Stoves seem to have the bad habit of loosing their knobs ;) Some days ago I noticed that my favorite restaurant's stove was missing two knobs. I therefore offered to help out and print two new ones on my MakerBot Thing-O-Matic. It was fun to model and 3D print it. I also got a free meal! ;)

- The knob is made to fit a shaft of 6 mm in diameter.
- The design incorporates a 6 mm set-screw to stop the knob from spinning

I wanted to see how long it would take to make a replacement(orange) for the leg(black) I broke. 1 hour. Used TurboCad 11 and Replicator G. MAKERBOT RULES

It is not uncommon for suppliers not to want to supply replacement parts: it cannibalizes on their sales of the complete products while it is frequently not a profitable business. Moreover, the logistics are very unfavorable. Suppliers usually don't end up making money of of replacement parts. If they do it (unprofitably), it usually is to prevent hurting their reputation. Supplying small quantities of many different parts to many different destinations is expensive. Plus, you usually end up manufacturing many parts that will not be used, because it was hard to determine which ones will break and which ones won't. Because you have to speculate which parts to produce in which quantities, this creates the problem of under- or overstocking parts that need to be stored and collect dust somewhere until the stocks either run out or become obsolete without being used, ever.

Being able to fabricate independently from manufacturers and "on demand" is a completely different scenario. My parents have a large garden parasol (a.k.a. sun screen) with rods that keep the skin up. The fabric of the parasols sown to the little caps that I'm replacing. The rods have end-caps that have worn out over time. The rods now protrude the broken rods and/or the places were it was sown broke the piece.

The broken/replaced parts are the semi-translucent bits alongside the yellow ones.

The parasol picture is from this website:
easydealshopping.co.uk/product/Freestanding-Garden-Parasol-Black.html

The clip on my tread mill broke so I designed a new one.

Icehouse is a board gaming system (like a deck of cards) with a dedicated community of fans. There are 3 types of pyramids: small, medium, and large. a set of 3 pyramids is called a "nest", and a set of 5 nests is called a "stash".

Icehouse pyramids can be used to play any of the 300+ games found at icehousegames.org. Many games can be played with only one stash, but with 5 stashes (and a few odds and ends like playing cards and dice) you can play almost every game on the site. The coolest part about Icehouse is the community that has been built around inventing and sharing games. Sadly it seems to be stagnating a bit lately, so maybe the thingiverse community can help revitalize things?

I designed these in sketchup using the official specifications found here: wunderland.com/icehouse/MakingIcehouse.html

Don´t know if this is the first fabber part ever, but it was mine.
In 2003 the crank of my cheese grater broke. I liked the design and was not willing to waste it. But I had no idea where to get the spare part. So I decided in my christmas holidays 2003 to build it by myself. I designed an optimized version with turnable crank grip and built it in Alumide on a laser-sintering machine. It broke never again and is still in use. I looked on the save date of the original file: it is 01.01.2004.

Let me know if you know a documented case earlier.

This is the Y pulley for MENDEL. It replaces one of the drive-pulley_3off pulleys and features a rim so your belt don't slip from the pulley.

It's a set of printable Icehouse pieces.

It's replacement Gottlieb C13150 pinball flipper! This is useful for people who need to replace their busted Gottlieb C13150 pinball flippers.

I designed this section of Toy Train Track for MakerBot printing. It's compatible with the Thomas, Ikea and Brio brand wood toy train tracks.

For larger objects, getting raft and lower layers to stay stuck can be a challenge. Earlier simple copies had serious warpage issues, so I changed to a lattice structure. This gives the lower layers a chance to flex and cool independent upper geometry. There was still some separation of the raft from the build platform, but it was minor compared to previous iterations.

The main track portion of the fabject is 54mm long and 40mm wide. Total length is 72mm.

Note: The socket-side tends to be a bit tight with some track; you may need to widen the hole for a looser fit.

Our foosball table came with the creepiest dead-eyed foosmen possible. Here's a printable modernist alternative!

I needed a button, so I makerbotted one!

These are a couple of designs of pieces from the "Settlers of Catan" board game. I'm a real fan of this board game, but if you lose a couple of pieces you are unable to play it properly. So you print out a replacement!

More information on the game:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlers_of_Catan

I made them in Google Sketchup and resurfaced and exported them to STL with the excellent CADSPAN plugin.

Here's a video of the 3D print:
youtube.com/watch?v=S2hnSq1qKxk

Recently I needed a bath plug and *pling*!: "Why not print one?"

There is not much to say about it really... it's a bath plug!

You can see it...
...being printed here: vimeo.com/4608220
...in 'action' here: vimeo.com/4608369

This is a stylus that I made for a friend of mine who had lost the one in his NDS lite. This one fits rather nicely into the DS lite's dedicated stylus slot, and works very well on its touch screen. I'm sure you can use it on other screens, as well.

A friend of mine broke the knob that controls his dishwasher. So he modeled a replacement part and today we printed it :)


TODO: find out type of dishwasher

This a little corner bracket for putting on internal faces. Ideal for light-duty shelving and generally fixing two sheets of wood or MDF in a T-shape. It is a compact design which tucks right in the corner. Fits with 3 x 3mm diameter countersunk wood screws. Use at least 2 per side.

Not suitable for non-countersunk fasteners.

This is a spare part for the snap-lock mechanism of a Fujica MA1 - a cool retro camera from the 80ies. The broken part has some complex overhangs this is only a replacement for the thin lid that actually broke off. It needs to be glued onto the remaining part.

A replacement lid for the Nintendo Game&Watch. This one was modelled after an original battery lid from the "Oil Panic" Game&Watch but it might fit in other models too.