Fab@Home:User Forums
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Welcome to the Fab@Home User Forums
This page is intended to be the gateway to additional pages of active discussion of methods of use and applications for Fab@Home. Please begin a general discussion here, and we'll split it into topic-specific pages as topics emerge.
Cheaper Acrylic Parts
I'll be having the acrylic parts made soon. Making many sets at once will be cheaper. If several people would like to join in on an order of acrylic parts, I'll get a quantity quote and we can place the order together. -Dave Suding
David, et al. I'd be interested in the price quoted, and might be interested in joining a group buy. A thought: polycarbonate parts might not be that all much more expensive, and would be both stronger and more resistant to chemicals. Acrylic can crack/craze if (for instance) it's exposed to various alcohols. -- Larry Pfeffer (see guest book for contact info.)
David, I'd also be interested in the price quote. My e-mail address is rogerrhouse@yahoo.com
David, This is a great idea. But lasers can cut all sorts of materials. It is not the materials that is so expensive. It is set up time and the overhead for the tool. I would think it might be worth while to investigate using aluminum. It would be extreamly strong and corrosion resistant. Also it would be amenable to attachments and temporary modifications. I doubt it would cost more.
3D Laser Scanner
I would like to draw everyone's attention to the DAVID Project (http://www.cs.tu-bs.de/rob/david.html), which holds the promise of 3D scanning using a laser and a webcam to create 3D models. It's not open source, and still seems to be in the experimental phase, but it holds great promise for people interested in rapid 3D prototyping, as we are. It requires Windows, the .NET 1.1 Framework, a webcam with WDM drivers, and a laser capable of creating a line (i.e. a home improvement "laser level").
I saw a page by a guy at I think Caltech that used a halogen lamp and a dowel rod to do 3D scanning. This was about two years ago. He seemed to get good results.
Uber-brand-name-rotary-tool
With the current 40 billion attachments available and the 80 billion different types of cutters etc why o why has no-one started building a B.N.R.T into a Fabber ? Even if you are faced with several passes, perhaps several changes of angle of attack, surely 3D routing/grinding/shaping is achievable ? Anyone up for a collaborative build of such a beastie. Maybe even a hotwire for cutting expanded polystrene ? Saeble at geemail dot com
I was confused for a minute. You mean use a Dremel tool or the equivalent. That is a great idea especially if you want to make a circuit board. Just buy a blank board and router it out. I left a blog on using aluminum for the frame work instead of plastic. Perhaps aluminum would be more ridgide but plastic can easily be reinforced if that becomes a problem.
Other materials
I will consider making the system modular in order to have diferent options for materials and methods for construction, like using candy for edibles, wax to be used on melted alloys castings, soft materials for prototypes, etc.
Selling materials all in one place
Is anyone selling the materials for this thing all together? It's a major pain to go through the spreadsheet and search for each one at a bunch of different stores. I couldn't even find the first item on the list (various searches either turned up nothing or turned up too many results). An alternative would be to put links to each object on a page. Then I could just click each link (which would have the effect of adding the object to my shopping cart at that site) and then check out at each of the stores.
Of course, I'd prefer to just buy the entire thing assembled, but I see no offers to do that yet.
Hollow Spaces
How are hollow spaces handled. I would suppose you could use wax to fill a hollow space and just melt it out with hot water later on. I though would think you would need a larger container than a syringe. Perhaps you could have it beside the fabber above it and keep it hot with a bare wire and variable resistor running down a tube. Does anyone have an idea about hollow spaces and software concerning it and finally a registration method when you switch materials.
3D scanning and printing
Here is a very good sight everyone should see http://www.simple3d.com/#homemade
