I was a CNC machinist (mills, lathes, laser cutter, waterjet, press break, and turret punch) for 10 years and am a current Makerbot owner. For a 1 or 2 off item it takes far less time to print it on a Makerbot than it does to mill it on a CNC. I can design a fairly complicated part and print it on the Makerbot in less than half the time it takes to program the G-Code, set up the mill with the different tooling necessary, set the heights and radial offsets for each milling/drilling tool, and set the home position on a CNC mill. If you have to flip the part and machine multiple sides, rinse and repeat for each operation.
Makerbot parts are in fact very strong. I have designed radio controlled airplane engine mounts (gas engines) that are plenty strong enough to tow a plane around at 100 MPH. I also made a GoPro camera mount for my scuba diving mask.
To say that 3D printers are slow and can't make anything worth while is simply and completely false. Check out thingiverse.com sometime. While there are a lot of items on there that don't serve any purpose, look deeper and you'll find a plethora of practical and very useful items.
MakerBot is cool, but pointless and not actually useful yet for anything that matters.
You'd be surprised at how many useful things you can make with a Makerbot. I own one and have printed things like radio controlled motor mounts, a GoPro camera mount for my scuba diving mask, and a bunch of other practical and useful items. I'm also in the process of designing and printing out parts for a quad rotor helicopter.
I was also a machinist for 10 years in my previous life. When it comes to time from initial idea to finished product, the Makerbot almost always wins.
Check out POET (www.poet.com), they have a commercially viable cellulosic ethanol process up and running right now in Scotland, South Dakota and will be opening their first commercial scale cellulosic ethanol plant in 2011 in Emmetsburg, IA.
I work for a company that was invited to demonstrate and test our equipment on their corn cob bales last November at their Project Liberty Field Day. They've got the process down and are going into full swing with it.
POET (www.poet.com), the world's largest ethanol producer has had a pilot scale cellulosic ethanol plant running in Scotland, South Dakota for over a year now. I work for a company that was invited to test our equipment on their corn cob bales last November. Right now, POET has dropped their production cost to about $2.35/gal of ethanol and are in line to get the price down even more. They will be starting up a commercial scale cellulosic ethanol plant in November, 2011 in Emmetsburg, IA.
They've cut energy usage by developing enzymes to ferment the cocktail instead of having to boil it. At some plants (they have 27) they pipe vented methanol from local county landfills to provide some of their energy needs.
While reading this post I found myself wondering where the OMG!!! Ponies!!!/. theme was and had to check the date to be sure it wasn't in fact April Fools
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The first rule of kernel hacking is WE DO NOT BREAK USERSPACE!
The SECOND rule of kernel hacking is WE DO NOT BREAK USERSPACE!....
TFT 3.2" 320*240 With SD Touch Module (Arduino Compatible)
http://www.satistronics.com/tft-32-320240-with-sd-touch-module-arduino-compatible_p2888.html
or
http://www.sparkfun.com/
http://www.goodluckbuy.com/
Try this one for $29: TFT 3.2" 320*240 With SD Touch Module (Arduino Compatible) http://www.satistronics.com/tft-32-320240-with-sd-touch-module-arduino-compatible_p2888.html
I was a CNC machinist (mills, lathes, laser cutter, waterjet, press break, and turret punch) for 10 years and am a current Makerbot owner. For a 1 or 2 off item it takes far less time to print it on a Makerbot than it does to mill it on a CNC. I can design a fairly complicated part and print it on the Makerbot in less than half the time it takes to program the G-Code, set up the mill with the different tooling necessary, set the heights and radial offsets for each milling/drilling tool, and set the home position on a CNC mill. If you have to flip the part and machine multiple sides, rinse and repeat for each operation. Makerbot parts are in fact very strong. I have designed radio controlled airplane engine mounts (gas engines) that are plenty strong enough to tow a plane around at 100 MPH. I also made a GoPro camera mount for my scuba diving mask. To say that 3D printers are slow and can't make anything worth while is simply and completely false. Check out thingiverse.com sometime. While there are a lot of items on there that don't serve any purpose, look deeper and you'll find a plethora of practical and very useful items.
MakerBot is cool, but pointless and not actually useful yet for anything that matters.
You'd be surprised at how many useful things you can make with a Makerbot. I own one and have printed things like radio controlled motor mounts, a GoPro camera mount for my scuba diving mask, and a bunch of other practical and useful items. I'm also in the process of designing and printing out parts for a quad rotor helicopter. I was also a machinist for 10 years in my previous life. When it comes to time from initial idea to finished product, the Makerbot almost always wins.
Check out POET (www.poet.com), they have a commercially viable cellulosic ethanol process up and running right now in Scotland, South Dakota and will be opening their first commercial scale cellulosic ethanol plant in 2011 in Emmetsburg, IA. I work for a company that was invited to demonstrate and test our equipment on their corn cob bales last November at their Project Liberty Field Day. They've got the process down and are going into full swing with it.
POET (www.poet.com), the world's largest ethanol producer has had a pilot scale cellulosic ethanol plant running in Scotland, South Dakota for over a year now. I work for a company that was invited to test our equipment on their corn cob bales last November. Right now, POET has dropped their production cost to about $2.35/gal of ethanol and are in line to get the price down even more. They will be starting up a commercial scale cellulosic ethanol plant in November, 2011 in Emmetsburg, IA. They've cut energy usage by developing enzymes to ferment the cocktail instead of having to boil it. At some plants (they have 27) they pipe vented methanol from local county landfills to provide some of their energy needs.
While reading this post I found myself wondering where the OMG!!! Ponies!!! /. theme was and had to check the date to be sure it wasn't in fact April Fools
Dare