Slashdot Mirror
Open-Source 3D Printer Lets Users Make Anything
An anonymous reader writes "Picture a 3D inkjet printer that deposits droplets of plastic, layer by layer, gradually building up an object of any shape. Fabbers have been around for two decades, but they've always been the pricey playthings of high-tech labs — and could only use a single material. A Fab at Home kit costs around $2400 and allows users to print anything from Hors d'Oeuvres to flashlights."
You probably remember discussing this almost a year ago. Enjoy more on this at that coverage of the same story.
My work here is dung.
This thing will be like the Betamax once there are nanotech vats which will enable anyone to create anything as long as they have raw material i.e. household trash and whatnot.
If the price was more reasonable I'm certain people would be falling over themselves but considering the sticker shock of $2400 it just drives home the point that the technology isn't ready for prime-time and at best it'll be a curiosity in the future.
Figured I'd save people from typing the search in...
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=penis+3d+model&btnG=Google+Search
Slashdotted!
...until it can print another 3D printer.
Apparently it won't let them print more servers
>;k
Just as classical painters used to mix semen with their paints, basement dwelling slashbots like me can now put one of our favorite pastimes to good use.
"This printer prints like... SHIT."
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Can it make a spider-shaped object? Specifically, one in which all of the feet touch the ground, but the torso and head of the spider are above the feet (suspended by the legs), and the knees of the legs are above the torso and head of the spider?
You can't make that layer-by-layer in a single pass. You have to make the feet first, go all the way up to the knees, and then back down to the body.
Can it do that?
Useless until they don't get to atomic structure level, only then will our "Wired Science" fantasies be fulfilled.
the plastic storage container manufacturers of america have sent out their subpoena's against the first batch of kids "stealing" their products.
VLC FOR MAC IS DYING! IF YOU DEVELOP, PLEASE SAVE IT!!
Could make toys on demand!
This is my sig.
Im printing me a new liver :)
where's that beer....
Dang, I thought this was a dupe but then I remembered that I read it in Popular Mechanics weeks ago in print. The idea is very cool and hopefully the price for Fabbers will fall even more. I'm wondering though, can this thing lay out designes that have 90 degree turns in them? How would it lay down plastic on air?
Er, yes. You could, actually. Just make sure you clean it when your done, if you really want to do that.
I could think of more... constructive things to do with it, but each to his/her own.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
very neat, but it seems like they're hampered by materials. (silicone adhesive is the most permanent of what i've seen with these types of machines) does anyone have any recommendations for more permanent but still liquidish-at-deposition options? plaster of paris? ultra-fine concrete?
http://kered.org
I'd like to see a mode that allows the fab printer to automatically plot a mold for an object. You could then use the mold to create copies from more durable plastic.
Or . . . offer a special easy-to-melt plastic "ink" so you can use the fab to create the forms for lost-wax casting. That way you can make molds for metal objects.
But just imagine there was a project for an open source self-replicating machine ...
"[RepRap] has been called the invention that will bring down global capitalism, start a second industrial revolution and save the environment..."
I've always thought something like this could be awesome for all sorts of geeky pastimes. Need an army for Warhammer 40k? Need a horde of orcs for D&D? Missing a piece to your favorite board game? You can print out an army, toss them back, then print out a new one the next day.
You are reading a copy of my copyrighted post.
Yeah, but does it run Linux?
...
Make machine that can fab other products.
Make fab that can fab other fab machines.
Profit!!!
I for one, welcome our new fab overlords.
I think I got them all out of my system. Those jokes never get old, in fact I think they are quite fab!
http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
Can already do this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanning_tunneling_microscope
Maybe someone will use the basic technology to produce some sort of fabber.
Deleted
Am I the only one who read that last line as fleshlight instead of flashlight?
This is just an illustration, that manufacturing is a solved problem. Design, research, and development is where the minds and ideas are or should be going.
The growing emphasys on the Intellectual Property — the kind, that can be stolen by simple copying (thus leaving the original owner, seemingly, unhurt) — is another illustration of the same trend, like it or not.
In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
Horses can keep their darned douvres in the field where they belong. I ain't going near them without wellington boots. Now don't get me started on cows...
