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Overview
MakerBot Industries: Machines that make things - The scoop!
MakerBot Industries makes manufacturing personal by bringing affordable, cutting edge computer-controlled tools to the desktops and living rooms of creative people. Our flagship product is the MakerBot Cupcake CNC—an affordable, open source 3D printer that turns digital designs into physical objects. You get a MakerBot as a kit, put it together and then comes the magic. It makes things for you!
To get a sense of how it works, imagine an extremely accurate, programmable glue gun. The Cupcake CNC starts by drawing a picture of the first layer of your object in plastic. It then raises the extruder up 1/3 of a millimeter and draws the next layer. When all the layers are complete, you've manufactured a 3D object from your own or an open source design.
There are 3 plastics you can use to make things with a MakerBot.
- ABS, which is what Lego is made of.
- HDPE, which is what milk jugs are made out of.
- PLA which is an exciting new biodegradable plastic made from Nebraskan corn.
MakerBot users have created model cars, robot parts, engagement rings, referee whistles, chess pieces just to name a few. MakerBot owners and 3-D designers share their designs at Thingiverse.com, a website that MakerBot Industries created to facilitate that sharing process.
Photos
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MakerBot glamour shot
MakerBot with custom LED lighting
MakerBot making Darth Vader's helmet
Children checking out the MakerBot
MakerBot Founders
Press clips
Here's what some of the press have said about us.
Wall Street Journal
Intrigued by the idea of making a machine than can build its own parts, Mr. Smith got interested in "rapid prototyping machines" — 3D printers that lay down layers of materials like plastic to form objects. The technology is used by manufacturers to make prototypes, with industrial machines typically costing tens of thousands of dollars.
Mr. Smith's NYC Resistor friends Mr. Pettis and Adam Mayer joined the project. Using off-the-shelf electronics and parts, along with a laser cutter, they came up with a machine. Now they're selling kits to make 3D printers.
Their company, MakerBot Industries, has shipped 350 of the $750 kits so far. (Note: As of 1/1/10 we have sold 625 kits) They hired two employees, started paying themselves, and are building another 150 kits for their next shipment.
Adam Elkins and members of a hackerspace in Philadelphia, called Hive 76, bought one kit and built the machine. Mr. Elkins, a 28-year-old system administrator for a software company, says he doesn't have access to a lot of space, so he goes to the hackerspace to build. "There's no man-cave I can go to and do things."
The first thing he made on the 3D printer was a black plastic ring topped off with white plastic jewel. Last month, he presented it to his girlfriend, along with a marriage proposal. She said yes.
Crains New York
The Makerbot “prints” three-dimensional plastic objects as big as 4 inches by 4 inches by 6 inches. Shoe manufacturers, automakers and architects are among the businesses that use 3-D printers. Prior to Makerbot, most 3-D printers cost between $25,000 and $250,000, but Mr. Pettis’ scaled-down bare-bones machine costs only $750.
Mr. Pettis believes it will usher in an era of “consumer manufacturing.” Thingiverse.com, a Web site Makerbot Industries created to showcase objects made with its device, offers free downloadable design files that allow people to make measuring spoons, bathtub plugs, a shot glass, camera lens hoods, tweezers and eyeglass frames, among other objects.
“When that little knob on your washing machine breaks, you’ll end up using a pair of pliers. But now you can take a measurement, make a model and print it out, and you’ll have a new washing machine knob,” said Mr. Pettis, who’s convinced that “people are going to build businesses on this machine.”
Wired
“You put it together, and it makes things for you,” says Bre Pettis, co-founder of Makerbot. “Engineers, artists, architects and designers are getting [Makerbots] to turn the things of their imagination into real, physical objects.”
Makerbot also has a vibrant online community that is sharing designs and tips on how to churn out shiny little toys in just a few hours.
3-D printers can make it as easy to create small objects out of plastic as it is to print text on a sheet of paper. But until recently, they cost a few thousand dollars, putting them of the reach of crafting enthusiasts. Now a wave of open source desktop prototyping devices such as Makerbot and RepRap are trying to change that. They are fairly inexpensive and backed by a robust community that is happy to share designs, tips and mods. Hobbyists call it ‘having China on your desktop.’
Financial Times
Users of MakerBots simply create or download a 3D computer file using one of several programs, then set the machine to work. The MakerBot takes spools of spaghetti-like plastic, heats it to 200C and squirts it out in the desired shape. Already the MakerBot has been used to make missing parts for electronics and the casing for new flashlights.
“It changes the way you live,” says Mr Pettis, “from being a mindless consumer to being a creative participant in the marketplace.”
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