This is a derivative of the original MakerBot MK7 Extruder Drive Block. My friend Peter Schmehl and I designed a modded drive block that supports filament completely - all the way to the barrel / thermal barrier.

Obvious model is obvious isn’t?

This is a big model for the Replicator.

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."

Yesterday I found the railroader UFO thingiverse.com/thing:6283 but I couldn't generate the adequate gcode for printing. I tried to make one using OpenSCAD and this is the result :)

You can download the OpenSCAD file and improve it yourself. The module has one argument: size, which indicates how big is the ufo. I thing the belt can be improved! Feel fre to make your derivative.

In honor of Space Month, and for those who may be waxing nostalgic about the last shuttle flight, I wanted to share a NASA website I found with free 3D model files of numerous spacecraft:

nasa.gov/multimedia/3d_resources/models.html

Several examples are attached. They are in 3ds format, which I was able to import to Google sketch, but I have not been able to export them to an stl file yet. If someone is able to do this, please post the procedure for us challenged newbies. Thank you.

The waxuum is sort of a reverse-extruder. The idea is that a heated hollow needle is used to remove material from a block of wax in a controlled manner, analogous to conventional machining using an endmill. A vacuum pump* pulls the molten wax through the needle, after which it is deposited in a reservoir where it can be recycled. The wax part can then be used directly, or more likely it can be used as a pattern for a mold. Below is a basic overview of how the process might work in a well-developed system. See video of a simple test at youtube.com/watch?v=rnKD9oIzcnM .

1. A heated basin is filled with wax, which is then allowed to cool. This big block of wax forms the working material for our little setup.

2. A waxuum mounted where the extruder usually goes on your 3D printer carves a master pattern (including containment walls) out of the wax block.

3. Elastomer resin is poured directly into negative pattern in the wax block.

4. When the elastomer cures, it is peeled off the wax master and used as a mold to crank out large numbers of parts.

5. The wax master is remelted within its heated basin. The removed wax in the reservoir is added back. The basin is cooled, and the wax is ready to use again for a new master pattern.

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ADVANTAGES

1. The wax is melted instead of cut, so high forces are not required at the tool-tip. The low force requirement means that the XYZ positioner can be much more flexible (and cheaper and easier-to-make) than is normally required for conventional machining. Unlike conventional machining, there is no need for chip removal.

2. In many cases the surface finish on parts is better than that on filament-extruded parts, due to the smoothing effect of the hot needle moving over the wax. There are also fewer warping, delamination, and anisotropy problems.

3. You get a mold instead of a part: casting from a pattern can produce parts at a much faster rate than printing. You also have a greater choice of materials (plastics, metals, ceramics, and wax can all be cast in silicone molds).

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DISADVANTAGES

1. You get a mold instead of a part: there are several additional steps and materials, including the manual work of pouring resins. Sometimes you really want to just print your parts and go.

2. Limited geometry: unless you make multi-part molds with cores and such, you are limited to relatively simple geometry. Hollow and concave parts are difficult.

3. The waxuum is relatively unproven compared to the many filament extruder designs currently in use.

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RESULTS

The test showed it was feasible to use a tool of this design to make wax patterns. The most important thing to consider seems to be optimizing heat transfer from the needle to the wax, while minimizing heat loss due to movement of cool air through the needle. The thin-walled brass tubing is just barely acceptable for this purpose. The next version will use a material with higher thermal conductivity, such as thick-walled copper tubing. The heater should probably be located outside of the case. Possibly two heaters should be used - one for the needle and one to keep the wax molten inside the case.

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*Update March 6 2010: See this cool article on converting an aquarium pump to a vacuum pump garage-shoppe.com/wordpress/?p=109

This is an adjustable camera mount for an ordinary paint pole. The pole is used to get your camera up high above the ground without kites, balloons, or expensive toy helicopters. All for the cost of less then five dollars! This will allow you to take photos easily at a height you cannot reach. The photo of the Mini Cooper shows the difference between a eye level shot on the street and the second shot using the paint pole camera mount. The camera is a small hand held digital with a ten second timer so it gives you more than enough time to take a photo. But any camera with a timer should work fine. The pole used for the second car shot was only four feet in length imagine what a 12 or 15 foot pole would be like.

