Notice: This is a project in development, and I intend to improve it over time. This draft will work, but it's hardly ideal. Caveat Emptor!

Update Jan 31st: I've uploaded Version 2, which is pretty much the same as 1.5 (which I've removed as a result) but comes with the "Hex Key Holder", which can be fitted with a standard screwdriver bit from a powertool to act as a crude "center". My experiments with using two such centers to drive the lathe weren't great, as one invariably ends up spinning and the piece stops. So it looks like the required parts at present are: Two Bearing-End-Body Sections, two Bearing-And-Tool-Fittings, A Boltplate and a Hex tool holder. You'll also want a Dremel Rest and a length of MDF/wood to bolt it all down to. And you'll need googles, and perhaps gloves, and a lot of sense.
For now, it is left to the user to figure out spacing of the body sections and how to align them. I'm working on improving that. :)

More Update: Really bad video of me demoing Microlathe: youtube.com/watch?v=6XXN6UkrnIw and a shot of the finished piece of dowel on my Twitpic: twitpic.com/y8jnl
Also, Microlathe was featured on Makezine! blog.makezine.com/archive/2010/01/tiny_printable_dremel-powered_lathe.html

Microlathe is a little dremel-powered woodturning/watchmaker's lathe that can be printed and bolted together with all those leftover M3 nuts and bolts that came with your Makerbot. In addition to the M3 nuts/bolts, you only require a 608 bearing (I got an extra one with my Makerbot) and an 8mm diameter spring to fit the bearing-end. You probably don't even need that spring.

So, if you have a Dremel handy, you can consider this "The Lathe That Came Free With The Makerbot"!

Microlathe is Parametric, and makes use of a "Global Parameters" script from which the others derive shared traits such as the radius of the bolt plates, etc.. you could try printing a larger one, but bear in mind the limited space you have to print the body portions, which are already quite large for a Makerbot.

MicroLathe makes use of shapes.scad, which was kindly released to the community under the GNU General Public License by Catarina Mota. Permission was explicitly granted for shapes.scad to be considered released under an Attribution, Sharealike license additionally in this case, to facilitate licensing crossover. Thanks a million Catarina!
Microlathe also makes use of teardrop.scad, which was provided kindly by Erik De Bruijn. Teardrop.scad is released under the GPL2 license, with the inheritance clause generously waivered in this case to permit release under a non-GNU license. I'm very grateful Erik, thanks!

I'd appreciate a small donation via Paypal if you find yourself using this to generate a profit (selling turned items, etc.), or if you just love it and want to show your appreciation. Otherwise, it's all yours to print for yourself or others! Just don't charge for it without asking me and informing the buyer that it's available freely here.

This is a business card that shoots US pennies. It has a little magazine that pops up and allows you to load up to 10 pennies. Then you can just pull back the slide and release to shoot a penny, and repeat until all the pennies are gone.

A video of the card in action - youtube.com/watch?v=5KNZZ9qDJtQ

In honor of the end of David Tennant's Doctor, I decided to model a small version of the Tardis. The Original model was much bigger, but in order to save space and plastic I scaled it down, so some of the detail has been lost. It is very rough right now, so I'd love it if anyone wants to enhance it let me know, or link to this so I can see your version! I used Autodesk inventor to do the modelling.

UPDATE: I added tardis_scaled.stl which is a little larger, giving it some better definition and I also hollowed it out so the print didnt use so much plastic.

UPDATE: Makerbot now sells blue plastic, if anyone prints this in blue, please post!

Thought that I would stop hovering and get involved - this is my Christmas holiday project! Currently waiting for the postman to drop off my electronics kit. Opted to cut body from 5mm cast acrylic (PMMA) as 5mm ply is a not in use in the UK (4mm and 6mm aplenty though!). Quite pleased with the blue glow :)

An application of the design concept behind the Heptagonal Column ( thingiverse.com/thing:482 ) to a standard Clark Y airfoil.

Like the column, this assumes that Skeinforge will print the zero thickness faces with enough flexibility to support bending/folding there. This is an experiment and I would be surprised if some adjustments weren't required...

EDIT: Nophead pointed out that, in fact, zero thickness faces don't print out. Luckily, this is easily fixable since the big, flat underside can be adjusted handily with a push-pull or extrude command in most CAD programs. Here's an example of that: thingiverse.com/thing:485

EDIT2: Jay Swift had a brainwave and pointed out that you could print this out on a flexible sheet of plastic. This is brilliant, because the sheet would replace the zero thickness face on the bottom. You would just have to trim the sheet before you rolled it up.

I traced and extruded the parts in the X-Assembly that were small enough to fit in the build area.

If they're not 3mm thick, let me know-- I'm guessing at thickness and will re-scale when I've got confirmation.

Univers Revolved is an art project from Ji Lee, pleaseenjoy.com . It takes the roman alphabet and remakes it into a set of 3D, solid objects with axial symmetry.

Words can then become objects, letters stacked, attached, etc... Check out the possibilities at the universrevolved.com website.

