Personal Fabrication

Archived Posts from this Category

Fri 22 Apr 2011

Going Digital: CAM Files for the Open Source Tractor

Posted by Marcin

Last year, we didn’t use any automation in our fabrication procedures. For example, check out the LifeTrac II build. We’re moving to digital fabrication this year. Our work this year will be a test case for optimizing production – to determine whether even your grandma can build industrial-grade tractors in her garage. To do this, we need your help. Read on.

We are taking the open source tractor, now in Prototype II phase, as the first test case. To create Prototype III, the first task is to take the existing LifeTrac design – full CAD in Blender (18 inch shorter version) by Will – and export it into CAM tool path files for every component -  to be cut out on our computer controller (CNC) torch table. We are using LinuxCNC as the open source control software. As we go along, we are documenting the status and needs of the open source solution for providing a robust platform for digital fabrication of economically-significant products. Our first contribution to this is the torch table, which if we develop the open source stepper motor controller, will cost $800 in parts for a 4′x8′ working area, not counting the computer and plasma cutter. (more…)

Categories: Digital Fabrication, Fabrication Optimization, Flexible Fabrication, LifeTrac III, Personal Fabrication

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Fri 23 Jul 2010

Open Source 150 Ton Hole Puncher

Posted by Marcin

Our infrastructure for flexible fabrication along the lines of the Open Source Fab Lab, RepLab, is evolving nicely. We reported recently on Prototype I the heavy duty, open source, drill press, and here we are reporting on Prototype I deployment of our 150 ton hole puncher. Both of these are critical to fabrication ergonomics optimization for resilient communities in general, and, in particular – for Factor e Farm’s present fabrication of The Liberator open source CEB press and the LifeTrac open source tractor. For comparison, see earlier notes about our off-grid flex fab facility in a blog post from 2 years ago.

Here is a video on the hole puncher, with explanations.

Open Source Metal Hole Puncher – Prototype I from Marcin Jakubowski on Vimeo.

The implementation required a high level of attention to the  extreme heavy build and die positioning precision requirements – much more than anything we’ve done with the open source tractor, automated CEB press, or other devices. This is our first device that required at least some consideration of structural engineering – beyond brute-force overbuild. The local fab shop helped on the design. You can download the dxf design file at our design repository.

(more…)

Categories: Accomplishments, Community Supported Manufacturing, Fabrication Optimization, Flexible Fabrication, Ironworker Machine, Metal Hole Puncher, Permafacture, Personal Fabrication, RepLab

[11] Comments

Tue 26 Jan 2010

RepTab – Open Source Torch Table in MAKE Zine

Posted by Marcin

RepTab, our open source torch table – was featured in the January edition of MAKE Zine. Read the full article online at MAKE. You can follow the history of this development in former blog posts. Read more about RepLab – the Open Source Fab Lab – of which RepTab is a part.

Categories: Digital Fabrication, Flexible Fabrication, Open Source Fab Lab, Personal Fabrication, RepLab, RepTab, Torch Table

[8] Comments

Tue 20 Jan 2009

Factor e Live Distillations – Part 6 – Personal Fabrication

Posted by Marcin

Today’s Factor e Live Distillations focuses on Personal Fabrication. We discuss our goals of establishing a robust and replicable, high-performance flexible fabrication facility for producing just about anything – while relying largely on local resources – and while participating as a producer in a global market economy.

This post is a good overview of the type of tools that are already available – today – and which could be put together into a high-power, digital fabrication package – the Open Source Fab Lab. While the tools are already available and significant development has already been done, their integration into a meaningful productive ecology is the remaining task – in terms of providing a useful toolset for Global Village construction. The Personal Fabrication package is perhaps the most important piece of the Global Village Construction Set – in that these tools are used to create supporting hardware and machinery – for tasks ranging from agriculture to wireless communications. We hope that this presentation will help you see for yourself the kinds of applications and power that is already available to anyone who chooses to use these tools, as a step towards taking advantage of these tools. As was said about one particular example of the available technologies – the 3D printer called RepRap – “Think of RepRap as a China on your desktop.”

- Chris DiBona, Open Source Programs Manager, Google Inc., 8 April 2008.

Our work in general is aimed at building the infrastructure for real-life Global Villages – which you can replicate in whole or in part. You can also see our earlier presentation on the Global Village Construction Set. To support this work, join the 1000 True Fans – 1000 Global Villages campaign – by committing to $10 per month for 24 months. Here is the PayPal subscription button, where you can use either PayPal, credit card, or bank account to commit to the subscription.

Here is the transcript and supporting links for this video. (more…)

Categories: 1000 True Fans - 1000 Global Villages, Factor e Live Distillations, Personal Fabrication

[15] Comments

Fri 1 Feb 2008

Ecotechnology Buying Club

Posted by Marcin

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.

Categories: Compressed Earth Block Press, Computer, Digital Fabrication, Flexible Fabrication, Open Source Technology, People, Personal Fabrication

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