Pretty simple kids toy. Attach a balloon and watch it scoot across the floor! (Sorry, some extra parts required)

This is a cleaned up version of the printed clock we were able to make during Clockathon #2 last weekend. Thank you Makerbot and Bre for setting that up and hosting it, and thank you Ben for all the help, the awesome test print all set up, and the brilliant idea to back off one gear for the power drum.

It was ticking, powered by a weight that would only drop about 9" per twelve hour period, and included printed concentric shafts to support minute and hour hands on the face of the clock.

Here's some video: youtube.com/watch?v=AH4Tg2tIgfg
I had to inflict grievous harm to the code base at the time and have cleaned everything up since. See details below.

More pictures:

flickr.com/photos/lanthan/sets/72157629185958843/with/6823716121/

Inspired by the amazing Kritzler tinkerlog.com/2011/09/02/der-kritzler/ and Polargraph polargraph.co.uk/ plus some itch to make my own.
Also see AS220s:
as220.org/labs/drawbot/

I liked the polargraph rotating axial mount, but since I do not have the suitable bearings, I printed sliding rings from pla. The fit is quite close, and with some Teflon spray they appear to work great!
This has still to be mounted and tested. Notice the tidy desk ;-)

Other available sources are Makerblock's build thingiverse.com/thing:16384

JohnA's gondola:
thingiverse.com/thing:12557

this is arc reactor from iron man 2. its a follow up to my first one ( youtube.com/watch?v=urvUE1UuNnU&list=UUxHfm1RpHaDNLGidgM1PIIA&index=6&feature=plcp ) im working on a new PCB with RGB led's and surface mount components

Back in 1980 my grandparents bought me a toy - "Little Van Goes" by Tomy. This was a bunch of plastic plates that had raised images of van parts. You could combine three plates in a holder, put a piece of paper on it, and rub with a crayon to make the most awesome 70's vans you could imagine. There were others of this type of toy, but pretty much entirely fashion oriented: Fashion Plates, Barbie Fashion Plates, etc.

Thirty-two years later I decided to make my own version of those types of toys, but this time as there is a community of makers, together we can overcome the problem with the originals: lack of variation in plates!

Now we can design as many plates as we want: sleepy robot eyes, rabbit mouth, pig nose, googly eyes, parts made from kids' drawings, ornamental parts, ABCs, and so on!

Have fun!

Read more of my thought process and story here: myplasticfuture.com/cottage-frottage-or-making-creative-fun-at-ho

Few ages ago I was using a piece of paper "quite a 2D thing" to get 3 dimensional models, so this is a tribute to a couple of my first ever "made things".

It's a quick OpenSCAD that don't take in account some important aspects to make the models easyly printable. Take a look to the instructions and the scad script itself for more info.

Some more pictures: flickr.com/photos/aubenc/sets/72157628926382411/

This is based off of the very excellent Foam Dart Pistol from vik. I couldn't achieve the desired height with the Thing-O-Matic that I wanted, so I modified the design to have a separate muzzle. I added a sight to the muzzle to facilitate putting the two parts securely together. The muzzle piece actually goes on and stays in place without glue, especially with the rubber bands in place.

I added the matching sight parts to the back. of the gun, and updated the openscad to have optional mouse ears to keep parts down better. I needed the ears with the ABP, but not with a HBP. You can see the ears on the blue muzzled gun. My wife thought they gave the gun a sci-fi look, so she wanted to keep them.

Early testing showed that the firing pin quickly chewed into the front of the barrel. So I added a second set of blocks (that will also work with the original design) that can be glued on additionally, and replaced with wear. They also support rubber stops nicely. I used cut up pieces of a rubber washer.

This came about because, I had a lot of trouble printing the pistol at first. Turns out it was mostly due to my ABP on my Thingomatic allowing too much sway. I took off the belt, and have a quasi-HBP now. My prints are much more accurate, especially when printing so tall.

While playing with my Moon Rover tread, I found it zipped into itself pretty well. This is an adjusted version that can zip into both sides. It's flexible in several dimensions and easily layered. It's quite fun, and I'm curious what uses or interesting shapes you all can come up with for it.

