Factor E Farm Blog

There is a significant set of open source technologies available for rapid prototyping in small workshops. By combining 3D printing with low-cost metal casting, and following with machining using a computer controlled Multimachine, the capacity arises to make rapid prototypes and products from plastic and metal. This still does not address the feedstocks used, but it is a practical step towards the post-centralist, participatory, distributive economy with industrial swadeshi on a regional scale.

• RepRap – open source 3D Printer – has just achieved self-replication. In itself, this is a rapid prototyper for objects in plastic.

• Small-scale metal casting technology is readily available for backyard-scale metal casting, such as the melting of hubcaps in this picture – using free waste vegetable or motor oil: (source)

• In particular, a waste oil burner such as the Babington burner may be utilized as the heat source.

• Multimachine – an open source multipurpose machining tool is available for milling, drilling, lathing, metal forming, and other applications.

The interesting part is that the budget is $500 for RepRap, $200 for the casting equipment, and $1500 for a Multimachine with CNC control added. Using available knowhow, this can be put together in a small workshop for a total of about $2200 – for full, LinuxCNC computer controlled rapid fabrication in plastic and metal. Designs may be downloaded from the internet, and local production can take place based on global design.

This rapid fabrication package is one of our near-term (one year) goals. The research project in this area involves the fabrication and integration of the individual components as described. Factor e Farm is willing to provide materials funding for students interested in taking this on as a development project – please contact us if you are an engineering or independent student, or if you know somebody who is qualified to take on this project.

Such a project is interesting from the standpoint of localized production in the context of the global economy – for creating significant wealth in local economies. This is what we call industrial swadeshi. For example, I see this as the key to casting and fabricating low-cost steam engines ($300 for 5 hp) for the Solar Turbine – as one example of Gandhi’s mass production philosophy.

There is a significant set of open source technologies available for rapid prototyping in small workshops. By combining 3D printing with low-cost metal casting, and following with machining using a computer controlled Multimachine, the capacity arises to make rapid prototypes and products from plastic and metal. This still does not address the feedstocks used, ...

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It’s time to take our open source product development to the next level.

The next on the Compressed Earth Block (CEB) press prototype development is a computer controlled XYZ table for automating acetylene torch cutting of the metal. You may see the fabrication procedure here to see metal cutting requirements. We have experienced about 140 hours of labor for the first prototype. Now we are testing and refining the prototype, and expect about 40 hours to build the next one. We want to use the XYZ table to optimize fabrication, so it will reduce fabrication time down to 20 hours for production runs. The point is, you can lay the raw metal on the torch table, hit return on your computer, and the table cuts out all the metal, including bolt holes.

We have a year-long plan for the CEB, such that we aim for production runs in October. It is part of a larger product development program, shown here.

We are beginning to test an innovative way to fund the developments. Step one is to gather a Core Team for each of the development projects. Step two is to deploy our funding strategy, which we call the Ecotechnology Buying Club. Basically, a large number of stakeholders micro-funds product development, up to the building of a fabrication facility. Sounds impossible, but we are proposing a concrete set of steps to do this. The set of steps is basically a product development cycle, with the twist that stakeholders fund the development. We are just developing products like anyone else, but attempting to optimize the process. Optimization (lowest cost) is the same thing that traditional businesses promise, but always fail to deliver, because if they delivered, they’d go out of business. This is where we step in. Stay tuned.

It's time to take our open source product development to the next level. The next on the Compressed Earth Block (CEB) press prototype development is a computer controlled XYZ table for automating acetylene torch cutting of the metal. You may see the fabrication procedure here to see metal cutting requirements. We have experienced ...

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It is interesting to see the progress on the Compressed Earth Block (CEB) press from prior art:

to our own conceptual and design drawings:

to raw metal as shown at http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/?p=36

and to reality:

Now we take a mound of dirt and get to work:

Here’s the prototype in action – the very first and raw run – working with some of the dirt from the semi-frozen pile:

Muddy bricks are born, as the soil is wet:

Nonetheless, the proof of concept of the entire machine, including automated hopper assembly, is complete. No structural issues, just a few details to finish. We can test for machine durability by simply pressing a brick a large number of times – perhaps ten thousand – without ejecting – so we obtain firm data on durability.

Field testing requires dry soil and mounting the CEB on a tractor 3 point hitch. When the weather allows, we’ll get to it. All in all, it seems that a high performance building method is around the corner. This is exciting for global village construction.

Circulate this widely. A great step has been taken for the world’s first, high-performance, open source CEB machine. The next steps include building the second prototype, followed by open franchising. That’s right. The plans are 100% open – and we’ll be demonstrating step-by-step fabrication. Our endpoint is a working business model and a flexible fabrication facility. The essence is one thousand dollars in parts; throw in a drill press, torch, and welder; plus labor – and there’s a real, economically significant product. By the way, it’s also design-for-disassembly (DfD) construction – with bolts as the main means of structural integration – for all but the hopper and a few welds. All parts are readily accessible, and wear plates are readily replaceable. I can take apart the entire machine to all its metal parts in about 15 minutes. That is pure passion – if one is interested in easy maintenance and lifetime of service. Stay tuned for developments.

