Bre mentions my TARDIS game in an interview

I knew that Bre Pettis (founder and CEO of Makerbot) got what I was doing with TARDIS Run. He's the only one who commented on it when I finally posted it. But besides him and I it didn't seem like anyone else got it. The Thingiverse PTB didn't see fit to feature it and there's no other comments.

Thanks to Twitter I was alerted to the fact that Bre mentioned it again in his interview with Take Away as an example of the Wacky uses of 3D printing. This isn't the first time Bre used my work as an example of cool things that can be done with 3D printing. Bre mentioned my SD card ring in a CreativeMornings presentation (at 15:38). Hey, I don't mind. I'm kinda getting a reputation as being the quirky designer guy. Yeah, I can run with that.

Ah, more TARDIS rings out the door

There, in the "must have cool page" of cheezburger.com under "TARDIS must haves" is my TARDIS ring. Well, it links to the Shapeways which has a link to my etsy store which links to the ring, so I count 4 clicks before you can buy it, but I'm not sad. In fact I'd just like to remind my loyal followers here that if you enter the coupon code "DEMATERIALIZE" You'll get an additional 10% off. VWORP-VWORP-VWORP.

Chessbot on Mancave

Dutch site Mancave featured my chessbot set even giving it title billing. Thang goodness for automatic translation services. I don't think I'll ever stop printing chess sets at this rate... which somehow I don't feed bad about at all.

Robot Chess Sets back in production

There has finally been some demand for my Robot Chess sets and I've finally sold out of my original 10. Apparently Boing Boing put them on a holiday gift guide which links to either this blog or the makerbot blog, which links to the thingiverse page, which links to the etsy where you can find the chess set. Phweao. I've attempted to shorten that flow a bit where I can.

The upshot of which is I need to print more chess sets. Last time I did this I was printing slower, at 0.2mm layers, and dual printing was by some exe voodoo. Now, that's to sailfish and numerous upgrades I'm printing... well, no faster in the end, but at 0.15mm layer heights (surprising the difference have a mm makes),  much more reliably, and dual printing is an option on the menus. The result is these chess sets are even better than the old one.

The other result is I should have started this a week ago, but didn't because of said upgrades still happening. So I am doing something I've never done before; I am offering for sale something I do not currently have in stock. I'm trusting you Makerbot, I've got orders to fill and I need you to work!

EDIT: Update: First half worked fine, second half... well, the white side worked. The black side didn't stick at all which messed up the white side. Hopefully a little ABS Glue will fix that up. Here's hoping.

MakeSLC Presentation

Here is the full presentation that I gave last Wednesday at MakeSLC.


Cymon @ MakeSLC Oct. 17th 2012 from Dan Mitchell on Vimeo.

Many thanks to Dan Michell for inviting me as well as recording and uploading this video.

MakeSLC Presentation Report

Went good. Me tired. More later.

TARDIS Ring featured

Before I had a 3D printer I tried my hand at selling a TARDIS ring through Shapeways. It's still there, but I can offer a better price self-producing them. However, a month ago Shapeways featured my ring on their blog. I was unaware. Then cheezeburger.com features the same and sure enough I hear about that before it's off the "Must Have Cool" page. Location, location, location.

So in honor of this momentous occasion I am lowering the price on the TARDIS ring and TARDIS pendant. In addition readers of this blog can input the coupon code DEMATERIALIZE on checkout you'll receive an additional 10% off any Doctor Who related items. Allons-y.

Meet me at MakeSLC this Wednesday

I have no idea why you would want to, but if you would like to meet face-to-face the guy who is writing every post on this blog including this one you can this Wedensday the 17th at MakeSLC (650 S. State Street, Salt Lake City). I'll be bringing the Replicator and talking about how owning one has changed my life.

For more information see https://www.facebook.com/groups/Makeslc/permalink/475935979094442/

Chessbot on Popular Mechanics

A little bit ago I got an e-mail from a writer for Popular Mechanics who wanted to.... Hold on a second. That Popular Mechanics? Yes, that Popular Mechanics. And they want to feature my Chessbot in an article.

Oh. Okay. Hold on a second while I breath into this paper bag.

The article is online only, and my set is but one of 9 sets in a slide show. But still, Popular Mechanics featured my Chessbot! On an article on the front page! My heart is beating out of my chest right now.

Thank you Laura Kiniry for taking notice of me and featuring my work. It... I don't even know how to categorize what this is. Thank you.

I know someone's thinking "Why aren't you selling them? Are you stupid?" Well, maybe a little. But the problem is I've been too busy with the TARDIS ring sales. 3D printing is more than just "push button, get stuff." It's a much slower process than you think when you first hear about it. I have to balance making stuff for money with making stuff for me. I got overwhelmed at a critical time and I'm still trying to sort it out.

And honestly, there are worse problems I could have than having too many people trying to give me their money.

PCWorld featured my chess set

Getting mentioned on Makerbot's blog was cool, but probably inevitable.

Getting noticed by Makezine was neat because I saw it in my news feed myself.

I needed someone else to point out to me Gizmoto's coverage. That was awesome.

But PCWorld may be the highest profile mention to date. PCWORLD! I don't know, that's like... a real publication with print shops and advertisers and suits and everything (in my mind). The article even goes so far as to link this blog and the etsy shop! Wow. Thank you PCWorld.

So if you're coming here from PCWorld, hello! I hope you put me on your RSS feed reader. I promise that I've almost run out of worthless ramblings while I wait for my 3D printer so it'll be just a little while and I'll announce when I get my printer and the store starts getting stocked.

Oh, and if this little blurb ever makes it into the actual print magazine, even as a little corner piece or something, will someone tell me so I can run out and purchase a copy?