Factor E Farm Blog

For those of you who do not know, I’ve been hard at work on the design of the open source Ironworker Prototype II and plan on building it this winter at my grandfather’s fabrication shop, Enniss Inc. I’m calling out to fellow fabricators and engineers to help with the Ironworker design, so we can place the design of this very important tool into the repository of common knowledge. For those of you not familiar with the importance of an ironworker machine – it is the heart of any custom metal fabrication shop – a shop that can build any of the mechanical devices of the Global Village Construction Set.

This prototype will be the second version of the Ironworker. As well as having the 120T punch, this prototype will be able to shear 1”x12” flat and 6”x6”x1/2” angle steel. There will be a “tool cavity,” a space below the punching arm to which many accessory tools can attach. This will enable the machine to not only have the features above, but also attachments like brakes, notchers, and rod shears.

Scotchman 120T Ironworker

I had another design nearly developed using a vertical shear, but trashed it when I realized how much better it could be with optional attachments. And now, I’m stuck.

The first design version (1.0) of Prototype II

I need help designing the lower arm and flat shear. (more…)

For those of you who do not know, I’ve been hard at work on the design of the open source Ironworker Prototype II and plan on building it this winter at my grandfather’s fabrication shop, Enniss Inc. I’m calling out to fellow fabricators and engineers to help with the Ironworker design, so we can place the ...

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It has been long ago that we reported on our 3D printing adventures – see Hydraraptor’s Second Child. We are pleased to report that our copy of RepRap open source 3D printer has shown its first meaningful prints, thanks to our collaborator Peter Koeleman from the Netherlands:

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It has been long ago that we reported on our 3D printing adventures - see Hydraraptor's Second Child. We are pleased to report that our copy of RepRap open source 3D printer has shown its first meaningful prints, thanks to our collaborator Peter Koeleman from the Netherlands: Two years ago, I had the pleasure of ...

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Here is an update on the crowd funding. The LifeTrac Completion and PowerCube Prototype II funding baskets are filled. The Liberator and Soil Pulverizer Prototype II baskets are still low. On August 18, with less than a week to go, we’re at $1795 of $4700 – or at 38% of our goal.  We were at $1175 after 4 days of beginnining this campaign. We can still pull off some magic.

We need to fill these baskets to be able to pursue our building adventures of this year. The way we look at it – this year’s building adventures will serve to demonstrate the feasibility of building high-quality, scalable, low-cost accommodations. We want to be able to accommodate up to 12 Dedicated Project Visitors and full-time participants by next year – which is key to our plan for upgrading operations along the lines of scalable, open source product development. So chip in. If we don’t get the resources in time, that means that we’ll just have to spend more time soliciting donations from friends and supporters.

Yesterday we had a photo shoot on the 150 ton hole puncher – which is getting published in Make Magazine.

Here is an update on the crowd funding. The LifeTrac Completion and PowerCube Prototype II funding baskets are filled. The Liberator and Soil Pulverizer Prototype II baskets are still low. On August 18, with less than a week to go, we're at $1795 of $4700 - or at 38% of our goal.  We were ...

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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.

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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 ...

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Fabrication optimization for The Liberator open source CEB press involves designing and deploying four, heavy duty, open source fabrication tools: (1) drill press for drilling 1″ and larger holes directly in metal without pre-drilling; (2) 120 ton hole puncher/ironworker for punching up to 1.5″ holes in 1″ thick metal, and shearing up to 12″ wide slabs of 1″ thick steel; (3) torch table for cutting meta via computer control; and (4) heavy duty lathe for making motor couplers. The reason for the above developments is a significant reduction in fabrication time – such as a second to punch a 1/2″ hole in The Liberator frame, as opposed to a  minute required for drilling. And, where we do have to drill 1/2″ holes, the time is reduced by avoiding switching of drill bits for pre-drilling of starter holes.

We have completed the initial prototype of the heavy duty, open source drill press. We are glad to report encouraging results, and a good addition to RepLab – the open source Fab Lab. It contains a hydraulic motor for the drilling and a hydraulic cylinder for the down pressure – so this is a literal press, and it is not short on torque or power as the motor can sustain up to 20 hp. We are using our Universal Rotor for the motor. This same rotor was already used for the lathe, tree auger (report forthcoming), and honey extractor (report forthcoming) – as it’s part of our LifeTrac infrastructure. This is part of our modularity concept in action – a key feature of the Global Village Construction Set.

You can see our wiki work page for the design and bill of materials, and the .dxf design file is at the Open+Pario repository. See the video of the build with explanation, plus  demonstration of drilling a 1″ hole, without pre-drilling, in a 1″ steel slab. The workshop fireworks are extra, as we just passed the Fourth of July in these united States.

Fabrication optimization for The Liberator open source CEB press involves designing and deploying four, heavy duty, open source fabrication tools: (1) drill press for drilling 1" and larger holes directly in metal without pre-drilling; (2) 120 ton hole puncher/ironworker for punching up to 1.5" holes in 1" thick metal, and shearing up to 12" ...

