New 3D Printer/"Santa Claus Machine" Startup on Kickstarter

3-D Printers will be part of just about every home within the next five years. The home brew crowd has been making them for several years, and they have just about reached the interest/price point where a major manufacturer (Mattel? Roland?Apple?) will be giving them serious thought, unless a new maverick company can get there first, making it easy to use, maintain and store. Take a look at http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/printrbot/printrbot-your-first-3d-printer?ref=spotlight - this is so close to having a major brand slapped on it I can hardly wait - and may not! The kit level is well within reach, and small enough to hide on a workbench without a spouse's knowledge - "Oh, Hi Honey! Remember how we needed that $400 part for the washer? Well, I made that here, as well as the doo-dad the garage wanted to charge you another $75 for so you could wash your windshield, and the little one's favorite toy truck is as good as new - the one you can only get on eBay for five times the price..." Yep, these can pay for themselves in one year at this price, and a whole new industry of .dxf files will take over where mp3's are currently torrented. This should keep the lawyers busy too - as well as congress and the senate passing or fighting over bills to allow/disallow people to make their own repair parts - don't get me started here, we're already fighting the car manufacturers trying to stop our local garages from fixing our cars.

Successful Kickstarter.com startup for DIY Desktop CNC Machine!

Kickstarter.com has helped countless people find the funds needed to get their dreams off the ground. Here, a DIY CNC machine has been successfully funded, and there are more Fab Labbers in need. Looking for funding or inspiration, this is the place

3D Wear

http://www.ecouterre.com/worlds-first-3d-printed-bikini-makes-debut/
Not for my geek-chique form, though there are other possibilities.

Fab(ric) Lab. Custom Fabric!

Couple of places doing this, http://www.fabricondemand.com/ has cotton and polycotton blends, as well as microsuede and more.
at http://www.bonbonkakku.com/, you can submit designs and have them voted on - and bought by people worldwide.

Hand Made Fab? Sugru!

This is the stuff that should be sitting in the "everything" drawer of every household, along with the gorilla glue, the epoxy putty and the box of screws.  Haven't bought any yet, but you should check out what other people have "fabbed" by hand with this stuff.   Available from sugru.com Comes in white, black, blue orange and green, as well as a handy variety pack. One 5g "sachet" is enough for one small repair, about $9.77 for 6 5g sachets (in single colour).

Shapeways - 3D Printing, Interesting Materials

http://www.shapeways.com/ has some interesting materials available for 3D printing, including an "alumide" mix of aluminum and nylon.  While not strong, it offers a sought after appearance.  Shapeways is able to create a number of different objects from whimsical to utilitarian, like this working compressor.

Check it out at http://www.shapeways.com/model/198434/mini_centrifugal_compressor.html?gid=cg14

Back after a Long Absence

My fascination never faded, only my patience.  Several Updates to follow.

Ponoko - Pre-test Your Parts or Make Money Using SEF (Someone Elses Fablab)

Ponoko.com allows you to use their extensive fab lab to turn out parts and more. Limited materials, but they're always adding more.

Christmas doodad gizmo $15

http://www.brookstone.com/store/product.asp?pid=573246&wid=100&cid=59&sid=622&search_type=subcategory&prodtemp=t1

Redeye RPM - Business VFab Lab

Output: Plastic parts, various plastic formulations for Rapid Prototyping or Rapid Manufacturing
Target: Inventors, Small Business to f500
Pricing: via proprietary quote system

"Automated Service Can Handle High Volume of Parts Made from Production-Grade Plastics" - from press release http://www.redeyerpm.com/PR101705.aspx

Inventors and those who like to keep things under wraps will like this companies "STL File Analyzer" which takes your file, figures out the parts statistics only (not the actual geometry of the part) and sends you back a quote (see https://www.redeyerpm.com/Plugin.aspx )
http://www.redeyerpm.com/ uses the PolyJet systems for rapid prototyping of plastic parts using ABS, Polycarbonate, flexible plastics and more. the list is pretty extensive ( http://www.redeyerpm.com/Materials.aspx).
Excellent full FAQ that answers most common questions at http://www.redeyerpm.com/FAQ.aspx .

Santa Claus Machines

Size(s): Benchtop to Shop Floor
Output: Plastic One Off Prototype Parts
Pricing: tbd (to be determined)

http://www.stratasys.com/sys_main.html has rapid prototyping machines for the small to f500 companies, by the looks of it. No pricing found so far, but nice machinery! Of interest is their Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM™) .

Cafe Press - Personal VFablab

Output: Custom Fabbed apparel, drinkware, paper goods, clocks and more
Target Audience: individuals, small to medium sized businesses
Opportunities: Turnkey web stores


To Quote Their site:

You can sell

* Merchandise you design including t-shirts, posters, mugs, bumper stickers and much more
* Books printed on-demand
* Audio and Data CDs



What CafePress.com does

1. Gives you a FREE online shop to promote your products
2. Produces each item when ordered using our unique print-on-demand technology
3. Handles all payment transactions including major credit cards
4. Ships your products worldwide
5. Manages all returns/exchanges
6. Offers customer service via toll-free phone and email
7. Sends you a monthly check for your earnings on sales!..."

Older than Zazzle, they've got a lot of merchandise you can add your art to and personalize. They're a "turnkey" operation - they supply the printing abilities, you supply the art, you sell, you keep the profit.

They've also got two levels of operation for you: a free shop that allows you: "...

