This is just a simple design that can be used for a number of things. Most commonly the commercial equivalent of this is used to blow air or liquid over tools on CNC machines, drill presses, etc. I am thinking of using it as an articulated arm to hold camera flashes off-camera and run wires through the center. Anything is possible.

Feel free to post up modifications, as this is tweaked to the fraction of a millimeter for my specific machine to be exactly as tight as I wanted them to be.

Note: I break a few here and there when putting them together. This is to be expected, and possibly thickening up the "neck" would fix this. I print 3 x 2 using multiply so this isn't a huge deal to break one every now and then.

EDIT: I uploaded all three resolutions. The highest is what made the links in the picture, but you may have similar luck with the other two resolutions. Thanks!

A handfull of collets for things 16682 and/or 16890 !

The ZIP file contains 48 STL to accomodate the drill bits I use the most.

As you can see, there's also collets for hex bits, size 6.25mm face to face.

They work fairly well, check out the pic with the piece of wood, it's a 15mm thick piece of oak and I have been able to go through it with the 1mm bit ! yes, it took me a while ;-)

This thing will create a range of metric and imperial tooth profile pulleys, with any number of teeth, specified in the Openscad file.
Tooth profiles currently supported are MXL, 40DP, XL, H, T2.5, T5, T10, AT5, HTD (3mm, 5mm, 8mm) and GT2 (2mm, 3mm 5mm).
There are a range of editable parameters for editing the fit of the tooth (to account for printer variation), the pulley base, captive nut(s) slot for the set screw, motor shaft diameter, pulley height and belt retainers.
The attached stls are reference pulleys, mostly around the size used on repraps.

Details
After creating the parametric pulley thingiverse.com/thing:11256 I realised this way of modelling them was only going to work for square-toothed pulleys, and a way of producing pulleys for belts with better characteristics for linear motion was required. I found dxf drawings of the relevant tooth profiles here oem.cadregister.com/asp/PPOW_Entry.asp?company=915217&elementID=07807803/METRIC/URETH/WV0025/F and modelled pulley diameter from data here sdp-si.com/D265/HTML/D265T016.html
There were a couple of possible approaches to importing the data, I chose to simplify the bezier curve dxf data in Inkscape, producing vertices with a resolution of around 0.05-0.1mm for each tooth. Another advantage is the the pulleys have the tooth ramp for smooth entry and exit of the belt tooth into the pulley. I'm not really sure 3D printers can take full advantage of this yet, but quality is improving all the time!
If other tooth profiles are required, or you model any, please pass them on to me and I will include them.
Not printed yet... I'm away for the weekend! I'll upload some photos when I do, on Monday.

I got tired of having unpredictable positioning of the rods when tightening the bar clamps while squaring up my frame. This new design allows the washer to fit square against the clamp sides, while a smaller set screw allows independent securing of the rod below.

I know, its pretty ugly, but I'm a total noob with openscad. Maybe someone else can craft a sexier derivative!

This Mk7 replacement features a spring-tensioned, quick-release 623 bearing idler, and shouldn't interfere with dualstrusion. The back is also open to make it easy to clean the teeth of the drive gear.

I don't have an actual Mk7, but it seems like it will work from my test assembly with parts I had lying around, including a Mk5 gear with the wrong size hole for the stepper and 3mm filament.

Clearance on the head of the idler screw might be a problem. If so, the screw may have to be replaced with some other type of 3mm shaft. A piece of 3mm filament should work.

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

This is my redesign of the famous whistle. I made the pea more round and the body a bit thinner. I also put the pea where it is easier to break off. It now makes the staccato whistle sound.

This is a 7.62 x 39mm round. This is NOT my design (downloaded from a 3D CAD resource on the net with no designer's name).

I wanted to print it out to test the Thing-O-Matic's ability to print objects that are much taller than they are wide or deep. I printed it with a raft, no support, 20% infill (mainly for weight than stength), and 2 shell layers.

