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| ''This page is a work in progress. I am in the process of merging several pages that were on the wiki previously, so apologies if it is just a messy spool of words for now --[[User:Conor|Conor]] 22:25, 5 November 2010 (UTC)''
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| | {{Breadcrumb|Digital Fabrication}} |
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| [[Image:replab.png|center|450px]] | | [[Image:replab.png|center|450px]] |
| See corresponding blog post - http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/?p=1254
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| =What RepLab is=
| | '''RepLab''' is a proposed [[Digital Fabrication|digital fabrication]] workshop. Unlike the [[MIT FabLab]], RepLab is based on open source tools and is thus 1/10th the cost. The first prototype of this is the [[FeF Workshop]], in existnce since 2012. Newer work on this is the smaller, desktop tools - 3D Printers, filament maker, laser cutter, and CNC circuit mill. See 2018 work at https://microfactory.opensourceecology.org/workshops/. The more recent work at OSE revolves around the [[Open Source Microfactory]]. RepLab, Open Source Microfactory, open source fablab - are all synonymous. |
| RepLab is a proposed [[Digital Fabrication|digital fabrication]] workshop. It would be a room with computer-controlled tools that could mould metal into any shape, mould plastic into any shape, print circuit boards, scan 3D shapes, melt down metal to pour it into moulds and do a few other basic tasks in a highly flexible way, with the result that the workshop could be used to make any electronic or mechanical device. In goes scrap metal, plastic and silicon - out come bicycles, saucepans, [[LifeTrac|tractors]], medical equipment, mobile phones, laptop computers, Internet nodes, [[Solar Turbine|solar turbines]], sculptures, robots and whatever else you can imagine. And one of the things it would be able to make would be another RepLab, allowing them to multiply like rabbits. | |
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| A RepLab in a third world village could rapidly alleviate poverty by enabling people to solve their own problems, using their own skills and creating local economic activity. Humanity faces significant shortages of medical equipment, agricultural equipment, housing and things like that; a network of RepLabs, growing in numbers exponentially, could greatly alleviate this poverty.
| | It would be a room with computer-controlled tools that could mold metal into any shape, mold plastic into any shape, print circuit boards, scan 3D shapes, melt down metal and roll metal to any stock steel section. The result is that you could make any electronic or mechanical device. Inputs are scrap metal, plastic and silicon - out come bicycles, saucepans, [[LifeTrac|tractors]], medical equipment, mobile phones, laptop computers, Internet nodes, [[Solar Turbine|solar turbines]], sculptures, robots and whatever else you can imagine. And one of the things it would be able to make would be another RepLab, as all the fabrication machines would use open-source designs. This would allow the labs to multiply like rabbits. |
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| Information is the main ingredient in [[Digital Fabrication|digital fabrication]]. People using RepLab would be able to use, produce and share open-source hardware using repositories like [[SKDB]], Smari's work, Thingiverse and Google 3D warehouse.
| | This promise has been around since the Star Trek replicator, but to date, only partial or non-open source implementations are available - such as [[OpenDesk]]. [[WikiHouse]] appears to be fully open. And the [[MIT FabLab]] (tools not open source and designs non-commercial). OSE aims to bridge this gap no later than by 2028. |
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| We expect 15 tools would do the job. We have open-source designs of a few of these already.
| | =2023 Update= |
| | Desktop semiconductor foundry actually exists, and costs about $10-20M to implement - see [[Semiconductor Fabrication]]. |
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| =The tools= | | =Design= |
| {| cellpadding="3" cellspacing="0" border="1" align="left"
| | *[[RepLab Design]] |
| ! TOOL
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| ! DESCRIPTION
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| ! SIZE
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| ! COST (USD)
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| ! STATUS
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| |-align="left"
| | =Tools= |
| ! 3D printer[[Image:reprapicon.jpg|100px]]
| | *[[RepLab Tools]] |
| ! Makes plastic objects from CAD files. The head is interchangeable for a small router for [[Making circuit boards with RepRap|circuit fabrication]]
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| ! 1 m<sup>3</sup>, 50 lb
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| ! 300
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| ! <font color=green>Complete!</font> See [[RepRap]]
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| | =People= |
| ! 3D scanner
| | *[[Heath Matlock]] |
| ! Device for turning 3D objects into CAD files. Combined with a 3D printer, allows you to "clone" plastic objects
| | *[[Leo.dearden]] |
| !
