Even though there are lots of great gears on thingiverse, I couldn't resist the urge to model some too :)

The combinations of parameters are too many to upload an STL for each, so I just picked a few.

I also made a version for helical gears: thingiverse.com/thing:1339

This is the second half of my openscad.org gear sets.

I couldn't get the top and bottom parts of the double helical to union properly, so I ended up offsetting the bottom piece by 0.1mm :( It skeins and prints fine though.

This thing is part of a set:
- spur gears: thingiverse.com/thing:1336

UPDATE: I'm printing some gears and noticed a couple mistakes on the openSCAD script: the variable 'orientation' wasn't doing anything and the value 'extrudeInDiam' was in fact being used as radius. They're both fixed now and I uploaded a new version of the script.

The Frostruder MK2 is a radically different approach to frosting extrusion. Instead of using a motorized plunger approach such as with the Frostruder MK1 and Fab@Home paste extruders, we've switched to air power. The result is a Frostruder with excellent characteristics: nearly instantaneous start/stop capability, vastly simplified design, a high pressure capacity, and an awesome steampunk aesthetic.

The way it works is pretty simple: The frostruder is basically a syringe connected to a pressure source, typically an air compressor. There are two solenoid valves to control the pressure: a 'Pressure' and a 'Relief' valve. When the Pressure valve is on, the syringe is connected to the main pressure source and that pressure forces out whatever paste material is in the syringe. When you wish to stop the extrusion, the Pressure valve is closed, and the Relief valve is opened. This part is critical because even after the Pressure valve is closed, the syringe is still pressurized. By opening the relief valve, the pressure is released and the Frostruder stops extruding almost immediately.

The frostruder is capable of extruding nearly anything with a paste-like consistency. There are many materials to possible, from food based items to awesome engineering resins. So far, we've had success extruding the following materials:

* Frosting
* Peanut butter (creamy)
* Jelly / Jam
* Nutella
* Clay
* Silicone
* Epoxy

This is for all you blenderheads out there.

This is all 42 mendel parts imported into a single blender file.

They were lovingly chiseled from obsidian blocks and carefully digitised back into blender.

not.

No Universe can go without the King of Polygon! Phooky beat me by uploading a printable Utah but useless for teadrinking. Took me a few hours of modeling to get a teaproof Utah, proper solid model, no holes, manifold. Wall thickness is ±3 mm and I added a rim for the lid to rest on. The model is based on the 3ds primitive since I was never able to import the original data (thanks Phooky for explaining). So fire up your machine and print an analog Utah!

some acrylic knuckles as a "paperweight"

i used some scrap acrylic aprox 0.333" i would suggest making the finger holes more oval, maybe even chamfering them

A calling card with working planetary gears. Astound your friends, frustrate your nemisii.

(Update: I've moved the gears slightly to the right, reducing the number of cut parts to assemble.)

This is a derivative of the Plastruder MK3 design I've been working on. The goal is to make the plastruder into a printable design that can be made on a MakerBot. I also wanted to take on an ambitious project to put the new AOI plugin, MetaCAD through its paces. Learn about metacad at metacad.org

This extruder design uses 5 printed pieces: two halves that bolt together for the housing, 2 dinos to put it at the right height for printing, and a simple insulator retainer to keep the PTFE in the right spot. The rest of the design is mostly the motor, heater barrel assembly, electronics, and a 625 bearing to provide the pinching force. It has yet to be tested, but ideally it will be simpler to put together, as well as a sturdier design with no squeaks! I've printed all the parts on my travel bot, and as soon as I get home, I'll be assembling them and testing them out.

A few design notes:

* no more layered construction! that was a hack to make it laser-cuttable. new design is two halves bolted together. one half holds the motor + filament, the other half holds the idler wheel.
* idler wheel switched from acrylic + 608 bearing to a single 625 bearing. smaller, more compact, and nothing but a nearly indestructible bearing to break. should be quite a bit more consistant
* 4 adjustable screws with captive nuts for setting the pinch wheel tension. you'll be able to adjust it on the fly, without any sort of dis-assembly. hopefully the abs will act as a sort of spring as well

a few things i'd like to change yet:
* rotate the captive nut slot on the right-housing to be in-line with print direction for a better finish.
* switch the captive nut / bolt head holes between right and left housings to improve print quality for both (adjust on right side instead of left side)

The idea here is that you could print out N chain links, and then snap them together to form a chain. If they can work as printed with minimal post-processing (like, maybe you pick at them a little) then it shouldn't be *too* hard to make big long chains for things like mechanical linkages or clock chains. (We'll probably need to change the inside edges a bit.)

Had an idea for a way to print something flat, but then fold it up into the intended 3D shape. Should work well with anything conical/column-like, including, say, wings!

EDIT: I made a wing using this technique, which I've take to calling Flat-Roll... Here it is: thingiverse.com/thing:483 (I kinda forgot to make it a derivative of this one, not used to that feature working again)

This rests on the notion (or hope?) that if you print something sufficiently thin, it will bend without snapping. (Might need to heat the piece?) If this is true, you can split your 3D shape into flat sections and unroll it, print it, and then roll it back up.

This may not be the best way to do this, but I connected each section in this first experiment with just a face, no thickness... I'm hoping Skeinforge will automatically print that with the thinnest layer it can, but I don't really know.

EDIT2: Nophead returned some experience and pointed out that zero-thickness faces won't print at all. Luckily, this is easily fixable since that big, flat underside is easily adjustable with a push-pull or extrude command in most CAD programs. Here's a variation that shows this: thingiverse.com/thing:485

EDIT3: Jay Swift pointed out that you could print this out onto a sheet of flexible plastic without adjusting the thickness at all. You would then trim the sheet prior to rolling the whole thing up.

If this is workable, future improvements would include centering pins on the contact faces between each section... perhaps even some kind of latching mechanism.

This is the plastic extruder that we have developed over at MakerBot Industries. It is a primarily lasercut design which uses a pinch-wheel filament drive system and a nichrome heating element. It is heavily based on work we've done with the RepRap project and is compatible with the RepRap mounting system.

You can buy kits for this at the MakerBot Store: store.makerbot.com/featured-products/plastruder-kit-presale.html

This is a slot-together model of the first stellation of a dodecahedron. The slot sizes are appropriate for "172" illustration board, but you can scale the pieces to construct this model out of other materials.

This is a possibly-printable electric motor. The motor can be operated as a DC motor or a stepper motor, depending on how you set it up. We built the motor by casting plastic and metal parts, but most of the parts can probably be built with a laser cutter or a Reprap/Cupcake/Fab@home type machine. It runs at about 400rpm at a voltage of 6V and a current draw of 7A (yes, seven amps).

You can see a video of the motor in operation at
youtube.com/watch?v=XSAof007cS4

A video of the first prototype, which is easier to make, is at
youtube.com/watch?v=cHML3gVQ-uU

For more info, also check out our paper
Towards cyclic fabrication systems for modular robotics and rapid manufacturing, by M.S. Moses, H. Yamaguchi, and G.S. Chirikjian. Proceedings of Robotics: Science and Systems, June 2009.
custer.lcsr.jhu.edu/Publications#Robotic_Self-Replication

Before you try to make the motor, you should understand what it is and is not.

*It IS* An experimental design that you can build, try out, and hopefully improve so it does something useful for you.

*It IS NOT* An inexpensive alternative to an off-the-shelf motor. If you need a motor you can put in your project, go buy a motor. This motor is very inefficient, produces low output power, and takes a lot of work to build.