Joel Orr's World

Gadget Lab - Wired News:
Fab@Home: Open Source 3D Printer Kit

It might not look like much, but the Fab@Home has some World changing potential. It's a 3D printer which works surprisingly like the normal printer you have on your desk. Instead of milling away from solid blocks like traditional manufacturing techniques, a 3D printer builds up a part a layer at a time using resins which set hard.

The tech has been around for a while; it's used in Rapid Prototyping, a quick and cheap way for big business to test designs. But what's cheap for a corporation is not cheap for the home user. Typically these magic machines have been around $100,000. The Fab@Home is now available in kit form for a shade under $3000. That price brings it into the range of hobbyists. The age of the Star Trek replicator is almost here.

The machine can also handle plaster, Play-Doh, silicone, wax and low-melting point metals. Take a look around you. Look at all that junk on your desk. The ugly mouse, the generic coffee mug. What if you could browse designs online and download them? Or sell your own products across the world, but with no postage? It's starting to sound pretty cool, huh?

Product page [Koba]
Fab@Home [Wiki]