So, I ordered a MakerBot Thing-O-Matic today...
Paul D. Fernhout
http://store.makerbot.com/makerbot-thing-o-matic.html
Haven't told my wife yet. :-)
Guess there is a four week "lead time", so, as a good thing, that is
plenty of time to figure out how to break the news. :-) There goes my
discretionary funds, birthday, and holiday presents for the rest of the
year. :-)
I wonder, with the four weeks backlog, if the recent Economist article
has been stirring up interest, including, hopefully, in thinking about
the economics of abundance?
"The printed world"
http://www.economist.com/node/18114221
(Bryan forwarded something a couple weeks ago about that to the OM list.)
I just put a note up at "Pure Energy Systems Wiki" about the economics
of abundance in relation to technology breakthroughs for energy (like
solar PV or cold fusion), which can apply equally to manufacturing
(through robotics) and services (through AI) as well, as anything
becoming cheap tends to make everything a lot cheaper:
"Open Source: Economic Transformation"
http://peswiki.com/index.php/OS:Economic_Transformation
"The key point here is that breakthrough clean energy technologies [or
pervasive cheap versatile Star Trek 3D printing] will change the very
nature of our economic system. They will shift the balance between four
different interwoven economies we have always had (subsistence, gift,
planned, and exchange). Inventors who have struggled so hard in a system
currently dominated by exchange may have to think about the
socioeconomic implications of their invention in causing a permanent
economic phase change. A clean energy breakthrough [or 3D manufacturing
breakthrough] will probably create a different balance of those four
economies like toward greater local subsistence and more gift giving (as
James P. Hogan talks about in Voyage From Yesteryear). So, to focus on
making money in the old socioeconomic paradigm (like by focusing on
restrictive patents) may be very ironic, compared to freely sharing a
great gift with the world that may change the overall dynamics of our
economy to the point where money does not matter very much anymore."
MakerBot is going down a great post-scarcity route with open plans and
not emphasizing people paying for "artificial scarcity" but rather
having people pay for convenience, quality, great marketing, etc.. In
theory I have enough parts to build something like that, but it might
take a lot of time and frustration. It's a plus to become part of a
related user community as well.
I intend to justify the 3D printer to my wife as mostly for
homeschooling. And to my kid so we can maybe print "Thunderbirds"
models. :-) We made a Thunderbird out of paper a week ago, but my glue
technique is not so great; plans we used:
http://homepage2.nifty.com/papermodel/htmls/Mymodel/Mod10j.html
Of course, I'd also like to have time to write some 3D software for the
MakerBot, too, in an ideal world. :-) It would be fun someday to put a
micro gripper on it too, just to do pick and place or assembly with very
tiny objects; I almost got the unicorn toolhead for 2D printing or
carving, but decided to buy that later to keep the initial sticker shock
down. :-)
A table-sized ShopBot might be better for pick and place, but we don't
have room in the house for one, sadly, plus it costs way more. The
basics of pick-and-place for sorting could be done with the MakerBot,
maybe, at least to start. As long as my wife uses the shop for an
office, something about the size of a MakerBot is all I can
realistically hope for to fit somewhere in a house already full of toys
and books.
Perhaps I might even figure out some way to use it to earn ration units?
:-) Then I could perhaps deduct something related to it as a business
expense?
My wife recently got a small loom and some spinning stuff and materials
and has woven two items already, so it's not like there is not some
equality possible here. :-)
"Flip Folding Rigid Heddle Loom"
http://www.schachtspindle.com/our_products/rigid_heddle.php
Maybe I can even figure out how to get the MakerBot to do weaving? :-)
Although she might think that defeats the joy of weaving something yourself?
Anyway, so this video is at least IMHO persuasive to parents with
children: :-)
"Why I Love My 3D Printer"
http://blog.makerbot.com/2011/02/13/why-i-love-my-3d-printer/
There's things every parent can't give their kid that they would like
to, but the value to a would-be engineer or designer at getting a 3D
printer at an early age for a low cost just seems higher to me than many
things, and certainly is more lasting than a trip to some heavily
advertised commercial resort in Florida where you just consume someone
else's imagined products.
I saw that MakerBot video yesterday just after my kid and I spent $60 of
my kid's saved allowance to buy a LEGO model my kid had made from LEGO
(a squid). I was thinking, that's about 5% of the way to a MakerBot.
With the MakerBot, we can print models, and essentially my kid is
already using related 3D design software anyway with LEGO Digital
Designer... Also, it would be nice to print items to integrate with LEGO
somehow, maybe even if the MakerBot parts won't have the quality to fit
onto LEGO blocks, they might be able to be clipped into some LEGO pieces
perhaps. Granted, I doubt other 3D software is as easy to use yet as LDD.
Also, my treadmill (for my adhoc treadmill workstation I've been using
more lately) is acting up again with the plastic bracket warping again
under stress and heat to press against the encoder wheel, and so it
would be nice to be able to print a new bracket that is more robust, as
I mused about previously here:
http://groups.google.com/group/openmanufacturing/msg/b577111af055873a?hl=en
And the treadmill is no longer under a service plan, so even with a
motor under warranty, in practice I'm not sure how that warranty works
or if they would just ship me a new motor. The motor is a pain to
install when just a bracket is the problem. So it might be easier and
possible cheaper and certainly more fun and a better sense of
self-fulfillment to print a new bracket myself, and it might save me
$100 or more for a service call if I needed one.
Just trying to think up more reasons to justify it to my wife. :-)
Anyway, there were other reasons too. It's nice to do something because
there are a bunch of reasons.
I really do feel like I'm buying an Apple II of the 21st century. :-)
Too bad MakerBot was out of stock on dark green plastic in small amounts
to print Thunderbird 2; it just won't look the same in "nuclear green"
they have in small rolls:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunderbirds_machines
http://store.makerbot.com/plastic.html
But, once we get something working, probably they'll get dark green in
small rolls again, or we can splurge on a big roll. :-)
BTW, anyone got any Thunderbirds 3D designs to start from? :-) Not sure
what the copyright/trademark issues are going to be on that?
It would be cool to print a Jupiter 2, too, or at least parts to
assemble one like with the cathedral model. Picture of Jupiter 2:
http://www.scifimetropolis.com/j2built/thumbs/2ft%20Jupiter%202%20build%20up%20with%20lighting%20on.htm
Links to paper models:
http://www.papermodelers.com/forum/found-internet/3454-lost-space-jupiter-2-a.html
Maybe someday we'll have a MakerBot to print, cut, fold, and glue paper
models, too. :-) Possibly a MakerBot could be adapted to at least do the
paper cutting? We'll see. :-) So much to do, so little time..
--Paul Fernhout
http://www.pdfernhout.net/
====
The biggest challenge of the 21st century is the irony of technologies
of abundance in the hands of those thinking in terms of scarcity.