Multimachine & Flex Fab

• HABITAT: CEB Press - Sawmill - Living Machines - Modular Housing Units
  
• AGROECOLOGY: LifeTrac Multi Purpose Tractor - MicroTrac - Power Cube - Agricultural Spader - Agricultural Microcombine - Hammer Mill - Well Drilling Rig - Organoponic Raised Bed Gardening - Orchard and Nursery - Modular Greenhouse Units - Bakery - Dairy - Energy Food Bars - Freeze Dried Fruit Powders
  
• ENERGY: Pyrolysis Oil - Babington Burner - Solar Combined Heat Power System - Steam Engine Construction Set - Solar Turbine - Electric Motors/Generators - Inverters & Grid Intertie - Batteries
  
• FLEXIBLE INDUSTRY: Lathe - Torch Table - Multimachine & Flex Fab - Plastic Extrusion & Molding - Metal Casting and Extrusion
  
• TRANSPORT: Open Source Car
  
• MATERIALS: Bioplastics

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Multimachine & Flex Fab- www.multimachine.net/ shows it - a general purpose metal fabrication tool including lathe, mill, and drill press. This could be the central tool piece of a flexible workshop - and this item is already open source! I have not assessed this more fully, but it appears to be a promising candidate to address tooling needs for a community- at absolutely rock bottom cost - eliminating thousands of dollars of expenditure requirement for similar abilities. The capacities and practicality of this lower tech 'personal fabber' need to be assessed fully. The multimachine could be the centerpieces enabling the fabrication of electric motor, CEB, sawmill, OSCar, microcombine and all other items that require processes from milling to drilling to lathing. Crucial.

Collaboration

Review of Project Status

We are currently assembling and evaluating the components that would make a robust flexible fabrication facility. To date, our list of proposed tooling is:

Machining:

1. Multimachine - http://opensourcemachine.org/
   1. Add CNC numerical control to its xyz motion to automate milling and lathing operations
   2. Include long lathe bed for CNC milling of roundwood for LPSA structures
2. Torch table - similar to the Torchmate
   1. Commercial kits start at $4k from Torchmate
   2. Open source CNC version could cost $1k
   3. Torch attachment is the basic tool

Materials

1. Plastic extruder
2. Metal casting

Electronics:

1. Circuit fabrication - solution etching or a PCB mill?
   1. PCB mill kit available for about $2500
2. PC oscilloscope

Development Work Template

1. Flex Fab - Product Definition
   1. Flex Fab - General
   2. Flex Fab - General Scope
   3. Flex Fab - Product Ecology
      1. Flex Fab - Localization
      2. Flex Fab - Scaleability
      3. Flex Fab - Analysis of Scale
      4. Flex Fab - Lifecycle Analysis
   4. Flex Fab - Enterprise Options
   5. Flex Fab - Development Approach
      1. Flex Fab - Timeline
      2. Flex Fab - Development Budget
         1. Flex Fab - Value Spent
         2. Flex Fab - Value available
         3. Flex Fab - Value needed
   6. Flex Fab - Deliverables and Product Specifications
   7. Flex Fab - Industry Standards
   8. Flex Fab - Market and Market Segmentation
   9. Flex Fab - Salient Features and Keys to Success
2. Flex Fab - Technical Design
   1. Flex Fab - Product System Design
      1. Flex Fab - Diagrams and Conceptual Drawings
         1. Flex Fab - Pattern Language Icons
         2. Flex Fab - Structural Diagram
         3. Flex Fab - Funcional or Process Diagram
         4. Flex Fab - Workflow
      2. Flex Fab - Technical Issues
      3. Flex Fab - Deployment Strategy
      4. Flex Fab - Performance specifications
      5. Flex Fab - Calculations
         1. Flex Fab - Design Calculations
         2. Flex Fab - Yields
         3. Flex Fab - Rates
         4. Flex Fab - Structural Calculations
         5. Flex Fab - Power Requirements
         6. Flex Fab - Ergonomics of Production
         7. Flex Fab -Time Requirements
         8. Flex Fab - Economic Breakeven Analysis
         9. Flex Fab - Scaleability Calculations
         10. Flex Fab - Growth Calculations
      6. Flex Fab - Technical Drawings and CAD
      7. Flex Fab - CAM Files
   2. Flex Fab - Component Design
      1. Flex Fab - Diagrams
      2. Flex Fab - Conceptual drawings
      3. Flex Fab - Performance specifications
      4. Flex Fab - Performance calculations
      5. Flex Fab - Technical drawings and CAD
      6. Flex Fab - CAM files whenever available
   3. Flex Fab - Subcomponents
3. Flex Fab - Deployment and Results
   1. Flex Fab - Production steps
   2. Flex Fab - Flexible Fabrication or Production
   3. Flex Fab - Bill of materials
   4. Flex Fab - Pictures and Video
   5. Flex Fab - Data
4. Flex Fab - Documentation and Education
   1. Flex Fab - Documentation
   2. Flex Fab - Enterprise Plans
5. Flex Fab - Resource Development
   1. Flex Fab - Identifying Stakeholders
      1. Flex Fab - Information Collaboration
         1. Flex Fab - Wiki Markup
         2. Flex Fab - Addition of Supporting References
         3. Flex Fab - Production of diagrams, flowcharts, 3D computer models, and other qualitative information architecture
         4. Flex Fab - Technical Calculations, Drawings, CAD, CAM, other
      2. Flex Fab - Prototyping
      3. Flex Fab - Funding
      4. Flex Fab - Preordering working products
      5. Flex Fab - Grantwriting
      6. Flex Fab - Publicity
      7. Flex Fab - User/Fabricator Training and Accreditation
      8. Flex Fab - Standards and Certification Developmen
      9. Flex Fab - Other
   2. Flex Fab - Grantwriting
      1. Flex Fab - Volunteer grantwriters
      2. Flex Fab - Professional, Outcome-Based Grantwriters
   3. Flex Fab - Collaborative Stakeholder Funding
   4. Flex Fab - Tool and Material Donations
   5. Flex Fab - Charitable Contributions

Component References

• Oscilloscopes
  • PC Oscilloscope