Stick Men
Too bad I can't load their site lol....Even the google cache is taking ages
ImagePut - Free, Simple, Fast Image Hosting
I didn't see the cell phones fit with transistors and batteries, but the hexagonal silicone thingies convinced me completely that this is possible
I think I'd prefer a small bench top CNC setup. Etch plastic, metal, wood, assemble machined parts into working contraptions - seems more useful than a plastic blob printer.
Can you imagine a self-replicating beowulf cluster of these? A beowulf cluster cluster!
A RepRap machine costs less than $500 in parts, though it does require a lot more assembly work.
-deane
More fabbers! Then I'd use those to fab more fabbers. Once I've got enough fabbers to produce a mole of fabbers per yoctosecond, I would start fabbing baby monkeys, and those monkeys would be cute. Soon, the space will be so dense with cuteness that it will collapse into an adorable singularity with a Kitten Radius exceeding that of the earth.
As it has been foretold.
"... for a second, I could have sworn I read 'flashlight' in the summary as 'fleshlight'"
You need to print yourself up some new glasses.
Kevin Smith on Prince
If it can't self-replicate, it's useless.
That site listed British Pounds, not dollars.
Still cheaper and cool - I like the idea of being able to add conductive threads in objects.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
But all I got was a wooden goblet filled with a hard resin-like substance not like tea.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
3dsystems.com desktopfactory.com zcorp.com stratasys.com and countless others
This technology is limited by the process and the materials required by the process limitations. And they do make molds for the lost wax process already.
I, for one, welcome our self-replicating overlords!
Seems like you could make some really intricate hard candies with such a machine. It'd have to be cheaper, though.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
The ability to produce as many miniatures as you want, simply by providing the raw materials and a 3d specification.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Yeah, but does it run Linux?
No, it's BSD. But the fabricated duplicates are Gentoo.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
and a girlfriend...
Yet another reason why biometric ID cards are nonsense!
Read a person's fingerprints etc, ideally remotely from an RFID passport, but more likely by hacking an official reader. Then 3D fabricate copies. No need to hack off their fingers now.
...till law enforcement finds out
Not to meander too off topic or anything, but given that misreading, perhaps there was truth to that old warning that I'd go blind if...
(Pay no attention to the fact that I have to shave my palms...)
Instead of and additive "printer" I have built a subtractive "printer" (aka CNC milling machines) http://images.myonlinesite.com/cnc/ http://images.myonlinesite.com/cnc_mill/ misc pictures / vids EMC2 (open source) happens to be the brain behind my machines.
'...and raise you one "Way way cool, might make everyone immortal."'
Of course, there are some who wouldn't enjoy being rich or immortal if everyone were so; they can go die then, the poor things.
'I have been told that Isaac has discovered, and will now reveal to me, the Secret of Immorality!'
[Whisper, whisper, whisper]
'Oh. Well, that wouldn't be bad either...."
----half-rememberèdly stolen from Book two[?] of Neal Stephenson's Baroque Trilogy.
How much will this "ink" cost???
Or can you print some new ink and turn it into the infinite cycle???
Sorry if this was in the article. The read was /.-ed.
I prefer the laser equivalent of this, stereolithography. It is faster and more precise.
Some fancy pictures.
Home Surgery Made Simple
http://lists.internetgremlin.com/pipermail/fridayfunny/2001-May/000036.html
There's much misplaced enthusiasm for stereolithography machines. They're useful and fun, but not a panacea. It's inherently a slow process, and far more expensive than injection moulding if you're making many copies. The amateur stereolithography machine from this latest Popular Mechanics article is neither novel nor particularly good; I've seen similar machines before. Pushing some viscous liquid out of a syringe isn't one of the better approaches.
If you want to try a stereolithography machine, and you're in the SF Bay Area, there's one available at TechShop in Menlo Park. Rates are very reasonable if you join TechShop. That machine makes hard ABS plastic objects with smooth surfaces, tough enough to be used as working parts. The machine probably won't be in use.
This has become a standard way to make prototypes of product designs, but it's not a production technology.
Can we use latex "ink" cartridges?
You could probably print a Bush mask. He's a bit of a cunt.
Is sugar good enough?
Call me when I'm able to print out a fully functional iPod, and I don't need to assemble it...
A new way to destroy earth... death by printers!
Well, if you come to my place around 9ish we can make our own open source self-replicating machine Giggidy giggidy
[Intentionally left blank]
What the heck? Troll? This was a legitimate response... Jackasses.