It is interesting to see the progress on the Compressed Earth Block (CEB) press from prior art: to our own conceptual and design drawings: to raw metal as shown at http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/?p=36 and to reality: Now we take a mound of dirt and get to work: Here's the prototype in action - the very first and raw run - working ...

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On the Compressed Earth Block press, I am looking to press the first brick today. The mounted pressing cylinder looks like this:

It got into the 20s on the Fahrenheit scale, so I moved development operations into the greenhouse. We have a good stove in there. We collected some black locust firewood from a neighbor in the meantime:

On sunny days like today, the greenhouse is in the 80s inside. It feels like stepping right into summer. Generator, welder, tools, and CEB are now there. I just have to scrape up some semi-frozen soil from the outside, and see if we could tamp it into a structural brick…

On the Compressed Earth Block press, I am looking to press the first brick today. The mounted pressing cylinder looks like this: It got into the 20s on the Fahrenheit scale, so I moved development operations into the greenhouse. We have a good stove in there. We collected some black locust firewood from a neighbor ...

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Yesterday I talked to Dan Granett of Granett Engineering. He made a boundary layer turbine successfully, and has performance data (please let me know if you know others). This turbine is an external combustion engine, and is a cheaper, simpler, and more efficient alternative to mainsream internal combusion engines. It consists of smooth, rotating disks:

It constitutes a multitrillion dollar potential market, and therefore merits attention. It may be powered by solar concentrator heat – or any other fuel.

I asked Dan to provide a quote, if we contracted him to build another, more robust version. I asked for a working turbine, about 5 kW scale – including a Babington burner flash steam generator running on waste vegetable oil. This means that it’s a self-contained package – fed by waste oil – ready to be coupled to a generator for power production. If you are a critic of vegetable oil fuel becuase of its clogging problems, note that the Babington is clog-free by design.

If you don’t understand the significance of this product – we are talking of a fab-at-home-level technological device, fed by any fuel, for addressing electricity production. Couple this to solar concentrators as the heat source, and you are using an elecricity provider who sends you no bills. This is like photovoltaic cells – except at a fraction of the cost.

Stay tuned for the quote. We’ll be asking you to help fund this open source project.

Other applications include hybrid cars and hybrid electric tractors, and anything that requires a power unit. Sound interesting?

Now allow me to peak your oil interest. Algae are a new and promising fuel crop because of high oil content. One can grow at least a factor 10 more algal biomass per area than any other terrestrial plant. This particular algal growth technology appears to be the state of the art, in terms of cost of production. We are talking about absolutely decentralized energy production possibilities. Humans may evolve beyond oil wars and resource scarcity scares with all these above notions.

Yesterday I talked to Dan Granett of Granett Engineering. He made a boundary layer turbine successfully, and has performance data (please let me know if you know others). This turbine is an external combustion engine, and is a cheaper, simpler, and more efficient alternative to mainsream internal combusion engines. It consists of smooth, rotating ...

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Quick update. On CEB, I am hoping to spit out the first brick by this week.

The flexible fabrication front is hot. Deep in the fiery Iceland underground, Smari and his Fab Lab team are working on an open source, computer controlled XYZ table for acetylene torch cutting and routing:

This means that you draw a design on your computer screen, and the XYZ table spits out cutouts of 2 inch steel, wood, or other materials, according to your desgin.

Imagine the CEB press, XYZ table for flexible fabrication, and other hard core equipment – being synthesized one by one by a global team of doers interested in a free and prosperous society. Here comes the Global Village Construction Set. Pure passion.

This blog works. Today I got a comment on my State of Survival post, with a great theory book, hot off the press, on peer-to-peer physical production. This is what our team (and Frithjof Bergmann) calls open source flexible and digital fabrication. Download the open book at http://www.peerconomy.org/ .

Today I got into some communication on hydroponic lettuce, based on past postings or report on the subject. It was an interesting spurt, but the company in question is not organic – though pest management is apparently orgnanic – and highly proprietary – up to the computer code that automates a turnkey production facility. We still plan on returning to hydroponic lettuce, with the intent to develop a working, open source business plan viable in medium scale production, say 50,000 heads per year and multiples thereof. Our links to computer control can yield fully automated operations, which may be relevant to us in the future. Here we still call out for any help from practitioners of organic greenhouse crop production – those who have mastered pest issues. Materials and process controls are tractable, but so far we have not mastered pest issues. We can essentially start up, but we have not the experience to keep a system from being wiped out by biological competitors of all sorts.

There are also interesting developments in biodiesel. We ran a successful test batch some time ago, and a local guy wants us to build a 250 gallon system. We are currently negotiating details. If all goes well, we will have the first open source, production-scale facility that I know of. There are 25 gallon versions that are already open source and relatively self-replicable. This is an exciting, though limited, possibility – and we welcome suggestions from those who have built systems that are 100 gallons or greater in size.

Last item is solar panels. We need 1-2kW of solar power to complete our off-grid system. We found that many solar traffic arrow signs get hit every year, and those have free, salvageable panels on them. I started inquiring about in-kind donations, since we are in a position to accept tax-deductible contributions. If you have any sources or suggestions, please let us know.

Quick update. On CEB, I am hoping to spit out the first brick by this week. The flexible fabrication front is hot. Deep in the fiery Iceland underground, Smari and his Fab Lab team are working on an open source, computer controlled XYZ table for acetylene torch cutting and routing: This means that you draw a ...

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