Episode 9 of Makerbot TV, from the weekly video series at Makerbot Industries, is here! Finally an episode that includes some actual benefits of owning a makerbot and clues you into why you would want one around the house.
While most of the objects are indeed handy, and there are lots more on thingaverse, I believe its been stated on the forums for makerbot that the plastic, while "non-toxic" in its "cured form", shouldn't remain in contact with food stuff for lengthy times. Also I'm not sure how safe a spatula would be considering the heat factor and the "remelting of the plastic", unless they're printing it in food safe silicon or some other food safe material of course!
Regardless this episode illuminates what the future of small printable objects will be and instead of pop'n off down to the local hardware store for the latest "widget" to fix your "thingamabob" you'll just print out the item. Don't worry about the hardware store they eventually might sell the very plastic spools of filament you'll need to print your objects, and of course other basic fasteners for larger projects!
BONUS! Here is Bre Pettis in a video titled Makerbotting 101.
Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!
Essentially this episode is, again, a little "lite" on content, but focuses on what you could make for the upcoming Halloween holiday. If I were a kid and got some piece of "Halloween" plastic ghost or pumpkin instead of candy that house would get egged for sure! On the flip side, instead making a spider ring or other accessories for your costume I think is more appropriate and proper use of a makerbot.
The second half of the video details the efforts of a group trying to provide hermit crab shells for hermit crabs. Apparently there is a shortage of hermit crab shells "In the wild", I'm not sure if they mean pet shops or actually out in nature. While it might seem noble I'm not sure if putting more plastic into "the wild" is the right approach, not to mention that the hermit crabs will make their homes out of anything that "fits" their current size really. Also not sure how they came up with the data indicating the shortage. You can check out more details here about the project.
Update: Apparently they are just protyping the shells in plastic and the final shell material has yet to be determined, and at this time no shells of any kind have been introduced "to the wild". Again check out the above link if you would like more info on the project.
Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!
I think I found my next electronics build! Behold this awesome mesmerizing light sphere made out of LED's! Nikolai Nikitin created this "Magic Ball" and put all the diagrams and schematics up on his blog, here. His site is originally in Russian but chrome browser/google translate does a good job deciphering it for us non Russian speakers. It's a pretty amazing build, and gorgeous to look at! Check out the video below:
The sphere is just so darn pretty to watch as it cycles through its patterns and sequences. One thing I'd like to try with my version is to make a sphere mold and place the project in the center then fill the mold up with some clear or translucent resin, safe for electronics, and encase the entire, with a seperate resin plug for the on/off and battery changing.
A Palantir !
I think translucent colors, or those colors swirled together, would be the way to go to mute the direct light flashes of the LED's, something akin to the palantir in the Lord of the Rings movies. I suppose you could make or find an acrylic "hamster" like ball and put it in "loose" or secure it rather than go with a full resin fill. Either way this is a great build and the ideas are flowing! Hopefully there is no "Dark Lord" on the other end!
Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!
Episode 7 of Makerbot TV, from the weekly video series at Makerbot Industries, has just been delivered. This week the makerbot parody the "Pimp My Ride" MTV series and "Bot Your Bike!"
The episode is entirely about creating items for your bike and the conversion of one bicyclists ride with the inclusion of a few trim pieces, accessories holders, and a full fledged makerbot running on battery! Neat!
While the host this time around is a little "over the top", but "xzibit" was just as anoying on "pimp my ride", so I guess he'sappropriate. I'm still hoping for more "projects" episodes, which this is somewhat, so we'll have to wait and see what episode 8 will bring us! Runtime is 4:16.
Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!
Episode 6 of Makerbot TV, from the weekly video series at Makerbot Industries, has just been delivered. Hmm, while this weeks episode is a bit informational, its rather light on actual makerbot "awesomeness" and is trending toward "infomercial" territory. I would like to see more videos featuring the makerbot and something akin to make magazine "weekend projects" videos rather than just a 5 min video of "hey we have brown filament and here is the MK7 extruder, ooo wow awesome", again. I know I'd like it if the videos were longer and actually had projects featured.
One nice bit in this episode is they do mention the updates to replicatorG ( 0026) and that older replicatorG code isn't compatible with the new 3.0 firmware so you need the 0026 update.
This video series has its good episodes but I'm not sure how much longer I'm going to be watching these if the trend tends to be a 5 min info/fluff piece. It almost seems like they're sitting around on a monday morning and say "oh nos! we have to do a video!" Put some real substance in and if they run longer than 5min we'll be ok with that!
Oh well </rant>
Here is the video in case you want to check it out for yourself. btw a mere 3:46 this time around...yah, exactly...
Episode 5 of Makerbot TV, from the weekly video series at Makerbot Industries, has just been delivered to the masses. This weeks episode features how two artists are using their makerbots in their artwork and there is also info on a contest where you too can win a makerbot! Its an entertaining 4:52 min, so be sure to check out the following video and get perhaps get inspired to do some makerbot artwork of your own!
Hope you enjoyed this post and thanks for stopping by!
