The House That MakerBot Built - Getting Started with MakerBot - page 6

MakerBots can be used to create a permanent drop-in replacement for bro-
ken, missing, or worn out parts
These kinds of fixes actually save things from filling up landfills. Often,
just being able to create a part in your home saves more time and money
than would be consumed by driving to the hardware store to purchase
it. Being able to create a direct replacement part allows for a permanent
fix that might otherwise be “MacGyvered” to into working condition with
duct tape, zip ties, or super glue. While duct tape, zip ties, and super glue
will forever be perfectly acceptable ways to fix things, they are all tem-
porary and potentially unsightly hacks. For example, if the knob on your
stove breaks, it may prove impossible to get a replacement, but it's easy
to MakerBot a new knob and keep your stove instead of having to throw
it out because you can't buy a knob. (You probably wouldn't do that;
you'd get some duct tape or attach a pair of vise grips to the metal rod,
but you get the idea.)
MakerBots can be used to customize or add functionality to existing objects
Some designers have thought of ways to use their MakerBots to repur-
pose disposable products into newly functional objects. For example,
consider the bottle watering cap ( http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:
9535 ) . With it, you can turn a disposable bottle into a watering can. The
hockey stick pen cap ( http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:13052 ) lets
you turn an ordinary writing instrument into a miniature piece of sports
equipment.
The “Nickel for Scale” project ( http://nickelforscale.com/ ) lets you take
a photo of something you want to attach a replicatable object to (with a
nickel in the photo for scale), and adjusts the size so it will fit.
Inventing Your Own Things
This is where the infinite possibilities begin. We'll talk about this in the
next section.
Make a Better Mousetrap: Inventing
Things with a MakerBot
MakerBots can be used to invent things! By creating something entirely new
to the universe that has never existed outside your imagination, you'll get the
rush of being an inventor.
When you have a MakerBot you can make things in minutes that may take
other people weeks to make. Need a bottle opener but the store is closed?
No problem, download the model from Thingiverse and print it out. You can
modify it to have your name on it, change the shape to look cooler to you, or
think up some other way to improve it or customize it. Nobody with a Mak-
erBot will ever have to buy a bottle opener again!