Graphics Reference
In-Depth Information
Replacement parts
What could you fix around the house? Always important - you'll have so
much fun you'll forget to do it. Look for anything loose, chipped, broken,
uneven, held together with duct tape, or something with a missing coun-
terpart.
Gadget accessories
Your electronics are unruly, and you can use your MakerBot to keep them
in line. Look for cell phone stands, cable/cord managers, and even Micro-
SIM to SIM adapters.
Curiosities
People like to play with things, so give them something amazing to have
fun with. You'll find everything from working gear mechanisms, trebu-
chets, or a functional
steam engine
.
Your next product
MakerBots are often used by engineers, industrial designers, and archi-
tects to make their next contraption, product, or house model. If you've
got an idea for a product, you can prototype it over and over until it's just
right. Then you can do a small run and test the market. You might have
the next amazing product idea, but you won't know until you try it out!
Think About What You Could Print
What would you replicate given the design constraints of a MakerBot?
A MakerBot has a certain size limit (the Replicator 2 can print objects
about the size of a good sized shoe). If you want to build something that's
made of many parts, you'll probably need to print those parts separately
and snap them together. If the object you want to replicate has
over-
hangs
(protrusions with empty space beneath them), you'll need to
chisel away support structures that keep it from falling down while you
build. These are just some of the limits you'll run into.
What would you replicate if there were no design constraints at all?
Now, think about what might happen if those constraints went away!
The previous generation of MakerBot (the Thing-O-Matic) couldn't
make things much bigger than a softball. It didn't handle support struc-
tures well until some improvements were made to its software. Over
time, new generations of hardware will remove the limitations that exist
now. In some cases, a software upgrade might make your life easier.
Imagine the day when you can replicate something bigger than your
head. Imagine being able to replicate a whole robot in place, and use
water to dissolve the support material that held it all together during the
build!
