If you’re a regular reader of my blog, or if you follow me on twitter, you probably know that I’m working at Makerbot Industries this summer. It’s been a blast so far – everybody is very intelligent, and truely excited about the work they are doing. I’ve been working on several projects – mostly electrical engineering work, programming, etc. They encouraged me to do lots of printing on my Thing-O-Matic 3D Printer so that I can become familiar with all aspects of its operation. So naturally, I’ve been printing shot glasses, bottle openers, sculptures, and other doo-dads that I’ve been able to find on thingiverse.
Conveniently, the towel rack in my apartment recently broke right off the wall. My first thought was: “I can fix this with a Makerbot!” After the initial excitement subsided, I made a quick model in google sketchup using some measurements I had made with a pair of calipers. As the pictures below show, my first two attempts didn’t quite work (the green and orange prints). I couldn’t figure out the size that I needed for the rod opening, since I was measuring the broken bracket and not the rod itself. I also quickly discovered that the wall retainers for the screws were not flush with the wall, and that I would need to add a cut-out in the rear of the bracket to fit them. But, I eventually figured it out and I now have a working towel rack again.
You can download the design files for this piece on thingiverse, though they probably aren’t very useful to you unless you have the same towel rack as me…
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