OS Fab Lab Proposal: Difference between revisions

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=Introduction=
#REDIRECT [[RepLab]]
 
Fabulous Friends Smari, Kyrah, Olle, Erik, Edmund, Henri, and James X. Jones:
 
 
I would like to follow up on the concept of the OS Fab Lab. You have expressed interest in it, and I'd like to take a moment to see how you might want to participate. After you read this, please let me know your level of interest. In particular:
 
 
# Who else should we recruit for the organizational team?
# Who and how to contact others to find more collaborators?
# How much time could you devote to this?
# Can you serve on the organizational team?
# Can you set up a website for this?
# How can we enlist communicators, PR people?
# Besides the crowds, who can we tap for funding?
# Etc, etc.
 
The basic concept is that a set of advanced tools like the MIT Fab Lab – deployed at 1/10<sup>th</sup> the cost and ten times the functionality – could be a great boon to liberating Industry 2.0. This means the simple concept of: global design collaboration towards local fabrication. Transformative economic potential is huge, as personal fabrication takes over the work of large factories and slave labor. This is around the corner in the 21<sup>st</sup> century – if we want to make it happen.
 
 
The facts are that we are likely to get 10-fold cost reduction over the standard Fab Lab price of $100k. We've already proven 10-fold cost reduction with The Liberator (CEB press), and the same could be done with the MIT Fab Lab – which would include laser cutting at 100W, an induction furnace (20kW, 300 lb metal melt per hour), metal casting and rolling, plus heavy machining (mill, drill, press with 20 hp interchangeable hydraulic motor), metal press (also shears and punches holes). To top it off, let's add a robotic arm. Also, include technologically-recursive development of OS high power supplies for welder, induction furnace, and plasma cutter. Here's a summary of the tools included in the OSFL, their description, and their Bill of Materials (not including labor). This strategy involves a hydraulic power source for high torque and power applications, and 20kW of shop power.
 
 
These tools can get you from melting scrap steel, casting and rolling for parts, cutting, machining, lasing, routing, 3D printing, metal working, and circuit fabrication. This gets to all electromechanical devices known to humans, and can get us to just about all technology up to about 1980 or so. Combined with Arduino, it gives you automated control of CNC fabrication. The goal here is all the capacity of the MIT Fab Lab - plus much more: metal melting from scrap, heavy duty fabrication, and robotics. This is just a suggested approch. If OS, I don't see trouble getting to the prices mentioned.
 
 
I am hoping we could fund it by crowdsourcing from those who gain access to the designs. We can motivate donations by offering use of the developed equipment for making copies of the machines at ridiculously low costs. I would support this myself if I were to gain access to fabrication facilities and training.
 
=Toolset=
 
{| class="prettytable"
| '''TOOL'''
| '''DESCRIPTION AND DEPLOYMENT STRATEGY'''
| '''WT'''
| '''COST ($)'''
 
|-
| 3D printer
| RepRap printer in plastic; plans available; self-replicating for all of its joints and plastic parts; head interchangeable for a small router for circuit fabrication
| 1 m<sup>3</sup>, 50 lb
| 300
 
|-
| CNC torch table, router
| RepTab prototype available – results indicate that it can be scaled successfully to router applications with 280 lbs of moving torque by using 4 stepper motors on the x and y axis; high power router can use hydraulic motor (3000 RPM, 10-20 hp); self-replicating for all structural parts;
 
use RepRap motor drivers and controls
| 300 lb
| 1500 for
 
280 lb torque version
 
|-
| Drill-mill-lathe
| Interchangeable hydraulic motor (0-650 rpm, 20 hp, $250); off-shelf chuck ($150) and off-shelf x-y table ($200); off-shelf spindle and collet ($200); true drill press – hydraulic cylinder ($100) moves spindle up and down; large motor can handle drilling up to 1.5”; mill funcionality via x-y table; CNC drive can be retrofitted onto x-y table; use RepTab motor drivers and controls
| 500 lb (welding table serves as base for added wt)
| 1100 plus CNC
 
|-
| Welding table
| Sheet of 1/2”, 4x8' mild steel
| 640 lb
| 300
 
|-
| MIG Welder
| This involves opensourcing the power supply, and using a commercial gun/wire feeder
| 200 lb
| 400
 
