Desktop fabricator may kick-start home revolution

[schmosef]

http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn10922-desktop-fabricator-may-kickstart-home-revolution.html

I first saw this on slashdot.

I've always wanted one of these.

I'm going to look into making one.

[Dr Mordrid]

Me want

[schmosef]

This looks like the project home page: http://www.fabathome.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

[Jessterw]

Dan and I were just discussing these and we'd both like to see a more stable setup that offers better precision and control (among other things), but these are still pretty cool and a definite step in the right direction.

At my last job I got a chance to play with more industrial versions on a few projects. Small shop just south of here has a nice setup and machine that we used to do prototypes with. Would love to have one of those in my garage

[Fat Tone]

Add a cheap 3-D laser scanner and start copying things. I could have used one last week when the drive cog on a food-processor liquidiser attachment snapped in two.

[Brian Ellis]

Add a cheap 3-D laser scanner and start copying things. I could have used one last week when the drive cog on a food-processor liquidiser attachment snapped in two.

You didn't have the right gear? Wouldn't it be easier to get a replacement gearwheel from the maker?

[Fat Tone]

It needed a whole new base (the glass bowl was still ok), costing around £20. Its an OLD Kenwood Chef (701 series) and they don't make them like that any more - very heavily built. I don't see the new part lasting anywhere near as long as the old one.

OK, you'd need an awful lot of broken cogs before it became more cost effective to make your own, but that's not always the point. I bet if a lot of photo printer owners did the maths based on their actual usage they'd find they were better off using a printing service.

[GNEP]

Ha - funny you mention that Tony - our 35+ year old Kenwood Chef broke as well over Christmas - one of the gears I think - we asked at the local (traditional) electritical shop, and they definitely agreed that we should do anything we possibly could to fix it - they last pretty much forever if you take care of them, and the newer ones have the built-in obsalescence that makes more business sense for the manufacturers (and no, I'm not being sarcastic).

[Fat Tone]

I'm with you there.

Partsmaster do a lot of the more common bits for them (seals etc), but eBay came to our rescue this time.

That was actually my parents machine. We just replaced my wifes food processor of 15 years old (also a Kenwood) with a new Kenwood (FP720 or something like that). It was reduced to £70. What we liked about it was the fact that it is still top-drive, so no giant shaft up the middle of your mixing bowl, just a little stub at the bottom to centre the tool. It also weighs a reasonable amount and the liquidizer is glass and the mixing bowl appears pretty sturdy. It has some storage built in for the various chopping blades, but you still need plenty of drawer space for the rest of the attachments.

[schmosef]

Dan and I were just discussing these and we'd both like to see a more stable setup that offers better precision and control (among other things), but these are still pretty cool and a definite step in the right direction.

At my last job I got a chance to play with more industrial versions on a few projects. Small shop just south of here has a nice setup and machine that we used to do prototypes with. Would love to have one of those in my garage

One thing I'm not clear on, and I'm hoping that you can explain JW, is whether these machines could possibly fab a part that goes from a thin vertical shape to a wide horizontal shape. For example, could it fab a 3D capital letter "T"? Would you have to fab the T upside down? If so, what about a shape that was wide at the top and bottom but narrow in the middle? Is that not possible? What kind of mods would have to be made to make it possible?

[Sasq]

try this wiki page for some of those answers...

http://www.fabathome.org/wiki/index.php?title=Fab%40Home:Deposition_Tools

[gt40]

Looks very interesting.
Once I see a fairly stable design I would definetly look at building one - probably out of aluminum for more rigidity, and adding servos instead of steppers - for better accuracy.

[ND66]

One thing I'm not clear on, and I'm hoping that you can explain JW, is whether these machines could possibly fab a part that goes from a thin vertical shape to a wide horizontal shape. For example, could it fab a 3D capital letter "T"? Would you have to fab the T upside down? If so, what about a shape that was wide at the top and bottom but narrow in the middle? Is that not possible? What kind of mods would have to be made to make it possible?

I'm not sure on how good this toy is but I've seen many of those real 3D printers in action in the last several years.
Let me put it this way, in the emergency room they have a patient with crashed jaw for example. Few 3D x-rays later and several hours on the printer, the surgeon is holding in his hand the actual (crashed!) jaw, so he can think of what he’s going to do after he cuts thru the skin…. .

Great stuff.

[schmosef]

try this wiki page for some of those answers...
http://www.fabathome.org/wiki/index....position_Tools

I didn't see anything specifically answering my questions on that page.

I infer that the approach with the most shape flexibility is the "lasers/submersion in liquid plastic" approach. Am I correct?

I'm specifically asking about high end 3D printers. How do they accomplish complex shapes?

[schmosef]

I'm not sure on how good this toy is but I've seen many of those real 3D printers in action in the last several years.
Let me put it this way, in the emergency room they have a patient with crashed jaw for example. Few 3D x-rays later and several hours on the printer, the surgeon is holding in his hand the actual (crashed!) jaw, so he can think of what he’s going to do after he cuts thru the skin…. .

Great stuff.

That sounds amazing.