The trouble with 3D printing a ball bearing is that spheres don't adhere to the 45 degree rule, so they tend to print poorly, or if metal balls are used instead, then the bearing requires assembly. This is a new kind of bearing that can only be manufactured by 3D printing and comes preassembled.

It is a planetary gearset and functions like a cross between a needle bearing and a thrust bearing. No cage is required to keep the rollers in place, because their gearing keeps them perfectly spaced. The gears are all herringbone, which is why it cannot be disassembled and also why it can act as a thrust bearing. If you're wondering how well a 3D printed bearing could work under load, please check out my video: youtu.be/ZghwSBiM0sU

This design is fully parametric and made to be adjusted in the Customizer app to whatever you need. Thanks to aubenc for finding a problem in the first version.

1/4'' UNC
one is 3mm unthreaded then 6mm threaded
the other is 25mm threaded

I made a test-print with a crazy outer layer height of 25 micron -yes- 0.025mm. The print worked but there was some waving reducing resolution and making the surface rough. Nevertheless it turned out very usable and especially sturdy against breakage through sideward bending.

While no one has discovered a way to defeat our enemies the Chronophages, the engineers at KONGO! have devised a new weapon to monitor the progress of the time stealing fiends.

Print your own Kongotronic 3000 Series TIME DEFENDER and not only will you never again be in doubt that time IS BEING STOLEN FROM YOU, but you'll know precisely HOW MUCH time!

And you can help improve the TIME DEFENDER! There are expansion ports on the head that have yet to be utilized. There is a submission form upon which you can doodle your ideas. Build the ideas yourself, or send them to KONGO! and perhaps we'll include them in a future update.

Be sure to "watch" this object, there will be updates. Like what? Well, right now there's a hook on the robot's back so it can be hung on a wall, but its tank treads are too long to allow that. Alternate legs will have be made. And doesn't he need a big ray gun to hold?

Don't need a clock, you say? There's plenty of room in that big ol' body to hold other projects. Projects involving meters are a perfect fit.

UPDATE 3/19/2013 - Now with Easter Bunny ears accessory

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COMING SOON - PAPERCRAFT VERSION
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Hey folks, I'm a freelancer. I put many hours into this project, not to mention countless meters of 1.75mm PLA filament, making sure this would be an exceptional Thingiverse contribution. Heck, I even created a faux package design so you can make a nice gift box. If you appreciate this level of work, if it puts a smile on somebody's face, if you tip well at restaurants, consider some form of patronage. Whether it's a few dimes, a few dollars, or a few meters of filament, I'd be very grateful. I'll even add your name to a patron list on this page. Message me through Thingiverse or my direct email, "kongorilla at yahoo dot com" (please convert to a real address). My paypal account is linked to that yahoo address as well. Thanks!

Need some modeling work done? Contact me for that, too.

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PATRON LIST
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A special THANK YOU TO Bluemetal for becoming the first patron for this project!

davelandia - Thank you for your patronage!
Framingr - Thank you, too!
Trevor L from the Great White North - email me for a proper thank you! (I couldn't reply to your payment)

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Show how much you love your garden, wear your tools with pride on the end of your pocketful of pens.

inspired by thingiverse.com/thing:9603

Gneiss statue of the Ram of Amun captured with 123d Catch at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, UK.

See: ashmoleanprints.com/image/453785/statue-of-the-ram-of-amun

This is the tag line for MakerBot TV AND MY LIFE!!!!

Model of Mt. Everest generated from Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) 90m topographic data. This fulfills a long overdue promise (see thingiverse.com/thing:8763) to publish a recipe for making your own topographic models from raw data.

I liked hugomatic's thing, but it needed pins oriented sideways and separate from the links.

A printable OpenSCAD pirate ship. While it will definitely require support for the bow, the rest of the model should not. The OpenSCAD code isn't commented at all, so it may be difficult to follow.

There are two main parameters - "shipscale" and "th." The first parameter "shipscale" is the size the entire ship is based on. It roughly corresponds to the overall height of the model. The second parameter "th" refers to the thickness of many of the features. The STL below has the thickness set to 0.6mm. It should probably be about 1mm or so for optimal printability.

This ship features three masts with three sails each, a rudder, deck, captain's quarters, bow, and crow's nest.

As an FYI, this pirate ship was made with just "cubes" and "cylinders."

Well... no, this is not a coffee grinder but an overkill casing for a little pencil sharpener.

Inspiration came from those vintage coffee grinders and thus the name.

The OpenSCAD code (what a shame!) is included into the ZIP file in the same folder than the single STL files. There's some changes in the code to allow you to see the OpenSCAD views.

