Makerbot

[lcmgadgets]

Hi all,I

'Newbie here, to both this forum & to posting. I hope that if I make a mistake that you'll b patient with me. I discovered a device a few days ago called 'Makerbot'. Here's the link: http://www.makerbot.com/. Makerbot is a 3d printer that can make just about any shape out of abs plastic, up to 10cm x 10cm x 13cm. Needless to say, such a tool would b great for making arcade stuff. But the price--$950 (relatively cheap, but I'm having a hard time justifying it)! I was wondering; would anyone b interested in buying custom made joystick tops, buttons (the plastic parts of them, at least), etc.? If I could sell some of what I made, maybe I could justify buying one...

[bkenobi]

It's a rapid prototyping machine.  They are cool!  The problem you will see with making final parts is the surface finish.  Watch the second video where they show a dodecahedron at the end.  the finish is pretty rough.  If you made anything with it, it would require some finishing work for most things.

While the concept is cool and it can save lots of time and money in industry, I'm not convinced it can produce parts at an affordable price point unless you strictly deal with one-off stuff.  Also, one off stuff would not give you any profit, so I don't think it would make sense.

If you can figure out a way to justify it, let me know.  I need ammo to use with my wife on why I need one!  That and a CNC would be SWEEEEEET!   

[Ginsu Victim]

I'm trying to figure out if this is just spam or not....

[bkenobi]

That was my first thought, but I figured I'd give him the benefit of the doubt.  If he's serious, he doesn't understand rapid prototyping at all.  I was trying to nicely point out that it's not a good fit for most things people here need.   

[solidteezme]

When i was shown around Renault F1 they showed us there rapid prototyping area, it was on an epic scale compared to that makerbot thing. they had made a 1/24 version of one of their cars on it but like bkenobi said the finish is fairly rough. and im not sure if you can paint the stuff or not.

[councilface]

I work in Motorsport. As it stands Rapid prototyping is completely unsuitable for our hobby. However, within 30 years we will all have these babies in our homes printing our TVs etc 

[lcmgadgets]

Argh! No! It's not spam! I swear!

Yeah, I wondered about the finishing. I'd seen something done in ceramic, and the roughness of it really showed up there. Rats. Just dreaming, I guess. Thanks for being gentle with me.

[bkenobi]

This stuff has a lot of potential, but I don't think things are at a point where you can make final parts.  When I was working on my MS, one of the other students was working with RP to see if it could be used to build replacement bones (like hips or knees as I recall).  I don't know what ever happened with that work (it was VERY early stage...concept at best).

These things are great for certain things and if enough of them are sold, we all may actually have an opportunity to consider one.  Think about CNC machines.  Those were pretty new and VERY expensive ~10-15 years ago.  Today it's possible to build one for ~$1000.  In fact, you can actually buy a small one for carving wood for ~$1500.

Maybe in another few years you'll be able to get a small RP machine for a similar price.   

[mphuie]

Hi all,I

'Newbie here, to both this forum & to posting. I hope that if I make a mistake that you'll b patient with me. I discovered a device a few days ago called 'Makerbot'. Here's the link: http://www.makerbot.com/. Makerbot is a 3d printer that can make just about any shape out of abs plastic, up to 10cm x 10cm x 13cm. Needless to say, such a tool would b great for making arcade stuff. But the price--$950 (relatively cheap, but I'm having a hard time justifying it)! I was wondering; would anyone b interested in buying custom made joystick tops, buttons (the plastic parts of them, at least), etc.? If I could sell some of what I made, maybe I could justify buying one...

The hard part of building an arcade isn't the buttons or joysticks, there are a huge variety of options and colors available.  You might have better luck trying to recoup costs by buying a wood cutting CNC and cutting/selling CPs

[mountain]

The resolution on the Makerbot is too low anyway from what I have seen. "Rapid prototyping" is just as it says, for prototypes, one off concepts. 

I would like to have one to make one-off parts for custom projects though. How cool would that be! 

[Burn4Evr]

Something like a CNC is much more practical for our hobby, I'm doing a fair bit of research on the subject myself. There are quite a few kits out there, I'm tempted to bite the bullet on a Bluumax CNC for like $400 but came across one called Joes2006 (which looks beefier but can't find a kit to save my life)
Its seems like there are a ton of FrakenCNCs out there, which seem to be cobbled from random parts as a way to learn how to make a CNC.
Instructables is a pretty good source for basic info.

Personally I have a few pieces of rapid prototyped items, from a much more expensive machine then a maker bot (I think it was $50K) and as clean as the finish was it leaks its wax support material forever, and just doesn't feel durable enough.

[Benevolance]

I don't think Joe's 2006 CNC plans are available as a pre-fab kit. He's just put the plans up as freely available so you can build your own CNC machine to his specs. I think CNCzone.com hosts the plans.

[Burn4Evr]

Benevolance, thanks for the info. I've been to CNCzone, but was hoping there was a "simple" kit.... want to learn to walk before I start to run.
Again like most things I find, I tend to "upgrade" what I need long before I get started... this is just a bit more expensive.

[mountain]

I don't think Joe's 2006 CNC plans are available as a pre-fab kit. He's just put the plans up as freely available so you can build your own CNC machine to his specs. I think CNCzone.com hosts the plans.

Here is where you can buy the precut plans from Joe. All of the info is available in this thread on CNCZone. I built the 4x4 Hybrid and recommend it over the Joes2006. Way faster and more durable with a larger cutting area.

[lcmgadgets]

The hard part of building an arcade isn't the buttons or joysticks, there are a huge variety of options and colors available.  You might have better luck trying to recoup costs by buying a wood cutting CNC and cutting/selling CPs

Thanks for this comment! I'm actually trying to find (a) source(s) for translucent joysticks, a Star Wars yoke, and a push-pull spinner. I've seen extremely beat up 'yokes on ebays twice in about a year, but other than that, I can't find any of this more specialized stuff. Where do I get it?