Re: Technology from Jay's garage

Posted by BigKev On 2010/2/10 22:58:11

That pretty cool stuff. If you search on the web there are guys that have built there own 3-D printers for less than a $1,000. They dont produce items with the same quality or smoothness as the commercial units, but the principle is the same. Think of it as a printer that lays down a line of hair thin molten plastic on every pass instead of ink. Then when it gets done with the first layer on the page, it moves the nozzle up a small amount and starts again building the item up one thin layer at a time.

The 3-D scanner is very cool. Have not see a home grown version of that just yet. Then neat thing about the 3D scanner is that the data it collects can be run through a program which produces a file that is CNC machine ready.

I can see in the near future where you can take a part to a machine shop and they tell you to come back in a couple of hours to pick it. Most of the work done automated. Almost like a 1 Hour Photo for parts!