In which we provide instant satisfaction in the form of wonderful objects that appear as if summoned by magic spells from the luminiferous ether.
Between the time that you get your Replicator up and running and the time that you get good at designing your own things, you’re going to want some things to make. This chapter focuses on a few things from Thingiverse that we think are great. But there are many more wonderful things on there; take the time to explore the featured and popular things to really find out what’s out there.
Once you’ve mastered the first few things, you’ll be delighted, excited, and energized to try the rest. By the time you’ve mastered all ten, you’ll be ready to start your own designs!
- Snake by Zomboe (Figure 7-1)
- http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4743
"Hello, World" is a term from computer programming—it’s the first program you write, and usually prints out the words "Hello, World". In 3d printing, it’s the first thing you make, and we suggest this snake, which demonstrates how to make something with moving (well, flexing) parts out of a single object.
Because of this snake’s geometry and thickness, you end up with an object that can bend quite a bit without snapping. You’ll see a similar object next: the Stretchy Bracelet.
Note
If your bed isn’t level, your snake will look sad—re-level the plate and try again!
- Stretchy Bracelet by emmett (Figure 7-2)
- http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:13505
Here’s another flexible object you can make. It finishes up pretty quickly, and it’s very entertaining to watch the zigzag motion of your MakerBot as it makes this object come into existence.
If you can print a snake, you are ready to print this fun, wearable thing—and give it to a friend!
- Minimalist NYC Buildings by JonMonaghan (Figure 7-3)
- http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:12762
If you’re ready to explore printing out tall objects, you can’t go wrong with this set. They are nice and thin, so you won’t spend a lot of time waiting for each layer to finish—you can quickly find out how high you can go.
- Another SD Card Holder by sgrover (Figure 7-4)
- http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:22470
Let’s try something that’s practical. If you’re in the habit of printing off an SD card, you’ll probably eventually accumulate a few spare SD cards. This thing gives you a handy holder to keep them in.
- Nautilus Gears by tbuser and MishaT (Figure 7-5)
- http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:27551
This is a good thing to get started printing multi-part things. When you snap the pieces together, you get a couple of nautilus-shell shaped gears that spin around.
This is also a good example of a derived thing: MishaT based the gears on a paper by Dr. Laczik Bálint (http://www.maplesoft.com/applications/view.aspx?SID=95483), and posted the thing at http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:27233. Tony Buser arranged the pieces on a single plate and published that as a derived thing (http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:27551).
- Snap Together Mini Lamp (Figure 7-6)
- http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:27062
Ready to level up in your multi-part object skills? This thing is an articulating lamp that snaps together easily. Find yourself an LED, a couple of AA batteries with a battery holder, some wire, add a 100 to 330 ohm resistor (optional, but recommended), and you’ve got a functioning mini lamp!
- Windsor Chair Series by PrettySmallThings (Figure 7-7)
- http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:21999
Overhangs are tricky things; when you’ve got bits of your model hanging right over empty space, you might be in for a failed print. But with the right design, you can beat the droop. These chairs are pretty, small, and impressive: be sure to enable the raft when you click Make, because this will add some small layers that hold the chair legs down in place. You won’t need to add support, because the legs are close enough to hold things up.
- Little Green Men by gpvillamil (Figure 7-8)
- http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:11810
Why wait for the aliens to arrive and take us all away? Start printing your army of little green men, and give the invaders a head start! With MakerWare, you can add a bunch of these fellas to your plate and print a squadron in one go.
TwistedBoxes by wizard23 (Figure 7-9): http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:1344
Parametric models are fun to explore; when you find one on Thingiverse, you’ll usually have a bunch of STL files to choose from, each one representing the different ways the original model can be modified to create a new permutation.
This model has a lot of different variations you can download and make. And after you read up on parametric modeling (see Appendix C), you can download the TwistedBox.scad file and try some variations yourself.
MET Heads by Tony Buser (Figure 7-10): http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:24129
Remember the 3d scanning hackathon at the Metropolitan Museum of Art that we mentioned back in Moving Physical Objects into the Thingiverse? This thing is a series of especially striking heads extracted from scans created during that hackathon. It includes a selection of people and creatures that you can incorporate into your own creations—you’ll learn all about creating things in the next chapter.
Now that you’ve made a wide variety of things on your Replicator, you’re ready to try designing some things of your own. You’re going to learn some design skills in the next chapter, and really start thinking in 3D, as you plan, sketch, and make the objects that inhabit your imagination.