock monkey.  Except we didn’t have any long socks that could be turned into a monkey and destroying something useful to make something less useful is kinda not the point.

I like to participate in these projects with her, so I decided to donate this t-shirt to the cause.  As with all good projects, I started with a detailed plan.

Detailed schematics for plushie
Detailed schematics for plushie

The rest isn’t super involved or interesting.  I sketched out the design on the outside of the shirt and got cutting. From there, ran it through the sewing machine, cut the rest of the shirt cutoffs into scraps, and stuffed the shirt with itself plus additional stuffing.

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And, now, please meet “Alset” the spider plushie.

Alset the spider
Alset the spider

Honestly, a lot more comfortable than you’d expect.

Founds parts

I took my daughter to the library yesterday1 and they were having a huge book sale.  I’m such a sucker for a used book sale.  Some of my most cherished books were previously cherished books.  :)  While rummaging through the books I found one that was a children’s board book with a list price of $20 that had about a dozen pages with colored musical sheets – and a simple electronic piano at the bottom, circa 1998.

What surprised me about the electronic piano is the number of keys it has.  Most children’s toys that incorporate an electronic piano have about 13 or so keys.  This one has 23.  You could actually play some music with this thing.  The speaker area was SO big that I knew it had to be a conventional magnet + copper coil speaker rather than a cheap piezoelectric speaker – the kind you find in annoying greeting cards.  When I held it to my ear and hit some keys, I could just barely make out a tone over the low din of other book lovers milling around.  At $0.50, I SNATCHED it up.

Here’s my plan.  Rip the entire plastic piano off the board book, replace the batteries, rip out the old speaker, replace with a cheap piezoelectric speaker from an annoying gift card, and turn it into a very tiny piano.  It’s not going to change the world or anything, but it is a fun little project.

I’ve already stripped it off the board book, replaced the batteries, and tried out a piezoelectric speaker – only to find out my piezoelectric speaker was broken.  :/  I’ll have to find a new one.  The piano is surprisingly loud – but my daughter got a kick out of it.

  1. As in about 10 hours ago [↩]
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