Makerbot Cupcake CNC

Ok, so yes I have been far to slack to actually keep the blog up to date. But I have still been busy.

The main thing that has been taking up my time has been my Makerbot Cupcake CNC machine. This are a DIY 3D printer that you can by as a kit. They print by extruding hot ABS plastic (or PLA if you want to use a different type) onto a movable platform. The platform moves in the X and Y axis and the extruder nozzle slowly moves up in the Z axis as more of the object is printed.

Below you can see my Makerbot after I have printed out a few tests as seen in the foreground.


I've been working on a few small objects and so far everything looks good, however theres still a lot of room for tweaking. One of the things that proves to have the most effect on improving the quality of prints is to use a heated printing bed, this helps eliminate or significantly reduce warping of prints.

You can see the things I have made (only 1 so far) on my Thingiverse page here.