How do you make a great idea like Makerbot-printable (clothing) buttons better?
Why, make them Lego Compatible! Naturally.
Update 2009/10/04: In the design files, the knobs are 5mm in diameter. I remeasured my source Lego disc after getting back some Shapeways test prints and the Lego knobs are actually closer to 4.8mm in diameter. I lucked out with my MakerBot-printed buttons; shrinkage brought them down to about 4.9mm in diameter. The Shapeways printed versions are more accurate, 5.00mm diameter, +/- 0.05mm. There's enough give in the plastic materials for them to still fit 'regulation size' lego blocks, but the metal one was simply too wide a diameter.
Update 2009/11/07: I've been playing around with OpenSCAD (http://www.openscad.org/) and came up with the attached DiscButton_20091107 variation. I even added bottom "sockets" to this variation. It's almost too easy when it's all code!
Disclaimer: LEGO is a trademark of the LEGO Group and these explorations are in no way associated with LEGO Group. Heck! The files are CC-licensed; nothing to stop them embracing and extending it themselves if they so chose! ;-)
| DiscButton.skp | 100.0KB | |
| DiscButton.stl | 2.9MB | |
| DiscButton_20091107.scad | 4.5KB | |
| DiscButton_20091107.stl | 669.2KB |
