As it happens, a Dremel or similar rotary tool can be used to perform a "blind rivet" using friction welding techniques: 3D printed rivets fused into a 3D printed surface.

More on this technique as I begin to share projects I created that make use of blind rivets.

Customized version of thingiverse.com/thing:40703

Created with Customizer! thingiverse.com/apps/customizer/run?thing_id=40703

Here's a simple coin I created for dualstrusion printing that features the US Capitol building.

I recently took Skimbal's Thor's Hammer to MegaCon in Orlando, Florida, as a tribute to Stan Lee (who was in attendance). I wanted to make a smaller version that could be printed quickly for giveaways, and this is what I came up with. Note that I put both parts on the plate at the same time such that I could print a plate of silver and a plate of brown and then swap heads. My explanation -- the silver handle one is the "space version." They are rather cute, so no one minded that much. Next up: dualstrusion version of the same files!

For Thing-A-Day Day 01 I created a pegboard suitable for mounting and testing gear trains and similar, using Tony Buser's fabulous Pin Connector V2 tools as a first experiment. I figured this tool might be useful for the MakerBot Clock Makers project and for educators and students looking to explore basic gear mechanics. This tool will become more useful as people (maybe you? maybe me?) generate tools to lock gears into place for heavier use.

Back during World Maker Faire 2011 I transformed Nick Normal's 3D scan into a series of flattened models. I meant this to be a gift for him for setting MakerBot up with such a great booth location at the event, but then never saw him to hand him to himself. Also, the children kept taking the models as soon as we printed them.

To create these sort of models, you can isolate a scale transform to the Y axis only -- creating a model more like a cameo. You could easily make a cameo of Flattened Nick Normal, come to think of it. Great next project.

It has been a passion of mine for a long time (about a week) to create "Raceway Targets" that can be run over for World Maker Faire 2011. Perhaps to gain points, perhaps to lose points, perhaps just to be ridiculous.

Thankfully, Andrew Plumb built an OpenScad project for the brace and the hinged mounting point that makes these possible.

So now it is time for you to create your own 2D designs to be used to make Raceway Targets of your own! Please share your own images or sets! Or your flat items that you would like attached to a hinge and run over!

Here are some handy scripts you can build as .s3g files to put on your Thing-O-Matic's SD card to call up on your Gen4 Interface kit (http://store.makerbot.com/makerbot-interface-board-kit-v1-1.html).

These simple utility scripts are in use in the MakerBot BotFarm on a row of Thing-O-Matics with Stepstruder MK6-Plus 3mm toolheads, each calibrated the same way. By taking a look at the start.gcode and end.gcode of your MK5 or MK6 1.75mm toolheads you can make adjustments to these scripts for a broader range of machines.

Learning about fiscal responsibility should start early -- and never has a lesson in planning for the future looked so good!

I mashed up Salt/Pepper Pig by Zh4x0r (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3983) with The Head of Stephen Colbert by Colbert (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:9104).

Stephen Colbert is no thug -- but thanks to the magic of 3D modeling, his head joins a strong tradition of physical mashups in the T-verse: the Gangsta mashups.

I replaced the head of yzorg's Gangsta model (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5367) as cleaned up by cibomahto (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6891) with "The Head of Stephen Colbert by Colbert" (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:9104).

I needed to make a sturdy 3D-printed camera mount for MakerBot's current artist-in-residence Kyle McDonald who is doing work with the Kinect. I found a bunch of 1/4-20 threaded inserts in the BotCave and thought: "Why don't I build this model around this hardware?"

I built this part with Tinkercad, a solid modeller, so that I could continue to tweak parts of the model based on my printed tests with relatively tight tolerances. Additional benefit, you can jump in and make your own version of the mount with whatever baroque embellishments appeal to you! Edit the part online at: tinkercad.com/p/acc0d8eff4d75895

Rather than aiming to trap the threaded insert in the part mechanically, I designed the model so that I might turn on the extruder after the print has finished and use the nozzle like a hot glue gun to fill in the cavities around the mounting spikes and weld it in so that the hardware cannot shift during use.

Also, you can source threaded inserts here: mcmaster.com/#90975a025/=cbpva0

This set of short GCode scripts initiates what I hope will be a longstanding practice of creating fun things for your bot to do. Nothing as heavy as extruding much. More dances, gestures, sounds, and neat tricks.

These scripts play well on all MakerBots (I don't play favorites: Thing-O-Matics and Cupcakes are both invited to the party).

Make sure to read the instructions at the top of the code before running each partymode. Your axes might be reversed in a different pattern than mine -- so watch out!

Where are your partymode scripts? And quick utilities? And stupid pranks? Making these things is probably the best way out there to get a firm grasp on essential, human-readable g-code scripting.

They always told me that the future would be fun. And so I made it fun for everyone.

Included in this set:

"Game Anthem Grrarr!"
"MakerBot M Stamper!"
"one turn deserves another"
"Party like a cube"
"sNAKEy dANCe"
"Stirring the Air"
"Triangle Man, Triangle Man"
"Where Is Violin! Is Too So Small!"

Thanks to Pleasant 3D for the great gcode path visualization ... for these behaviors that leave no extrusion trace upon the world. (http://bit.ly/dUe5xh)

A mash-up of:
* Stanford Bunny by archiveman (Thing #406, though using later cleaned up models)
* Gangsta by yzorg (Thing #5367)

I'm tempted to clean up that collar -- but will probably print first to get a sense of where I am so far.

It's just one of those days....