...use a UV-cured plastic. This would eliminate the problem of the silicone not getting exposed enough to the air it needs for curing. Use something like the amalgam-replacement epoxy used by dentists. If fabbed at the right speed, with the right amount of UV during the fab process, it might even be able to support itself, eliminating the need for "support materials."
BTW, modern high-output single-LED flashlights like SureFire's new ones, require a fair amount of heatsinking to prevent the LED's regulator from going out of regulation. A decent fabbed flashlight is going to need some way to get rid of the heat; silicone or epoxy isn't going to cut it.
"I might have made a tactical error in not going to a physician for 20 years." -- Warren Zevon
People are seriously working on the 3D printing of human organs using living cells
Computer, Earl Grey, Hot!
The first personal computers...
http://www.blinkenlights.com/pc.shtml
They all started looking like this thing. Someone will develop a better media, multiple colours, multiple media, a more accurate nozzle, finer motor control, better software etc etc. They might well turn out to be the next Hewlett or Packard.
Deleted
How "Necessary" is this technology for the average joe? I can see the applications for small businesses being good, but what could you or I do with such a device(Outside of printing off some kickass Warhammer 40k armies!)?
Might save some altar boys from posterior stretching while you're at it. ;)
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
someone had to say it
Here's another similar project I heard about... in open source fashion, people that build these machines are supposed to print parts to help others build their own. http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome
I must ask how the shapes are rendered. Is there support for the big CAD packages like Pro/E, Catia, or Solid Works? As cool as this is, it would be very tedious to code the movements for a complex shape manually.
The technology presented here is good for 'the above average geek with a little extra time on his hands'. I thought long and hard as to whether this particular project would be worth the effort, for several months. My conclusion from an Industrial Engineering perspective is that you can only produce some very crude products with this kind of equipment due to the very loose tolerances with which you can squeeze out of a tube. No matter how hard you try to keep the line of ooze accurate, you are going to make a very rough edge on any product you try to squeeze out of the toothpaste tube. The better answer is to look at catalytic reactions under the higher frequencies of light, lasers, so that the tolerances can be kept to very high standards. The higher the frequency, the shorter the wavelength, thus the better the finish of the surface of the final product. Given a high enough frequency one could manipulate individual nano-particles into place and then solidify a catalytic substrate to permanently bond the structure into place. This would give you the ability to assemble many unforeseen compounds into structures that have properties that we can only dream of today. There would be no end to the possibilities if we could do this on the most accurate scale possible. Imagine a solar panel array being printed where almost every wavelength of light permeating the earths atmosphere could be captured and rectified into a constant usable voltage. no matter what wavelength. That in itself would be a very life altering event. Even a hypodermic needle will never give that kind of control. Lasers are much more accurate than paint brushes or tooth paste tubes.
Back when I was young (and you probably weren't born), the idea of most families having the technology to reproduce any printed material in full colour might have seemed cool but useless. Now we merrily print out photos, calendars, party invitations, assignments, sales brochures, banknotes...
So I'm very excited at these first attempts at being able to make anything we want at home. Just for starters, imagine the warehouses of odd plastic parts scattered around the world being replaced by a searchable database of files that you just google for, and "print" out. I live in a small town in the middle of nowhere, and am constantly frustrated by having to get some simple lump of plastic sent from a bigger town several days later.
Real example - a few weeks ago the plastic button broke on our toaster. Rather than ditching it and buying a new one, I googled for the part and got it sent from overseas - three weeks and $10 for a 10c bit of plastic.
I very much doubt if war game figures are going to be the killer app for this technology - sit down with some friends and some beers, and in half an hour you'll have come up with a lot more exciting ideas.
Do as you would be done to.
I was pretty excited by this as earlier reported, but looking into it for a while, realized that you can't do precision fabbing with one of these el cheapo machines, not yet. The blobs/droplets are too big and the stepper motors spec'd at this price don't have the accuracy either. This will improve with time but 'not yet'.
I can make *anything*? I've been waiting for years for a transwarp drive.
First image that jumped into my head was a perfectly uniformed Prussian corps for Might and Reason - even to the point of visualising a simple bash script to generate sets of figures with the correct regimental facing colors hot off the fab.
....the Dutch and Spanish. All with perfect unblemished and unscratchable 'paint jobs'.
.. but geez, 90% of the work is done for you already.
