There are printers, and then there are machines designed to manufacture parts. It’s hard to imagine a device that encompasses both, but MakerBot Industries creates a product that does just that: a 3D printer. As stated by the founder, “We make robots that make things.” The company’s goal is “to make it cheap and easy for anyone to fabricate digitally-designed 3D objects.”

The 3D printer works much like a hot-glue gun – plastic is fed into the top of a machine, heated and dispensed in spaghetti-like strands. Using programmed instructions, the machine lays down layers of plastic in the appropriate shape, much like the way a printer distributes ink, until the desired object is formed. To see the device in action, watch this video.

MakerBot’s flagship robot, the CupCake, is designed to “bring rapid prototyping and 3D printing to the masses.” Celebrating the device’s launch, the company “printed out” shot glasses. 

The machine can use several types of plastic: HDPE, used for milk jugs, and ABS, a harder material used to manufacture Legos, and more options are currently in the development phase. Here are some more company facts:  

• MakerBot was founded in 2009 by three self-described hackers and is run out of Brooklyn, NY
• For $750, users can get a basic CupCake kit; a deluxe kit goes for $950; other components, as well as plastic, are also available on the site
• Initial demand was so strong that kits were sold as fast as they could be made, so the company asked owners of the units to help make parts for additional kits with their own MakerBots

Taking up about as much room on a desk as a conventional printer, the company’s vision is for everyone to have a 3D printer. With MakerBot, users will be able to share objects; a design created in one home can easily be replicated in another. Instead of running to the store to purchase a desired object, you can go to the site, download a design and print out your own in the comfort of your home.

Creators of interesting designs are encouraged to upload them to the “Thingiverse,” a company-run site that features many success stories. Along with making more MakerBot parts, some of the recent items posted include Nerf gun parts, earrings, hinges, cookie cutters, goblets, keyrings and Legos. All postings are complete with the code needed to make the object yourself at home.

Downloading its way to success, MakerBot may, in the future, be in the position to challenge the makers of nearly everything, bringing do-it-yourself to a new level.