Printing out robots with your MakerBot

Cory Doctorow

Jun 1, Sydney Vivid
Jul 14, London EFF Speakeasy
Jun 18, Dublin Internet Freedom
Context (essays)
With a Little Help (short stories)
For the Win (YA novel)
Makers (adult novel)

Annelise sez, "This is an episode of MakerBot TV which is all about making DIY Robots with MakerBots!"

The MakerBot design team is building a Robot Petting Zoo to bring to this year's Maker Faire. In this video you'll get a behind-the-scenes look at how they conceptualized, designed and created these amazing DIY robots!

MakerBot TV S02E11 - MakerBot A Robot! (Thanks, Annelise!)

HOWTO make a 3D printed, Jingle-Bells-singing, robotic T.Rex skull

Cory Doctorow

Jun 1, Sydney Vivid
Jul 14, London EFF Speakeasy
Jun 18, Dublin Internet Freedom
Context (essays)
With a Little Help (short stories)
For the Win (YA novel)
Makers (adult novel)

Inspired by his 4-year-old son, Rweaving 3D printed a T.Rex skull and taught it to roar out Jingle Bells. Now that's seasonal fun!

It was my son’s idea to create a dinosaur skull that would sing jingle bells. This is the result of that project. The skull is controlled via servo motor triggered by the music. The skull, stand and mechanics were printed using a Makerbot Thingomatic. You can make your own by going to http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:14248 ...I love being able to take my 4 year old’s crazy idea and making it into reality.

Jingle Bells Dinosaur Skull

Kit-a-day giveaway from MAKE:

Gareth from MAKE: sez, "To celebrate the release of our special Make: Ultimate Kit Guide, we're running a Kit-A-Day Giveaway between now and Dec 23. We're giving away nearly $9,000 worth of merch from the Maker Shed, including FIVE MakerBots! To be eligible, all you have to do is leave a comment on that day's giveaway." Cory

3D printing a mechanical computer

Cory Doctorow

Jun 1, Sydney Vivid
Jul 14, London EFF Speakeasy
Jun 18, Dublin Internet Freedom
Context (essays)
With a Little Help (short stories)
For the Win (YA novel)
Makers (adult novel)

Chris Fenton is using his MakerBot 3D printer to print out a mechanical computer; here he demonstrates one of the counting mechanisms.

Because I have a 3D printer and I can!

MakerBot is hiring

A sweet gig for NYC-based makers and hackers and 3D printing enthusiasts: MakerBot is hiring support technicians: "To work for support is to be right in the thick of all that is MakerBot — if you find 3d printing exciting, this is the place for you. Send your resume today — that is, if you’ve got what it takes." Cory

3D printed shoelace toggle lets kindergartener tighten his own shoes

Cory Doctorow

Jun 1, Sydney Vivid
Jul 14, London EFF Speakeasy
Jun 18, Dublin Internet Freedom
Context (essays)
With a Little Help (short stories)
For the Win (YA novel)
Makers (adult novel)


Larsie, a Thingiverse user and MakerBot owner, whipped up these 3D-printed shoelace-toggles for his kindergarten-aged son's sneakers, helping the lad tighten his own shoes:

Tying knots in shoelaces has got to be one of the most ridiculous activities in the world. It’s difficult to learn as a child,1 the laces always come undone at inconvenient times, you can trip on them when they do, and you never notice until its too late. Thankfully I don’t remember the days when I was frustrated with the vagaries and inefficiencies that are shoelaces. 2

Can you imagine putting yourself in larsie’s son’s place? 3 The poor guy was so frustrated with tying his shoes that he didn’t want to wear them on the way to kindergarten! Thus, today’s MakerBot hero is larsie for leaping into action and realizing he could design and print spring-operated toggles so quickly he could get his child to school on time!

Stephen Colbert's 3D printed head goes to space

Cory Doctorow

Jun 1, Sydney Vivid
Jul 14, London EFF Speakeasy
Jun 18, Dublin Internet Freedom
Context (essays)
With a Little Help (short stories)
For the Win (YA novel)
Makers (adult novel)

The MakerBot folks printed out Stephen Colbert (they'd scanned it earlier for an appearance on Colbert's show) and attached it to a weather balloon with a FlipCam and a GPS; Colbert's head sailed into space, got some killer photos, and politely transmitted its location once it had returned to Earth.

Not content to confine ourselves to mashups, we initiated the MakerBot Space Program with a mission to send a bust of Stephen Colbert into space on a weather balloon with a Flipcam and a GPS enabled cell phone.

Special thanks to Bre Pettis, Jonathan Monaghan, Keith Ozar, Luke Schantz, Anney Fresh, Eddie Codel, Mariko Kosaka, Stephen Colbert, and Dave Neff for the R&D, launch, and recovery of this, our first MakerBot Space Mission.

MakerBot Sends Colbert into Space « MakerBot Industries (via Make)

Timelapse of 3D printout of Stephen Colbert's head

Cory Doctorow

Jun 1, Sydney Vivid
Jul 14, London EFF Speakeasy
Jun 18, Dublin Internet Freedom
Context (essays)
With a Little Help (short stories)
For the Win (YA novel)
Makers (adult novel)

Darren Barefoot sends us this link to a timelapse video of a MakerBot 3D printer extruding a copy of Stephen Colbert's head, noting, "John Biehler has a 3-D printer, an excellent photographic eye and whimsy."

Colbert timelapse (Thanks, Darren!)