$160 Design Challenge: United We Makerbot

thingiverse

I purchased Makerbot #182 and for a long time just made improvements based on forum and thingiverse posts….. until I started meeting with other Makerbotters in the Madison area (thanks to MBI for the push on this one). I was inspired by how much better my Makerbot prints are turning out since discussing it with others face to face and so I thought…. What better way to make designs better than to get people working on them together in the “United We Makerbot” Design Challenge. The prize will be $60 cash (xferd via paypal from me) split between the team members and $100 in Makerbot store credit also split between the team members. Any Flattr money sent to my account will be added to the prize pool. Last time around it was approximately $6...... I think you guys can do better than that. Here are the rules : Needs to be printable (at least partly… Unicorns and Frostruders included) on a Makerbot Each design needs to be the combined work of two or more people (one person will submit the design and anyone that helped will post a comment on that thing) Post submissions on Thingiverse by 8pm CST on May 1, 2011. Multiple entries are allowed, but they must be distinct from one another. To enter be sure and tag your Thing with the word “MakerbotUnited” The entries will be judged using the following criteria (each category is weighted): -Number of Likes on Thingiverse -Number of times it has been made by someone else -Average Thingiverse rating -Printability (not just fitting it in the space but also how many separate prints are required) -Effort put into design (based on testing and revisions (if at all needed), how well does it fit the challenge) -Mechanical design (based on # of pieces, possible modes for failure, etc) -Does it build on previous challenge winners? -Future for use in other Thingiverse designs -Are multiple (editable) file formats provided? -Number of Thingiverse citizens that took part in the design and implementation (no more than 7 people on a team…. I’ve seen first hand how quickly larger teams can turn to frustration) Instructions First, I’d like to apologize for the delay. I have been extremely busy lately and kept putting off the judging and announcement…. until now! There were some great group entries to the design challenge, but the one that seemed to click (tick?) with the community, had the largest working group, and was one of the more complex entries (yet still well designed) was the “Clockwork Library and Printable Clock Script” by syvwlch. syvwlch collaborated with rustedrobot, barrychuck, and MakerBlock to iterate and improve on the design, making it a great entry for the challenge. The $66 from me (~$6 from various Flattr donations) will be distributed to the team members via Paypal and the rest will be coordinated through MBI. Congrats to everyone for the great entries. I really enjoy seeing the creativity in designs that I hope is at least partially sparked by the design challenges. Since MakerBlock assists in part of the design challenge process but still wanted to partake, we agreed ahead of time1 that if he was on the winning team his portion of the winnings would be split amongst the remaining team members. This means that the $166 total prize pool will be split between syvwlch, rustedrobot, and barrychuck. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7976