The "to do" list for this thing is huge but I let it just like this, improvements should come as a derivatives.

I post it as a derivative of Public Domain Involute Parameterized Gears by LeemonBaird because I have reproduced (copy and paste and may be... some little change from) most of the code of that thing.

It also requires parametric_involute_gear_v5.0.scad by GregFrost which I picked up from thingiverse.com/thing:3575

And my own Poor man's openscad screw library available at thingiverse.com/thing:8796

The bicycle of my son...

Has: removable mudguards.
Has (had) not: a way to mount lights on it.

This...

Is: supposed to be screwed on top of the rear mud guard.
Is not: parametric :(

A small planetary gears system with a ratio of 4:1 per stage, as many stages as wanted, small, open enclosure to see the gears, and hardware free.

The gears are designed with a circular pitch of 2.5mm and they are also slightly beveled at the tips of the teeth to avoid the need of cleaning the excess of material from the firsts layers.

The OpenSCAD is not parametric, there's only parameters for clearance (set to 0.2), backslash (set to 0.1), pressure angle (set to 22.5), tolerances between nuts and bolts (set to 0.4) and length of the bolts, sometimes referred as rods. Any other change will not work.

To play with the OpenSCAD you will need the following libraries:

Public Domain Involute Parameterized Gears by LeemonBaird
thingiverse.com/thing:5505

Poor man's openscad screw library
thingiverse.com/thing:8796

Knurled surface finishing library
thingiverse.com/thing:9095

The libraries have been included in the ZIP file together with STL files for every single part, build plates for complete sets from 1 to 4 stages, just the crank and upgrade kits from 1 stage to 2, 3 or 4.

1 minute video: youtu.be/MUH0MGP7AGc

A shorter video (59") featuring a 10 stages set: youtube.com/watch?v=FyVZ31tLGCU&feature=plcp

More Pics: flickr.com/photos/aubenc/sets/72157629731990190/

Request: If you use this firmware, please take the time to click on "I Made One" with a picture of your bot.

This firmware took approx 10 months to write / test.

Because this isn't something printable, the best appreciation you can show for this work is to encourage others to use it by keeping it on the Thingiverse front page. Thanks to those who have done this already.

"A Sailfish is faster than a Marlin".

Sailfish is the next generation of the Jetty Firmware. It's faster and has better print quality.

Supports: Replicator 1, ThingOMatic and Cupcake (TBA)

Firmware Manual: makerbot.com/sailfish

This firmware contains many new features, some of which are: better acceleration, ditto printing, Pause@ZPos, SF50 Volumetric 5D printing.

Requirements: makerbot.com/sailfish/#toc2

Support:
Help with using this firmware can be found over at the Jetty Firmware Forum:
groups.google.com/group/jetty-firmware

Authors:
Dan Newman
Jetty
A derivative of firmware released by Makerbot Industries.

Any updates will be placed here, so check back often.

Medallion was created with OmNomNom Creator:
thingiverse.com/thing:24639

Note: This is not an official Makerbot firmware release.

The Minimalistic Mk7 replacement works so nicely, I wanted to put them on my Replicator as well. It required a slight redesign in order to fit under the piece that holds the guide tubes. I use 693 bearings on this, but you should also be able to use 623 bearings like on whosawhatsis' original.

I get much better prints with these than the stock Mk8s because they grip much better on a variety of filaments due to the compliance and there is much less friction thanks to the bearing. I was using Protoparadigm's PLA and having all kinds of problems with missing filament after reversals, but not anymore. No more lost steps or stripping on the extruders, and an added bonus is you can now clean the drive gear without disassembling the unit. Also, switching colors is quicker since you can just squeeze and pull instead of going through all that unload/reload filament business.

Hold the world in the palm of your hand!

Based on the Unisphere built for the 1964 World Fair. The Gridded Globe was created by Michael for Bre Pettis’ UPS ad in the October 2012 issue of WIRED

Based on the ABS Scrap pile design; this pile is made from PLA.

It is just as worthless, but smells of candy.

A snap-together derivative of Mattraptions' Mini Desk Lamp.

Modified by Skimbal to use Tony Buser's snap fittings.

A small planetary gears system with a ratio of 4:1 per stage, as many stages as wanted, small, open enclosure to see the gears, and hardware free.

The gears are designed with a circular pitch of 2.5mm and they are also slightly beveled at the tips of the teeth to avoid the need of cleaning the excess of material from the firsts layers.

The OpenSCAD is not parametric, there's only parameters for clearance (set to 0.2), backslash (set to 0.1), pressure angle (set to 22.5), tolerances between nuts and bolts (set to 0.4) and length of the bolts, sometimes referred as rods. Any other change will not work.

