Robot Hospital

Pulley stack designed by Ryan and printed for MakerBot, 2009.

Have a Bad Pulley? No Problem! Just Print Another!

What happens when you have problems with your 3D Printer? There are solutions for fixing broken components on 3D printers. It is not uncommon for plastic parts to show signs of wear and tear due to excessively running your printer. On occasion a desktop 3D printer might need a few extra pulleys or gears. If the machine is still in running order you can simply print a replacement part.

Oh no! This is a Big Problem!

Okay, so what happens if your 3D printer comes to a halt? You can't get the machine to run, because the part that you need is essential to the printing process. If this has happened to you don't panic! Here are a few alternative solutions: (1) locate a buddy that can get your machine up and running, (2) check to see if your local hackerspace has 3D printing capabilities, (3) order replacement parts from a company like Fabbr, (4) have an extra printer or two in case one breaks down. Let me discuss the forth option in more detail.

Your Own Mini-Botfarm

If 3D printing is a serious hobby of yours, or you run a small business from your home it is highly recommended to have a minimum of two printers. That way if one printer "is in the shop" for maintenance you can always turn to your backup machine. As they say on TopGear buy two Mercedes so that you can always have one that is driveable! If you have more than two your house or garage might start to look like a mini botfarm. The term botfarm originated from MakerBot. Basically it is multiple printers sharing the same space. But it is really not necessary for the average user to have more than two machines. In fact, most people will likely have one. If a problem does occur see the aforementioned options above.

One 3D Printer Is All I Can Manage

If you are an entering the desktop 3D printing market as an entry level consumer than you will most likely just have one printer. Hopefully everything will run smoothly for you, but if you need an extra part and are unable to use your machine to print one then please don't hesitate to contact us. Fabbr would be happy to print a replacement part for you. This will likely be cheaper and require less time than owning multiple printers.   

Returning Customers Order Replacement Parts

Fabbr is extremely happy with the quality and durability of our parts. We have been printing since 2009 and have come a long way in understanding and maintaining our printers. However, as I mentioned earlier some plastic parts might need replaced if you run your 3D printer a lot.We guarantee our parts. If you are in any way unhappy with your purchase please let us know and we will do what we can to resolve the issue.  If you have placed an order with us in the past and need extra parts we would certainly love to help you out and get your printer back up and running! 

Let's Get Together!

A couple of weeks ago Ryan went to the FabSpace Dayton 3D Printing Meeting and was surprised with the low turnout. I am hoping that future meetings will have bigger turnouts. The meetings are held at 700 E. 4th St. Dayton, Ohio.

The meetup (the first Thursday of each month) provides an opportunity for people to learn more about 3D Printing. Everyone is welcome! Often times people will bring their own personal desktop 3D printers. It is fascinating to see a variety of printers and learn about others experiences. I encourage you to attend a meeting whether you are an expert in the field or have no idea what 3D Printing is! 

As a side note, 3D printing technology is being used by Artists, Engineers, Doctors, Hobbyists, among others. These amazing machines can print anything that you can imagine. They have the capability to print toys, model airplanes, and even prosthetic limbs, just to name a few. 

If you attend the April meeting and learn something new or interesting please leave us a comment!

Hope to see you there!

fabbr.com

@fabbrshop

Fun at the Columbus Idea Foundry and FabSpace 3D Printer Meetings

We attended two 3D Printer meetings this month. One at the Columbus Idea Foundry and the other at FabSpace in Dayton.

The meeting in Columbus had a large turnout with several varieties of printers (RepRaps, Deltabots, Makerbots, Printrbots, etc), scanners, a 3D pen, among other technologies. It was interesting to see all of the modifications to the printers and learn more about 3D printing from other hobbyists. This monthly meeting has been going on for a few years and has many regular attendees, as well as some newcomers.

The meeting in Dayton  is just getting started. It'll be exciting to see where they'll be a few years down the road. It was fun to meet someone new to the field of 3D Printing. And as always, it is cool to see what other members are building with their printers.

I printed a NASA wrench for the meeting. The wrench didn't have moving parts, but it was good to have the printer demonstrating its capabilities! One of guys at the meeting made some modifications to the wrench and was able to get it working.

For more pictures check out our Instagram accounthttp://instagram.com/fabbrshop.

Photos of the Day: Memories of the Cupcake

Thought I'd do a Throw Back Thursday post with a few pictures from our Cupcake build back in 2009.

Cat approved extruder

Getting ready for the big build. We got MakerBot #170 and were very excited about building our machine and getting it up and running.

Here she is in all her glory.

Test extrusion, maybe the first.