The print went very well, up until about the end of the "casing" section. Since I designed my filament guide, I don't have to baby-sit my TOM nearly as much...so I let the print run while I ate dinner. I visit to my upstairs office found that the base of the bullet was rocking back and forth, fore and aft during the print. My nozzle seemed extra close to the printing object, which caused drag and probably caused this error.

Anyhow, this object printed just about how I expected. The TOM shakes about quite a bit, and I wondered how well it would do with tall, narrow objects like this. ANSWER: Not very well.

I'm relatively new to the MakerBot scene (had mine almost a month now), but very familiar with CAD and CNC. My belief is that objects such as this (if not all objects) should be printed with a moving extruder, not a moving build platform. (I could be wrong... I was once before, back when I believed I was mistaken... heh heh.)

update 20120103: The machine was commissioned some time ago, and this has been working great! (see picture). I'll adapt this system in all future designs. It will work with belts up to 10 mm wide.

This is part of a small audit I am doing of the current Mendel structure for the utter lack of stiffness of some key parts. The general aim is to have a superior Mendel while still keeping plastic (here: only 27 + 16 grams) & vitamins needs at moderate levels . Any help, comments, contributions and evolutions of the design most welcome!

The aims of this torsion box mount are:
* to put a mercy end to the y axis motor sorry flexion on its mount (and the consequent lack of parallelism that has the pulley and belt doing very unwanted things)
* to provide support to the Y axis pulley on both ends, thus reducing the forces exerted on the stepper motor bearings
* to improve the general ability to correctly tension belts and improve stiffness, precision and fight backlash.

The design uses one 28x12x8 bearing.. Clearances are OK with or without a printed idler / bearing cover. Lately I have switched to two bare 608 bearings side by side.

There is a 16 mm wide space inside the box for the idler and all the washers that will fit.

The starting point is the dxf from Adrian's mods.

Note: a similar "treatment" will be applied to the X axis in the near future.

This is a 3-digit, base-10 register for an electromechanical computer I'm working on. It is stepper-driven, and works like a 3-digit counter, counting from 000-999 before rolling over. When all three digit wheels read '0-0-0', 3 reed switches will close and a circuit will be completed to detect the condition.

this is a derevitive of thingiverse.com/thing:9002
i made a few changes :
1. reduced the overall hight.
2. made it for the 1.3a version - has a liitle diffrent dimensions
(size and connectors loacations).
3. made a net for the fan since over time alot of dust comes it - this shuold help a bit.
4. made the snapfit connector diffrently
5. added the option to close with bolts
6. made the hole for the bolts 3mm
7. made the thin wall a bit thincker

Gadget freaks need batteries... Lots of batteries!

So the sensible thing to do is to use a rechargeable batteries and to keep a stock of charged batteries ready for action.

If you like me keep your charged batteries in a drawer or box, you will know that they roll around, short one another out and of course you never have any idea as to which batteries have been charged first and last. Add in a few other items, i.e. a set of keys or two, an old spare mobile phone and charger and a few favourite take-out menus and finding those batteries during for instance a power cut becomes problematic also.

I was not happy with this and put my mind to coming up with a solution. Well here it is...

The Parametric Cylindrical Battery Dispenser will create a vertical storage solution for all your cylindrical battery storage needs. It contains dimensions to create AA and AAA sized dispensers but as it is near fully parametric, you can create in theory a dispenser for just about any cylindrical battery. Limitations of your 3d Printer though are likely to restrict you to smaller battery sizes.

The Parametric Cylindrical Battery Dispenser prints in two halves to make it as easy as possible to print (little to no overhangs). I found the best results were to use 50% infill and 3 additional shells on my Prusa using PLA, YMMV.

The Openscad file will generate several different styles of dispenser depending on the options you pick:

1. The simplest design that comprises just two runners. This was my original design and I have printed it. It works well enough, but I found it to be a little flimsy when secured to a vertical surface.

