Bot Guy – 3D Manufacturer

 

WHO: Kurt Wendt

WHERE: Long Island, NY

The Bot:

 

 

WHAT: I created this webpage to display some of my creations that I have produced on my MakerBot CupCake – as well as to explain what a Bot is, Why I bought one, and what is Rapid-Prototyping.

 

          MBI – MakerBot Industries, located in Brooklyn, NY – creator of the MakerBot, a DIY (Do-It-Yourself) and Open-Source rapid-prototyping machine. The original Bot’s (the knickname for these machines) – the CupCake and the TOM (Thing-O-Matic) were designed as Kits, giving you everything you needed to build the Bot, along with an initial spool of plastic with which to print your first objects.

          Rapid-Prototyping – This is the concept where you can design an object in the computer, using CAD or 3D Animation software – and then produce a physical version of your object/design using a machine that produces the object by building it up in layers of Material. The MBI Bot’s produce the objects by heating and extruding hot plastic.

 

WHEN: Around April of 2011 I bought my Bot. It took a while to build, during weekends and evenings – and it took longer to get it fully functional. In Sept. of 2011 I produced my first prints.

 

The following is a kind of time lapsed video of the 2nd object I ever printed on my Bot – a video cut down from a build time of 19 minutes – to only about 1.5 minutes, along with an initial Introduction:

 

 

 

 

The Presentation:

 

 

In the Fall of 2011 – after building my Bot and beginning to generate the 3D Prints – I gave a presentation to our local NYC 3DS Max User Group. I explained in this presentation about Why I bought the Bot, How it compared to other options, the Construction of the Bot and more. Since the presentation was not recorded – I recreated that presentation at home & uploaded it to YouTube for those members who could not attend the meeting. Its long – so I broke it into 3 parts – each about 20 minutes long – which you can access from the links below:

 

Part I   -   Part II   -   Part III

 

 

Sample Projects:

 

The following image is one of the objects I made on my Bot - a Paper Towel Holder. Its kinda cool to be able to create something in 3D CG - and print it - and actually have it used as a real "product" design. Its been in use (as shown in the picture) for 11 months(as of end of August 2012).

 

 

The next image to the right shows a drink Coaster that I created. The original coaster is the Blue one on the right.The White one on the left is a copy. After initially creating the coasters (along with a coaster holder I also designed and printed) – I decided that I would give the coasters to family as Xmas gifts. But, to create so many copies on the Bot was More time comsuming than making copies via a Plastic Mold making – which is why the one coaster is white – created using a Mold.

 

 

During the Chistmas holiday of December 2010, I went with my family to a place in upstate NY called the Mohonk Mountain House. This place looks like it is right out of the movie The Shining by Stephen King - and is pictured below. Well - one of the activities there is to decorate "Gingerbread" houses (they are actually made of Graham Crackers - and they pre-build these littles houses for people to decorate). And, so my family did this decorating activity.

 

 

 

 

But, when we were going again for Christmas 2011 - I wanted to do something even better. So, I prepared a set of objects in advance of going to the Mohonk House. Then, I actually took several of those pre-built gingerbread house, took them apart - and re-built into something MUCH Bigger.  The doors, windows, porch railing and the columns in the pictures below were all built on my Bot. The Windows & Doors were made from 2 different pieces (white & blue) - and then put together to give color variation and decorative style: