Home Fabbers a step closer

A recent tweet from Bruce Stirling pointed me in the direction of the kit for a new home fabber unit, the Cupcake CNC machine.

Makerbot Industries – Cupcake CNC from MakerBot Industries on Vimeo.

Fabbers (Fabrication Units) are essentially 3D printers, which can cut or form an object out of materials, normally plastic. In the case of the Cupcake CNC, it extrudes thin molten plastic precisely to form the object. There have been industrial versions for many years, but the idea of the home fabber is something I think I first heard mentioned about nine or ten years ago, quite possibly by Bruce Stirling.

This idea has interested me for some time. It’s the prospect of manufacturing in your own home, being able to download new designs for objects, make new ones yourself. Possibly being able to recycle plastics into new objects, making cups or plates when you need them, rather than having to buy them. It really is a device I can foresee being in most homes eventually. And devices like these are the transitional ones, just like the computer kits that Bill Gates and Clive Sinclair amongst many others sold in the 70s that quickly became the first commercial home computers, these are the first steps towards that idea becoming reality. I can’t wait!

Postscript:

It’s a little odd and great all at the same time that I can refer back to myself eight years in the past.

Comments

6 responses to “Home Fabbers a step closer”

  1. Tim Maughan Avatar

    My biggest, Gibsonian concern about fabbers: is the stuff they make biodegradable? Recyclable? Or is it just another, more convenient way to produce land fill?

    Sorry, been reading Ballard again:)

  2. graemehunter Avatar

    Well in a perfect world, when you're done with it, you chuck it back in and turn it into something else. But I agree, in practice it really will be a concern, and I admit I don't know enough about how well the plastics break down, or indeed can be reused. That is the aim.

  3. Tim Maughan Avatar

    My biggest, Gibsonian concern about fabbers: is the stuff they make biodegradable? Recyclable? Or is it just another, more convenient way to produce land fill?

    Sorry, been reading Ballard again:)

  4. graemehunter Avatar

    Well in a perfect world, when you're done with it, you chuck it back in and turn it into something else. But I agree, in practice it really will be a concern, and I admit I don't know enough about how well the plastics break down, or indeed can be reused. That is the aim.

  5. Acrylic Design Avatar

    I think it’s going to be quite a while until people will have industrial fabrication capabilities in their own home, like the kind of thing professional acrylic design companies use!

    1. flotskyadmin Avatar
      flotskyadmin

      I agree, but I think the prospect of doing the smaller stuff soonish is very exciting