2. The tabbed version (main photo) which is the version I decided on using for my own battery dispensers. This is has nice broad mounting tabs at the rear of the dispenser that can be sized to match double sided sticky foam. Perfect for mounting on the inside of cupboards etc.

3. The mounting plate version (untested). This version has a mounting plate that is split into two halves, Theoretically, it should make it easier to space the two halves of the dispenser to each other but it uses more plastic and I don't think its as handsome as the others

4. Spare runners. (unfinished) These are functional, but only match the simplest design of dispenser. As I can get a reasonably sized dispenser to print on my Prusa (big enough to hold 8 AA batteries)I don't really need this now. I left it in as an option though.

5. Calibration piece. There is also an option to create a small segment of one half of the dispenser. Print this to double check that the dimensions you set print well on your printer

There are also options to add mounting holes if you are using either the tabbed or back-plated styles of dispenser. The mounting holes are nominal values right now, so you will have to set the variables to values that match your screw dimensions and printer.

I am marking this item as finished as it exceeds all my cylindrical battery vertical storage requirements but you may have other improvements you wish to make. If so I apologise for the code, I am positive it could be better optimised.

Table saw is overkill for the 10mm extruded aluminum (translation, nearly hurt myself yet again trying to feed it to a full size table saw). So, Makergear Prusa Mendel to the rescue.

Pictured is Microrax microrax.com/

Also will work with Makerbeam makerbeam.eu/

A robot hand, printable ready to use. No assembly required! To make this happen, I designed a special joint: no overhangs exceeding 45°

Modeled in Rhino.

This is a hollowed-out skull with matching lid. It is a derivative of the Chester Copperpot skull, sliced and diced in OpenSCAD.

A Christmas tree decoration...

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.

A 203W X-Box 360 Power Supply is a great source of power for your Reprap or heated build plate. I've created some simple instructions on how to convert the power supply into something you can use to power other things.

I mainly use this for my Extruder Stepper Motor since its the only one that moves. It basically takes the pressure off the Main wires coming out of the motor irrespective of the Extruder's movement. Hope you find this of use. Also Make the X Axis Wiring Support Hose Clip - thingiverse.com/thing:14969

I also like the way it makes the prusa look.

Note: That the uploaded version has a lighening hole in the back which allows the motor to get air.

Be afraid these skeletons bite back!

This is version 2 of the skeleton Gingerbread Man cookie cutter. The cutter is printed in two parts for easier cutting out of the cookie dough. Take a look at the pictures of actual cookie preparation and the finished product they came out great!

Print, Mix, Roll, Cook, Cool, Ice, Eat.

Enjoy!

This is a functional differential gear system. For those unfamiliar, a differential allows two output shafts to be spun at different speeds from a single input shaft. You will find these in most cars on the road.
For more info see auto.howstuffworks.com/differential1.htm

Introducing: The MakerBot Dynamo!

Ever wish you could convert some of that youthful energy into something a bit more useful? Well using the MakerBot Dynamo kit, store.makerbot.com/makerbot-dynamo.html now you can!

The MakerBot Dynamo is worlds first opens-source, human powered, energy creation device!

Just crank the handle to create real, honest, hardworking electricity.

How do you know its working? Well there's an LED that lights up or course! See your effort in action as it's converted from motion to electricity to light!

And if a LED not exciting enough for you, just think of all the other wonderful things you can power, one hand crank at a time.

See Video of the Dynamo in action: youtu.be/8Brkd5BL_gU

OK, the STL will be useless to anyone not soldering my particular board but the idea might inspire others to make their own.

I have 10 boards to solder this weekend. There are various SMD parts and a bunch of through hole parts. It can be a real pain to solder the through-holes while keeping them straight up and down. So I created this holder. I have pockets in the holder that all my through holes parts sit in. They are positioned exactly for the board both in XY coordinates and the height of each pocket brings the part flush to the board. Because there isn't any play in the pockets and because the parts sit against the board, all the parts come out perfectly vertical.