| | *[[Nick Person]] |
| ! less than 50
| | *[[Sebastien]] |
| ! Several open-source/ DIY 3D scanners exist. We need to assess their viability for RepLab. See [[3D scanner]]
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| |-align="left"
| | =Research= |
| ! CNC torch table, router [[Image:Torchtableicon.jpg|100px]]
| | *[http://future.wikia.com/wiki/Desktop_Semiconductor_Foundry Desktop Semiconductor Foundry] |
| ! A device with a digitally-controlled cutter that can shape metal
| | *[http://www.physikinstrumente.com/en/products/piezo_tutorial.php Nanopositioning] |
| ! 300 lb
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| ! 1500 (for 280lb torque version)
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| ! <font color=orange>Prototype phase</font>. See [[Torch Table]]. 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
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| | =Links= |
| ! Drill-mill-lathe
| | *[[OSE Workshop]] and [[Workshop]] layout. |
| ! 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
| | *[[Open Source Microfactory]] |
| ! 500 lb (welding table serves as base for added weight)
| | *[[Basic Workshop]] |
| ! 1100 plus CNC
| | *[[Digital Fabrication]] |
| ! <font color=orange>Prototype phase</font>. [[Multimachine]] is an open-source drill-mill-lathe, but lacks CNC capability
| | *[[MIT Fab Lab item list]] |
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| |-align="left"
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| ! MIG welder [[Image:MIGweldericon.jpg|100px]]
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| ! Heats inert gases to very high temperatures for welding
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| ! 200 lb
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| ! 400
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| ! Open source power supply needs to be made. We can use a commercial gun/wire feeder
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| ! Plasma Cutter [[Image:Plasmacuttericon.jpg|100px]]
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| ! This involves opensourcing the power supply, and using a commercial gun
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| ! 50 lb
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| ! 300
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| |-align="left"
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| ! Induction Furnace
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| ! 20 kW, water-cooled coils; involves opensourcing the power supply; the rest is a melting container, pouring mechanism, and insulation
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| ! 1000 lb
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| ! 2000
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| ! <font color=orange>In development</font>. See [[Open Source Induction Furnace Project]]
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| ! Metal casting, rolling
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| ! Casting involves simple molds; rolling involves high power rollers, using 20 hp hydraulic motors above; start by rolling bars from hot billet
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| ! 1000 lb
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| ! 2000
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| |-align="left"
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| ! CNC laser cutter
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| ! 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
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| ! 300 lb
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| ! 2000
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| ! <font color=orange>In development</font> by [http://labs.nortd.com/lasersaur/ Lasersaur]. See [[Laser cutter]]
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| |-align="left"
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| ! Metal press, shear, and hole puncher
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| ! Up to 1” holes in 1” metal; shears 3” wide 1” metal; relies on a large cylinder ($260)
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| ! 1000 lb
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| ! 1000
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| |-align="left"
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| ! Cold cut metal saw
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| ! Uses existing hydraulic motor
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| ! 100 lb
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| ! 100 plus blade
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| !
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| ! Computer oscilloscope
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| ! Develop OS computer oscilloscope
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| ! 1kg
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| ! 50
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| !
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| |-align="left"
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| ! Robotic arm
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| ! 6 degree of freedom robotic arm for welding or other applications; use hydraulic motors ($900) with encoders
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| ! 500 lb
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| ! 2000
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| ! <font color=red>None exists yet</font>
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| ! Spectroscope
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| ! Microwave/X-Ray spectroscopy tool
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| ! ?