When I saw this online a week ago, I knew I had to get it onto Thingiverse, so I reached out to Ji Lee, who was kind enough to grant permission, and express some interest in what we do here. We're hoping to print out a few of these and go see him with a MakerBot soon.

With permission from the artist... Thanks, Ji Lee!

As i promised, here is the now new and improved pinch wheel extruder a.k.a Plastruder.

Articulated modules for building modular robots. It is the repraped version of the Y1 modules that I have created for my PhD.
iearobotics.com/personal/juan/doctorado/Modulos-Y1/modulos-y1.html
Version 1.0 is the first one. It works and it is 3D printable, but the design should be improved in order to obtain a better printing quality.

UPDATE: 09/Nov/2011
A new version has been released: thingiverse.com/thing:13442

The small mind bending plastic object.

This is a basic six piece puzzle made from one type of part.

It would appear not to able to be assembled but you can.....

This puzzle came from this page.

johnrausch.com/PuzzlingWorld/chap10d.htm

If you would like to bake your noodle further have a browse through the whole book:

johnrausch.com/PuzzlingWorld/default.htm

It has a significant number of puzzles, many of which could be made on a 3d printer and or a laser cutter.

I dare all thingizens to transmogrify a puzzle or three into the thingiverse.

Say goodbye to SMT component identification misery with this pair of active tweezers that plug right into your trusty multimeter!

As you pick up an SMT component to put it onto the solder paste on a PCB, these tell you what the component is automatically.

Some geometric trickery is used here to make this a gear that will print well even on machines that, like mine, have poor or no buffering of GCodes and stop momentarily at the end of line segments.

Skeinforge will only record four line segments for the inner hole of the gear, and won't have stops midway up the gears, features not found in the Blender Gear script.

The hole is small enough (and on my machine got represented faithfully!) to thread with a 2mm post, making it a good candidate for building gearboxes.

EDIT: Uploaded a "test clip" file which can be used in conjunction with a couple of posts cut from a wire coat hanger to build arbitrary-length gear trains for test purposes. I found that a few washers in the right places can really smooth out the train.

A better Y-Axis endstop cable for the Makerbot.

I do need to upload the installed picture. I havent gotten around to taking the pic as I still have to connect it up properly.

This gets away from the thick ethernet-type cables and gives a more secure connection.

EDIT: Installed pics added. Will need a couple of blobs of hot glue will keep it in place.

Burr Puzzles are traditionally made of wood, but I made one that can be printed by a Cupcake. There are six pieces altogether with about a little more than a dollars worth of material. The puzzle is design for a perfect fit. If you want to make it more loose then you can modify the stl files for each piece. This particular puzzle takes fifteen steps to put together so it is quite fun. However, trying to figure out how take it apart is as much fun.

I was inspired by zignig's Printable Desk Clamp thingiverse.com/thing:683 . I used hex nuts instead of square nuts because hex nuts are more common. All the parts are easily available at hardware stores and hobby shops. The total cost is about $4.50 for this clamp compared to $50 ones. It is used for holding circuit boards at comfortable angles, hobby modeling, and holding stuff. Enjoy.


The picture of all parts does not show two nuts that I had already hammered in but I did not want to take them out. Also it does not show 20mm brass tubing as I already hammered some of them in.

I was once a tall large man. Then I was scanned and I have been trapped inside an STL file for A LONG TIME. Thankfully, Martin Bauer let me out of this file and he has given me his name and I look like him, but I am small.

I can live in your house too, that is the beauty of being converted into an STL file, if you have a 3D printer like the MakerBot, then you can give me a whole extra life. It is like when you hit that secret box in Mario Bros and get all the free lives you want.

Please, print me out on your 3D printer, take pictures of me, make me clothes... really, it can be cold being this small with the whole surface area to volume issue.

Also, if you print me out furniture, that would be nice. I would use it.

This is a 8 cm ruler for printing on MakerBot (or whatever 3d printer you have).
Check if your printer really prints stuff 1:1...

This extruder is a derivative of Zach's plastruder and I'm really excited to share it. The main difference is that exchanged the idler wheel with a Delrin plunger. This reduces the overall size of the extruder uses two fewer layers.

Using a plunger allows the force exerted on the filament perpendicular to its direction of travel to be adjusted while the extuder is running. I mounted the electronics along the side, so I can view the teeth on the filament on the way to the thermal barrier and adjust the force to get the tooth depth I like.

With this design, changing the filament takes approximately ten seconds from when the barrel becomes hot enough. The motor can be removed with out disassembling the housing.

There is, however, a flaw in this particular design. The captive nut holding the plunger screw will crack the acrylic if you tighten things too much. In the next version I will have this fixed. This design is also based on a larger diameter timing pulley, so the filament guide is a little off.

See it in action youtube.com/watch?v=HMjVrmLJvIU

Subversion svn.makerbot.com/users/charles/paxtruder/

This thing is small! You can make this using a few laser cut parts and your MK4 extruder hardware. There are a few tweaks I need to make, but it's closer to the final design. For more information see my blog post charlespax.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/paxtruder-0-2 .