	FREE personal shop on CafePress.com with your own URL.
	Design and sell over 50 products (one of each product type per shop)!
	Customize your shop with your logo and provide a shop description.
	Mailing list features help you keep in touch with your customers.
	Promote your products in the CafePress.com Shopping area.
	AND...Basic Shops can be upgraded to Premium Shops in just a few easy steps!"

Basic Shops come in a standard template that can be customized with your shop logo and description. ..."

and a "premium" shop that, for $4.99 per month, allows you: "...

	Advanced customization - Your shop is a true extension of your Web site.
	Increase product choices by offering unlimited designs and products.
	Offer exclusive products available only to Premium Shops members
	Organize your designs and products into categories/subcategories.
	Great marketing features including mailing lists and premium promotion in our Shopping area.
	Change the sell price of all products in a shop with just one click. ..."

I created one free shop at http://www.cafepress.com/fablablab to see what it was all about.

Licensing:
Here's where people may get cold feet:
"... 4.3 Licensing Your Content to CafePress.com. You will retain ownership of the Content that you upload to the Web Site. You hereby grant to CafePress.com a royalty-free, worldwide, transferable, nonexclusive, right and license to use such Content, in all media existing now or created in the future, as CafePress.com deems necessary to enable you to use the Create & Buy Service to create, produce and purchase Products for so long as your Content remains uploaded to the Web Site. CafePress.com may sublicense the rights that you grant it in this Section to a third party subcontractor only for purposes of producing your Products and providing the CafePress.com Service. ..."

I'm not a lawyer, don't even watch tv, so if you have any issues with what's said here or you don't understand it, don't use the site until you do. My opinion is: I like what I've made, I'll profit, they'll profit, and if I'm wrong, I'm wrong. Anything I create that I've done exclusively for someone else stays that way, and anything I wouldn't want to share with cafepress.com I don't give them.


As it's quitting time, I'll post this and add to it tomorrow.

Zazzle - Personal Promo VFabLab

Output: Custom Fabbed apparel, drinkware, paper goods and stamps
Target Audience: individuals, small to medium sized businesses
Opportunites: Webstore


Zazzle.com allows you to customize various shirts, mugs, stationery and stamps, and also gives you a cut of the deal! If it's your art, you can get cash for whenever someone wants your product, up to 17%. They also offer licensed items from major players like Disney and Warner Brothers, with "The Family Guy" cartoons, movie releases like "Pirates of the Carribean" prominantly displayed.

They also give you plenty of tools to advertise your products, including a flash panel (that appears to still need work), connections for email, links, blogs, webpages and more (see zazzle at my scrimshaw.com site).

CustomInk.Com Business Promo VFabLab

Output: Custom Fabbed apparel, toys, ornaments, pens, supplies and drinkware
Target Audience: Small to medium sized businesses, schools or organizations, quantity buyers

Custom Ink allows you to create a variety of items Currently I'm testing whether or not I can email a picture along and have it show up as well, but I digress. CustomInk www.customink.com has quite a variety of products available for you to customize, including clothing, pens, mousepads (does anyone use mousepads anymore?), paper products and "fun stuff" - my favorite area. Fun stuff includes things like ornaments, stuffed animals, umbrellas and more.

I tried their interface with just the in-house graphics (you can upload your own), and it worked great in FoxFire (Opera didn't want to play nice with Java). You can add text, graphics, more text, mix and match and generally waste a lot of time "noodling", though if you have an idea in mind, you can set it up quickly and center it very fast.

Uploading your own graphics brings up a nice variety of options: "Web images, e.g. GIF, JPG, BMP", "Photoshop files, e.g. TIF, PSD, PPD", "llustrations(vector), e.g. EPS, AI, CDR", "Microsoft Word/Powerpoint., e.g. DOC, PPT" and the ever useful "Don't know... " I chose a colorful design, which offered up a couple of more options, including the colors you'd prefer to use, and an offer to get a quote for the printing process. If I had money on this, I wouldn't do this - I'd test it out in house with the colors chosen before I commited, but I chose 5 colors and got a quote.

When getting the quote, I got this reply (I asked for only one bear):
"The minimum quantity for this item is 24 pieces. Please click ' OK ' and re-enter quantities."

OK, so I'll order 24 and give some away. Here's the price:

" All-Inclusive Price:
$15.22 each | $365.28 total
Standard 21 day delivery (free!)
Order today, delivered by 08/03/2006
Rush 14 day delivery (add 25%)
Order today, delivered by 07/27/2006
Dark Brown Bear with T - White
Screenprinting: 4 Color Front
Quantity: 24"

Not bad! Once again - you have a computer in front of you! Use it to test the colors before you commit!! Choosing over five colors got me into a 48 minimum:
"All-Inclusive Price:
$13.83 each | $663.84 total
Standard 21 day delivery (free!)
Order today, delivered by 08/03/2006
Rush 14 day delivery (add 25%)
Order today, delivered by 07/27/2006
Dark Brown Bear with T - White
Screenprinting: 6 Color Front
Quantity:48 "

You can customize the daylights out of these things and a call to their 800 number will net you even more information when you're ready to buy, but their website is really the best place to look.

Intro - FabLab Blab

FabLabs are all around us. We're posting sites here that we find all over the web, and hope that you can comment on them as well. Comments belong to those who make them and don't necessarily reflect the opinions of mysself, my past present or future employers.