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Build Your Robot Online

Posted by michael on from the have-it-your-way dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Ever needed a custom part for a robot, case mod or hardware hack but lacked the tools or a machineshop to make one for you? Ever needed a custom circuit board? Well, PC Magazine's Bill Machrone writes about a few websites, Emachineshop and Pad2Pad, where you use their free software to design, price, and order anything you can design with the software. This is more useful to slashdotters than 3D 'printing' technologies like rapid prototyping since you get real working parts. It looks like they support a number of machines and fabrication techniques beyond traditional machining, like plastic injection molding and waterjet. As Machrone says, this is empowering stuff. This is something that should ignite a creative spark to all you hardware tinkerers out there in Slashdot land."

6 of 170 comments (clear)

  1. My girl robot. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    /nerdy laugh

  2. I, Reboot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Courtesy of the Windows operating system.

  3. My Robot will have... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Intelligence
    Sense of humor
    Social skills
    Similar interests
    Kindness and generosity
    Compatible belief system
    Good looks
    Earning potential

    oh, and big knockers.

  4. Ph34r my l33t Honda Civic! by LesPaul75 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Imagine the new level of car mods that will be possible! Their material list includes carbon fiber, right?!?!

  5. How about out-of-print auto parts? by Atario · · Score: 2, Funny

    I have a Daweoo and getting parts for it is sometimes not easy. I wonder if they could machine a replacement brake shoe or fender for me? (I have grave doubts I could supply them with the specs, though...)

    --
    "A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
  6. Re:Do these HW companies want to be SW companies? by mollymoo · · Score: 2, Funny
    Do these two clown companies think they are selling hardware or software? They have a great hardware idea, but why ruin it all by requiring their proprietary Windows-only "easy-to-use" software?

    Yeah! Great idea! Why don't Amazon open-source their software too? Oh, wait it's because it's their fucking business. Hadn't you noticed that increasingly businesses use custom software and the sucessful ones have the best custom software? Without their software (and patents) Amazon are just another box shifter. Without this software Emachineshop is just another machine shop. Their entire fucking business model is based on rapid prototyping with their custom software. Why should they give it away?

    Damn, now I've blown my mod points for this thread. All that reading of crap at -1 gone to waste. Perhaps I should have just modded you down as the troll you are.

    --
    Chernobyl 'not a wildlife haven' - BBC News