Home Fabbing

[SimonR]

http://www.fabathome.org/wiki/index.php?ti...title=Main_Page

It strikes me that a home fabbing machine would be the ultimate scratch-building tool eliminating the need for PSR. Does anybody with more time than me want to have a go at building one of these home fabbing things? It would be awesome as you could accurately, easily and repeatably make any 3D object that you could design in software.

I'm tempted...

[Hobbes]

Ah yes, I noticed that one recently. The idea is very cool, but there are two drawbacks that keep me from buying or building one:

1. The device has a very low resolution (something like 1 dot/mm). This means the parts you print need PSR anyway and you might as well cut them from plastic card to begin with.

2. You need to create a 3D model of the part you want to print. This isn't easy.

#2 could be mitigated if you had a 3D scanner.  

[elmayerle]

Interesting, very interesting.  I've worked with stereolithography at work as well as another process using lasers on sintered plastic.  Both are single material systems that have good and bad points.  At the moment, a good stereolithography system can produce quite smooth and delicate parts but the nature of the material makes them rather fragile.  Still, things are slowly improving in this area of technology.

[GTX]

Very interesting.  Once perfected, these would be the perfect whiffing tool - you want a kit of a one off oddity that no-one has heard of?  Easy.  You want to make a model of every design in one of Tony Buttler's Secret Projects books - easy!

Regards,

Greg

[SimonR]

Very interesting.  Once perfected, these would be the perfect whiffing tool - you want a kit of a one off oddity that no-one has heard of?  Easy.  You want to make a model of every design in one of Tony Buttler's Secret Projects books - easy!

Regards,

Greg

And once this technology is common we can decentralise the kit industry and just email each other designs for kits and parts that we can all produce on our home fabs. 10 years for consumer grade fabs, I reckon...

[frank2056]

There's also RepRap, which is a tad bit cheaper. It uses "friendly plastic" which is similar (but harder) to hot glue.

Neither of these machines are ready for us hobbyists, though.

Frank