|-
| Plasma Cutter
| This involves opensourcing the power supply, and using a commercial gun
| 50 lb
| 300
 
|-
| Induction Furnace
| 20 kW, water-cooled coils; involves opensourcing the power supply; the rest is a melting container, pouring mechanism, and insulation
| 1000 lb
| 2000
 
|-
| Metal casting, rolling
| Casting involves simple molds; rolling involves high power rollers, using 20 hp hydraulic motors above; start by rolling bars from hot billet
| 1000 lb
| 2000
 
|-
| CNC laser cutter
| Utilize existing x-y table, and use a stationary laser; build a laser from a $500 CO2 laser engraver tube of 80W; sufficient to cut ¼ inch wood and acrylic, and thin metal – perhaps up to 1/8” in a large number of passes; larger laser may be built from scratch by creating a tube at later phases of recursion
| 300 lb
| 2000
 
|-
| Metal press, shear, and hole puncher
| Up to 1” holes in 1” metal; shears 3” wide 1” metal; relies on a large cylinder ($260)
| 1000 lb
| 1000
 
|-
| Cold cut metal saw
| Uses existing hydraulic motor
| 100 lb
| 100 plus blade
 
|-
| oscilloscope
| Develop OS computer oscilloscope
| 10 lb
| 50
 
|-
| Robotic arm
| 6 degree of freedom robotic arm for welding or other applications; use hydrauilic motors ($900) with encoders
| 500 lb
| 2000
 
|-
| '''TOTAL'''
|
| '''5500 lb'''
| '''$13,100'''
 
|}
One note – the laser seems like the most difficult item here. However, given access to laser tubes from laser engravers, this is not that difficult. Many amateurs even blow glass to make their own tubes. On the robotic arm – I haven't searched yet – but there must be tons of people knowledgeable and interested in it.
 
 
Other proposed tool sets:
 
* [http://adl.serveftp.org/skdb/doc/BOMs/ultimate-tool-buying-guide.yaml ultimate tool buying guide]
* [http://adl.serveftp.org/skdb/doc/BOMs/electronics-workbench electronics workbench]
* [http://adl.serveftp.org/skdb/doc/BOMs/comparison/fablab.yaml fablab inventory]
* [http://adl.serveftp.org/skdb/doc/BOMs/comparison/techshop.yaml techshop inventory]
* [http://adl.serveftp.org/skdb/doc/BOMs/comparison/emachineshop.yaml emachineshop inventory]
 
=Proposal Outline=
 
Here is an Outline of a more complete proposal which could deploy this campaign.
 
 
# Introduction to the Open Source Fab Lab (OSFL)
## Problem Statement
## OSFL Collaboration Concept
### Downloading open source hardware over the web
### Collaborating with [http://adl.serveftp.org/dokuwiki/skdb SKDB] (it's basically this project except Marcin doesn't know about it)
## Industry 2.0 Problem Statement
### Design repositories – SKDB, Smari's work, Thingiverse, Google 3D warehouse,
### Local fabrication – Fab USA, Fab (Your Country) program
## Universal Constructors
### Examples – RepRap, [http://www.cubespawn.com/ CubeSpawn], OSE work, Erector Set, Box Beam, Makerbot, Fab@Home, CandyFab, P3P, [http://www.contraptor.org/ Contraptor], MIT Fab Lab, [http://bildr.org/ Bildr]
## Design Specifications
### Low cost, multipurpose, robust, OSE spec
### Scope of production covered
### Size, cost, and weight of equipment set
### Open Standards
## Applications of OSFL
# Required Functions
## Fabrication functions
## Scope of production covered
# Proposed Components and Their Functions
## Fab Lab template
### Scope of application
### Missing functions
## OS Fab Lab template
## Technological recursion level
### Off-shelf components
### OS power electronics
# Proposed implementation
## Utilization of hybrid electric and hydraulic drive
## Power sources – grid and generator
## Bill of materials for OSFL
# Bill of Materials for the OSFL
# Proposed collaboration
## Hackerspaces
## Fab Labs
## Economic development organizations (1<sup>st</sup> and 3<sup>rd</sup> world)
## Other libre and open source, universal constructor programs
# Funding, PR, Resource Development
## Website and funding basket
## Allocation procedure
## Resource development
## Required PR materials
## Donation strategy - based on use of FeF facilities for low-cost replication
# Inventory of Existing Hackerspace Equipment
## FeF collaboratory equipment inventory
## Available Fab Lab facilities and equipment
## Hackerspaces
# Available design and engineering resources
## Encyclopedias - Fabripedia, mechanisms, industrial processes, chemical processes, food processing, agricultural equipment, equipment design, how things work (collections of mechanisms)
## Engineering and formula handbooks in all fields
## Available free software
## List and Evaluation of collaborative engineering platforms
## OSE Dedicated Project Visits
### Nature of visits
### Infrastructure development
# Organizational Team
# Summary
 
