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Affordable MakerBot 'Prints' 3-D Objects (Even Designers Approve)
If Bre Pettis had it his way, the next thing you bought online wouldn't be shipped to you -- it would materialize itself on your desk via your very own 3-D printer. Enter the MakerBot. Developed by the circuit-bent minds of Brooklyn, NY hacker club NYC Resistor, the MakerBot "Cupcake CNC" is an open-source, build-it-yourself robotic factory for your tabletop that makes your computer designs into actual 3-D objects -- and at $750, it's a fraction of the cost of a standard, pro-grade 3-D printer like the $15,000 one Jay Leno recently tried out for Popular Mechanics.
Given its hacker-y pedigree, the robotic printer is already being put to "alternative" uses. Last month, MakerBot was shown off on 'Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,' boasting its robotic prowess by frosting desserts, using icing instead of plastic (a digital design of frosting on a cupcake enabled it to go through the cupcake-decorating motions).
Confections are one thing, but how does this 'build it yourself' machine handle traditional 3-D designs? To find out, we asked Brooklynites Kegan Fisher and Liz Kinmark, the creatives and heads of up-and-coming, indie design-firm Design Glut, to design an object of our choosing on their computer in one day, and then take it to the MakerBot to 'print' out a working prototype. The girls used their very real, very official 3-D rendering skills to create a usable object, in this case, a salt-and-pepper shaker (hey, we needed something for our July 4th cookout). Take a look!
Given its hacker-y pedigree, the robotic printer is already being put to "alternative" uses. Last month, MakerBot was shown off on 'Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,' boasting its robotic prowess by frosting desserts, using icing instead of plastic (a digital design of frosting on a cupcake enabled it to go through the cupcake-decorating motions).
Confections are one thing, but how does this 'build it yourself' machine handle traditional 3-D designs? To find out, we asked Brooklynites Kegan Fisher and Liz Kinmark, the creatives and heads of up-and-coming, indie design-firm Design Glut, to design an object of our choosing on their computer in one day, and then take it to the MakerBot to 'print' out a working prototype. The girls used their very real, very official 3-D rendering skills to create a usable object, in this case, a salt-and-pepper shaker (hey, we needed something for our July 4th cookout). Take a look!