Keepon (and co-creator Marek Michalowski) visited the BotCave other day. A number of the MakerBot staff are big fans of Keepon so we started an internal challenge to create hats that can be printed with Marek's new Thing-O-Matic for Keepon. Here is my cluster of work-in-progress fedoras. Please feel free to make improved derivatives of my STLs in progress or wait for me to tune this up.

"My Keepon" is a $40 "toy" version of Marek and Hideki Kozima's Keepon robot. You can learn more about it here: beatbots.net/2011/01/31/my-keepon-from-wow-stuff/

This is a mashup of Gangsta by yzorg ( thingiverse.com/thing:5367 ) with Gangsta by yzorg ( thingiverse.com/thing:5367 ).

This was born from a mutually shouted out idea from Nick Starno and Matt Mets, implemented in Wings3D at a dead sprint by me.

Blocksta is a mashup of yzorg's gangsta (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5367) and the 20mm test cube from spacexula's Makerbot Calibration set thingiverse.com/thing:2064.

I created this because it made me to do it.

I have been experimenting with mixing various techniques to create tone for MakerBot Unicorn pen plotting, taking advantage of schmarty's "Unicorn G-Code Extension for Inkscape?" (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:5986) and dnewman's "Inkscape hatch fill extension." This pigeon will be part of a bookart project I'm working on -- and I will continue to experiment with forms of hatching and crosshatching to give this little drawing tone and dynamics.

I created these logos so I could film one for a new "production title" logo for the Gothic Cathedral Play Set Time Lapse video I was putting together. And they really are fun to watch print.

These are also good simple examples of using Dan Newman's Inkscape hatch fill extension in combination with schmarty's Unicorn G-Code Extension for Inkscape.

This is a version of merlinjim's Rose for Unicorn Pen Plotter that uses a hatching pattern to fill in the weighted lines. This drawing works well with a fine-nibbed art pen like a Pigma Micron 3 or 1.

Bonus points to someone willing to go back to the original and work out a multi-pass version using delicate touches with a brush pen to re-create the this work to match the original illustration (with a variation in line weights), or create a tool for ranges of line weights!

You will definitely be wanting schmarty's Inkscape Unicorn extensions for this piece. And my calibration test image might help you troubleshoot the settings in schmarty's tool (and tensions for your belts in your bot).
And you should also grab the Eggbot Inkscape extensions to get a copy of dnewman's Inkscape hatch fill extension to use for solving fill issues like this one quickly and elegantly

This Inkscape SVG file is meant to be processed through schmarty's Unicorn G-Code Extension for Inkscape so that an operator can tune the timings available in the extension. This design is mm based and designed for a 75mm x 75mm drawing space (ie a sticky note!).

Compare your results to the digital version to adjust your settings.

For Thing-A-Day 2011 I'm doing a 1D (writing) vs 2D (visual design) vs 3D (3D modeling) Throwdown!

TAD D1 I completed a chapter of a novella that emerged from an observation about an inchworm. Hmmm, inchworms are interesting....

That night, I checked on Thingiverse -- there were no caterpillars yet! (Snakes, and Snakestas, yes.) So for D2 I cycled from "1D" (prose writing) to "2D" (drawing) and sketched out this caterpillar based on a bunch of photo references. Additional challenge -- to make this drawing fit for the MakerBot Unicorn (so path-only, no fill shading) and force myself to use my clunky old Wacom tablet instead of resorting to a mouse (which is typically what I do).

Now, that I can focus on doing lots of Unicorn illustrations this month is thanks to the incredible work Marty has done to take Scribbles (from Hoeken) and the Eggbot tools -- and create an Inkscape-to-Gcode tool that allows me to skip at least five painful steps of processing.

As a bonus, as I stuck with scribbling this whole thing out within Inkscape and didn't have pstoedit or similar to erase the history of my drawing, this item plots in the order of strokes that I created. So if you print this thing you will be watching me draw it, only via a robot.

Tomorrow for D3 I will be cycling forward to "3D" (3D modeling) and will either attempt to create an elaborate 3Dtin model that is awesome and beautiful, or jump into Sketchup, Alibre, or OpenSCAD to bring more caterpillars to Thingiverse.

I have always been a fan of the clouds floating along in Super Mario Bros so I thought I'd take a stab at creating a 3D 8-bit voxel version at 3Dtin.com. This is an exclusively 2.5D version (i.e. 4-axis millable extruded profile, more like a coin or a keychain). I added a Pendant version that includes a hook at the top for dangling this bling from your gold chain.

Special shout out to Cory Arcangel, who I got to know while interning at Harvestworks a little before he launched his Mario Cloud cartridges!

I created this using Custom-Cookie-Cutter-Generator by guru
thingiverse.com/thing:3433

I reprocessed through to Unicorn gcode from Carmiac's sources.

I re-processed Carmiac's Spirit files from the original SVG files to fix the issues with the text in his gcode.

A quick example for using this tool.

I processed Cyrozap's svg file on through to printable gcode.

I have been doing a lot of work creating original illustrations sourced from old photographs and daguerreotypes, and what better drawing for Halloween than a portrait of Edgar Allan Poe! I have more like this, but this is my favorite.

I have been curious about the Custom-Cookie-Cutter-Generator (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3433) created by Guru and decided to jump on that tool, up the nodes to 50 points from 20points, and then make some Halloween themed cookie cutters!

I worked on a slew of versions of iconic Hitchcock profile silhouette both drawn (Unicorn) and, but this hand-drawn attempt works best for both communicating the profile and making good cookies.

NOTE: the cookie cutter slicing part (the part on view in the image) cuts a mirror image of itself, so the cookie would flip the Master of Suspense back around to his more iconic orientation.