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| ! 700
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| ! <font color=green>Complete!</font> Elphel NC313L camera already exists and is open-source.<br>This seems to be how MIT FabLabs do it: [http://cba.mit.edu/projects/fablab/tools.html]
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| ! TOTAL
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| !
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| ! 5500 lb
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| ! $12,500
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| |}
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| =Proposed collaboration=
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| * Hackerspaces
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| * Fab Labs
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| * Economic development organizations (1<sup>st</sup> and 3<sup>rd</sup> world)
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| * Other libre and open source, universal constructor programs
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| * Universities
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| =PR, Resource Development=
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| ## Website and funding basket
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| ## Donation strategy - based on use of FeF facilities for low-cost replication
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| ## Required PR materials
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| # Inventory of Existing Hackerspace Equipment
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| ## FeF collaboratory equipment inventory
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| ## Available Fab Lab facilities and equipment
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| ## Hackerspaces
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| # Available design and engineering resources
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| ## Encyclopedias - Fabripedia, mechanisms, industrial processes, chemical processes, food processing, agricultural equipment, equipment design, how things work (collections of mechanisms)
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| ## Engineering and formula handbooks in all fields
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| ## Available free software
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| ## List and Evaluation of collaborative engineering platforms
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| ## OSE Dedicated Project Visits
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| ### Nature of visits
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| ### Infrastructure development
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| # Organizational Team
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| # Summary
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| =Fabulous Friends=
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| Fabulous Friends Smari, Kyrah, Olle, Erik, Edmund, Henri, and James X. Jones:
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| # Who else should we recruit for the organizational team?
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| # Who and how to contact others to find more collaborators?
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| # How much time could you devote to this?
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| # Can you serve on the organizational team?
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| # Can you set up a website for this?
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| # How can we enlist communicators, PR people?
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| # Besides the crowds, who can we tap for funding?
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| # Etc, etc.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| =Funding=
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| We can assume that the demand for digital fabrication tools represents a multi-billion dollar market that is also growing rapidly. As such, the money to fund development is out there. If RepLab is ten times cheaper than any existing fabrication tools, it opens up a massive new market. We should be able to capture at least a few percent of the global digital fabrication market.
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| The fact that RepLab would be self-replicating would mean that, though the first one would cost about $15,000, the second one would cost only the price of recycled scrap metal and plastic. When you consider that machines with a market value of thousands of dollars could be made in the workshop on a weekly basis, the economically disruptive nature of this project becomes clear.
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| 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.
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| Other model tool sets:
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| * [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]
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| * [http://adl.serveftp.org/skdb/doc/BOMs/comparison/fablab.yaml fablab inventory]
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| * [http://adl.serveftp.org/skdb/doc/BOMs/comparison/techshop.yaml techshop inventory] | |
| * [http://adl.serveftp.org/skdb/doc/BOMs/comparison/emachineshop.yaml emachineshop inventory]
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| =Team=
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| ==[http://www.nycresistor.com/ NYC Resistor] response==
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| *contact@nycresistor.com
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| *date Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 10:45 PM
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| We are not currently working on an opensource laser cutter. Some of our members are active with open source 3D printing, namely the RepRap and the Makerbot.
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| I do know that hacklab.to rebuilt a broken epilog and then taught it to sing (http://hacklab.to/archives/another-musical-variation/). They might have a couple of folks interested in opensourcing a laser cutter design.
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| Best,
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| Max
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| =Comments=
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| Comment here. Click edit on top.
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| *Q:What happened to using the Multimachine design?
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| *A:What design? Those are concepts, and valuable ones, bu not particular implementations. If you can point me to an actual, doucumented design that is in any way replicable, we'll be glad to assess it.
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| *Q: Have you looked at the Gingery books? The lathe and shaper can replace most of a machine shop either with or without CNC capabilities. They are small machines, but sufficient for lots of needs, including bootstrapping.
