3-D printers can take blobs of plastic and shape them into almost any object you desire. Now, thanks to open source hardware designs and enthusiastic do-it-yourselfers, these printers are increasingly popular and accessible. People are using them to fabricate iPod docks, plastic bracelets, hair clips and miniature teapots at home.

The latest is Makerbot, a 3-D printer that started shipping in April and has sold more than 200 machines.

"You put it together, and it makes things for you," says Bre Pettis, co-founder of Makerbot. "Engineers, artists, architects and designers are getting [Makerbots] to turn the things of their imagination into real, physical objects."

Makerbot also has a vibrant online community that is sharing designs and tips on how to churn out shiny little toys in just a few hours.

3-D printers can make it as easy to create small objects out of plastic as it is to print text on a sheet of paper. But until recently, they cost a few thousand dollars, putting them of the reach of crafting enthusiasts. Now a wave of open source desktop prototyping devices such as Makerbot and RepRap are trying to change that. They are fairly inexpensive and backed by a robust community that is happy to share designs, tips and mods. Hobbyists call it 'having China on your desktop.'

Makerbot is available at store.makerbot.com. It costs $750 for the basic kit and includes, among other things, three NEMA 17 motors to drive the machine; nuts, bolts, bearings, belts and pulleys to assemble it; an electronics motherboard; and a pinch-wheel extruder to shape objects. But if you want all the tools, cables and the power supply, the deluxe kit comes for $950.

Hobbyists must first assemble the Makerbot from the kit. It doesn't require much beyond a soldering iron and some basic skills, says Pettis. Most of the electronic boards are pre-assembled and soldered, so users don't have to do much beyond bolting the different parts together.

Once Makerbot is ready, it's time to start printing. Users can feed in two kinds of plastics: ABS, the same material that Lego is made of, and HDPE, which is used in milk jugs. Based on the different open source designs available, they can create anything from plastic bracelets to salt and pepper shakers. Makerbot can create things up to 4 by 4 by 6 inches.

"We have a lot of users who come up with wacky items," says Adam Mayer, a co-founder at Makerbot. "Someone printed a plug for his bath tub using the Makerbot."

One of the first objects that Mayer created for his Makerbot machine was a 'Utah teapot'. The Utah teapot is a 3-D computer model of a teapot that is a standard reference object in the computer-graphics industry, explains Mayer.

"Whenever you have a computer-graphics textbook, there's a Utah teapot in there," says Mayer. "In movies, animators will sneak in a Utah-teapot image. I wanted to add a bottom to it and turn it into an object that can be printed off the Makerbot."

Mayer's Utah teapot design has been replicated by other Makerbot users. Because the Makerbot is open source, many of the designs for the objects are available online, and users can download and modify them.

Pettis and his team have created Thingiverse, a site to share the digital designs for Makerbot-created objects. Some ideas there can border on the bizarre. A Creative Commons–licensed model of Walt Disney's head was recently uploaded to Thingiverse, combined with a model of his brain. The result is a Disney head, ready to be printed out in plastic, and in all its 3-D glory.

Last weekend, Makerbot Cupcake CNC got its own store on Etsy, an eBay-like site for handcrafted objects. The store is the first Etsy shop for 3-D printed goods, and it will carry items such as a monogrammed iPod dock.

"We will have just bot-made items in there," says Will Langford, 18, a Makerbot user and now an intern at the company. "And keeping in mind the sensibilities of Etsy users, we will have jewelery and artistic items whose prices will be based on how long it takes to print them off the machine."

For instance, an iPod dock, which takes about 30 minutes to print, is priced at $32.

Langford, 18, is one of the few users of the 3-D printers looking to take a shot at creating a business out of what has up to now been an extreme sport for hobbyists. He isn't counting on making big bucks from his Makerbot Etsy store. It's a way to get cool-looking 3-D printer products out to a larger audience, he says.

Check out more photos of Makerbot creations below.

Adam Mayer used Makerbot to create this Utah teapot.

Will Langford's iPod dock is available at the Makerbot Etsy store.

The connectors on Will Langford's wall clock were created using Makerbot.

See Also:

Top photo: Makerbot (Bre Pettis/Flickr)**

Bottom photos: Adam Mayer, Will Langford*