One of my primary design goals is to increase the 'rapid' part of my 'rapid prototyping' of hardware. One of the challenges I have faced while assembling structures that utilize laser cut panels, is the screw/nut combination which accompanies most laser cut panels slows me down. Putting all the screws into my MakerBot, for example, must add a significant amount to my build time.

This thing is meant to act as a substitute for all those screw/nut combinations that you typically need to use to assemble a DIY laser cut panel case of the captured nut/T-slot design.

As such, it can be utlized with any materials such as acrylic, glass or plywood. Everything is snap and friction fit.

While assembling the Yazzo MonkeyBot, thingiverse.com/thing:5219 there were a couple of comments on the clip design.

One question Wade had was 'what keeps the clips from vibrating apart'. In the first incarnation of clips, the answer would have been nothing really.

Then, hintss made the comment: you could latch onto the T-slots

The T-Slots here are those T-slots that are cut into the plywood to receive the threaded shaft and captive nut.

So, to answer the question Wade had, and to honor the suggestion that hintss made, this thing will lock onto both the T-slot, as well as the bolt hole in the opposing piece.


This clip eliminates the need to use screws and nuts while assembling your panels.

You can use the clip to assemble panels made of any material. So, if you're playing with plywood, or acrylic, or glass, this clip will work. Since it does not utilize any screws, you might not have to fear cracking your panels with too much tightening pressure on the screw/nut combination as it is absent.

So, very good for rapidly throwing together some panels to prototype your designs.

This is a Sharp distance sensor (GP2D12) clip for clipping it on a strip of 36x1.5mm. I use it for my mobile robot platform.

I was bored on a Saturday afternoon and with an engineer friend. We decided to have a contest to see who could design and build the best printable bow and arrow, using the following constraints:

One 100mm x 100mm panel of parts
No more than 2 rubber bands
No adhesive
"Reasonable" print time (under 1.5 hours)
"Reasonable" design time (under 1.5 hours)

This was the my entry. The picture is of the first revision, which had a few issues (pins were too small to print cleanly, holes were not oversized enough, pins would shear). The uploaded file is the second revision, which has not yet been tested but should address all of these issues (my printer is down today with "null version reported" so I'll try to get it tested ASAP).

This was a quick art piece I cooked up during the laser cutter operations class at the Dallas Makerspace. Works pretty well with 5-10 sheets of paper, but its mostly just cool.

Good file for laser demos, since it has a function as soon as you punch it out.

Depreciated: This item has been replaced by version 2, a 100% printable spool holder, located at thingiverse.com/thing:8317 Please refer to that file, which is a much better design.

I liked BrokenToaster's idea of a bearing-driven filament spool holder, but that version was too big to fit on a Makerbot print bed. I separated the arms from the hub, making a tight-fitting dovetail joint to connect the pieces without any hardware. It now fits on a Makerbot print bed!!!


EDIT: At Wajazn's suggestion, I added a version that integrates a printable bearing from thingiverse.com/thing:4312 . Disclaimer, I have NOT tried to print it, but it should work.

UPDATE: (1/22/2011) I added a solid version of the integrated bearing hub that has no spokes to avoid the problem people were having with one of the hollows printing solid. I just skeined it in 0035 and it looks good.

This is a concept for a continuous hinge-less plastic drive chain/belt to be printed out of a flexible plastic and joined via integrated plastic rivets and beveled interlocking ends.

Small minimal radius's could be an issue with harder material such as abs.

Once again I have not designed a sprocket for it but blenders gear generator should produce a simple sprocket with little effort.

I am currently waiting for the last pieces i need for my extruder and will begin testing once calibrated.

Let me know if you foresee any problems.

This is a simple clip for a 608 skate bearing.

See objects.reprap.org/wiki/Bearing_clip_01 for more details.

This is a stand for a Droid X that also helps direct the sound from the speaker around to the front.

This is my version of a Mini Fig. I measured, modeled, and scaled a mini fig x2. I made minor modifications to make it printable and articulating.

Got idea from others on this site. Modified parts to increase # of gears and added business card side to put info on.

Tried a thinner set - but it was too flexible. Main gear 'may' require some sanding on outside teeth based on fit and material.

This was printed on an Alaris 30 Polyjet printer. I used a drop of oil on the main gear to get it going - then washed it out. Lettering is extruded cut into surface - used model paint to fill in.

If you need the SW 2010 files just email me.

Cuts nicely with 2mm endmill. I did the engraving of numbers etc. with 55degree V carving bit. This is quite large (about 16cm x 17cm) so you might want to scale it down a bit.

Please note that this doesn't comply with parking disc standards in Europe so you could get a ticket if you use it.

This nascent thing is intended to be an enclosure for a GoodFET and parody of the ubiquitous Doctor Who plot device. So far I've only designed half of the enclosure and none of the moving parts.

All the design files are in Sketchup. There's one STL that I was not able to successfully print. (Maybe you can!)

Description of the files:
* 11th_Dr_v1.skp: Imported image of the screwdriver, traced in Sketchup.
* 11th_Dr_v7.skp: Half outline of screwdriver, hollowed out components.
* 11th_Dr_v9.skp: Hollowed out components arranged for printing.
* 11th_Dr_v9.1.stl: The prior file exported as an STL and cleaned up for printing.
* 11th_Dr_v10.skp: New approach to hollowing out and connecting components.

Any help you can offer in improving the design is appreciated. Also, the parts are not exactly to scale.

For a LOT of posts about this design, check out makerblock.com/?s=sonic

This was my answer to the need for a quick change spool for 1 lb coils of plastic. I like to frequently switch between colors. This spool lets me slip off the old coil and slip on a new coil. Its worked well with a 2+ hour print.