Have you been envious of ever-dimensionally-increasing build platforms? Well now you can claim to be able to print ONE FOOT* OF PLASTIC!

* Warning: Claim may be pun.

But seriously though, this was a test print while I continually try to get my printer to meet my unrealistically high quality expectations.

Hope you get a kick out of this!

UPDATE:
I added an approximately "full-size" model of just the top half of the foot.

I'm satisfied with the quality.

Build plates for the full sized turret chess set suitable for printing the whole set, with both colors, all at once with a MakerBot Replicator with dualstrusion. If you're feeling extra ambitious, I've also included a version with the entire chess board (split in half) as well as all the pieces!

This hasn't been tested yet...

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.

I wanted to recreate an old game that reminds me of my childhood, when there were no Playstation, PSP or similar. Can even today be a nice gift for a child "modern" ...

The zip file contains 15 file.stl of the individual numbers, for those who prefer this printing solution.

Hand held air blaster, shoot bursts of air at all of your friends. Or put out candles.

Use these connectors to connect dowels and make kites of your own design. Can also be used for anything that uses dowels as well.

I'm making extensive use of OpenSCAD. The only problem I found is that the polygon function is hard to use. I rather draw my polygons visual. So I created a simple polygon editor for OpenSCAD in Javascript+HTML.

Following the idea from the "OpenScad Polygon Generator" by "PieterBos" thingiverse.com/thing:9290
But then working for any OS, any browser, without fuss. You don't even need to install anything! (might even work in mobile browsers)

Online version can be found at:
daid.mine.nu/~daid/3d/
Latest sources can be found at:
github.com/daid/OpenSCAD-polygon-editor

Have you designed a tricopter, engineered a way to mount the rear servo to control yaw, then realized it's difficult to balance because of the heavy cantilevered servo and mount? I have. (check out my other projects)

This 3d-printed tricopter design moves the servo to the center and rotates the entire rear motor beam. Easy to print, easy to mount motors, easy to fly.

I uploaded the solidworks source files too if you need to modify them to fit your servos or beams.

The shadow of this cube in different directions gives QR codes pointing to the Wikipedia articles for Kurt Godel, M.C. Escher, and J.S. Bach respectively. Also a pretty challenging print test. Note that QR codes cannot be read in mirror image, so only 3 of the 6 possible cube orientations cast a readable shadow.

Notes. This was generated using a reduced-url QR code generator, a paint program to connect disconnected sections, Inkscape to convert to dxf, and OpenScad to extrude, rotate, and intersect the 3 images. OpenScad rendering took almost 30 minutes on a fast computer.

QR codes are fortunately very forgiving of fairly large modifications due to their built-in parity and redundancy schemes, and I verified readability of the images up through the dxf stage. (Although I got pretty close to the limit on one image, and my camera QR scanner had to rescan a few times to get a read.)

This is a complex image. To get a readable shadow your light source will need to be pretty far away to get a flat pass through. Perhaps someday I'll do a version with transformed geometry, matching specific close-up point sources.

If you can't get it to print cleanly enough to read, hey, claim it's a Borg Cube and gift it to your Trekkie friends.

I don't know if this will be of any use to anyone else because it is so specific, but I thought it was an elegant solution and a perfect use for my Makerbot.
My friend asked me for suggestions on a wobbly installation he had done.
His daughter wanted a plastic storage box attached to the back rack of her vintage bike. As a college student in theater, she carries lots of materials back and forth on her bike, and a girlish basket she had just did not cut it.
My friend had attached the box with wire and was not happy with the results.
So I took some measurements and two versions later I had these clips.
They're working well so far, and they look 100% better than the wire solution.

This is a connector to connect two rails with a hole from a wooden railroad.

Recently, while looking for how to best make a salsa-jar snow globe, I saw that a lot of people were turning juice boxes into boats and other cute objects by using stickers or paper. And I thought: "Wait a minute! What if I printed pieces for juice boxes? What if you could mix and match the pieces too?!"

