makerish – MakerBeam

3D printing and MakerBeam

In the previous post the Light Box was shown. The feet on the light box were different from the feet we sell. It turns out that Stefan made the feet himself.

Stefan sent us the pictures of his Light Box (link to post webshop blog). The feet on the light box were different from the feet we sell. Stefan had actually designed and 3D printed new feet himself. The feet are a bit wider and higher. He needed more space from the bottom to fit the planned additional lighting. The extra is light is set to be mounted outside the box to shine into the cube from the bottom upward. See pictures of the special designed feet below.

He also made a photo cube which should rotate (driven by a small motor). Therefore he also created a special holder. See the first picture of the prototype below as well.

Stefan is planning to be present at the Maker Faire in Vienna. He wants to show all his work and all MakerBeam parts at this faire. The Maker Faire in Vienna (Austria) is scheduld for May 5 and 6. Here is a link to the Maker Faire Vienna website.

PCBGrip Vise on Kickstarter

Low profile PCB vise that adjusts quickly and also holds components and probes, freeing your hands while you work

Check the video below or the Kickstarter website for this project.

Team MakerBeam

MakerBeam.com

Sam Putnam was the one who came up with the idea of MakerBeam. You can find his story on Kickstarter. He thought of all the measurements, bracket types, quantities etc. and had the first batch made.Johan here thought it was a very good product. He backed Sam his Kickstarter campaign. Unfortunately Sam did not take his idea further. The next step, a website: makerbeam.com, remained ‘under construction’ for about three years. In 2011 we created the webshop makerbeam.eu and made makerbeam available here in Europe. We are happy to announce that MakerBeam.com is officially in our hands. It is no longer under construction and redirects to makerbeam.eu.

We innovated the beams and we are planning to innovate the website as well. MakerBeam.eu will pretty much stay as it is. We will renew our webshop on the Makerbeam.com address. So… we will try to avoid it but maybe you will stumble on an ‘under construction’ notice on the .com website again this year. Sorry!!!

Team MakerBeam.eu

X-Y carriage

James Hardiman made a x-y carriage using MakerBeam and the bearings we sell through our webshop. It is the world’s first MakerBeam x-y carriage. Or so we think. Let us know if we are wrong.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asl5LT2QF_U

The design looks good. We do have some comments though. Here the bearings are on the inside of the frame. If you put them on the outside there is more space for the frame to move. Also if you use three bearings in one dimension it is stable. Then a single beam would be stable and you do not need a frame to realise stability.

James Hardiman is working on a book about 3d printers. He is also looking into the power of making. What is happening with 3d printing, homemade cnc machines, sites like etsy.com and makerfaires in various places is sometimes referred to as the industrial revolution 2.0 or micromanufacturing.

Johan and James met each other in the Netherland at ProtoSpace, the fablab in Utrecht. There Johan handed James a MakerBeam starter kit. The x-y carriage is James his first serious MakerBeam project in connection with his book on 3d printers. We love the initiative. Thank you James!!

Team MakerBeam.eu

Lunch lecture ProtoSpace FabLab

Thursday September 1^st we were at Protospace FabLab Utrecht to give a lunch lecture and introduce MakerBeam there. There is a lunch lecture every month at ProtoSpace. The topics vary widely. The lunch lecture is a very informal meeting. For us it was a good opportunity to introduce MakerBeam to a small but interested audience. We left one kit behind. FabLab’s well filled toolbox now has a new addition.

20110901 protospace 1 — Pictures were taken for the website of protospace.

A FabLab offers the ideal environment for prototyping. Johan hoped to work on the Wandy lux after the lunch lecture. That did not work out that day. Instead he worked on sheaves to fit our aluminum Mini-T profiles. It gave us information about what size and shape we want. Now we are looking for sheaves we can buy of the shelf.

We feel that MakerBeam needs more accessories to truly make it irresistible material and are looking for accessories to complement the MakerBeam starter kit. We will keep you posted on this topic.

20110901 protospace 2 — MakerBeam wants to roll

Johan his prototyping plan also did not work out because of a very interesting meeting we had with the guys from Ultimaker. In our next post we will tell you more about this spontaneous meeting of maker minds. It is this meeting what prompted the sheaves prototyping excercise.

Team MakerBeam.eu