To play with the OpenSCAD you will need the following libraries:

Public Domain Involute Parameterized Gears by LeemonBaird
thingiverse.com/thing:5505

Poor man's openscad screw library
thingiverse.com/thing:8796

Knurled surface finishing library
thingiverse.com/thing:9095

The libraries have been included in the ZIP file together with STL files for every single part, build plates for complete sets from 1 to 4 stages, just the crank and upgrade kits from 1 stage to 2, 3 or 4.

1 minute video: youtu.be/MUH0MGP7AGc

A shorter video (59") featuring a 10 stages set: youtube.com/watch?v=FyVZ31tLGCU&feature=plcp

More Pics: flickr.com/photos/aubenc/sets/72157629731990190/

Tip: See the Stratos (thing 31944) too!

Spritejet - A sweet flying, cool looking printed "jet" with interchangeable wing configurations. Flights of over 150' in my back yard with a well tuned plane. Flies much better than the my "deltajet" (from which this is derived), which was pretty good. This one will fly if hand launched, as well....

A small planetary gears system with a ratio of 4:1 per stage, as many stages as wanted, small, open enclosure to see the gears, and hardware free.

The gears are designed with a circular pitch of 2.5mm and they are also slightly beveled at the tips of the teeth to avoid the need of cleaning the excess of material from the firsts layers.

The OpenSCAD is not parametric, there's only parameters for clearance (set to 0.2), backslash (set to 0.1), pressure angle (set to 22.5), tolerances between nuts and bolts (set to 0.4) and length of the bolts, sometimes referred as rods. Any other change will not work.

To play with the OpenSCAD you will need the following libraries:

Public Domain Involute Parameterized Gears by LeemonBaird
thingiverse.com/thing:5505

Poor man's openscad screw library
thingiverse.com/thing:8796

Knurled surface finishing library
thingiverse.com/thing:9095

The libraries have been included in the ZIP file together with STL files for every single part, build plates for complete sets from 1 to 4 stages, just the crank and upgrade kits from 1 stage to 2, 3 or 4.

1 minute video: youtu.be/MUH0MGP7AGc

A shorter video (59") featuring a 10 stages set: youtube.com/watch?v=FyVZ31tLGCU&feature=plcp

More Pics: flickr.com/photos/aubenc/sets/72157629731990190/

The "learning process" of being an fairly early adopter of hobbyist 3d printing.

All in good fun.

Red Eyed Treefrog, so you can decorate your garden pound wihouth the noise, or check the calibration of your printer in the most cute way!

The "learning process" of being an fairly early adopter of hobbyist 3d printing.

All in good fun.

I'm in that point of the design where I need to choose between:

- Fix some minor flaws, add missing features, print and shout (done!)

or...

- Wait until some inspiration comes and I find the (easy) way to change those things that I (can tolerate but I) don't really love in this approach.

hmmmm...

The bicycle of my son...

Has: removable mudguards.
Has (had) not: a way to mount lights on it.

This...

Is: supposed to be screwed on top of the rear mud guard.
Is not: parametric :(

Rounded some sharp edges and fix a few minor flaws

The rear tire from my son's bycicle was getting flat with apparently no reason.

I did try to repair it a few times but the solution didn't came until I installed one of these.

The STL available to download is for the Schrader tire valve type. Hopefully, the OpenSCAD script can be used to generate caps for other valve types.

Two OpenSCAD here, one is an evolution of thing 17083 (flat bracelet) and the other adds the texture (knurls in this case).

The inner sizes of the bracelet are 50mm x 60mm and some 32mm tall, the opening is 20mm.

Please see my reason for making this thing here: thingiverse.com/thing:16662

I need the tap holder for rethreading holes after powder painting. That is why i made the handle thicker. For a drill holder it might be better with a thinner handle. Let me know if you want me to make one :)
The insert is drawn with a Ø6,1 hole.
I will also change that for you if needed.

INFO: I have measured some other taps at work today. They do not match the size of the cheap ones I use at home.
So please check if the ones here will match your tap.

I will post new inserts soon.

A printable OpenSCAD pirate ship. While it will definitely require support for the bow, the rest of the model should not. The OpenSCAD code isn't commented at all, so it may be difficult to follow.

There are two main parameters - "shipscale" and "th." The first parameter "shipscale" is the size the entire ship is based on. It roughly corresponds to the overall height of the model. The second parameter "th" refers to the thickness of many of the features. The STL below has the thickness set to 0.6mm. It should probably be about 1mm or so for optimal printability.

This ship features three masts with three sails each, a rudder, deck, captain's quarters, bow, and crow's nest.

As an FYI, this pirate ship was made with just "cubes" and "cylinders."