Derivatives
Paxtruder-0.4 thingiverse.com/thing:1332
Drop in paxtruder thingiverse.com/thing:1351
Paxtruder Mount thingiverse.com/thing:1341

Subversion svn.makerbot.com/users/charles/paxtruder/

After having some difficulties with the Plastruder MK3 which comes with the MakerBot, I decided to try to print a better (i.e. more reliable) extruder with and for my MakerBot.

The design was inspired by the "Thermoplast Extruder Version 2.0" from the RepRap project and by photos I saw of Nophead's "Fast extruder" .

(Update: There's now a 4th part to print: InsulatorRetainer.stl)

This is a drag chain for the MakerBot extruder cable (or any other cable/wires).

It keeps your extruder cable out of the Z-stage belt and let your MakerBot look professional (kind of...)

The objects need very detailed printing in order to work. You definitely want a good tuned MakerBot and Skeinforge settings to print this (don't say I didn't warn you!).

The ZIP file contains GCode files for all objects, including 6 or 8 chain links on one raft. It might be the best to skeinforge the gcode with your own, tuned settings. The included GCode files worked for me (resp. my MakerBot), but (again): these are some really hairy objects to print.

For those Biohackers and frugal lab-workers out there, here's a model of a Gel Boat and a comb for moulding wells and performing Gel Electrophoresis!

Given the huge price associated with commercially available gel boats, I hope this will find a few good homes where it'll be put to good use.

For those unfamiliar with Lab Gels, this rig is used to create jelly-like blocks of agar/agarose gel with special wells moulded in; into these wells, one injects DNA or Protein. When an electric current is applied through the Gel Longitudinally, the DNA (or charged protein) is dragged through the well in order of size, smallest fragment first. This allows separation of DNA based on size, which is a pretty essential lab technique for Biohackers.

I needed to put an inline switch in a mains cable. I had the switch, but no housing for it. This is such a housing.

This accommodates an 8mm diameter cable, and a switch requiring a rectangular hole that is 19mm x 13mm (which seems to be a standard size).

Inspired by the Z axis endstop trigger that Zaggo published, here are a set for the other axes. Also, the Sketchup files are included, so it is easy to modify the length of the stick to customize for your machine.

How do you make a great idea like Makerbot-printable (clothing) buttons better?

Why, make them Lego Compatible! Naturally.

Update 2009/10/04: In the design files, the knobs are 5mm in diameter. I remeasured my source Lego disc after getting back some Shapeways test prints and the Lego knobs are actually closer to 4.8mm in diameter. I lucked out with my MakerBot-printed buttons; shrinkage brought them down to about 4.9mm in diameter. The Shapeways printed versions are more accurate, 5.00mm diameter, +/- 0.05mm. There's enough give in the plastic materials for them to still fit 'regulation size' lego blocks, but the metal one was simply too wide a diameter.

Update 2009/11/07: I've been playing around with OpenSCAD (http://www.openscad.org/) and came up with the attached DiscButton_20091107 variation. I even added bottom "sockets" to this variation. It's almost too easy when it's all code!

Disclaimer: LEGO is a trademark of the LEGO Group and these explorations are in no way associated with LEGO Group. Heck! The files are CC-licensed; nothing to stop them embracing and extending it themselves if they so chose! ;-)

Our insulator retainer acrylic part broke when we hit a blob of plastic. I was able to glue it back together but think it is a good idea to have an extra one around.

OK, the acrylic part just shattered, so I installed the printed part and it is working great!

I was concerned that the insulator may get too hot for an ABS part, but after several hours of operations at 220 degrees, it is working fine.

Very slightly adapted from Travis77's fine original design, simply to add depth and export the parts as .stl.

These should print just fine on a makerbot, but make sure to check the size first as I haven't had a chance to. The depth of the pieces is very slightly less than the exact fit (1.27mm) to allow for printing error and ease of fit.

Thanks to Travis77 for this great classic puzzle and the Sketchup source file!

This bracket is intended to be a printable replacement for the laser-cut brackets used for the threaded z-axis rods.

The side-mount bolts pass through captive nuts to lock the bearing (608-style skate bearing) in place, removing the need for precisely aligning the nuts holding the bearing in vertical position on the threaded z-axis rods. It also may allow for easier removal of the z-axis rods themselves when combined with the revised U-shaped z-platform Small Makerbot Parts (thing:926).

Note 1: My test ABS print is quite tight around the bearing so the inner radius may need to be increased by 0.1mm or so.

Note 2: The 20090928 variant increases the inner radius surrounding the bearing by 0.5mm. A 1mm ring has been added to the top to strengthen the tear-drop, side-mount bolt holes.

Note 3: Download the LaserCut variant if all you have is a laser cutter.

Parts of the Cupcake design were used to design this part so License is inherited GNU GPL.