Lawry wrot:
> And let's not forget 3-D printing, is is surely going to be a big
> thing. I am guessing it won't trigger as many concerns as the heavy
> workshop environment you describe, Mike. Any thoughts on 3-D
> printing?
It's very cool! Happens that back when I was making annual visits to
MIT, one of my hosts was consulting with the project to develop the
tech and he took me over to see it. They had the heavily modified
guts out of a dot matrix printer rigged up over a ca. 12" square deck.
The printer sprinkled a uniform layer of media -- microspheres of
metal the day I was there - over the deck, then made a pass spritzing
resin where that plane intersected the 3-D shape.
That was in the late 80s. It's come along way. You can buy
commercial hardware (5 figures) or build one from a kit for less...
http://www.reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page
which would fit with non- or lightly-funded makerspace. Reprap has
the added advantage that you can print many of the parts needed to
make another machine so it, in limited effect, reproduces itself.
Printing your next house (or at least a shelter more durable than a
cardboard box, if you live under a bridge) is nice.
http://www.dezeen.com/2009/06/22/radiolaria-pavilion-by-shiro-studio/
I'm less keen on printing lunch from krill paste, pumpkin bree and
bacon grease:
http://inhabitat.com/mits-digital-food-printer-creates-nutritious-meals/
One of the most intriguing innovators I've spotted is Bathsheba
Grossman:
http://www.bathsheba.com/
I'm especially taken with her math models. It's a source of
frustration that it's very hard or impossible to make such convoluted
surfaces, reticular structures and other forms [1] in traditional
metalwork except by forming many small pieces and welding them
together. Printing them is the next best thing to growing them.
Another technical trick that preceded 3D printing is
stereolithography.
http://www.georgehart.com/cccg/rpgm.html
But it requires a tank of expensive, smelly, possibly toxic resin and
(AIUI) more expensive gear to run the laser. It seems not to have
acquired as much momentum as 3D printing.
Yes, 3D printing should be great for makerspace.
- Mike
[1] E.g. Ernst Haekel's Kunstforen der Natur, published by Dover as
Artforms in Nature.
--
Michael Spencer Nova Scotia, Canada .~.
/V\
[email protected] /( )\
http://home.tallships.ca/mspencer/ ^^-^^
_______________________________________________
Futurework mailing list
[email protected]
https://lists.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
