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Build Your Robot Online
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."
I've always had ideas and then lacked the mechinical ability to construct them. I can finally build tons of junk. If only it were free...
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For people like me, who have lots of great ideas (you'll just have to trust me on that one), but no training in how to make them a reality and somewhat of a phobia about going out and dealing with real people, this could be a really great thing, like wheelchair ramps or tin openers that're easy to use (the latter is still to be invented methinks). The accessibility of this system could potentially cause a huge increase in innovation as people who previously were intimidated and/or didn't know where to begin can now see how everything works and deal with it in a straight-forward format. It may be similar to the explosion of low-medium income individuals actively involved in share trading since that system was simplified by the internet and the costs pushed down. It might hurt the more technologically backwards machine-shops, but it'll take a long time for established businesses to move their custom elsewhere, so everyone will have time to adapt to the new competitive topography. That said, if any do go under, they probably weren't worth keeping (please don't flame me if you work in or own a struggling machine shop). I wonder if I could design and order a custom machine shop, then start my own online machine shop business.
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?
They are giving the software away anyway, so why don't they go open source? And use a standardized documented file format? They could get help from they community with enhancing and fixing their SW. Ports to Linux and Mac would be possible if there were interested users. Most people designing stuff already have CAD programs and would like to reuse their designs. Could be possible if their format was open.
Why do some companies embrace the old fashioned hoarded (M$) software model even when they have little to win and much to lose by it? Idiots! Grrrrr
)9TSS
Y'know, this sort of thing is perfect for open-source hardware projects.
Typically, if a group wants to develop a Cool New Machine, they can do the actual R&D online with CAD software and possibly build a few prototypes. However, once the design is actually done, there's nowhere else to go with it unless they can convince some hardware manufacture that it'll sell enough to justify a production run.
But now, they just need to convert the design to whatever format Pad2Pad uses and put it up for download. Anyone who wants one just needs to send in a copy and a credit card number and they're done.
This could lead to some interesting new hardware.
I think this will be a great tool for researchers at universities and companies. No longer will you have to contact the hardware group, beg and plead, and wait forever just to make a simple prototype. Instead, just send a simple an online order, and they will deliver the prototype to your doorstep.
It's interesting that for three out of four of their "sample parts," the price for ordering ten is basically the same as the price for ordering one. I mean, it's like $65 versus $80. I guess it makes sense... Doing the initial setup is probably the expensive part. Just stamping out nine more of the same thing doesn't require much more than the cost of the material.
If you can put together a decent drawing package for your parts, local machine shops might also bid the part - and possibly be more competitive. If you can find a small shop that is a bit slow on work, they will often pick up small jobs just to keep the machinists and machines working. It never hurts to get multiple quotes.
"Uh... yeah, Brain, but where are we going to find rubber pants our size?" --Pinky
Having tried such services I'd like to offer my insights into this matter: The "cool factor" of being able to design parts on your computer at home, wait a few days, then have them show up at your door in physical form is undeniable. However, anyone who has actually used these services knows that "cool" comes at a price. Specifically, a very high one. In some cases, for the same amount of money one of these services would charge, you could buy all the materials and tools to do it yourself. However, many people have special designs that would be nearly impossible to produce even in the most well-equipped home workshop, including designs using very thick or tough materials, or those which require precise computer-controlled machining. The situation in the case of printed circuit boards is similar. You usually end up paying at least $40 per board for commercial services, while for most applications, for the same $40 you could make 20 boards on your own (copper-clad board can be had for $0.02 per square inch if you know where to look, and the chemicals are pretty cheap too). The big difference is quality. Professionally-made boards can have smaller, closer traces, multiple layers, through-plated vias, and more precisely-aligned holes. It's up to you to decide whether it's worth the extra money to have your items made professionally.
First off, I am a machinist.
There are several other companies that do exactly what emachineshop.com does, and you can probably find them listed somewhere at Modern Machine Shop.
I prefer to either buy Chinese, or work with a small local shop that can cater to my needs. The small local shop will probably be very expensive though. A part that costs $200 from emachineshop or similar, could (but not always) cost double that from a smaller local shop.
Machine shop rates in the USA have been around $60 to $90 per hour since about the 1970's...and no, that's not adjusted for inflation. What that means is that the costs for getting things made have dropped off quite a lot in the USA, due to CNC machines and their automation abilities, as well as deeply declining wages for skilled machinists - Yep, you guessed it, if you were making $10/hour as a machinist in 1970, you're STILL making $10/hour in 2004. On top of that, compared to the 1970's, the taxes and cost of living are higher too.
A one-off part that might cost you $200 in the USA could probably be had for maybe $30 from China. The reasons for this aren't simple...You can't say Americans are lazy, or the Chinese are smarter, or anything like that. My opinion is that the USA is terribly inefficient, and it's economy is being pissed away in one way or another by the goverment, and it's poor policies, all the way down to the individual level. The result is that, despite our technical know-how and hard-working tradition, the USA isn't very competitive with other nations. We have high taxes, high unemployment, low standards of living relative to our wealth, and lots of well-paid lawyers. As far as I know, despite our amazing potential and ability, America isn't a clear world leader in anything anymore, except military might (which is fading too).
For a real world example, in one area that I used to work, there were 3 machine shops. One of them had been in it's location since the 1950's and was competitive in it's pricing, and consequently, was doing quite well. One of their contracts was for making Petzl Carabiners. The second machine shop dealt heavily with government contracts, and was paid top-dollar for even simple work, and had no fear of competition. The third machine shop was only about 5 years old, privately owned, and it struggled to survive continuously. It was the last new machine shop left in the area, as all the others were already out of business.
The second machine shop, with it's steady diet of government contracts is not terribly interesting, since it's obvious why it's a success. So, I'll just tell you why the Old Shop was doing well, and the New Shop was not. Basically, the city where they were located had enacted some building regulations several years ago that required all of the buildings to be "pretty". Meaning, landscaping, fancy brick, etc, etc. So, the Old Shop was basically just a corrugated steel warehouse, that despite it's size, only cost about $20,000, and was paid-for decades ago (I asked the owner, that's what he told me). The New Shop did similar work, but it was in a fancy brick building, with city-imposed landscaping, etc.. That building cost over $100,000, and was maybe half to 3/4 the size of the Old Shop across the street. On top of this, since the property that the New Shop rested on was so pretty, it had a higher value than the industrial-looking property that the Old Shop rested on, so the New Shop had to pay substantially higher property taxes.
I made some custom medical test equipment in the New Shop, and part of the order was for some little clamps that were to be used to pull on bandages to test the strength of the adhesive. The parts were simple, but we charged the customer about $1600 for each clamp. The really sad thing is that no one bothered to tell the customer that they could do the same thing with an off the shelf clamp from home depot that cost $4.