This is a screw driven peristaltic Paste Extruder. It is still experimental, so before you decide to build it please check the following videos to see it in action:

- extruding polymer blend (hair gel):
youtube.com/watch?v=1XWYLSRCcq8

- extruding viscous chocolate glazing:
youtube.com/watch?v=qIFkw5RNXqQ

- extruding polymer blend at 16mm/sec, 0.5 mm nozzle, 250 micron layer:
youtube.com/watch?v=axAP0btw4Lk

Some pictures of the printing head: picasaweb.google.com/ioan.festeu/ReprapPasteExtruder?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCJnau7ew38qs7AE&feat=directlink
You will find a 3D pdf file attached so you can easily inspect the pump.

Also I have attached a dxf file for the laser cutted acrylic mounting plate for Rapman 3D printers. Sorry... for Makerbots and Mendels you will have to find your solution :)

CAD drawing picture shows in yellow the printable parts. The rest of parts are stock M6 threaded rods, nuts and washers and two inexpensive 606 bearings. The stepper motor is a NEMA17.

For the tubing and pumping elements I used two sets of cheap perfusion kits. The pumping elements (shown in creamy colour) are elastic latex tubes you will find in the kit. Idealy you may use standard peristaltic pump tubes.

The reason I am using two elastic tubes (dual chanel) is because peristaltic pumps suffer from the so called "pulsing". That is, when the screw leaves the tubing the corresponding void (where the tube was pinched) will suck back a little bit the pumped fluid at the outlet hence pulsing. But using two chanels arranged in anti-phase pulsing is reduced to almost zero.

Total parts cost (except the stepper motor) is less than 10 Euros.

I will come back later with a complete parts list and instructions.

NOTICE: I didn't uploaded yet the "pressing pads" (two small parts that press the elastic tube over the screw shaft) because I need to make some minor changes, but don't worry I will post them asap. UPDATED

P.S. If somebody needs the early CAD files let me know. I will gladly send it to you so you can adapt to your machine. I am working in Alibre Design PE and I can't save in other common formats so you must find a way to make the conversion.

P.S. 2 I have uploaded the file "pressing pad". You may want to put some rubbery material between the pad and elastic tube to be sure the screw shaft will completely close the pumping tube but not strangulate it. Otherwise the pump will loose the pressure.

Also I have updated the 3D pdf file.

I have attached a picture of the "perfusion set". Don't know the exact terminology in English, sorry. Some sets also have a Luerlock part connecting the needle and the latex tube. My Luerlock file supports that part. Obviously you can use any kind of support that fits you better.

UPDATE 1: watch my third video (I have listed above).
I will upload asap a new screw rotor design. I am not very happy with the current one since it seems it have some bugs: it creates some extra pressure when the rotor leaves the tube hence altering the low pulsation feature.

UPDATE 2: I have uploaded a new screw rotor design (Screw Rotor New.stl). Screw pitch was decreased from 12mm to 10mm so motor rpm will increase just a little bit. It should perform better than the previous one. Will come back with my own results.

UPDATE 3: Uploaded the file Screw_Rotor_New_Support.stl. Unfortunately this file must be printed with support (soluble PVA, PLA?). However this rotor leaves a smaller footprint on the elastic tubes hence less dead volume (less suck back). Still working for the perfect match to bring pulsation close to zero.

