Charles Edward Pax

It was brought to my attention today that Wolfram Alpha widgets can be embedded in web pages, a useful tool for anyone hacking on their MakerBot. Andrew Plumb and Tony Buser have embedded a few widgets in the PID Controller Tuning and Adjusting the Thermistor Settings pages on the MakerBot wiki.

A few hours ago MakerBot Industries released the Plastruder MK5. I’m pleased to say that it utilizes the thumb screw design in my Paxtruder, which has proven much more reliable than the pinch wheel of the Plastruder MK4.

There are numerous other improvements, so head on over to the wiki page and learn more.

Wiki documentation
Purchase one
Download the source files

MakerBot Industries is giving away ten 3D printers to teachers across the world. The giveaway is open to any teacher at any grade level. So if you teach anything from finger painting to quantum physics you’re eligible. Bre Pettis and I are both former teachers and will be selecting the recipients. I’m really looking forward to all the great educational material that will be produced to support MakerBots in schools across the world.

Before August 23rd send an email to learning@makerbot.com with the following info. We may publish the ideas/lesson plans on the blog or wiki after the contest ends.

* Your name
* Your school’s name
* The address you’d like the MakerBot sent to if you are chosen
* A paragraph describing how you would integrate the MakerBot into your curriculum. Include some description of the learning environment and what you teach
* A lesson plan that you will implement if you get a MakerBot
…
Teachers who get a MakerBot will be expected to join the MakerBot Educators Google Group and document their experience with the MakerBot so that the other teachers can be inspired!

If you know a teacher who is interested, please pass this information along.

A good friend of mine, Noah Rothman, is creating a comedy sitcom called Start Up. I encourage everyone to check out his kickstarter page for more information or help fund the project.

Jason Sharp has always had a less than stable career. Floating from job to job, business to business since college, all he ever wanted was stability, a reliable pay check and at least one bar night a week. Well… He’ll always have the bar night.

“Start Up” is not a traditional office comedy, unless you’ve been blackmailed into a money laundering scheme too. Jason’s new love interest, Tara Basani, is only interested in his start up company. Now, in order to keep her in his life, he must keep the proceeds from his boss’s criminal venture flowing in any direction that he can. “Start Up” is the story of Jason Sharp’s relationship between the woman he hired only to be close to, his slovenly author roommate, his effervescent, vaguely criminal boss and a reformed alcoholic office manager with profound daddy issues.

MakerBot Industries is looking for an electrical engineering wizard “with a deep and masterful understanding of the workings of electrons and how to control them.”

This is a great opportunity to help build the future! If you know anyone with some EE chops, please pass this along.

This past Saturday you may have missed a great time at NYC Resistor’s Halfway to Halloween party. I don’t know what it is, but costumes maker everything more fun.

See the NYCR writeup for a time lapse of the event.
See photos on the Flickr stream.

A few hours ago I printed on an automated conveyor belt build platform. The hardware is functional, but I’m sure I’ll think of improvements over the next week. I’ll post a better video and pictures in the next few days.

UPDATE 2010-04-29 0606: Here’s a second test.

UPDATE 2010-04-30 0314: It works.

UPDATE 2010-05-01 2230: It even conveys large area prints like butterflies.

UPDATE 2010-05-02 12:22Over night print test yielded ten beautiful bottle openers. No major effect on mylar conveyor belt. Here’s the eleventh being printed.

Last night I added the MakerBot heated build platform to my conveyor belt build platform and experienced success.

In the first test the Kapton is unsanded. The printed object sticks pretty well during the build and pops off easily when reaching the conveyor belt’s end.

In the second test the Kapton is sanded with 220 grit sand paper. While sanding clearly works well with the Kapton in the MakerBot heated build platform, I could not tell if it improved anything with my belt Kapton.

During both of these tests the belt was not under much tension. This allowed the edges of the belt parallel to the direction of belt motion to bow up. I believe the air gap between the belt and build platform due to bowing left the kapton belt at a lower than ideal temperature, reducing the adhesive force.

Further research questions:
-Does sanding help with this material?
-Does thinner aluminium help?
-Does thinner belt material help?
-Does tension solve the bowing problem?

MakerBot Industries is giving away a free CupCake CNC 3D printer in a 3D design contest celebrating their cover story in Make Magazine. There’s over 80 entries so far with more coming in each day.

Just upload your 3D model to Thingiverse and post a link to it in the comments of the Makezine blog post. You should upload any files you have for your object, exporting in STL is particularly important as that can be opened by many programs (use ASCII output in units of mm). The deadline is May 5th, so get your objects on Thingiverse now!

Update 2010-04-18: Bre posted the video from the great night of kapton sanding.

I’ve been testing the new MakerBot Heated Build Platform and discovered something that make me very happy. Sanding the Kapton film with 220 grit sand paper makes printed objects stick perfectly. See the video below.

After an initial bit of frustration with the heated build platform I sanded the surface with 220 grit sand paper, increasing the surface area significantly, thus increasing the adhesive force. Since doing this I’ve had fewer failed prints, most of which were due to the Kapton being too cool.

Take a look a the difference in Kapton surface texture in the image below. The left side is unsanded. The right, sanded.

I’ve only tried the 220 grit paper, so I encourage everyone to test different coarsenesses and comment on your results. As I develop the conveyor belt build platform I will surely use the sanding method. The heated build platform is worth every penny.