MakerBot Industries Cupcake CNC #481
After following the RepRap project for the past few years, and MakerBot's awesome work, I finally decided to join the 3D printing revolution two months ago when my awesome wife bought me a MakerBot for my birthday. This thing has been literally occupying all of my free and not so free time. I've lost count of how many nights I've been up until 3am tinkering. I'm a software developer, not a mechanical engineer who had just very basic of soldering skills. So this has been a huge learning experience!
(To properly enjoy the above slideshow, play the awful theme song from Star Trek Enterprise in the background)
Seriously... a replicator! It still blows my mind. Ok, so it only makes 4 inch plastic blobby bits and takes hours to make anything. However, one day, in the hopefully not too distant future, I am determined to walk up to a wall and speak Captain Picard's immortal words...
I figure it's about time I start to formally blog about my adventures. I have been pretty meticulously (perhaps obsessively) documenting it all on Flickr, YouTube, Twitter and UStream. My MakerBot even has his own twitter account @makerbot481. (follow him, he's lonely and needs someone to talk to) My main reason for getting a MakerBot is to make the parts for a RepRap which can then make parts to recreate itself and make new RepRaps and spread across the universe until they run into Richard Dean Anderson. That or make me a nice hot cup of Earl Grey. For now I'd settle for a whistle that I can blow without having to hold the sides closed to block all the holes. I've named my MakerBot "Tea" and it's first offspring will be a RepRap Mendel who I will name "Earl". I can't wait to see what kind of printer will come after the "Hot" generation!
Of all the interesting things I've done with my MakerBot so far, probably the coolest accomplishment was when Wil Fucking Wheaton blogged about me. I squee'd like a little fangirl. (seriously, my wife even printed his blog post and framed it for me, I'm such a dork)