Binned

Today was the day I put the Makerbot Cupcake #170 into storage.  Part of the new year is cleaning up and getting ready for some remodeling projects in our house.  I realized that one thing on my workbench has slowly made it's way to the far corner.  Long term storage for the Cupcake has been put off too long.  So many great memories four years ago, pushing out that first hot plastic.  The feel of that first sample pulley model coming off the platform (no such thing as a heated one at the time!)  I have to believe there was actual magic involved because no way could I assemble something that complex and have everything work the first time otherwise. Unfortunately, that was proven out again and again with frustrating issues from temperamental extrusion hardware and inconsistent quality plastics.  It's impressive how many mendels were printed out with this machine, plus my MakeNBreak gcode hacking.     http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:8283

Even with rose colored glasses it wasn't all good.  The Cupcakes big brother The Replicator and modern RepRaps are marvels of maintenance and reliability in comparison.  So much wasted in time and plastic due to failed parts or pushing out the whole hot end assembly.  You could say this sparked a lot of innovative solutions right along the vein of genetic evolution mindset of the Darwin printer. (Where do you put this washer? Do you use heat on the platform?  Rick at Makergear is selling a sweeeeeeeet upgrade for that!)  My secret was a space heater used to get the platform toasty right before starting a job.  It's been well over a year since the machine was put to work, but up until now I've had great expectations for putting it back into service.  Maybe finally get that Charles Pax's automated build platform to finally work....

At it's peak I'd replaced all the extrusion mechanisms and gone to a heated platform.  Just the stepper motor hack was performance art, but worked insanely well for me.  Replacing undersized MOSFETs was super fun, I swear.  By far the worst was learning by trial and error how to hand machine hobbed bolts for wades extruders. I have a drawer full of screwed up ones!

Nothing right now can compare to that excitement of something so new.  Having a small band of folks trading tips online or finding out there was a closeby meetup https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/central-ohio-reprap-and-makerbot-operators.  Plus fixing the knob my wife's car A/C earned me a ton of points.

Thanks Cupcake :)

Photo of the Day: Pretty Purple Prusa

We like the simplified design and small quantity of printed parts used in the single sheet frame for the Prusa i3. (Printer built by Ryan). 

Photo of the Day: 3D Printing at the Columbus Idea Foundry

Monthly 3D Printing meeting in Columbus. Mendlemax built by IC3D, Extruder by B3 innovations. 

3D Printing + Google Glass

Google Glass Challenge:

Google recently posted a challenge for individuals who have been paying attention to their Google Glass initiative. They asked for ideas on how people would use their Glass.  Whether such a product is the shape of things to come or another Google Wave or TV is a good question.  Regardless, I started thinking about how to couple this with another nascent technology close to my heart, 3D Printing. Using the premise that Glass isn't meant to distract you, but release you from our seemingly never ending stream of updates, reminders, and digital cruft, I came up with a couple use cases.  Much of this is enabled by networked queing systems being conceptualized for 3D printers and other machines right now such as BotQueue and untethered printing via Raspberry Pi.  

Status monitoring:

The most obvious thing to do is have the printer networked so that you can get real time status updates such as temperature and completion percentage.  Having a prompt just to know when a job is complete would be fabulous and prevent frequent checking.  Also a printer live video feed is another option depending on your tolerance for distraction.

Augmented fabrication:

Here is where Glass can be separated from other options to connect a 3D printer. By using the printer's known location, display the desired 3D object in the Glass display in the correct orientation similar to augmented reality.  This could be a boon for any kind of digital fabrication both as a general part check and to check for flaws due to the printing process.  By having a visual reference the comparison can readily be done to determine quality of the print.

3D Printers at CES

High-Res Printing: It is fantastic!

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) just ended, so what better time to talk about some of the 3D printing news from the show. The already insane amount of technology at CES now includes 3D printers on top of the range of computers, cellphones, tablets, and televisions. Exciting to see semi-mainstream interest for makers, engineers, designers, hobbyists, and tinkerers alike!

While they were busy NOT giving a CES award to Dish CNET found time to round up several of the shiny new machines. One of the big boys, 3D Systems debuted its CubeX tri-color printer. It's 1 more than 10....uuuhhh or dual extrusion. This appears to be a pretty high-end machine if you don't mind buying their cartridges. Also, Afinia announced a software upgrade that allows for 150 micron prints. They displayed their H-Series printer along with their line of ABS. MakerBot, best known for introducing 3D printers to home-based users, brought along the newest version of their Replicator, the 2X.  At $2800, will this be the Lisa to compliment the Cupcake/Apple I?  The machine has a redesigned extruder, casing to hold in heat, and a redesigned heated build platform that keeps prints from warping. Fabbr machines run enclosed as much as possible and the reduction in drafts does have a big impact on quality with large prints.

 

We've experimented with the Sailfish software and been able to attain the same high-resolution prints with our Replicator and need to check out the new v7 official firmware. The Makerbot branded, Thingiverse website also received a good size update. Particularly exciting is their Customizer App, which allows a user to simply design, customize and print an object. For example, you can choose from a few standard phone cases and then modify their thickness, shape, and durability. A user can easily create a .STL file within the webpage and upload it to Thingiverse. Exciting news if you are looking for 3D printers at an entry level or as a "prosumer".  Most of the things we've been getting excited about is suppliers of components for building our own machines.  Hopefully reviews of those will go up soon.

