bre pettis

6 Articles

[Bre Pettis] Buys Other Machine Co.

May 24, 2017 by 48 Comments

Other Machine Co., manufacturer of the very capable and very cool OtherMill Pro CNC machine, has been acquired by [Bre Pettis], former CEO of MakerBot. Under the terms of the acquisition, current CEO of Other Machine Co, Dr. Danielle Applestone, will remain in charge of the company.

We have a love affair with the OtherMill here at Hackaday. We have a few of them kicking around the Design Lab, and they’re great. Six mil traces are possible, and the OtherMill is a very reliable machine. We’ve taken a look at the OtherMill manufacturing process and liked what we saw, and we’ve invited [Danielle Applestone] to talk about the quest for the highest precision per dollar.

Of course, the newsworthy item for this, ‘rich guy buys a company’ story is who acquired the company. [Pettis] is most famous for being one-third of the original MakerBot team, a position that netted him about $130 Million after Stratasys acquired MakerBot. Stratasys’ acquisition of MakerBot has made a lot of people angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move. The history of MakerBot is not written yet, but the general consensus is that [Pettis] only played a very limited role in the downfall of MakerBot and desktop 3D printing as a whole.

Since leaving MakerBot for greener pastures, [Pettis] has put his money to work; he’s also an investor in the laser cutter startup Glowforge. While Glowforge has seen its share of troubles including a ridiculous policy on field-replaceable laser tubes, and perpetual delays for production units, Glowforge will be shipping soon. It’s unclear how the Glowforge will ultimately be received. But [Pettis’] continues to put his money where his mouth is (and into hardware startups) with this acquisition of Other Machine Co..

An Interview With Bre Pettis, Founder Of MakerBot Industries

October 8, 2011 by 16 Comments

For those of you that don’t know, the Makerbot is a 3D printer created by Bre Pettis. It is probably the best-known 3D printer that you can buy at a price point meant for the hobbyist. Although this article doesn’t go into how the MakerBot is made, it focuses instead about the business itself and the man behind it. Bre was a hobbyist maker just like many of our readers, but decided to turn his passion into a successful business.

Although not all businesses are a success, Bre has made quite a start at becoming one. His company now employs 50 people and is currently hiring (like this posting for a “Web Warrior”) and has just secured $10 million in venture capital funding! Check out the full interview for all the details. It may inspire others to go from “hobby maker” to “professional.”

For other 3D printing-related posts, check out this one about the RepRap printer which is capable of replicating itself. For other ways to make your own parts, this rotomold machine may be of interest or this semi-DIY CNC router.

CES Update: CES Badges

January 9, 2010 by 8 Comments

In a previous post we had given one of our badges out to [Bre Pettis] at the MakerBot booth. We have been called the “Skull Guys” around CES and were stopped multiple times by people that did not know of this site. [Bre] got an extra of the size we are wearing around. [Leo Laporte] received the very first prototype which he promptly placed in his mouth. The badges are made from natural ABS plastic in [Devlin]’s CupCake CNC machine. There will be a post-CES follow-up with the release of the STL files to make the badge on Thingiverse as well as a step-by-step breakdown of the build process.

Blinkenlights’ Stereoscope Goes Live In Toronto

October 4, 2008 by 7 Comments

We’re happy to present this guest post from History Hacker’s [Bre Pettis]. Today [Bre] catches up with the Blinkenlights team, who turn entire buildings into displays. Their current project is Stereoscope which goes live in Toronto, Canada today.

Earlier this week, I posted about the beginnings of the blinkenlights project. It started in 2001 in Berlin, but now Seven years later, in May 2008, blinkenlights is back. The City of Toronto asked the blinkenlights team if they would be interested in joining another Nuit Blanche (as they did in Paris in 2002). Short on time and with a lot of ambition, they decided to redesign and push the envelope on the project to make it wireless for The Toronto City Hall since there would be 960 windows split up in two towers. In the above photo, you can see Stereoscope in all its glory. Continue reading “Blinkenlights’ Stereoscope Goes Live In Toronto” →

History Hacker Show Pilot Tonight

September 26, 2008 by 48 Comments

[Bre Pettis], the former host of the Make podcast and member of NYCResistor has gotten his own show.  Debuting tonight on the History Channel, “History Hacker” will be exploring our technological past through hacking.  He reminds us on his site, this is just the pilot, it has to get ratings to have more episodes. [Bre] suggests watching it with the family as it should be educational and fascinating.  Catch it tonight at 8pm and midnight.