Custom bricks. Lego fanatics have apparently been designing and uploading their pictures/diagrams and schematics to Flickr! If you want to design something to upload to Thingiverse, this is a one stop shop of ideas. Thanks to Makezine.com for the link.
Tag Archives: something
He’s saying the things I think!
…only in a way that is far less wordy and verbose than the manner in which I would typically attempt to describe the sorts of things I am thinking about.
“”The way you improve your iPad isn’t to figure out how it works and making it better. The way you improve the iPad is to buy iApps. Buying an iPad for your kids isn’t a means of jump-starting the realization that the world is yours to take apart and reassemble; it’s a way of telling your offspring that even changing the batteries is something you have to leave to the professionals.”
This is part of what is at the core of the Maker philosophy – empowering people to learn about the stuff of which civilizations are made, rather than being a plankton-like consumer/spectator. When something goes wrong, you don’t have to take it back to the store or call the (*shudder*) Geek Squad. 1
This is the heart of civilization, improving upon the work of prior generations. You have the luxury of being smarter than Einstein and wiser than Oppenheimer with 20-20 hindsight. You can know everything they know and improve upon it all. You can fix it yourself. 2 You have all of the tools you need right now, in your home right now. You can use the stuff you already have to build the tools you need to build absolutely anything within imagination.
Enney Meaney
It occurred to me today that a lot of people are using their RepStraps to build Mendel parts. Then I wondered, “How many Mendels are in operation now, anyhow?”
I would guess a dozen or so – with far more on the way. What I find interesting is the seemingly large proliferation of Mendels (or, at the very least, blogs about Mendel parts and construction) versus the dissemination of Darwins within the prior year.
If this is the case (and I really have no evidence of this, just my impressions), is it something about the RepRap project that has suddenly taken hold? Something about the Mendel over the Darwin? Is it the increased RepRap documentation, more YouTube/Vimeo videos? Is it the availability of parts on eBay, plastic/resin parts from molds, or something else? Is it MakerBot? Thingiverse? Facebook, Twitter, MakerFaires, or MakerTweetBook? More mainstream coverage in the media? Was is health care reform, killer bees, or the loss of the Mars rover? Is it subliminal messages embedded in the MakerBot website? Have we been plugged into the Matrix?!?!
I know someone is going to say “a combination of these things” – but really, if you had to pick one thing, what would you say it is? 1
- P.S. I’m voting for the killer bees. [↩]
Replicating without a RepRap
I’ve read others writing about creating molds for pulleys and molded RepRap parts. Is this something you do? Several of the Mendel sets on ebay appear to be parts cast from molds. This would seem to be a very cost effective and relatively quick way to replicate parts.
At the same time, I’m not sure just how useful it is. The best thing about a RepRap/RepStrap is you can tell the robot to build you something while you go out for a beer or take a nap. Casting molds (from the reprap.org link above) seems to be a more involved and detailed process require a fair bit of human intervention.
Given that a set of printed or molded parts are selling for upwards of $400, I have to wonder why no one has stepped up to create a huge mold with all the parts and just start stamping them out.
I also wonder – if everyone had all the plastic/reprap’ed parts they needed – what would the next bottleneck be? Electronics?
Peanut Butter Mousetrap design notes
I treat this blog as part of my lab notebook on printing and designs to help keep me organized. Having it automatically add tags, adding a time stamp, organizing everything in chronological order, and then making it available for others to learn and comment back are all just a huge bonuses.
Anyhow, here are some of my design notes for this Peanut Butter Mousetrap Insert:
- I was going for a minimal design – minimal plastic, printing, and machine time.
- I wanted something that would be “ABS warp” resistant. Even if you end up with a warped flat surface, clamping the insert between the lid and the jar should even it out.
- I wanted a resilient design. Even if the insert is badly warped after clamping down, a flat surface is not critical to its function and it should still work.
- I wanted something that could be adapted easily. I don’t know how to use OpenSCAD, so a parametric design is kinda out the window. Even so you could print this object at full size and then cut it down to what you need. 1
- For the record, I did download OpenSCAD before designing this. I just wanted to get it out there. [↩]
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.
MakerBot, Mendel, Mendel-Mini Build Areas
Owning a MakerBot, I’m not even sure why someone would need something to print pieces much larger than the MakerBot build area. Printing something as large as just the maximum build volume of a MakerBot would take ages.
- Darwin’s build area is about 23cm x 23cm x 10cm: 5290 cubic centimeters
- Mendel’s build area is about20cm x 20cm x 14cm: 5600 cubic centimeters
- Cupcake CNC’s build area is 10cm x 10cm 13cm: 1300 cubic centimeters
- Mendel Mini’s is supposedly approximately 11cm x 14cm x 10cm: 1540 cubic centimeters
While the official longest print logged on the Makerbot website is Zach’s Disney head, clocking in at 2 hours and 45 minutes, I’ve read about people printing for up to 8 continuous hours. If the build volume for a Mendel is 4.3 times that of a Makerbot, it would take more than 34 hours to fill that build area.
When you’re printing a door hook in 15 minutes, it doesn’t pay to drive to the hardware store. When it takes 34 hours to print a big plastic brick, you’re better off driving to the gas station, filling up your tank, driving to McDonald’s, filling out an application, working an hour, quitting and demanding your paycheck, driving to the hardware store, buying a single brick, and then driving back home. I figure that kind of silliness would only take half a day or so. Heck, with 34 hours, you could do this at least six times over.