Tying The Knot With MakerBot

makerbot-ring

De Beers would have you believe that only diamonds will do, but hackers are hardly ones to follow convention. How better to say “I love you” than with a MakerBot-extruded black ABS engagement ring? [Adam Elkins] did just that, creating the design with a combination of GIMP, SketchUp and Blender, then producing the final output on a MakerBot at Philadelpha hacker space Hive.

From the steampunk wedding at the 2008 Maker Faire, to the science-meets-romance web comic xkcd, hackers certainly have some unique ways of expressing their devotion. What are some of the wildest or most charming that you’ve seen? Comments are open…speak now or forever hold your peace.

Oh, and the engagement ring? She accepted. Congratulations to the lucky couple!

[via MakerBot blog]

51 thoughts on “Tying The Knot With MakerBot

  1. hurf durf guys look at me i have a 3d printer am i cool now

    common whats next in the line of “omg guys look what i can print out” line of stories. We get it you can use photoshop and CAD you don’t need to post a story about this

    1. Interestingly the term bitch is often leveled against women who demand what the diamond cartel created social conditioning as to what is an acceptable engagement ring. No problem if the money is at hand, but too many couple start their lives in debt try to conform to such conditioning. While the ring itself may not be financed, but many of the new household’s durable goods may be, if the cash went to the ring first.

  2. My two cents on this, the ring doesn’t matter is the effort that he went thru to come up with something original that she will appreciate. For all what I know, he may get her a diamond ring later.

    Another way of expressing your geeky love: My friend married during defcon wearing a white baseball hat saying white hacker and she wore the black one. This was years ago when defcon was still in alexis park, and they still happily married.

  3. Hack a Day really needs to do something about the trolling in their comments (and lately their posts). Holy crap.

    Next time I make a video for one of my projects it’s ending with a statement on this.

    It seems like the worst of it is composed of those who can’t (or won’t) build things, but instead like to put down the work of others. I’m sick of it.

  4. We don’t censor stupid. We delete stuff that is spam, or extremely offensive.

    Leaving someone’s stupid comment there is almost better punishment.

    I think we all agree that “bob”‘s comment has no value, but it will remain.

  5. Friend of mine a few years back spent a couple months straight working and re-working a ring design for an engagement ring in wax — he had never done any sort of carving/shaping. He ended up coming up with a design. After coming up with probably 12 different decent-looking designs (some to fit a stone, some just a band), he decided on one and presented a plastic (I think, I may be wrong) positive to his girlfriend (he didn’t have the money to afford to get it casted, yet, as a poor grad student). It wasn’t perfect (it was made by hand by a dedicated but inexperienced individual, after all), and it actually didn’t quite fit right. She accepted before he even told her that he was saving to get an actual casting of it made (which she ended up telling him not to do, ’cause he really didn’t have the money). They ended up getting married about a year after, and last time I saw her she was still wearing that prototype on a chain. Her wedding ring actually ended up being a jeweler’s cast of one of the other designs he had come up with, slightly modified so it actually fit.

  6. The way he went about it (with making the ring and all) is what really matters. Although, if it were me, I would have used a different medium, like a small block of precious metal, a CNC machine, and a rock I hounded and cut/polished myself.

  7. Thats awesome! I wish I had the free time to hack a gameboy game or make my woman a ring, though in the near future perhaps I will. I love working with stones and perhaps I can come up with something.

    Hack away!

  8. @bob you’ve clearly missed the point, it was something he made for me. It was very sweet and I loved it! Anyone who would turn down their love because the ring wasn’t a giant diamond doesn’t deserve the commitment. I’m guessing you don’t have your own ‘stupid bitch’ so you’re bitter. Turns out you’re the stupid bitch.

  9. @pedant- I don’t think you should think of communities as a closed circle that people are either in or out. I think they are more of a venn diagram, as it is perfectly possible that someone finds both xkcd funny and be a hacker/maker/whatever…

  10. “My two cents on this, the ring doesn’t matter is the effort that he went thru to come up with something original that she will appreciate”

    Um…he couldn’t even be bothered to make the 3D model himself. He had to have a friend do it for him, after he “sketched” the design in Gimp. When I read the description, I thought “oh, must be some intricate design, I wonder how they made an intricate design from those crappy-res FIY 3D printers”…and then I get a closer look and I see it’s about the ugliest, simplest design you could possibly come up with. How long did it take him to sketch that? 5 minutes?

  11. Is that the sound of dishes and silverware clanking together?

    -because I think Bob just got served.

    The ring is a unique and creative effort borne of love, dude.
    Don’t dis ’em for finding their thing. So few do.

    Congrats to the happy couple!
    I hope your marriage is filled with wonderful things for you both! :D

  12. now that’s funny! earlier today i thought of this creative artifact of eternal union:
    An adjustable hose clamp, instead of a ring. But made of gold/gold plated. And then for the little fastener that adjusts the size of the clamp, normally a hex bolt+phillips slot head, it would be a wing-nut-ish pin head, made of diamond.

  13. This is a very good idea, I find it romantic, and it seems to show more about the dedication on his part. Seriously if a guy or girl just goes to a jeweler that’s just money, putting you heart into something you build yourself that’s commitment.

  14. Very nice piece. It shows that you don’t have to buy a woman with a ring. The ring I gave my fiancee was actually re-made from an old ring her grandmother had given her. I had the chance to work with the jeweler and get a custom design, while not as far off the norm that everyone expects.

    Custom work takes time, even if it’s just the design. It shows you care. Who cares what material it’s made of? My fiancee wants me to buy her a cheap ring she can wear when we go rock climbing/camping/whatever. If it were PVC, she could ruin it and I’d just make her another, bigger, more intricate design.

    Congrats to the couple and may you have many years of happiness together.

    Oh, and XKCD rules!!! Guess you have to be smart enough to enjoy it :-).

  15. Nice way to gett off with a nerd:

    the moment of a friend of me and his girlfriend was on an train stion platform at a candy automat,
    he pay’d for 1 thing and got 2 his comment “whow, how crazy” was answerd with “just a luckshot” from his current girlfriend ^^

  16. LOVE IT!

    AM a fitter so i decided to get my “last” engagement ring tattoed on because i don’t wear jewellery while using/working on machinery….now it’s just another tattoo…

    Ended up he was the one to spend ALL my cash when i was away and he was just a tight loser so not all gals are after money and the expensive bling…if the right thoughts were there and he wasn’t simply being a tighty, “yes” would be the answer to a ring like that!

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