Fab@Home 3D Printer

[drakesis]

I hope this is in the right section?

Saw this and wow!

an open source 3D printer that costs just $2,400. The self-assembly kit is part of what they call the Fab@Home project. Finally, rapid prototyping made affordable!

http://www.newscientisttech.com/arti...volution.html#

http://www.fabathome.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page

http://web.mae.cornell.edu/ccsl/temp...bDemoMovie.wmv

[jasoncelia]

What can you say? – Wow - I guess says it all.

[Coogrrr]

I saw these videos on youtube.com and was agreeing WOW and its also a future project. I make lots of things out of plastic and after a cnc stepper project I will have much more knowledge and the ability to make the parts.

[rovingmind]

wow is right. I'm drooling now. Blender3d exports .stl files. David 3d scans objects, and now this.

Pass the drippy drool cup

[dan dimock]

I'll pass - I still do things the hard way.
Dan

[cut more]

I have been scoping this for a while. Has anyone made one of these or seen 1? I want to make 1 but have not had any free time.
Cutmore

[Coogrrr]

BUT!!! for us CNC DIY'ers I was thinking... could i place an additional small stepper to push plunger down to excrete the silicone drop. move the X and Y to next spot on the second layer raise the Z and repeat the silicone drop pattern again and thus build upwards to full height of Z a silicone item as they did it?

Meaning - could we adapt a tool onto the Z axis to in essence make a reverse cnc path for Z and build something rather then cut it down?

thoughts?

I will work on some thoughts on this too.

[cut more]

You probably could just replace the spindle on a 3 axis machine with an extruder and run your file. I don't know how the software of the fabber works yet but sounds do-able with any of the routers or mini mills out there.

[Oracle_9]

Are there any free plans to download this?, or is it basically you buy the kit which is too expensive.

[Regnar]

Oracle its a little hard to navigate his website but all of it is there for free. The plans and software. It really looks like if you have a router table you could in sence could build this pretty cheap with only having to buy the electronics and material. Also I think you could convert your 3 axis router as well. Just take mach3 and goto the last line of the gcode-hit run from here-reverse-start. The onlything that I would worry about is some of the cams that are outer there have a hard time doing undercuts and hollow areas. So you might have to build your model in layers rather that just one peice.

[ger21]

Are there any free plans to download this?

http://www.fabathome.org/wiki/index....For_Solidworks

[bswaters]

You might also want to look into the RepRap -- if it takes off the way they designers envision it should end up very cheap. At a talk this last october, they were envisioning the cost of building one to be around $400.