Makerbot Thing-O-Matic

Manufacturer

MakerBot Industries, USA.

Hackability Level

high, the perfect hackable device, you can do what you want with it

The MakerBot® Thing-O-Matic® 3D printer is a breakthrough in 3D printing technology. MakerBot® Industries named it the Thing-O-Matic® because it is an automatic 3D printer. All other 3D printers can only do one thing at a time while the MakerBot® Thing-O-Matic® 3D printer prints thing after thing! Buy it, put it together and enjoy being the first on your block to live in the cutting-edge personal manufacturing future of tomorrow!

Fully Automatic
The MakerBot®® Thing-O-Matic® 3D printer comes with a new larger MakerBot® Automated Build Platform v2.0 that will keep printing and printing... Automatically!

The MakerBot® Automated Build Platform is truly a revolution in 3D printing. Updated to be larger for the Thing-O-Matic®, it allows you to have a print queue where your machine will clear the build surface between builds by printing, then ejecting. It prints objects one after another, turning your MakerBot® into a little high-production factory that sits on your desktop. Best of all, this is completely automated: you hit print, and the machine does all the work. Want to print 100 butterflies? Easy. Want to print an entire chess set? No problem. Want to start a business selling printed things that you've designed? Awesome. Have the MakerBot® Thing-O-Matic® 3D printer do all the work while you design new things.

Extremely Reliable
The MakerBot® Thing-O-Matic® 3D printer comes with the MakerBot® MK6 Plus plastruder which will give you thousands of hours of trouble-free printing.

MakerBot® Industries invested many hours into designing, testing, and tweaking the MK6 Plus plastruder. The result is an extruder that is extremely reliable, and very simple to maintain. The hot end on this extruder is essentially unbreakable and the filament drive system is one of the strongest on the market. We've updated the kit to include our new high-torque NEMA 17 stepper motor to power the Thing-O-Matic® extruder. This change substantially improves print quality and reduces post-processing of your builds. The hot end has been updated as well, and now includes a redesigned Aluminum Thermal Core, 40W Cartridge Heater, and Safety Cutoff Switch. Changing the filament is a breeze with the filament pressure thumb screw. You can even hot-swap the filament mid-print!

Higher Quality
We've completely overhauled the drive system to give the optimum positioning accuracy. The entire system has been upgraded to sturdy 3/8" diameter linear shafting, which is overkill, but you can trust that the axes will be sturdy and straight. We've also switched to self-aligning, sintered brass bearings. These are very forgiving to DIY assembly and provide a nice, smooth motion on the steel shafts. Last, but not least we've completely replaced the Z axis with a stepper driven, cantilevered stage. Guided by two of the linear shafts, this completely eliminates any Z wobble and results in nicely aligned layers. Using a high-angle lead screw, we were able to increase the speed of the Z axis from 150mm/minute to 1000mm/minute. That's more than 6 times the speed! This means the layer changes are almost completely imperceptible and blobbing is significantly reduced for smoother prints.

Easier to Use
Connect to the MakerBot® Thing-O-Matic® 3D printer over USB and hit print—the machine will self-detect its position and start printing!

The new MakerBot® Gen4 Electronics have been designed to make the printing experience easier than ever. The motherboard now sports an integrated USB port, so you simply plug the MakerBot® in with a standard USB cable. We've also added full endstop support so that you never need to touch the XYZ axes ever again. When you hit print, the MakerBot® Thing-O-Matic® 3D printer will automatically home itself, heat up, and begin printing. All you have to do is sit back and relax while your MakerBot® does all the work. Living in the future is awesome. Oh yeah, and the electronics are all inside, so you don't have wires dangling everywhere. This also makes travelling on the subway with your MakerBot® stress-free.

The MakerBot® Thing-O-Matic® 3D printer kit is available for $1225 and has a 4 week lead time. Order a MakerBot® Thing-O-Matic® 3D printer and get the latest in personal manufacturing technology!

You'll get:

• Makerbot StepStruder® MK6 Plus Complete (standard with 0.4mm teflon-coated nozzle)
• MakerBot® Automated Build Platform v.2.0
• The lasercut parts to assemble a Thing-O-Matic® CNC machine.
• 3 x NEMA 17 motors
• 1 High Torque NEMA 17
  
• The hardware to assemble it.
• Belts and pulleys
• Smooth Rods and Drive system components
• Pre-assembled 4th Generation Electronics
• a USB cable to talk to it
• cat5e and rainbow cables to wire things up
• a standard ATX power supply
• a tools kit with all the hex keys, wrenches, and other bits you need to construct it.
• SD card to buffer your prints
• 1lb of 3mm MakerBot® ABS Plastic to print with

Full documentation and assembly instructions are available here

Some tech specs on the Thing-O-Matic®:

• Interface: Print through USB or print from SD card
• Size: 300 x 300 x 410 mm (12″ W x 12″ D x 16″ H)
• Build Area: 96 x 108 mm
• Build Height: 115 mm
• Generation 4 Electronics
• Supports up to 5 stepper drivers (XYZ + A/B)
• Connect over USB (no more FTDI cable)
• Optional LCD interface support (Not included)
• Full mechanical endstop support
• High current mosfets to drive heated build platform and extruder heater
• Thermocouple support for more accurate temperature sensing
• 500W  Upgraded, extra strength ATX power supply
• Works with both 110v and 220v power
• Theoretical XY Positioning resolution of 0.02mm (20 microns or 0.0008″)
• Theoretical XY Maximum Feedrate of up to 5000mm/minute (roughly 200 IPM)
• Theoretical Z Positioning resolution of 0.005mm (5 microns / or 0.0002″)
• Theoretical Z Positioning Feedrate of up to 1000mm/minutes (roughly 40 IPM)
• Capable of printing with ABS and PLA

Availability: Ships with a 4 week lead time

User Assembled Kit

The Thing-O-Matic® is currently in stock, and ships up to 4 weeks after receipt of a fully-paid order. You will be charged immediately when you submit your payment information. 

DISCLAIMER. OUR PRODUCTS AND ASSEMBLY KITS MAY BE USED BY EXPERIENCED, SKILLED USERS, AT THEIR OWN RISK. TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMISSIBLE BY THE APPLICABLE LAW, WE HEREBY DISCLAIM ANY AND ALL RESPONSIBILITY, RISK, LIABILITY AND DAMAGES ARISING OUT OF DEATH OR PERSONAL INJURY RESULTING FROM ASSEMBLY OR OPERATION OF OUR PRODUCTS.