 

Printrbot Dealz

If you are interest in building your own printer check out http://printrbot.com/shop/printrbargains/ ASAP.  They currently have used/scratch and dent merch on sale.  I can say their electronics board is the smallest in form factor I've seen in person yet. Normally their prices seem very reasonable, making this a good deal.  They seem to be one of the most Maker oriented companies right now with a fair amount of open sourcing of their work.

What 3D Printer Should I get?

This squirrel is 0.588 inches, just to give you an idea of how tiny it really is!

We have been getting a lot of questions regarding the differences between low cost 3D printers, so here is a brief summary of this emerging market today.

There are several new companies that aren't yet shipping their printers. We recommend going with a printer that has been shipped and tested. For example, the Solidoodle looks really good, and local folks are working on building a Printrbot. For more detailed information check out this great breakdown here:  http://www.3ders.org/3d-printer/3d-printer-price.html.  We run several Makerbots in their production, but they are quickly getting out of the entry level market and into pro-sumer territory.  Also go ahead and check out the forums for the respective printer to get and an idea of any issues you may face.   Assume some "reserve" with any of the really cheap machines because they do tend to have problems/ steeper learning curves.

Depending on your interest in the project the best value is still to build the RepRap (Prusa Iteration 2) yourself. The plastic parts kit we sell is $65 plus shipping in a dozen different colors of ABS and $5 off for natural. You can then order the electronics and hardware from a variety of sources that have already done most of the work:

Electronics -- $130 Printrbot

Hot End -- $60 Printrbot

HBP -- $35 Printrbot

Motors -- $100 UltiMachine

Prusa Mendel Hardware -- $70 UltiMachine

Prusa Belts -- $26 UltiMachine

LM8uu bearings-- $14 SuntekStore

If you build a RepRap, the total cost for the plastic printed parts, electronics and hardware is approximately 500 dollars. If you choose this option, you get a larger build area and more flexibility because it's compatible with the open source version instead of having branched off.  MendelMax is another variant for slightly more, but you gain machine rigidity.  Obviously this is the Do-it-yourself approach, but it's a fun project. One advantage of the RepRap is that since you build it yourself, you also have a good idea of how to fix it.

Not ready to invest in a printer, but still want to see your creations in 3D?  Click the link above or email us to submit your parts and we'll quote a custom print cost.  At the cost of even the cheapest machine, a large amount of parts can be produced at higher quality and bypass the learning curves as well.

If you are in the market for a 3D printer, hopefully this article was helpful to you. If you have made the leap and purchased a pre-contructed machine or built one yourself please leave a comment and let us know about your experience.

When Will 3D Printing No Longer Be Awesome?

Awesome ABS Slug!

What is it about 3D manufactured parts that creates a sense of intrigue, if not outright excitement in those ages 1-100? Is it the creation of something out of nothing? Or is it something else? The certainty of how these machines create is even lost to the every day user. Obviously you can have an understanding of a large percentage of what is going on, but inevitably when something goes amiss it is increasing difficult to pinpoint the problem. There are many intricate interactions between the hardware, software, and the material used to produce 3D parts.

We are now several years into this rapid manufacturing renaissance. Articles related to 3D printing are filled with words such as, "Amazing", "Incredible", and "Sooooooo Awesome!" When you turn on your car in the morning do you throw out an exclamation of such joy? Unless you are a proud super-car owner, probably not, but you really should. Most technology that we use on a daily basis is taken for granted. For example, we take for granted the little miracle in our pocket that is the modern cellphone. Take away everything from texts to tweets and you still have a device that brings humanity into closer contact than any other time in history.

We are currently experiencing the cutting edge of 3D printing. Everything is relatively new and exciting, but it is not all roses. Machines have evolved to the point where they show the promise of reliability. Things are running smoothly, until they aren't. Everything seems perfect until the magic smoke escapes (sometimes, quite literally). Truly we can taste that it's just around the corner from happening, but it's plain to see we aren't quite there yet.

I look forward to the day that 3D printing isn't considered out of the norm, but taken for granted. There will always be room for the DIY spirit because of the culture that brought 3D printing to mainstream consciousness, but as much as I'd like to fiddle with my toaster, I still want toast.

3D Printers Are Everywhere!

I barely knew what 3D printing was until the MakerBot was released in 2009. A few months later we had place an order for a Cupcake, their first 3D printer. The idea for the Cupcake stemmed from the RepRap machines. Three years later and I am still amazed by the technology and growing interest in the field of 3D printing. Since MakerBot released their first printer they have come out with two more. More recently others have decided to get in on the affordable world of Do-It-Yourself in-home 3D printing. During the same year MakerGear started selling all kinds of components to accompany these printers. They even came out with their own printer, called the Mosaic. Other companies that are selling printers include: Printrbot, Solidoodle, Cubify, and Origo, just to name a few. Who will be next? And what is going to be the next big innovation in the 3D printing world? Let us know what you think in the comments.

Update: After posting this I found out that MakerGear is coming out with a new printer called the M2.