UPDATE 4: Check my photo album: picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/oN2Z_e3g6u7eHZYbbXj2nQ?feat=directlink
It is printed using the part "Screw Rotor New.stl". Pulsation is so small I think is a good print. Just a little bit of adjustment is needed. The trick is to find the perfect match when the helicoid is fading (leaving the contact with the elastic tube)such as the dead volume arising is compensated by the incoming volume of the same chanel. Meantime the other chanel is pumping normaly. And so on. For the perfectionists I promise I will fix this to make it even better. Meantime I am preparing new .stl files for the final version. I need to clean up the bugs in some of the parts (there are plenty) and may be to make the pump smaller and with less nuts and bolts.

UPDATE 6
About the cheap latex tubes: very short lifetime, losing elasticity. So, go proffesional peristaltic tubing. The pressure will be perhaps around 0,7 bar with those tubing. Now I am waiting for the tubes to be delivered (2-3 weeks). Meantime I will try to cast my own tubing from RTV silicone. Keep you updated.

This thing is a derivative of:
The "IrisBoxRing" J_Hodgie's Iris Box v2 thingiverse.com/thing:5589
and
Stargate by Glitch

The Stargate was almost the perfect size. I created a cylinder to strip off the little bumps on the Iris Box Ring and combined it with the Stargate, scaled up 2%.

Unfortunately, while OpenSCAD rendered this thing (as per the picture), I couldn't get it to actually generate the resulting STL file. Maybe you can?

For a very nerdy Valentine's Day, I give you heart gears. This was inspired by Greg Frost's Broken Heart thingiverse.com/thing:4683, but it fits in the palm of your hand and can be twisted like some kind of worry ball. It makes use of the heart shape from thingiverse.com/thing:6190, the MCAD involute bevel gear script from thingiverse.com/thing:3575, and nophead's polyhole script for making properly dimensioned tap holes thingiverse.com/thing:6118.

UPDATE: If you lack a 3D printer, you can now buy these from CarryTheWhat at etsy.com/shop/CarryTheWhat.

I was daunted by the complexity of Greg's design, so this one is much simpler, having fewer gears, and a much simpler attachment design (simply thread the bolts into tight plastic holes). It also uses a smooth heart shape and is made for the hand instead of the desk.

This started out as an exercise in using Greg Frost's awesome involute bevel gear script thingiverse.com/thing:3575, but turned into a rather pleasing worry-ball type thing. It's also clearly influenced by Greg's broken heart thingiverse.com/thing:4683, though this has octahedral gears rather than dodecahedral, so they all mesh with each other and spin. My favorite thing about it is that you can grab two opposite gears and twist them, making the center with the other six gears spin rapidly around.

I built a model of a director's chair. I chose to build this because it was an interesting design and it would be a cool finished product. To create this finished model I first had to create a design on Inventor. My original design had to be revised several times because of the limited abilities of the Maker Bot. I had to make two solid legs rather than four individual legs and the back of the chair all had to be on the same layer. Although there were many changes, the finished product turned out fantastic!

I stopped by my local hardware store and purchased a couple of spools meant for electrical wiring. Trying to roll the 5lb roll of filament onto it was a COMPLETE disaster... to cut an embarassing story short, I now have many sub-1/4lb rolls of ABS instead of one 5lb roll.

So instead, I removed the handle from the spool forcibly, and cut the axle in two parts (but not half! See photos!) so that I could take it apart and fit it through a roll of ABS, hopefully to greater success.

This pin can be used to join the two pieces of the spool into one again once the plastic is on the spool.


The OpenSCAD file for this is just plain awful. I'm including it out of open-ness, but it's not worth having. It is the first thing I've done in OpenSCAD (or at all really) so I wasn't trying to be proper, just playing with some basics.

This is a derivative of thingiverse.com/thing:4458. When I built the shorty version I had trouble getting the parts to print correctly and I wanted the ring to turn further to fully open the box.

When I designed this iris box I started from scratch and used a different mechanism to open the box.

I have also uploaded the NX6 .prt files for anybody who wishes to use them.

Thank you to CRAB for his file.

thingiverse.com/thing:4609

I expanded a bit more parts because PMMA breaks easily.
Superb file 'CRAB' has taken us.