A few simple tweaks, and you have yourself a group of Austrian corps, Russians, the Swedes, the French and their dastardly Swiss/Irish mercenary allies
For WW1,2/modern figures - by applying the same principles that procedural graphics use to generate pseudo-random scenery, it would be possible to generate, say, 10,000 perfectly painted infantry figures, where no 2 figures are exactly alike. They would obviously need basing, some weathering, dry brushing and matte coating afterwards
Lets not forget that for miniatures & modelling fanatics, spending $300 on an alps printer to do custom decals is already a bargain. Spending $800 on a half decent camera to photo them is also cheap. Investing $5000+ per year on new kits and figures is normal. So spending $2500 on a computer controlled infinite painted figure generator is truly and utterly droolworthy.
This is truly worth murdering your neighbours over in order to get your hands on one.
Fortunately (for my neighbours), the resolution and quality of the existing fabathome kit isnt quite there yet to go nuts and start replacing real 15mm metal miniatures. Its good enough for Chees houses already, but pro quality 15mm armies isnt practical yet. So, good neighbours - sleep well tonight, but know that its only a matter of time before cost effective DIY fabrication reaches a tipping point, after which your lives will be worthless.
If they had a fabber that could make fabbing machines it would pry cut down on the 3k price tag.. Too expensive for my taste but eventually the open source movement will creep into the physical world with the help of devices like these :)
Let me know when it can print nano-meter scale transisters or a new car/space ship.
And then, if you use the candyfab thingy that everyone's linking... you could EAT any miniatures that are killed in combat! Now we're getting somewhere! :D
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
... nerd prints himself a girlfriend.
Have gnu, will travel.
While it is neat with DIY open-source gear, I just want to drop by and tell that 3D printing has been around for decades.
It's called Rapid Prototyping, and you can get a professional grade machine for say $20k. There are several different technologies depending on how good and expensive you need your prototype to be, from crude and ugly porous blocks (FDM, LOM) to samples that are good enough to replace the real thing (EBM, SLS).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapid_prototyping
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_Printing
An industrial system can produce parts with higher tolerances than the machines themselves have, otherwise we could never have created any tool more precise than a chipped stone knife.
Right now, our industrial infrastructure is a self-replicating system. To avoid that error propagation you mention, there are different levels of precision. Metal parts are cast in molds that have relatively rough tolerances and are later machined with high precision tools.
To get an idea on how it's possible to "bootstrap" an industrial infrastructure starting from very simple and primitive tools, take a look at this book series.
All we need now is a 3D CAD application that's affordable for hobbyists, both in $$$ and in time investment. Google SketchUp is a good start, but it's not there yet:
I recently came across a company that offers a 3D printing service. Unfortunately, Google SketchUp can't export to any of the CAD file formats accepted by Printapart.
That's kinda the plot of John Sladek's SF classic The Reproductive System.
Umm, without the Open Source part.
Good book though.
What I want to know is why I can't by a simple 100$ DVD Burner changer/kit the just picks up a disk, puts it in the tray and popus it out when done. The cheapest ones around cost at least 600$. This seems like it would be ripe for a DIY kit. And the nice thing about DIY kits: No patents to worry about.
http://blog.slaingod.com
Try it!
Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
... plastic can fabricate you.
Z-Corp are producing (printing?) 3D printers and they use a bath of powder instead of deposition. This has the advantage that you don't need to print supports any more. They also have a colour printer (inkjet I think). They have some nice videos of their 3D printers.
Resin 3-D sculptures are the cheap alternative to ceramic, wax and plastic models, and they are stronger, just as light, and don't break as easily. Why can't a replicator be made for home use out of resin ingredients?
I'm speaking for the slashdot community when I ask this question.
How long will it be before I can print me a girl friend?
But can they print Kelly LeBrock?
Yet another technology forecast by Star Trek.
Which always prought up the philosophical issue why it couldn't replicate a living human being if it was good enough. Like ad-hoc restrictions that it cant do living matter (yet it could do food bio-molecues) etc.
just make sure to get lots of additional KY.
So cool! And the artist uses her programming skills to make the software do what she wants! I forwarded that link to my scientist and artist buddies.
Now, if only I hadn't just blown my spending money on a new router and hard disk...
As soon as someone breaks into the home market and sets standards for the type of material used, I'm going to invent a way to recycle that material and sell it back to users. After all, computer printers haven't exactly led to a decrease in the amount of paper used.