A simple printable tool for getting the most out of your tubes of toothpaste, lotion, etc.

At a recent trade show, I noticed an astonishing amount of beauty and cosmetic products using the same toothpaste tube-like storing containers. By the end of it, the representatives were struggling to give out samples while the tubes were taking on that all-too-familiar form. ( re-nest.com/uimages/re-nest/toothpaste.jpg )

I couldn't help but think about how I would solve this problem with a (hypothetical) makerbot.

The slot width is made to fit the largest of flattened toothpaste tubes found amongst my friends.

The front slot is drafted just a touch to ease the initial insertion of the tube, and the large circular surface is intended to get that last extra bit once the squeezer reaches the back of the nozzle.

This design uses a total of 2.7 cubic inches of material.

What's cooler than transformers? A Cupcake CNC transformer with a Bre head? This is a fully articulated assembly that transforms from a Cupcake CNC to a Bre-bot.
I started with a snap-together design (see the attached concept sketches) but migrated to a bolt-together kit for various reasons. The final design allows for fine adjustment of the joint tension so the transformer can stand in any position but still be movable, positionable, transformable!

See the animated transformation here: jmillerid.com/wordpress/2010/05/cupcake-cnc-transformer/

Modeled in NX6, rendered and animated in Modo, .stl files cleaned up in Blender, exploded view created with Rhino and Illustrator, sketches with Sharpie.

This is still a work in progress but the MakerBot actually seems to print braille rather well. I can't read braille so I can't judge for sure whether it's readable but it certainly seems like it. The trick is to get the G-code right to prevent warts on the front face (i'm still fiddling with this).

I think this might have a lot of potential. A braille bracelet will be next in my printing/designing queue.

I was recently contacted by a blind man, Dave, who was interested in getting some samples of the braille I printed on the makerbot earlier this year. I took the opportunity to refine the design a bit more before shipping a few test pieces off to him early this week.

Just yesterday he received them and was immediately able to read them. To quote: "I am enormously impressed. With my fingernail I can feel where the filaments laid down. With my fingertips though, the dots are correct sized, smooth feeling and comfortable to read. I really think this is professional quality stuff."

The next step is to figure out if there's a need for this kind of braille production. I'm currently doing some research on traditional methods of creating braille and am talking with Dave about the feasibility of actually using the makerbot to produce braille.

The base fits a DC motor with 20mm in diameter but its dimensions can be adjusted on the openscad script.

This is a work in progress. The plastic is so lightweight that it doesn't counteract the pull of the motor and I'm hoping it'll eventually work as a mini propeller (test video: vimeo.com/8199151). But for now it really is just a cooling/exhaust fan which can be held still by either bolting it down or using the 9V battery version - the weight of the battery is enough to keep it from moving, specially if placed on a rubbery surface.

This is the next step in my attempt to make a Sarrus linkage based 3D printer. The idea is to have a cartesian mechanism without those long rods and bearings.

I built three of the Mark III and mounted them in a x-y arrangement as shown. They can move over a square about 105 mm wide, and someday may carry an extruder. They are driven by DC motors taken from inkjet printers. These motors are driven in a servo arrangement using quadrature optical encoders and optical strips removed from the same printers.

So after making the fully printable hinge, I was able to move along with making a hand. Its got all of the degrees of freedom as a human hand. Its a bit bigger then a normal human hand, therefore its evil.

All parts total was about 10 hours of printing.

Available fully assembled here: vendio.com/stores/standardcustom/item/custom-design/-robot-hand/lid=2124336

My mom needed a laptop stand so I decided to make this for her Birthday tomorrow.

I really like how it came out and I love the interaction of the wave and the wood grain.

My process went something like this:
My mom's always liked Japanese prints (she grew up in Japan) and so I knew I wanted to do a Hokusai wave.

I found a creative commons image (http://nickpoint.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/the_great_wave_off_kanagawa.jpg) and imported it into Gimp. I adjusted the levels and threshold-ed it to make it just black and white. From there I played with it a bit in Inkscape using the trace bitmap tool. Eventually I ended up with what you see there.

I discovered that the first derivate I made of this didn't work perfectly with my Macbook Pro 15": The hinge was hanging a few centimeters out from the far corner, so opening it while in the stand would lift the front of the stand. So this variation features a 30 cm long holding area: This is slightly longer than a 15" Macbook Pro, and should hold a 17" one just as well.

It also comes with a cable guide hole, cut to fit underneath the wave. If you want to put the stand up on a desk and leave it there, you now have a way to reduce cable clutter, too.

I re-did the shape in qcad and Stefan, an Illustrator master at the Metalab (http://jain7th.soup.io/) helped me make the outlines that mimic the wave a reality.

This is a single Sided approach to this board. But the version 1.1V thats in the makerbot SVN.

I tested this board by hooking up an 5v arduino + GND then ran a magnetic strip over the IC. The activity light started blinking! So it looks like everything is working. This is also my first board I have laid out that was a double sided board converted to a single. Some places are "tight" but its doable. I have ohm'ed out all my connections and everything is great.

Video of it in action here:
flickr.com/photos/31697990@N00/4170462649/
Enjoy.

Ril3y

A calling card with working planetary gears. Astound your friends, frustrate your nemisii.

(Update: I've moved the gears slightly to the right, reducing the number of cut parts to assemble.)