=skdb=
 
* git repository: [[http://adl.serveftp.org/skdb.git/|skdb.git]]
* [[http://adl.serveftp.org/git/gitweb.cgi|code]] (web view) http://adl.serveftp.org/skdb/
* presentation: http://adl.serveftp.org/lab/presentations/updates-from-austin.pdf
* email: openmanufacturing@googlegroups.com
* IRC: #hplusroadmap on irc.freenode.net
* main wiki: http://adl.serveftp.org/dokuwiki/skdb
 
SKDB is a method for sharing hardware over the internet. By "hardware" we mean not just designs for circuit boards, but also biological constructs, scientific instruments, machine tools, nuts and bolts, raw materials, and how to make them.
 
You don't need to reinvent the wheel every time you begin a new project. Someone out there has probably already done most or all of the work for whatever you are trying to do, and then released the plans on the internet. There are many common tools and parts involved in making things. If only we could just "get" everything automatically from the web, DIY manufacturing would be much easier. Essentially we want to do something like "apt-get" for [[http://debian.org/|Debian]] or "emerge" for [[http://gentoo.org|Gentoo]], the Linux software package managers. SKDB simplifies the process of searching for free designs, comparing part compatibility, and building lists of materials and components and where to get them. You could even say SKDB is "apt-get but for real stuff".
 
In SKDB, hardware is organized into packages. Packages are a standard and consistent way for programs to find data. Packages may contain CAD files, CAM parameters, computer-readable descriptions of product specifications, product-specific code, and bill of materials. For each part in a package there are a number of interface definitions, which describe how the part can connect with other parts, even parts from other packages. Each package also lists dependencies which have to be bought or built in order to successfully carry out a project. For example a drill press is required to make holes with a certain level of accuracy. SKDB downloads all of the dependencies automatically and compares them to your existing inventory, and generates instructions for your CNC machinery if you have any.
 
With [[occ|OpenCASCADE]], an open source CAD geometry kernel, parts can be visualized and combined in real-time to show new assemblies and constructions. The next steps are automatically generating instructions for assembling these parts and projects, with human-readable as well as robot-readable instructions (i.e., g-code). Also in the pipeline is a [[djangit|wiki-like frontend]] to SKDB with a git revision control back-end, which could be used as a free alternative to instructables or thingiverse, but better. With proper distributed revision control tools, anyone can publish and share their modifications with the rest of the world, and seamlessly merge those changes back into the main line. These tools are vital to the success of do-it-yourself collaborative and free manufacturing. Without a solid base for sharing and building upon each other's work, the movement will continue to flounder.
 
 
SKDB is just getting started, but a number of important pieces are already functional:
  * units conversion and equations
  * formalized descriptions of several manufacturing processes
  * a simple example package describing a typical screw from the hardware store
    * the screw has a set of requirements for being manufactured
    * a set of packages it depends on to work right (threads package)
    * metadata such as homepage URL, author, copyright license
  * a more complex package describing several lego bricks and how they go together
    * run packages/lego/demo.py to demonstrate interface compatibility
    * run paths.py to demonstrate making a lego assembly
    * generate an assembly graph by choosing 'save'
 
We need your help in converting open designs to a standard, freely-accessible format. If you have access to expensive proprietary CAD software such as Solidworks, CATIA, or AutoCAD, and wish to help, please contact us at openmanufacturing@googlegroups.com
 
If not, we also need people with programming talent and engineering knowledge for converting manufacturing knowledge and product data into a computer readable format. If you're good with a text editor and know what "feeds and speeds" means, you can certainly help us out.
 
=Comments=
Comment here. Click edit on top.
 
[[Category:OS Fab Lab]]
[[Category:RepLab]]

Latest revision as of 21:40, 5 November 2010

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