My girlfriend challenged me to make a hand soap dispenser that is cooler than anything we could buy at Crate & Barrel (or similar stores). The result, after a number of design iterations, is this bottle which now inhabits our bathroom.

This dispenser is designed to reduce waste in a number of ways. First, it is easily refillable, and so can be used for many years. Second, as the pump is turned, liquid soap spills from the spout back into a hole in the bottle, thus recycling any drips. Third, this design makes it easy to get as much or as little soap as you want, while commercial soap pumps often dispense more soap than necessary with a single squeeze.

This is a 3 by 3 array of circle knots. The base unit comes from this website: cs.duke.edu/~edels/Tubes/knots/circ/index.html

These are yet another implementation of easy open / quick access end cap covers for the Thing-o-Matic y and z-axis linear rods. This implementation uses a cover which rides in a sliding dovetail joint.

For other implementations, see thingiverse.com/thing:12279 (cover is sandwiched between the wood and a plate) and thingiverse.com/thing:16415 (cover slips onto the screws which need to be loosened a little to again remove the cover).

Want to make your own clothes? Have a Makerbot? :)

This is a design from a chilean designer called Mauricio Rojas, design is called "Telar para Valentina". I (my makerbot) made the plastic parts. This is a work in progress (soon I will add the details for the wood)

I used aprox 1 lb. of white abs 3 mm plastic (pieces printed in 30% fill). About 4 days of printing (20 hours). The big parts (regletal.stl) require a very nice calibrated machine, this is why I used: thingiverse.com/thing:14174 to achieve outstanding quality!

This is a spring loaded clip to hold a dial gauge firmly in place when levelling the platform on a Thing-o-matic with a mk 6+ stepstruder.

The gauge bolts to the clip.

The width of the clip, as printed, is 75 mm, so it has to be squeezed to clip into the 70 mm gap that the heated nozzle fits in. The compression keeps the clip secure. This was printed at 50 % infill, it may be that less dense infills will give less spring tension.

I would recommend using this with the power off, to avoid damage.

Same as the ancestor but this one works for the digital gauges that have a big body (not the round small ones) so it is 5 mm displaced to the front.

The hole is 5 mm, not 7 mm but the sketchup file contains the pre-cut 7 mm hole if you need that size :)

This is a simple stand to allow you to charge and have accessible a Nexus one phone upright. Will work with any android phone that has a micro usb charge point at the bottom center of the phone.

I've included the SCAD file so that you can widen it for other phones including iPhone.

Secures the HBP cable bundle to the leading edge of the X-Stage so that all motion-induced stress is removed from the HBP connector.

Relatively light-weight. Self-attaching, with optional securing screwhole.

Forms a curve in the cable bundle that moves cleanly during X- and Y-Stage motion.

This is a spring designed for 3d printing.

Watch the video to see it in action!
youtube.com/watch?v=UxwbQSMbEIA

The more you scale the spring, the smaller the spring constant.

Increasing your filament width increases the spring constant.

The spring can be used in tension or compression, but it must be fairly short with comparatively thick filament width to be used in compression.

It can be made extremely flexible and it is very fun to play with.

It's form was discovered by accident, as it was originally auto generated support for the middle of a hollow cylinder.

I'm still perfecting the design but it works quite well in it's current state.

I will be uploading different sizes (and source files shortly) over the next few days.

The spring was prototyped on a Fablicator.
Fablicator.com

This bracelet has no clasp; instead you can stretch it over your hand and onto your wrist. It was inspired partially by the Springamathing: thingiverse.com/thing:12053. The design on the outside was inspired by MakeALot's link bracelet: thingiverse.com/thing:7354.

UPDATE: At the request of nycdesigner, a couple of alternate designs are now also available.

This moon rover is pretty simple; the real point is the treads. The idea of turning my Stretchy Bracelet into tank tracks is thanks to BenRockhold. Turns out it works really well: if you push this around on a slightly grippy surface like carpet, the tracks roll easily.

In fact, the track keys into the wheels so well, this could probably be used as a timing belt or chain.

Seeing the other tesla valve, I was pretty certain that the same principle could be extended to 3D. I came across a more symmetric, optimized design of a tesla microvalve at senlin41.org/topology-optimization-of-tesla-type-microvalve/ and traced it.

The following is a trace of the optimized valve in openscad with added support to make it printable without overhang or flying parts. Parameters allow you to set the coarseness of the rotational extrusion ($fn=32 works fine for me), and the distance of the support bridges.

I have not printed or tested that yet, so I suggest you start with the scad file and adapt it to your needs.

Nikola Tesla's "Valvular Conduit" for your printing pleasure.

I just built my ToM and I'm still experimenting with it. I made this enclosure for the safety cutoff switch on my ToM, because I don't like the way it looks just hanging there with wires running everywhere.

There are 2 parts to this enclosure, and they snap together (with some cleaning needed on my print (and most likely yours) even though I included a 0.05mm clearance all around the joining faces). No modification of the switch is required. The base simply replaces the 2 spacers. The top cap just snaps on & the LEDs slide right inside of the top cap.

NOTE: My design has "NORMAL" and "FAULT" engraved in the top of the case, in very small letters. This DID NOT show up in my print, and doesn't show up in the .STL file. I imagine the resolution of the lettering is too small for Skeinforge to handle? The engraved lettering "SAFETY CUTOFF" showed up just fine in my print... although since they were at the bottom of my print (with a raft), the bottoms of both parts warped & did not print very well (thus not shown in my photos, LOL). The insides of both parts look much better than the outsides. I don't think this is dues to design errors... I believe it to be in Skeinforge setting errors.

