Slice and Carve: The Next Wave in Computer-Aided Creativity | Hacker News Reader

Slice and Carve: The Next Wave in Computer-Aided Creativity

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30 pointsdanshapiro11 comments

I think "technology" has become synonymous with mobile technology and their screens. Too much attention is being drawn to phones, while changing our ability to communicate with each other, our ability to physically manipulate the world has not moved forward.

On top of that, 3D printers and laser cutting machines are still pretty expensive. It will take about a decade before they are within reach to everybody.

Cost is one thing I'm not worried about. Makerbot lead the way by making an additive 3D ready-to-use printer available at <$3k. Now Dremel's got a consumer 3D printer at $1k. There are credible projects to get small-build-volume 3D printers down at $250 and Peachy's taking a reasonable swing to get it under $100 (disclaimer: kickstarter backer).

Glowforge is now tackling this for lasers. We're still a ways away from shipping, but we're already confident we can get the price under that of a Makerbot.

Haven't they reached mostly everyone who cares, through makerspaces, etc ?

Laser cutters are still a bit pricey, but 3D printers can be had in kit form for $500 now ( https://reprappro.com/shop/reprap-kits/huxley-duo-kit/ ), and the filament is dirt cheap.

I think the biggest block these days on 3d printing becoming more mainstream is the complexity of the design tools, rather than the equipment costs.

Laser cutters are probably where it is at. They are lower maintenance, faster and can make sturdier objects. But not like this: "A camera inside the laser cutting chamber and image processing in the cloud will take the place of a part called a motion planner." Great, now we have a printer that needs a high speed internet connection to proprietary servers just to operate, after uploading everything you print to the cloud. As if the shenanigans that the inkjet people pull are not bad enough, think of how anti-consumer and anti-maker this is going to be.

I hear you. As we set out to design the Glowforge, we did not make the decision lightly to engineer it as a network-native device. It makes the experience better in many ways - lower cost, more powerful, and easier to use - but the flip side is that if you're not connected, you can't use it. That's a real drawback.

That said, we prefer our Dropcams to our closed circuit TVs and our Fitbits to our pedometers. We realize that some people may not like the tradeoffs we made, but we hope some folks are as excited about it as we are.

Ethically if it is truly nothing more than a cost saving measure, you'll do the $0 option and release a completely unsupported server disk image for people to self-host on their LAN. Think of how much money you can save on CPU and network ingress.

On a purely technical side, I have a strong suspicion that "cost saving" is a smokescreen. A camera would be useful for quality assurance, A/B testing new routing equations and at most calibrating the origin point of the bed. But maybe I am a little jaded from SimCity 5.

For everybody who was into legos as a child there is the ultimate open source laser cutter: http://www.lasersaur.com

Build it like this: http://www.lasersaur.com/manual/build/

Control it with your browser: http://www.lasersaur.com/manual/software

Disclaimer: I have a Lasersaur an I am a dev person for it.

I would love to be able to pair their 3d printer with this ipad laser cutter design app: http://www.zotebookapp.com/

What exactly makes it a "3D" laser cutter?

Also I have to call out Mr. Wingfield for calling a milling machine a "reverse 3D printer". Really!?

I love my othermill. I ended up investing in the company.

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