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The following is a project from another group, but it is close to our goals. Chip in if you want to see this happen – a 100W open source, laser cutter for under $5k. If successful, this project will be a direct contribution to RepLab and the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS). We will be able to build on this design to both scale and optimize cost-to-power performance. I suspect we’ll be able to build this laser cutter for $2k in materials. Power electronics, one of the GVCS technologies, will be involved in the power stage for this laser cutter, at higher power versions of the device. In the meantime, 100W gets you ability to cut plastics and wood, and to etch metal, and with multiple-pass cuts, may be able to cut sub-millimeter thin metal. Along with RepRap, this open source laser cutter would be 2 solid contributions to RepLab and to open source economic development.  Read more about the open source laser cutter initiative here. Go to Kickstarter for more info from the source, where you can also donate.

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The following is a project from another group, but it is close to our goals. Chip in if you want to see this happen - a 100W open source, laser cutter for under $5k. If successful, this project will be a direct contribution to RepLab and the Global Village Construction Set (GVCS). We will ...

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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.

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.

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You may have read the proposition of turning the LifeTrac tractor auger to a lathe in this post. Here are the initial results of putting together an open source lathe, plus drill and mill combination.

The bill of materials is:

Total – $800 for lathe, mill, and drill function – for 20 horsepower, and 5000 inch-pounds of torque, driven by Power Cube. See lathe build for other details. The total weight of the assembly is about 600 lb.

We start with a 5000 inch-pound hydraulic motor from the LifeTrac infrastructure, and connect it to a 12 inch chuck. We then add an xy table and a toolpost, and that constitutes a lathe. The entire assembly is mounted on our new 1/2″ thick steel welding table, supported by compressed earth blocks (CEBs). This is what you get:

Add another xy table on top of the first one, and you have x, y, and z motion. This suffices to turn the lathe into a milling machine.

If you use a milling-drilling vise, you can drill holes. If you use the lathe with a drill bit, to function as a heavy duty drill press.

Indeed, we are able to drill 1″ holes, without any predrilling! That’s encouraging. This is done by moving the workpiece into the drill bit. Here are the cuttings from 1/2″ and 1″ holes.

Here is a video of the drilling and lathing. We’re drilling 1″ plate with a 1″ drill bit. In the lathe test, you can hear what chatter sounds like at the end of the video, as the welding table starts to vibrate.

Overall, we have major success on the drilling function. Plus, we have major success in achieving uncontrollable chatter in the lathe function.
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You may have read the proposition of turning the LifeTrac tractor auger to a lathe in this post. Here are the initial results of putting together an open source lathe, plus drill and mill combination. The bill of materials is: Total - $800 for lathe, mill, and drill function - for 20 horsepower, and 5000 inch-pounds ...

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The lathe is perhaps the most important machine tool in a workshop. In almost every kind of machining operation, either the work piece or the cutting tool turns. – link.

Read more about the practical basics of a lathe from a master of documentation, Chris Palmer of HydraRaptor.

We are approaching the lathe in a rather nonconventional way at Factor e Farm. We already have a heavy rotor with a detachable 20 hp hydraulic motor in the LifeTrac infrastructure:

What if we convert this rotor to a lathe? See more on the wiki. The program is to mount the rotor to a 640 lb steel table (welding table), and see how well we can do to start a multipurpose machining center. We proposed a similar concept before, but alignment issues remained unresolved in that program.

The present concept replaces the concrete block with a heavy metal table, uses the auger rotor above, and replaces the long rail with a 4-point alignment mechanism:

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The lathe is perhaps the most important machine tool in a workshop. In almost every kind of machining operation, either the work piece or the cutting tool turns. - link. Read more about the practical basics of a lathe from a master of documentation, Chris Palmer of HydraRaptor. We are approaching the lathe in a rather ...

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Many of you may have heard of the MIT Fab Lab – a mini factory where you can make just about anything. If you have $100k to spend, you can get one for your home.

What if we reduce the price of this toolset by a factor of 10? While we are at it, why not add about five times the functionality in that price? That is exactly what we plan on doing: RepLab – the open source Fab Lab. Read the wiki entry on this here, and see the other articles on RepLab here.

(Image from new website by Erik de Bruijn – http://www.replab.org/)

Sounds unreal? Yes, prior to the internet age. Now we have open source development – and the price of hardware is dropping drastically. My favorite example is RepRap, the 3D printer – which you can build for $300 in parts – because the plans are available for free. A commercial version would cost you about $20k - or over 60 times more.

So how do we go about achieving this unimaginable feat? (more…)

Many of you may have heard of the MIT Fab Lab - a mini factory where you can make just about anything. If you have $100k to spend, you can get one for your home. What if we reduce the price of this toolset by a factor of 10? While we are at it, why ...

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