It’s Not All About Printing…
We love 3d printing. Admit it. Bre often says he loves throwing Makerbot models on the ground, just to see them not break.
But makers can not live on ABS alone. So I’m kicking off the first Thingiverse Material Challenge by asking all of you: What materials can you kidnap in your printed designs? Sure, we’ve already used clothespin springs, and set screws. But I’m thinking that we can go bigger.
To start you all thinking, I’ve uploaded this little adapter that (theoretically) converts any bottle into a whistle. Scaling is no problem for our fabricators, so any size bottle will work. Just measure, scale, print, and start playing.
So what other ideas can grow out of this idea? What great materials out there are just missing the right 3d-printed part? Maybe they’re cheap small things at the art supply, auto part, or hardware store. Maybe they’re coat hangers, pens, or plastic forks. Maybe you want to make a part that connects two things you’ve never been able to connect before. Get out there, and use printing to hack the material world as you see it. Be sure to tag your work with materialkidnap so everyone can see it!!
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dcb Said,
September 29, 2009 @ 6:05 am
Don’t forget about this lego compatible clothes button. (Not mine, I’m just a fan.)
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1005
Sam Putman Said,
September 29, 2009 @ 11:32 am
This is one of the main premises behind MakerBeam.
3-d printing is great, but the objects it produces are fairly small and take awhile. The Mini-T beams have slots, and printing objects that slot into place and tie the beams together in various ways is feasible now.
The idea being that with reusable beams, nuts and bolts, etc, one can produce a stronger, more precise project, more quickly, by using a 3-d printer, a CNC router or other fabbing machines to make the particular parts needed.
We don’t have printable models available for Thingiverse yet, for a variety of reasons. It’s coming though; we’ve got some 3-d video up on our Kickstarter site that points in that direction.
Sam Putman Said,
September 29, 2009 @ 11:34 am
A link to the video in question:
MakerBeam in Action
Cathal Said,
October 1, 2009 @ 12:06 pm
Go Makerbeam! I’m really hoping to see that project take off because I can see the intersection between that kit and Thingiverse just waiting to happen.
Is it not possible to produce a 3-D model of the makerbeam profile for printing in ABS, for testing and design purposes? So we can start making addons and connectors?
Sam Putman Said,
October 6, 2009 @ 3:09 pm
Cathal,
We’ve got the model; we just want to print it before we put it up on Thingiverse. Look for that soon.
We think Thingiverse is the bee’s knees, and the perfect tool for us to manage parts, inventory and models. Thanks for the words of support; we’ve seventeen days left to go, so we’re doing all we can to get the word out.
Meredith Sizemore Said,
May 31, 2010 @ 5:21 am
Very awesome read. Truely..