MakerBot on

Cupcake155 Episode 4

Sat, 16 Jan 2016 15:52:05 +0000

Cupcake155 has been endowed with a sweet lighting system. I built it in an open way, so others can re-trace my steps without having to start from zero. It’s actually a pretty sweet system, I call it Illuminatrix.

Check out Cupcake155 episode 4 here.

Cupcake 155 Episode 3

Thu, 10 Sep 2015 17:07:55 +0000

Episode #3 of my Cupcake155 project has been posted.

The key jist being that I found on complex prints, I would typically get a few major slips in the print. There often were also places where the print delayed in a location for a time, this left scars too.

Ultimately, a $10 SD board and a quick firmware change later and my prints were vastly improved.

Cupcake155 Stream

Sat, 28 Feb 2015 00:04:32 +0000

(updated: I’ve switched from ustream to YouTube Live, this post has been retroactively updated as there’s no point with linking to old junk)

I’ve been working on Episode 3 for a couple weeks now, but until I slay a certain dragon, the episode shall remain enroute.

In the mean time, I’ve updated my main printing page with a copy of my live stream feed, so when I’m printing you can watch the video stream from that easy-to-find location.

Cupcake155 Episode 2

Sat, 14 Feb 2015 01:53:28 +0000

After roughly a month of effort, I’ve now got my old Cupcake heavily retro-fitted and running pretty well.

Cupcake155 Episode 2 gives the key details of how I modified my old MakerBot Cupcake in to something modern and unique. Others may find it helpful to re-trace my steps and perhaps get printing sooner!

Cupcake155 Episode 1

Wed, 04 Feb 2015 10:24:26 +0000

I’ve missed playing with 3D printing since I mothballed my printer years ago. It was shelved over major pains in getting the extruder to work properly. I also wasn’t especially fond of working with ABS plastic, which feels pretty toxic to me.

A few weeks back I decided that my old printer, while in bad shape, was still most of a 3D-printer. I had been looking at ready-made products I could potentially buy, but I wanted the satisfaction of doing most of it for myself. I knew right-off-the-bat that I’d be replacing the extruder as it seems clear to me vast progress has been made about that point.

MakerBot Plastruder Crash

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 10:40:41 +0000

While trying to print something on my MakerBot last night, I had an awesome fail where the heater barrel of the plastruder was ripped out. Upon continued reflection, I think this was the product of how I had the heater barrel interfaced with the insulator barrel and I think I know how to fix it without replacing parts. Check out the video below:

MakerBot Plastruder Modified For Slightly Enhanced Awesomeness

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:35:21 +0000

Hello world, so I’ve been working very hard at getting my most awesome MakerBot working. It’s been a patience invoking venture and also extremely educational. The MakerBot employs some rather brilliant little tricks that make it simple, strong and friggin cheap. It’s a great gadget to have, though it’s definitely NOT for those who want everything now and aren’t capable of taking their time to do the job correctly.

Meet My Mod

So, in trying to get my MakerBot rockin, I’ve had to debug some stuff in my assembly. The instructions given on assembly are outstanding considering how much stuff you need to do to build one. That said, they’re not flawlessly exhaustive either - and this isn’t yet an exact science. I found myself frustrated by the positioning of the circuit board (I’ll just call it a PCB for now) positioned on the thing that outputs the plastic (Plastruder/RepRap). As you can see in my included photos, I’ve moved the PCB off to the side and flipped it behind the Plastruder.