The future of customizing is Fab @ Home

by **raptor**

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

Why settle for parts and pieces? Why not create your own commercial grade tooling and take complete control of the toy design process.

Fab @ Home is an open source driven 3d printing/prototyping solution. Design it, and print it out like you would a regular piece of paper.

Right now the kits are about $2, 500 but I predict that they'll be down to $1000 by 2009, and you'll be able to create real protos and tooling for less than $100 a pop. With the right scan and imaging software, those of you with cad experience might be able to create perfect replicas of older pieces, or create entirely new ones from scratch.

With the global marketplace providing perfect outsourcing opportunities for manufacture, you could get your parts made and painted by professionals in small batches - and release your own toy line for less than the price of a bass boat.

- R

by **Keenan**

That's awesome.

by **beav**

No... that's FABULOUS! :bigbrawler:

I remember seeing an early 3D printer/fast prototyper when I visited UK as a Senior HS student checking out the engineering program. That was about 12 years ago and now we're close to having them at home. Awesome.

by **Chief**

I thought "Fab @ Home" was the latest reality show starring the sole surviving member of Milli Vanilli.....

by **viperlord**

I think we should all chip in and get one of these. We could store it in whatever part of the country is the most member heavy (Well members who chipped in heavy) probably Colorado or Kentucky. Then everybody could have 1 day a month (Or 2 or 3 months) to produce whatever they wanted within that 24 hours.

We'd burn it out within a year running it 24/7 :lol:

by **Lance Sputnik**

This would actually be a logical, and profitable investment for someone like Bekker @ GTG...

by **raptor**

Maybe, but I was thinking that people with a cad background (I'm lookin at you Matthew) will have the best luck with it. You'll also need hardcore open source programming geeks, and maybe access to a university lab.

Right now I doubt any of us have the resources to pull this off, but the open source resources will be a lot more mature in even 6 months.

I say that if you really wanted to be serious about this, make it a board resource - and organize a team to work on it. Find out who our techies, engineers, graphic designers and coders are, and get them reading the background material.

Also - Get Sidewinder to organize it. ;-)

It's not there yet where a noob can create a part from an idea, but it's not that far away either.

- R

by **Dream**

Finnaly I'll be able to put my CAD dagree to use for something fun.

by **raptor**

But you ask, can it be used for toy parts? Looks like the star wars geeks beat us to this one too... :-D

http://fabathome.org/wiki/index.php?tit ... :Darth.jpg

- R

by **Chief**

Yeah, the roughness worries me a bit, though. I'm sure in a couple of years, that'll get solved. But I imagine using a syringe for the injector means that everything will have that "rippled" look.

by **pluv**

Chief wrote:Yeah, the roughness worries me a bit, though. I'm sure in a couple of years, that'll get solved. But I imagine using a syringe for the injector means that everything will have that "rippled" look.

What if the syringe were microscopic and instead of thousands of "beads" it was millions of micro-beads? The ripples would still be there, but would be invisible to the naked eye.

by **Cap**

The ripples could be handled with hand files and the Dremel.

You have no idea what kind of trouble I can get into with a laser scoping, resin feed rapid prototyper.

You have no idea.

by **raptor**

Cap wrote:You have no idea.

I have an idea. ;-)

Chief wrote:Yeah, the roughness worries me a bit, though. I'm sure in a couple of years, that'll get solved. But I imagine using a syringe for the injector means that everything will have that "rippled" look.

That's what happens when you use silicone as the medium. You can use any medium you want with it, including Cheeze Wiz or frosting.

Mmmmm. Frosting.

Oh, and some stuff that blends better.

- R

by **Jeff**

Hmmm, what's the scale for this thing? If that Darth head is figure sized then it needs work, but if it was used to make tanks or things they might look nice.

by **Outback**

I've been following developments in home rapid prototyping (3-D printing) for a while now. Popular Mechanics (or was it Science?) showed a commercially available model that should be available for home use in a year or so for about $1000. I'm savin' my pennies.