Surprisingly, I was unable to find a commercial product that did this. This seems like a gold-mine to some mass-produced toy company (which is why I was going to set the license to non-commercial, but decided that if folks wanted to make and sell on Shapeways or similar, feel free :-)

I was going to title these "juice box heroes", but there is a musical band by that name (apparently doing children-friendly versions of classic songs). Given that I made an owl with goggles on, "weirdos" is more appropriate.

More info and pictures at my blog: myplasticfuture.com/one-for-the-kids-and-kids-at-heart

These are more for sparking imagination than being "things" on their own. Which is why I've included a plain, basic end-cap for YOU to make your own things on: pirate ships, aircraft carriers, cats, alligators, dinosaurs, mars rovers, you name it!

I have included all the SketchUp files to use as a launching point.

A scaled model of the original that has a slot for the Windup Walker Feet being sold on the Makerbot store.

I have been working on my 1:1 scale Dalek for a few years now. One thing I never liked was how my hand made energy weapon came out. Now that I have a 3D printer, I decided to do an upgrade.

This design, like the handmade version, used a plasma/lightning tube that I removed from a toy. If you are working on your own Dalek, then you will need to replace that with a plastic tube or render a center rod for the part. Also, I did not add the servo screw holes in the print. I just added them with a drill after I made the part.

Lastly, I used 1/4 plastic tubing for the cage. I decided not to print those because the part would have been too large for my printer. It was easier to use the tubing.

It is by far the largest and most complex print I have done to date on my Mosaic printer.

It was my son's idea to create a dinosaur skull that would sing jingle bells. This is the result of that project. The bottom jaw is controlled via a servo mounted in the base.

In this video you can see the skull in action singing jingle bells.
youtu.be/Z-ojvIRqI_Q

Undubbed with circuit board visible
youtube.com/watch?v=0hoYsfMroyg

Make your creations scurry around with these handy little windup walkers, store.makerbot.com/makerbot-windup-walkers.html

One day Bre walked into the Workshop and declared "everything on Thingiverse should be able to walk". And now it can!

With the Windup Walker 5 pack you will have your ideas scurrying off into the sunset before you can say sarsaparilla.

To help get you started we've created charming walking derivatives of R. Maker and his friend the TARDIS.

See them in action: youtu.be/O5dVQayw9Nc

R. Maker is a derivative of: thingiverse.com/thing:11654

TARDIS is a derivative of: thingiverse.com/thing:13109

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.

My son asked me for an X box for Christmas. Luckily with the Makerbot it was quite easy to make an X box for him. I cant wait to see his excited face on Christmas.

My son is fond of his scotch tape. He wanted a dispenser since the refills didn't fit in his old one.

The openscad file is somewhat parametric but is untested it with any other settings.

It uses syvwlch's awesome thread library ( thingiverse.com/thing:8793 )
So, you'll need that if you want to use the scad file.

Just in time for Christmas! Festive Dr Who themed Cookie Cutters. The Tardis and Dalek.

These cookie cutters come in two parts, one to make the impression in the dough, while the second one cuts the outline.

17 December 2011 - The Dalek stamp has been updated - provides more definition for it's "Arm" / "Weapon" - you know... those things it waves about from time to time! - EXTERMINATE!

Is your roll of super-wide Kapton tape lounging around, taking up space? Put it to work!

This is the first design of my KaptonCaddy! Just place your roll of tape on the base, and slide in the caddy core. It snaps together and becomes a handy carrying-case for your allen wrenches, nuts, bolts and other sundries. It has two swivel drawers, holes for tools and a basin up-top for bigger stuff.

UPDATE V1.1!

The base is now part of the body. The tape roll now acts as a sleeve to hide the drawers. If you store any over-sized things in the top (like calipers) you may need to remove them to lift the roll off.

Test print #2 on its way!

Enjoy!

A friend of mine has two young kids, and, as is normal some of their toys aren't indestructible.

3D printing to the rescue, and there is now a compatible corner part for "Free Time 4 Kidz" Tent.

She also suggested the excellent category of "Replacements for stuff that kids break"