The Internet contains a subculture for everything imaginable. Here is the Fabber subculture. This is especially cool that such a thing exists, as I envisioned something in that direction, esp. also for EarthOS. Here it is: the culture of creating your products yourself.
They have, so far:
- the public inventory list for the “official” MIT fab lab specification
- the FabCentral tools list for fab labs
- the Makerbot, a fully open source plastic 3D printer to build yourself, backed by a company
- the Bits from Bytes RepMan V3.1, an affordable, high-quality 3D printer for building yourself (based on RepRap Darwin principles)
- the Bits from Bytes BFB 3000, the first fully assembled 3D printer for under GBP 2000 (based on RepRap Darwin principles, but improved, and seemingly not that “open” as Makerbot / RepRap Mendel etc.)
- the RepRap project, aiming at creating a self-replicating 3D printer machine, can also be built at home
- the Fab@Home project, also an open source 3D printing (and also robocasting) project; currently, mainly printing with silicone, either direct objects from that or molds for filling in Epoxy
- the Machines that Make project from the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms; I especially like the “fab in a box” project, which is close to the fab lab concept I have in mind
- upcoming lower-cost commerical 3D printers, like the HP Designjet 3D printer for 13,000 EUR
- the Thingiverse, which is like the Fabber’s SourceForge, containing downloadable data for products to mill, lathe or 3D print, tool descriptions, supplier registration for products etc.; one can already find hundreds of geometry files to download to make ones own products. Nice examples:
- need a cheaper solution to a tooth implant?
- 584 things (as of today) you can make with the Makerbot 3D printer
- open source 3D modeling software like Art of Illusion
- the Mobile fab lab, kind of what I want for my A-2 equipment
- a first fab lab in Germany, open to everybody
- FabAcademy, something like the online university for digital fabrication (as of 2010-04, they offer self-accredited certificates and diplomas, but no officially accredited Bachelor or Master yet)
- YouTube videos on the fab lab
- MIT index of more material on the fab lab
Some background knowledge from Wikipedia:
- direct digital manufacturing, the overall concept of all this
- 3D printing
- Fab lab
- Direct metal laser sintering
- Instant manufacturing, also called on-demand manufacturing
- fabber concept (but note that the word also means somebody who works in a fab lab)
- desktop manufacturing
Ok, and what do I want to do with this stuff when I have my own fab lab? Research, how to use it. What to do with it. Make my own things. Design my Equipment System so that many things of it can be made in the fab lab. And: check if development countries can profit from fab labs. There, transportation and logistics is a big problem, so making all the parts instantly in place when demanded would be a solution. I imagine a hackerspace in Africa where people help themselves to build everything up. Inspirations:
- video: Neil Gershenfeld on the history and perspective of the fab lab idea (Neil is the MIT fellow who started the whole thing with his famous lecture “How to Make (Almost) Anything“, here the 2009 one, but the first was 1998)
- 8 year old girl from Ghana in a fab lab
- the fab lab in three words video, about what a fab lab can be, also in the developing world
- the ARO fab lab in western Kenya, and what it does for the people
The printed plastic parts can even be re-used to make new ones. This would be about adding the intelligence of a fab lab to local materials, to create wealth out of nothing, in an autarchic community. It would include working with stone in a 3 axis CNC mill, or even on a CNC angle grinder for cutting stone. I currently have a draft for such a machine in my TEQ4 Equipment System notes, which can create CNC-cut, LEGO brick style stones to build houses and many other structures from. Very durable stuff, made from cost-free material that just lies around!
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