Pro-Quality Manufacturing at Home? There's an App for That
Real things have been made by computer-controlled tools since the 1950s. But these tools have long been too complex and expensive for home use. The buzzword for this realm where virtual reality meets actual reality is "digital fabrication."
As with everything related to computers, the price just keeps coming down. Now it’s possible to bring digital fabrication into your garage or home workshop. I’ll tell you how below. But first, let’s look at why digital fabrication is amazing.
The 2 Categories of Things
Since computers became widespread, it has been possible to divide things into two categories: things made out of atoms (physical objects) and things made out of bits (virtual objects made out of software code). A book is made of atoms. An eBook is made of bits.
The downside of bits is that you can’t touch them. They have no physical reality. But things made from bits have upsides. You can store massive quantities of virtual objects in almost no space. Once created, virtual objects can be copied, searched for and shared easily and quickly. Bits can also be open source — meaning they can be constantly improved by dozens, hundreds, thousands or millions of volunteers, and every user can benefit from every improvement.
Here’s the thing: Digital fabrication brings atoms into the world of bits. Physical objects can gain some of the benefits of virtual objects. Here are two types of digital fabrication you can own in your own home.
MakerBot Replicator 2 Desktop 3-D Printer - $2,199.00 » Home 3-D Printing
The price of good 3-D printers has finally come down far enough for home use. For example, the MakerBot Replicator 2 costs just over $2,000 and is one of dozens of 3-D printer products available for under $3,000.
Wait, so what’s a 3-D printer, anyway? A 3-D printer works like a regular laser printer: It prints on a flat surface. But instead of ink, it lays down a flat pattern of some kind of special plastic, usually. Then it lays down another layer, then another, building up a 3-D object out of flat layers.
The shape of these layers is very precisely controlled by software, so the result is a 3-D plastic object of virtually any shape. Here are some things people have made with 3-D printers.
As with other 3-D printers, the MakerBot Replicator 2 enables you to download a growing number of 3-D objects to print. These have been designed on computers (as most things are these days) and created in a 3-D printer file containing all of the software instructions your printer needs to make the atoms you print match the computer design.
A Little Help Around the House
Home 3-D printers are especially powerful for home design professionals and enthusiasts, because you can make objects and parts that aren't available in local stores. You can print replacement parts for those broken or lost furniture parts or conjure up custom-fitted objects to complete whatever project you’re working on.
You can even print simple appliances or furniture. MakerBot, for example, offers a snap-together lamp you can download and print. The MakerBot Replicator 2 comes with some starter material to print with, plus a one-year tech-support plan called MakerCare.
Handibot Smart Power Tool - $2,400.00 » App-Driven Power Tools
If you prefer more traditional materials than plastic, you might want to track the Handibot, which is a power tool controlled by software. The Handibot drills, cuts, carves and engraves a wide variety of materials, including wood, aluminum, foam and plastic, and does so very precisely under the control of an app on your smart phone. You can even use it to finish MakerBot projects.
You don’t place materials on the Handibot. Instead, you place the Handibot on the materials. So it’s very portable. For example, you could carve a design into a wood door without removing the door from its hinges.
The makers of Handibot are open sourcing the development of apps for the Handibot as well as the development of contributing resources. They expect a large and fast-growing library of features, capabilities, designs and projects that users can simply download and apply to their own projects.
The Handibot is earning crowd-sourced funding on Kickstarter, and the makers expect the first units to start shipping later in 2013.
Three-D printing took furnishings in new directions at the 2013 International Contemporary Furniture Fair. Among the new products were these Hyphae lamps, fabricated by Shapeways, an online marketplace allowing anyone to create custom designs then make and market a product with 3-D printing technology.
More examples of new 3-D printed decor