This is my first shot on designing an object in rhino3D.
it is a vertical wind turbine design.

This is a derivative of Madox's Mini Centrifugal Pump, thingiverse.com/thing:4839

I simplified the design and adapted it to be printable on a makerbot without support material.

I also modified it so that the motor from an old CD-Rom drive can run the pump. These motors are all about the same size, and anyone who likes to take things apart more then likely has a few laying around.

In the photos I am powering a 6 volt motor with a 3.5 volt battery. I imagine more power would equal more water moved.

The MakerScanner is a completely open source 3D-scanner and the perfect complement to a MakerBot or other 3D printer. Every one of the scanner's plastic parts can be printed on a MakerBot or other 3D printer!

Update: I've added parts with slightly different tolerances for printing on the Stratasys 3D printers.

Replace your hashtray crafts with these safe and non addictive strategy games items. See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tic-tac-toe for more details. Using this physical, metal analog of the popular pen and pencil game is far more ecco friendly than the original dead tree version, provided you play it often enough.

Here is a Toy paddleboat for your kids to play with. Created using the Drafting/Modeling program Vectorworks which can output .stl files. I have not had the chance to confirm the .stl files are in the right format. There were some options in the export window and I don't know if I chose the right ones.

A simple ornament made from intersecting circles. It is parametric, so you can change around the diameter and height very easily. I've provided the OpenSCAD file for people to modify.

Update: Made the OpenSCAD file reflect the mathematics of this shape more correctly. You are making an equilateral triangle using intersecting circles. The angles of such a triangle are all 60 degrees, therefore, you must shift your circles by a factor of sin(60).

I added embossed hearts on the sides to make it an actual companion cube. ;)

A model of the great pyramid at Chichen Itza, in Mexico.

I have a pair of bookshelves from Target that have handy metal tabs to secure them to a wall to prevent tipping. The baseboard and quarter round keep the shelf about 60mm from the wall. I designed this bracket to fit the tabs snugly and allow one screw to go through the tabs into the bracket. Another screw goes through the other hole in the bracket into a drywall anchor (or stud, if you're lucky).

Marvin is a wall (and foot) avoiding robot made from printed parts, an Arduino board, an Adafruit.com motor controller board, 2 motors (from Pololu.com), a distance sensor (from Pololu.com) and a battery clip (Radioshack).

Video of the bot in action: youtube.com/watch?v=PfaEIkYA8fI

The body, wheels and neck are parts designed specifically to fit what we already had on hand (with the addition of the Pololu parts since we lacked matched motors or a distance sensor).

This bot was created as a mini-project of the MSU robotics group. (Midwestern State University, Wichita Falls, TX)

This a mini cathedral loosely based on the Notre-Dame de Chartres. This is also an experiment in the minimum printable features. The flying buttresses are 1.5 mm thick and the side windows about 1.75 mm wide.

A great toy, one small part, just print and spin. low-cost to print because of the small size. Design is based on a bicycle wheel, which gives great balance with low weight. Can spin for more than one minute, with amazing stability. Two versions attached: one is plain, the other comes with Hebrew letters like in a Dreidel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dreidel). Rhino and Stl files attached.
video here: youtube.com/watch?v=11GoBpYnw4I

I threw some things together.

Beethoven Bust by dino-girl
thingiverse.com/thing:1178
+
Bre Pettis in 3D! by bre
thingiverse.com/thing:1534

If you're like me, you were fond of Jurassic Park when you were young; if you're even more like me, you always wanted your very own raptor claw but didn't want to buy a fancy reproduction. If so, your time has come! Just print one of these and wow your friends with your Dr. Grant impersonation. Sweatstained hat is optional.

Note that this is based on pictures from the movie, and is therefore subject to all sorts of inaccuracies. Also, there shouldn't be trouble with overhangs, but I'll report back once I've printed it.