I’m super excited to have just pre-ordered a Thing-o-Matic from MakerBot Industries. It’s a fully automatic 3D printer (aka CNC rapid prototyper) that can also be outfitted with different material nosels (aka extruders) to draw in 2D, print designs for circuit board, and even dispense frosting and peanut butter. (Not joking.) Here’s a great example of what you can do with it. (Skip to 3:00 for the cool stuff.)
Here’s another video of the machine printing parts for copies of RepRap Mendel, another F/OSS CNC RP machine design:
This is a new model that won’t ship won’t ship until November 2010, unfortunately, but I’m sure it’ll take a while to get some cool designs done, anyway. The idea here is that if anyone else would like their own desktop 3D printer (RepRap, CupCake, Thing-o-Matic or other F/OSS design), you’ll be able to print about 50% of the parts for it on this original “parent” machine and order your own electronics and other assembly hardware online. 🙂
*Giddy with excitement.*
16 replies on “MakerBot Thing-o-Matic Pre-Order”
Sweet! I like that new model. HeatSync has a Mendel, which is an interesting work-in-progress. There’s also a local guy behind the cubely project (http://cube.ly/) which is intended to be self-buildable like a RepRap but much simpler mechanically (not to mention much larger.)
Sounds really cool. Are there any media files available for that project? A few quick searches doesn’t reveal much.
hey admin. Makerbot set up a website where users can share their files easily. Have a look at http://www.thingiverse.com
Awesome!!! Thanks much for the link. 🙂
Hi Preston:
Would you let me know when you have it ?
I’m interested in getting one but would like to get a printed sample of the thing I want to print ( I can send you an stl file )
So please, as you get it assembled and working, let me know how can I send you the stl file and how much would you charge for printing one or two samples and send them to me in Montreal Canada.
I need to see what is the best finish I can get.
Thank you and hope to hear from you.
Pablo
Hi Pablo,
I’m not really intent off selling parts from this, but if you’d like to cover time/shipping/materials I’d be happy to send you a sample ABS print. Note that they haven’t even *built* the machine yet, though, so it’s going to be a while still. 🙂
I’m definitely planning on posting updates to this blog, so stay tuned.
Preston
Any idea when they will start shipping? I ordered mine a few weeks ago and they billed my credit card. I cannot wait!
As of 5 seconds ago it’s still “In Production”. MakerBot billed me over 6 weeks ago, though. 🙁
Hello again
Any news on the thing-o-matic ?
Have you received it ?
YES! It was delivered yesterday night and assembly has begun. Some day 1 assembly pictures will be up later today. 😀
GREAT !!!!
Let me know when you have it working so I can send you a file for a sample print.
Let me know where/how to send you the file and how much $$$ will it be to print and to send it to Montreal – Canada , postal code is: H9A 1W3
I don’t want you to incurr in any expenses.
Thank you
How is the thing-o-matic assembly going ?
regards
I’ve had it fully assembled since Tuesday, but the extruder motor is dead. MakerBot is Priority Mailing me a new one; should be here on Saturday, at which point it’s printin’ time!
Hi:
Did you start printing ?
What are the results ?
Can you upload a high-res picture of the best finished print you’ve got so far ?
MakerBot still hasn’t sent a working extruder “50003” motor so I can’t print *quite* yet, but completed assembly pictures have been up for almost a week. They hit the front page of Slashdot and this site was completely slashdotted for at least a cumulative 8 hours. 🙂
Here’s the new post with Thing-o-Matic assembly pictures. (You can also click through to a high-res Flickr slideshow.)
Did you get the extruder ?