It takes about 5 seconds to populate the holder and put a blank PCB on top of them. Then it's just a matter of soldering each pin which is a lot faster than the previous way of trying to hold a piece, soldering a single pin, checking to make sure the part is straight and then finishing the rest of the pins, then repeat on another part.

I also designed my board so that all SMD parts (except one pesky 0402 LED) are on the bottom. This makes it really easy to solder the board in one go. My production time has gone down from 10 minutes to about 2 minutes

I also put a lossely folded up piece of paper in each pocket. This acts as a sort of spring and helps to push flatten the parts against the PCB.

This is the box version of the awesomely printable Companion Cube by Landru. You can put stuff in it. I tried to keep the box as easily printable as the original was.

I included the OpenSCAD script to generate it, it has few parameters that can be tweaked.

New in this version:
- slightly modified the lid and got rid of the very thin parts at the top of the box. If you want old variant, then there is a parameter for that in the openscad.
- all wall/lid/bottom thicknesses are separate parameters, easy to modify to the taste
- increased the default tolerance slightly, so the lid would fit more likely without much sanding
(haven't printed yet this version, but will shortly)

My wife and I use an electric toothbrush. Rather than leave the brush heads lying on the vanity top, I thought it would be nice to have a little stand for them. This model supports up to three heads and has been tested with Oral-B brush heads. It should fit other brands.
This is the first thing I have published, and I hope you enjoy using it. It might be better to break up the model into 3 separate pieces and glue them together, but it worked fine enough as is.
I have uploaded version 2. I added a place at the bottom that will collect water that may drip from the heads, and I also put a decorative sunrise on the back.

This is a simple model of a very common clothespin that you can make on your 3D printer.

Yet another endstop holder.

Mine seem to move up and down a little, so I made these with a tighter and taller clamp. They also support a few different hole spacings.

More of the polar zonohedra series.

A HBP made from stripboard. The only trick is finding a supplier of large enough stripboard. I had to try it out before I sent boards out as prizes for the contest. thingiverse.com/thing:11497. Wouldn't be much of a prize if it didn't work. :) The PDF below is just my pathetic attempt to draw the solder connections I used to wire up the board.

Update: Made some measurements to help the designers out there. With three strips ganged together as in the PDF soldered in a long series trace across two stripboards the current at 12V is 10 amps cold and 8.2 amps hot. That gives you 120 Watts cold and 98 watts hot. So that means that the total resistance cold is 1.2 ohms, and individual strips have a resistance of 0.13 ohms. To calc. that I had to assume that the two wide buss strips were equivalent to 3 ganged central strips. So 0.13 per strip and about .04 ohms for each of the two wide strips on the outside.

So 4 ganged together should give about 0.13/4 * 9 = .3 ohms + 2*0.04 = .38 ohms per board or .38*2 = .76 ohms for a prusa bed giving 16 amps cold and 189 watts at 12V.

5 ganged together would be .13/5*7 = .182 ohms +2*.04 = .262 per board and .52 ohms total for the heated bed. Giving 23 amps at 12 V and 275 watts.

6 ganged might be "OK" for 5V at about .3 ohm and 17 amps (5V) but it might not get that hot at only 85 watts. (I'm thinking at 5 or 6 you will probably want to think about pairing the bus strips on the sides with a couple normal strips to keep the heat even across the board.

7 ganged would probably work pretty well at 5V at about .22 ohms 23 amps and 115 watts. (same here use 2 or 3 strips ganged with the wide bus on the side. )

Well, that was quite an extrapolation so don't trust the numbers too much way up in the 5,6,7 gang calculations.

I love my workmate, it's one of the most useful tools I own. The only thing is, it only comes with 4 of the little plastic blocks that plug in to the holes on top.

The block that comes with is great, but I think that there are other things that would also be usefull. I've included a couple of my own ideas here. The peg used to connect to the bench is included as a separate file if you feel like making your own designs.