makerbot

Apple Pencil Holder

- tvollaro

I received my new iPad Pro back in November when it came out – and the Apple Pencil soon after. While I love this new stylus, there is no where on the iPad to store it. Considering its $99 cost (and my penchant to lose things) I really wanted a way to store it in transit. I realize that there a number of cases coming on the market with stylus holders, but what fun is that? So here is my very quick 3D printed solution on Thingiverse with a small strip of flexible magnet glued on the inside to hold it in place. It works wherever there is magnet within the iPad Pro bezel. I may modify this design to incorporate stronger magnets in the future.

Water Ski Keel

- tvollaro 2 Comments

This is one of the first projects I ever 3D printed last year when we first purchased the Replicator2. This is the keel for one of my father’s water skis. We have owned these skis for 30 years. Soon after purchasing them, the right ski was run over after being dropped and the keel was broken in half. We have been skiing on it like that ever since! I wanted to solve two problems. First, fix the keel, obviously. Secondly, the keel is black to match the bottom of the ski. This makes it VERY difficult to find after being dropped and turned over in the water. So, I printed the keel in bright green and it makes it much easier to find!  I wanted to revisit it a year later to see how it is fairing under the punishing forces and water exposure. There are a few cracks, so I am planning to re-print this in ABS once I retrofit my Replicator 2.

Our new Makerbot!

- tvollaro Leave a comment

We decided to take the plunge and purchase a 3D printer for our home. I have exhaustively researched many different models ranging from self building from sourced parts all the way up to models that are useful right out of the box. We opted for the latter – specifically the Makerbot Replicator 2. This choice was driven primarily by my previous experience with this printer at my job. To save on shipping, we took a family field trip into Boston today to make our purchase at thew newly opened Boston Makerbot Store. This kids had fun playing with all of the creations at the store. But they were more jazzed to get the thing home and start printing!

2014-05-31-15.43.29 2014-05-31-16.22.11