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| Have you decided on a target skill level? RepRap produces snap together objects from CAD drawings, but most of the machines you're talking about require skill/training to setup and run. That's fine but it doesn't change the manufacturing paradigm. We need to be clear about what we are trying to achieve. How about this: The RepLab will be a facility capable of manufacturing 90% of it's own parts when directed by a skilled user. It will be able to manufacture 80% of items used on a large farmstead when used by a patron who has only minimal skills or receiving brief training and moderate assistance. Such skills might include: Soldering, mechanical assembly, 3D CAD modeling, measuring, aligning and clamping.
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| Also I wonder about the need for an induction furnace; aluminum/bronze foundry practice is pretty Open and incredibly versatile. I would focus more on automating safety than finding new ways to generate heat. An OS furnace which could pour without removing the crucible, and into a locked-in-place mold would make casting much more attractive to the general public as well as vastly safer. I am also not clear on the reasons for the rolling mill, oscilloscope, robotic arm and spectroscope.
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| Another offspring from the MIT is the [http://mtm.cba.mit.edu/index.html Machines That Make] project. Example projects are the under $100 Mantis 3-axis CNC milling machine [http://makeyourbot.org/ Mantis] and the [http://mtm.cba.mit.edu/fabinabox/devmultifab.html Fab In A Box] a multipurpose computer-controlled fabrication machine.
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| ==Open-source oscilloscopes==
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| * [http://www.elechouse.com/elechouse/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=396 Pocket-sized oscilloscope]
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| * [http://www.eosystems.ro/ 40 MSPS oscilloscope]. This looks good.
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| [[Category:RepLab]]
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| =Level 1=
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| Open Source FabLab. Approach in a modular fashion of developing technology 'primitives' that can be used as modules in many applications. Just a plain old opensourcing effort.
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| =Level 2=
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| Economic significance of RepLab tools comes from the ability of developers to engage in their production. This must be a central feature, as it allows for people to develop free enterprise. The supporters sought should be targeted explicitly for their desire to engage in free enterprise.
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| =Level 3=
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| The deeper level of economic significance comes from designing free products that can be produced with the available tools. Free business models are a part of that, and link directly into creation of post-scarcity resilient communities.
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| =Strategy=
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| We can motivate funding of the above via low-cost replicability of the whole package. If we include metal melting in the process for generating steel or aluminum from scrap, then we can talk about people investing in productive capacity at negligible cost.
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| This means, if we develop all the tools, including metal melt from scrap and hot and cold metal processing - and put them under one roof - then developers can capture significant value from this. As such, they are motivated to fund and support development.
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| Therefore, I propose that we motivate funding by access to the most amazing hackerspace in the world. I propose we build that at [http://openfarmtech.org/weblog/?p=455 43 cents per square foot] at Factor e Farm, or anywhere else, and populate it with tools.
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| People can redeem their investment into the project with the redemption of their contribution at $50 per day usage of the entire RepLab. I would propose a generous redemption rate, such as 5, 10-, or lifetime membership to the RepLab based on their level of contribution. The $50 figure is just a first guess. Access to full training and education materials would be given, and the development of this could be a collaborative effort with existing projects.
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| For example, a person contributed $1000 to the project. For that cash, they could melt metal, generate steel, build a tractor with steam engine and hydraulic system for that price.
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| The assumption is that the designs and tooling is available. With about $1M investment, there is no question that this could be done. The entire equipment base can be built for $500k. The R&D for product design would be a dedicated year effort by 10 people, for items of key interest, at $50k/person.
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| Thus, investment would require 1000 donors at $1000 each. The facility should fit about 20 investors at a time, for a powerhouse development center of open technology. Redemption time per person would be 1 day per $1000, or 3 full years to redeem value of all investors. This is an acceptable return on investement period, and the entire lab can be built in 1 year from the point of availability of funds.
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| =Challenges=
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| The challenge of selecting specifications is addressed by the 'transcend and include' approach proposed by Bildr.org - where all specifications are accounted for by virtue of designing modules for each specification.
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| The challenge of allocating results of prototyping/building is addressed by giving the fruits to everybody. This happens by all developers gaining access to the facility, and the capacity to reproduce the same at the cost of scrap steel.
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