This design was based on digital caliper measurements of the Generation 4 cutoff switch. I designed it to require no modification to the MakerBot-supplied circuit-board, or any part of the ToM itself. I have not yet fitted my housing on my thermal safety cutoff switch, so PLEASE let me know if this design needs any changes. And I would also love to see any adaptations/modifications to this design, as well as photos of any successful builds of the unmodified object... or "thing".

Thanks!

P.S.--As of 12-31-2011, I still haven't mounted my Safety Cutoff Switch inside this housing, because I'm still not happy with the way it looks (tons of voids in the bottom halves of both pieces, which were both printed face-down (on a raft). I'm also still not happy with the overall quality of most of my prints. But I've posted a print as of today, to show you my print results.

Just what thingiverse needs, another box...

I see that fdavies created thingiverse.com/thing:635 a box with hinged lid 3 years ago.

I drew this one in OpenScad and it's parametric so you can scale it to the size you prefer.

I was going to use minkowski() to do the rounding on the top of the box, but my machine doesn't have the power to render it that way, so there's some code in there that isn't used and a lot of the files are ones I used while I was working and then discarded.

I haven't printed this yet, but I'm hoping to soon.

After seeming countless Cable Chains on thingiverse, I wanted to make one myself.

Advantages:

Simple to print with strong thin walls
Fast print (4.5 mm tall)
Scale-able
Excellent range of motion
Very little plastic to make

Disadvantage:

Need to heat up and bend into shape
Takes up more room on the bed than a standard Cable Chain

The modification is just to attach the case to the arduino by bolts

I really love my heated build platform with an aluminum top covered with Kapton tape! It's an awesome way to go, but I REALLY miss the automated build platform for repetitive, decorative and small parts. I miss the fun of watching a part dropping on my desk. The sadness of your trusty ABP sitting on a shelf... it's just not right.

This thing makes it right again, no tools, just unplug and press the release and in 20 seconds you've swapped out the HBP with an ABP! Another benefit is that you can pop out a platform to service it, i.e. put new tape or fix a belt.

I've designed this upgrade to be completely non destructive, a bolt in replacement. You won't loose any build area, it replaces the undercarriage of both platforms.

Use your old Motorola Droid/Milestone Android phone as a Bot-Cam.

***UPDATE*** We printed this on an UP!, and it's lovely! I think these is a solid base design for a case. Now, it needs to be interesting, something better than what you can buy on a shelf. Hellooooo, meshmixer!

I do like that an iphone case is something everyone recognizes, and pretty much anybody can pop out of a printer and into their lives. Hooray!


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First off, this is a work in progress. I brought my TOM to thanksgiving, and the first thing my relatives wanted to print was an iphone case. Sadly, I lost a wire on my heating cartridge mid-print, so until my new cartridge comes in next week, I can't say for certain that it works.

That being said, here's a case for the iphone 4s. It's a two-piece design with a butterfly to hold everything together. It's kinda picky about the orientation you print it in, so I put everything together in the friendliest orientation.

Inventor files are included, in case you want to adjust the design

Suggestions are welcome!

Printable Ball-and-Socket parts suitable for all kinds of applications. Hello helping hands, gorilla pods, coolant hoses. There is a hole in the middle to accomodate cables. Mine will become a small worklight to be screwed inside my printer.
I think i will add some parts over time, like a housing for some leds.
There is also a flange that i didn't print yet. Who is first on this?

Well, the obvious happened. I liked StefanHH's ball and socket (5578), but was astonished to see no actual helping hands design on thingiverse, (my apology if I somehow missed an existing design). So I decided to design one.

One Box with one hinge and a second box with two hinges

A few people in our Makerbot users group wanted a set of covers for their bots a while back, so I designed a set of laser cut PETG panels that covered the holes on the original Cupcake. I recently revisited the design after someone else wanted a ToM set so I decided to post the designs.

I solved the problem of closing up the front of the bot by creating a fold down door that secured with a couple magnets and utilized some drawer pulls I had on hand. Once the door and panels were installed on my bot, the entire thing looked kinda like an oven, hence the name. Appropriate for a Cupcake, right?

Rather than just preventing drafts from affecting your builds, these panels can also be used in conjunction with a specialized fume hood I designed (which will be posted soon along with ToM oven files) to manage the ABS fumes produced by a bot.

More pics here:
flickr.com/photos/builttospec/6103855648/in/photostream

This is the library of shapes in order to make the Ace Monster Toys book scanner. It's a moving platen build, using common glass and minimal parts. The current picture is of an old prototype, excuse the mess.

Full parts list is currently in wiki.acemonstertoys.org/Book_Scanner

This design has been tested for the trade paperback sized platen. The shapes library includes a textbook sized platen (upper right), that hasn't been tested & will require some adjustments of the build platform.

Video of a metal Schmidt Coupling in action: youtube.com/watch?v=_iIsibuIs08

Does the world need another earbud holder?

Well, this one fits Apple earbuds and stores the cable neatly.

These are proving to be a popular holiday gift, so I made a 4up plate.

The Teardrop are is a geometrical shape which is used whenever a horizontal hole is printed.
This avoids overhangs greater than 45° at the top of the hole, which are not (or at least not easily and clean) printable on FDM printers without support material.

The problem with teardrop holes is, that they need considerably more space. This can be a real problem, when the main object is limited in size for one reason or another.

Flat Teardrops solve this problem.
The solution is simple. Although overhangs > 45° are a problem in 3D printing, reasonably short bridges aren’t!
So why not just cut off the dead space in the tip of a teardrop?

See pleasantsoftware.com/developer/3d/2011/11/29/flat-teardrop/ for more details.

Lady Gaga approved.
(not actually Lady Gaga approved)