I don’t know about you but the mass production of snowballs has been a fantasy of mine since I learned that snow was so much fun to throw.  And while it’s not quite the automated manufacturing I imagined, MakerBot’s snowball fabricator is certainly a step in the right direction.

Imagine a pair of scissors with two ice cream scoopers attached to the ends so that when you close the scissors, the two scoopers form a perfect sphere.  If you can picture that, you can picture the 3D printed snowball fabricator (or you could just look at the picture).

Thingiverse.com provides all the necessary plans (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:205855) and advice to manufacture your own 3D printed snowball fabricator.  Users have even provided advice and plans for producing individual parts in case something breaks (https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:217656).  Keep in mind that kids – and forty-year-old males such as myself – can be hard on plastic items…especially in the heat of battle!

You’ll notice in the picture that MakerBot has added a logo to the top of each scoop.  Cool idea but why not alter the plans and add your own signature twist:  a flaming skull (irony may be lost on the young), the Nike logo (would you still have to pay royalties?), Made in USA (for those snowball fights in foreign countries?), your name or initials (so you’ll know who to blame when someone gets snow in their eye).

So whip up an arsenal of wet white projectiles using MakerBot’s snowball fabricator and retake the throne (Snowball Fight King or Queen) this winter season.

If you want to get your hands on the snowball fabricator as soon as possible, you can also use a 3D Hub-Outlet for self-printing.

And if you don’t want to print it yourself, you can always use a professional service like Sculpteo or Shapeways – just upload the file on their server. The file lies under creative commons license.