Tag Archives: makerbot

3D Printed Tardis

Posted on by Ken Becker

Ahhh, Dr. Who. A British classic loved by generations of slightly different characters. My son happens to be one of those people who are fans of the good doctor (I’m warming up). So, when I saw plans for a Tardis on Thingiverse, I knew I had to make it.

Tardis

I printed the pieces for the Tardis over the last few weeks on our Makerbot Replicator 3D printer, then painted them navy blue.  I still need to add the signs but it is all assembled and looks great.  I’d also like to add some small LEDs inside to make it light up.

The plans for printing the Tardis seem to be one of the better sets on Thingiverse. Printing them on the Makerbot 3D printer is very easy. All you need is the files, and a computer with the MakerWare software connected to the Makerbot with a USB cable (the Makerbot also accepts a SD card but printing directly from a PC is much easier).  The Makerware software turns the drawing files into g-code files that the Makerbot can understand. After MakerWare renders the g-code data it sends it to the printer and Bob’s your uncle.

If you want to print your own Tardis at the Makerspace, the stl files are on the computer in the 3d printing area in the Things folder on the desktop.

The project page on the wiki is here.

Thanks to Joe and Buggs and anyone else who helped me with friendly advice on 3d printing and the Makerbot.

 

 

March 3D Printing Meetup

Posted on by Pete Prodoehl

MKE3DP

Join us on Saturday, March 9th, 2013 from 1pm to 4pm for the Milwaukee 3D Printing Meetup! We’ll be hosting it at the new Milwaukee Makerspace located at 2555 S. Lenox St. in Milwaukee.

The Meetup group is over on meetup.com, but we welcome anyone to come to the meeting and learn about 3D printing. We’ll have a few printers on-hand (as well as many printed objects) and will provide a nice introductory talk to the subject by one of our members. After that we’ll melt some plastic and create some real-world things.

This event is free and open to the public, so come on down at learn about 3D printing!

3D Print What Now!?

Posted on by Pete Prodoehl

3D Lids

Have we mentioned that living in the future is awesome?

You may have seen MattN’s post about printing art object on our MakerBot Replicator, and hey, a lot of our members love art, and art enriches our lives, but we don’t want you to think that 3D printing is just limited to making pretty objects.

Let’s say you need a lid for your jar… perhaps some special purpose lid, to turn your jar into a bank, or a strainer, or a shaker, or a fruit fly trap… Well, you can do all those things. Here’s a great post about jar lids. I know, you’re thinking that jar lids aren’t very exciting… but that’s because you probably haven’t downloaded and printed a jar lid. It’s the future, and it’s here today!

But seriously, sometimes I think we get so caught up in our tools, that we forget that we can do amazing and everyday things with them. Like make crazy lids for jars.

And the best part is, you’re not limited to what others have done… With a little bit of work, you can be designing your own jar lids that will make you the envy of your next canning party.

I’m such a “blockhead”

Posted on by MattN

I love architecture, and I also love blocks!  Several years ago I started designing my own “building blocks” in Solidworks, with the hope of eventually machining them out of wood.  That will probably not happen soon…about a year ago I tried using the Makerbot “Cupcake” model 3D printer at the Milwaukee Makerspace; the results were ok, but i found it to be an unreliable device.  Now we have a Makerbot Replicator, THE newest thing…I didn’t like it at first; turns out I had a few minor settings wrong, and now the results are fantastic!!

I have hundreds of designs for these little cubes, now the next step is to start printing them in “batches”, ie, start at midnight and come back at 8 am to hopefully collect 8 of ’em.

I hereby renounce work, sleep, food, etc… :)

-MattN

MakerBot Visit [Video]

Posted on by Pete Prodoehl

My motto isn’t “better late than never” but let’s pretend it is for now… Remember when the MakerBot guys stopped by the space in June? Well, at least one member said he would be out of town, and hoped there would be video… So here, my friends, is some video. Sorry it took so long…

Also worth noting, Milwaukee Makerspace now has its own MakerBot Replicator, and we may just bring it to the next 3D Printing Meetup.