It really needs a larger bottom disk since the 1 lb coils tend to unwind. The largest round cake board my wife had was 16 inch, I think 20 inch might be enough.

A press-fit lampshade made out of birch plywood or acrylic. You can decorate the lamp colored string of your choosing. Design created by Simcha Davis.

My Z axis is not perfect so the LED EZ Clip I printed was wobbly. When I tried to put the Makerbot LED strip in, it got jammed. I made this as an alternative to the original.

This bottle clip helps me carry my requisite 20oz bottle of Diet Mountain Dew. It also works on the Deer Park water bottles that my wife likes. If you carry one of those bottles between your fingers it can hurt on a long hike. This solution is a little more fun and a lot more comfortable on the fingers.

Our windspeed meter broke in a hailstorm a while ago (See picture) so i decided to print out some hemispheres.

A set of snap-on covers for the MakerBot's stepper motor printed circuit boards and its motherboard.
I have included the SolidWorks part files and the STL files.

This is a simple case for a flash drive. It is meant to be a replacement for the original plastic housing for the circuit board. I had a few lying around that were bare and could do with some durability. I made it to be the right size for most flash drive boards. The internal size fits a board of 2 inches by 5/8 and is 3/16 thick. It can be shortened after printing or before. I used solidworks and included the file. I designed it with the intent to print it, but i guess it could be milled also.

I have not made this as my printer is not yet fully assembled, and I am new to making printable things. Please let me know if there is something wrong that prevents it from printing.

This is a design for a simple rubber band gun. it has a small magazine of rubber bands, and is operated by pulling back on the front handle to push the rubber bands of their pegs. it can be sized up and down to your specifications, provided all parts are in the scale they are now. Try to make it better!

Will try to get pictures up soon.

Here is a simple design to allow easy attachment of the LED Strip v1.1 to the MakerBot.
I have uploaded two STL files of the design. One at the full length of the LED strip and the other at half the length. Either design will work. Also included is the SolidWorks part file.
One idea for customization of the design would be to add extruded text on the front and have it function as a nameplate for your MakerBot.

So I found a way to print some bearings up. I am working on a project that requires alot of bearings. But I was annoyed that I can't print any bearings for the project.

I use the filament itself as the ball bearings. But since the filament is a rod the bearing is a little tall. You need to make sure that you cut the rod to the right size, if they are a little too long, they will rub on the end caps. If they are short, they will rotate sideways and jam up the whole bearing.

When I was trying the first design the bearing was spinning, but not loose. So I ran it on a tamaya gearbox to break it in. After about an hour of spinning on that I got a fine white abs powder inside and it was running much smoother. After it broke in, I cleaned the powder and filled it with Vaseline.

Then it was perfectly smooth.

Video and instructions on :

Splitreaction.com

This is a screwless big spool intended for PLA spools with very big inner diameter. All connections are secured with a piece of filament.

You can find more info about it here:
ifeelbeta.de/index.php/production/screwless-megaspool

Warning, this thing is big !

More pictures at objects.reprap.org/wiki/FD_pencil_case

Next step... a hinged lid....

I am proud to announce that my MakerBot has given birth to a bouncing 44 gram, 7 cm mini-maker.

This is a 3D mini-MakerBot replica.

Included is a family portrait with the proud parent.

The Google SketchUp file contains the parts at both full size and scaled to 0.2 to fit the MakerBot print platform.

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This is an experimental design where two cylinders can be joined by attaching this object to the model in question and then injecting a filler material to bind the two halves together. Its useful because you don't need screws, just glue, acetone ABS slurry, rose's metal, etc to bind with itself. The inner pathways allow at least a mechanical connection that should be strong enough.

I have not yet tested it yet but the object is parametric and should be printable by a RepRap.

The way it works, is that you connect two cylinders together by putting together the ends and filling every other hole along the seam. This should produce three filled holes with non filled holes in between. This should block air passages and allow the second filling to push material throughout the entire structure, hopefully without too much back pressure pushing material out. If this is the case, then the first filling should be left to sit for an hour or so or can be baked to boil off the solvent. Once all the holes are filled and the piece has been set to cure, it should give a satisfactory bond.

Simply a shoe hanger for wet (or dry) shoes you don't want cluttering up the floor. I use these for drying my shoes (it's pretty snowy here in Denmark at the moment).

If you want to use these as a space saver in a closet, I included a hole to enable them to be stringed together (use thicker wood, they might get heavy with 5 or 6 pairs of boots adding up weight)...

It first started out as a clip on thing for my glasses so i didnt have to wear a welding helmet (It was supposed to be printed with BLACK ABS so i wouldnt blind myself through peripheral vision). I know its not perfect but its an open source platform to attach to your glasses so you can add anything you want! My new plan is to make a monocular so i can increase my viewing distance. The opposite of Mr. Gadget when he zooms in on that piece of metal. (Insert video clip here)

A dock for the HTC G1 (Android phone). The hole in the middle is the proper size for the cable that came with the phone in the box, so if you use a different USB cable, you'll need to resize the hole.

Printed one, and it took an hour and fifty three (1:53) to print, with the included gcode. Previous version printed with major warping in the front, so on this one the base is a bit smaller. I also tried the hairdryer trick to prevent warping. For the first ~10 minutes I pointed a hairdryer set to high heat, low air at the build. This prevented all of the warping in the first layers and I feel was comparable to a heated build chamber. It helped alot to prevent warping in the build. The raft adhered to the part so well that I couldn't get it off (suggestions are welcome for the removal of pesky rafts).