GuruBlog : Articles about makerbot

hiding some screws on my Chair

2011-11-12T11:48:29+01:00

I got a new chair from ikea which came with armrests. I didn't want to screw them on the chair, because I generally don't like arm-rests on my chairs and they don't fit under my desk. Not mounting the arm-rests left some blank nuts which didn't look very pretty.

3D-printer to the rescue - I printed some caps to hide the nuts

You can download the scad file or the stl file If you need an example or happen to have the same chair

a happy cardboard flower

2011-11-01T09:46:40+01:00

I just printed some more feet for cardboard figures, because I needed one for a happy flower I made for my wife

personalizing an Ikea pen holder with an 3D-Printer

2011-10-05T06:54:09+02:00

I own a Ikea-pen holder on my desk which I like very much, but It has one very large compartment in the front, where I wanted to put my markers. Since I don't have enough markers to fill the whole compartment, I designed a small box in openscad and printed it on my makerbot - et voila! a smaller compartment for my pens.

The box is for sure not the biggest innovation in 3D desgin and I could have used cardboard boxes too, but I really like the idea using a 3D printer to personalize off the shelf furniture :-)

If you like to print your own you can download the openscad-source or download the stl-file

3D-Printed Unicorn (with Rainbow)

2011-06-06T08:36:28+02:00

I designed a unicorn for my 3D-Printer using blender. This is my Day6 project for 30daysOfCreativity

you can download the blender file or the stl file

3D-Printed Wizzard

2011-05-16T04:49:00+02:00

While browsing through thingiverse I noticed a huge number of draggons but a serious lack of wizzards. So I started the new blender 2.5 and moddled one.

The blender 2.5 GUI is a really huge improvement over the 2.4-Versions - absolutely thumbs up for this :-)

you can download the blend file or you can download the stl file if you want to print it yourself.

Then I tried to print something using the support material option of skeinforge for the first time. The support-material can be activated in the "Raft" Section of the skeinforge settings. Make sure you set "Support Inset over Perimeter Extrusion With (ratio)" to some negative value - I used -3 - or else your support material will stick to your model.

3D-Printed Brush-Holder

2011-04-25T08:21:36+02:00

Bathroom-real-estate is a very limited resource in our flat, so I designed a brush-holder that can be glued to the wall and printed it on my makerbot.

I really like how a 3D-printer helps from getting "would be nice if .." into "cool - lets try it"

you can download the brushholder openscad source or the exported brushholder stl

Printable Lighning

2011-02-12T09:50:00+01:00

I made a lightning bolt to test the openscad polygon and linear_extrude functions.
To define a polygon you have to define a set of 2D-coordinates and some sets that define the paths. In this example only one path is defined that connects all the points. Then I extruded the polygon to make it 3D and centered it using translate, to make it printable.

translate(v=[0,-45,1]) {
    linear_extrude( height=2, center=true)
    polygon( points = [[-5,0], [15,40], [5, 55], [20, 75], [0, 90], [-15, 55 ], [2, 36]],
        paths=[[0,1,2,3,4,5,6]]
    );
}

you can download the openscad source or the stl file

Printable Weaving Shuttle

2011-02-07T08:21:45+01:00

This is a small weaving shuttle I desinged for my mom. It's printed on my makerbot using black ABS.

Download the openscad source or the stl file if you want to print your own.

How To Make A CookieCutter

2010-12-12T16:52:44+01:00

This is a small how-to video that explains how to design and print a cookiecutter using my Cookie-Cutter-Editor and a makerbot

How To Make a CookieCutter from Nikolaus Gradwohl on Vimeo.

the soundtrack is Awel by stefsax

Generative Battery Compartment

2010-12-06T10:09:49+01:00

I need Battery compartments for many of my electronics projects and buy them usually in various sizes, but since i have a makerbot I am thinking about how to print them myself. So I just wrote a openscad-script that generates battery compartments. It handles various battery types from AAA to D and can generate compartments for even and odd battery numbers.

Download the OpenSCAD file enter the type and number of batteries you need and generate a stl file. Then either add it to your model or use it as a standalone compartment. The only thing you need to add (besides batteries) are litte metall stripes for the contacts.