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MakerBot Thing-o-Matic 3D Printer Assembly, In Pictures
ConMotto writes "After an estimated 16 man-hour assembly effort, these are some of the first high-quality user photographs of the Thing-o-Matic 3D printer and completed component assemblies, released December, 2010 by MakerBot. The Thing-o-Matic is a commercial-supported open source 3D printer (similar to the RepRap), allowing hardware hackers to print their own 3D objects out of Lego-like plastic."
This is the kind of thing that makes me wish I were unemployed, or retired, or at a different phase in my life when I just plain had more free time to play with cool shit.
If libertarians are so opposed to effective government, why don't they all move to Somalia?
'Cuz they know the server will collapse within minutes.
The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
Too bad none of those 3d printers can print a copy of themselves. Create one that does and is programmable and uses genetic algorithms and you've created the first form of synthetic "life." More sophisticated ones can become the basis of an entirely new kind of economy.
Sigs are too short to say anything truly profound so read the above post instead.
Awesome! Damm this post is going to cost me a ton of time.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/prestonlee/sets/72157625613518344/show/
The determined Real Programmer can write Fortran programs in any language.
... is here. (Pretty Sure.)
"Here's a quarter, kid. Buy yourself a decent server."
-Sean
I really love to see these types of projects using other open hardware, such as the Arduino. I cringe whenever I see some simple project that requires a bunch of custom electronics. I mean, in the software world, it doesn't really matter if you want to waste time creating yet-another-library for your app. But in meatspace, people can only afford to have so many little pieces of custom electronics and your motor controller probably doesn't justify a completely custom circuit.
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
It just needs to be made entirely out of materials that are available to it. I don't think metal would be easy to come by for a machine like this. Or plastic, for that matter. The mining/manufacturing process is too difficult.
People get freaked out by the idea of replicators, but what the hell are WE? Or any life form, for that matter? The simplest ones can survive on light or heat or chemical energy alone, and as long as there is energy and a few new necessary building blocks about (C, O, N etc in various forms) a lot of types of bacteria will happily replicate indefinitely!!
All this grey goo and nanotech rubbish is pure paranoia! It has already happened! It's life, dammit!
I've got mod points tonight but I'm going to post instead. Take a look at this link http://craphound.com/makers/ for an interesting scifi spin on what the OP is thinking about. Free download available - its a good read.
. waterwingz
For those that want to make chainmail, (the metal stuff knights wore) I make and sell a very cool tool for that:
http://www.ringinator.com/
Now if somebody could create a precise 3D milling machine that would trim that thing to precise tolerances . . . NOW that would be something!
If you had a precise 3D milling machine, you could replace many of the functions of a 3D printer.
They're basically the same thing; one adds material that looks like a chess piece, the other removes material that doesn't look like a chess piece.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
Unless you work in HVAC, then it's like rocket science... Unless you're a rocket scientist, in which case it's like brain surgery... Unless you're a brain surgeon, etc...
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DRM is like antifreeze, to the MPAA/RIAA it's sweet, to the consumers it's poison.
"In the 1980s there was a popular series of books on how to make a very simple low budget foundry, how to use that to make the basics of a lathe, how to use that lathe to improve parts and make it a better lathe and how to use that to make a two axis milling machine.
Anybody remember those and the author or titles?"
http://www.lindsaybks.com/
The Dave Gingery book set.
...until it is able to print with any arbitrary material. Oh wait, yes it can, because "number of dimensions" and "materials of construction" have NO CONNECTION.
A 3d printer produces prototypes out of many little dabs of plastic.
Those prototypes won't be nearly as strong as the same thing cut out of a single piece of plastic (or Injection molded).
That said there are many things that are impossible to machine that can be made by this category of machines.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
The problem with CNC is they are all 2.5d which all too often is a showstopper.
These 3D printers can do real 3D printouts even with fully overhanging pieces, with little help: they first print a "scaffolding" from an easily-removable material, then print actual part on top of that with final material, then you remove the "scaffolding" by heating, washing with a solvent or even just breaking it off.
(still, as I look at the resolution, I'm not very impressed. The UV-hardening resin 3D printer made of an LCD display between a tub of the resin and an UV lamp seemed much more subtle and precise, and likely faster too (printing a whole layer at once instead of just a point). And yep, it could print real 3D too, display gray area on the LCD, making the resin stick but not harden for "scaffolding" bit that can be removed by strong water jet).
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
CNC mills cannot cut internal structures.
This is a task for which a 3d printer shines.
"Lame" - Galaxar