Science and Technology thread

[Topher]

Topher, you need to be an early adopter of this technology in the adult film industry.

Hands Free POV?

I've found it a better idea to make glasses for women that make men appear sexier. Should get more men laid. Also, it eliminates menstruation.

 

[aiw]

This is really cool

http://whatsnext.blogs.cnn.com/2013/02/ ... ?hpt=hp_t2

 

[aiw]

Here's the vid

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/135 ... inting-pen

 

[NOD]

Here's the vid

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/135 ... inting-pen

Holy shit!

 

[ZackM]

Here's the vid

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/135 ... inting-pen

Holy shit!

Nice to see they reached their goal of $30,000 in funds.

 

[bfactor]

It looks basically like a well-packaged, hand-held RepRap nozzle.

 

[NOD]

It looks basically like a well-packaged, hand-held RepRap nozzle.

For some reason, this sounds dirty.

 

[ZackM]

It looks basically like a well-packaged, hand-held RepRap nozzle.

I prefer makerbot.

 

[aiw]

3D printers are pretty ridiculous

 

[bfactor]

I've had things made from direct metal laser sintering for work, which is the same thing except using steel instead of plastic. Pretty amazing capabilities. I think there are some processes that can print ceramics now. We've been using additive techniques for about five years now through vendors.

 

[bfactor]

Here's another pretty cool desktop machine that I want. User places a small object into the bay, it performs a 3D scan of the object, stores that information in a model, then mills a duplicate of the part from stock material.

http://www.rolanddga.com/products/scanners/mdx15/

 

[rhfarmer]

Here's another pretty cool desktop machine that I want. User places a small object into the bay, it performs a 3D scan of the object, stores that information in a model, then mills a duplicate of the part from stock material.

http://www.rolanddga.com/products/scanners/mdx15/

B, how hard would it be to replicate surfboards using this?

ETA, if you could make this thing bigger, of course

 

[ChibCU]

Printing a human kidney: http://www.ted.com/talks/anthony_atala_ ... idney.html

 

[aiw]

He's at Wake Forest

 

[aiw]

Took me a while to get that he was saying "biomaterial" rather than "bowel material". Gotta get work out of my head.

 

[bfactor]

Here's another pretty cool desktop machine that I want. User places a small object into the bay, it performs a 3D scan of the object, stores that information in a model, then mills a duplicate of the part from stock material.

http://www.rolanddga.com/products/scanners/mdx15/

B, how hard would it be to replicate surfboards using this?

ETA, if you could make this thing bigger, of course

I think that it would be easy, if weight and material properties weren't a concern, but probably not very feasible on costs. I'm sure there are optical profilers out there that could scan your favorite hand-made boards, produce exact dimensional drawings, and compare replicas with the original for accuracy. That would actually be pretty cool.

One thing that's often overlooked with 3D printers is how expensive the "print cartridges" of material are. We don't actually own one at work because parts end up costing hundreds of $$$ anyway. It's easier and likely cheaper to send a drawing/model file out to a contract fabricator and not have to deal with machine startup and maintenance costs. The only real benefit of having your own machine is same-day parts rather than three day lead times.

 

[aiw]

Or to build guns

 

[rhfarmer]

Here's another pretty cool desktop machine that I want. User places a small object into the bay, it performs a 3D scan of the object, stores that information in a model, then mills a duplicate of the part from stock material.

http://www.rolanddga.com/products/scanners/mdx15/

B, how hard would it be to replicate surfboards using this?

ETA, if you could make this thing bigger, of course

I think that it would be easy, if weight and material properties weren't a concern, but probably not very feasible on costs. I'm sure there are optical profilers out there that could scan your favorite hand-made boards, produce exact dimensional drawings, and compare replicas with the original for accuracy. That would actually be pretty cool.

One thing that's often overlooked with 3D printers is how expensive the "print cartridges" of material are. We don't actually own one at work because parts end up costing hundreds of $$$ anyway. It's easier and likely cheaper to send a drawing/model file out to a contract fabricator and not have to deal with machine startup and maintenance costs. The only real benefit of having your own machine is same-day parts rather than three day lead times.

What would make this a money maker would be the potential to recreate legendary surfboards, exactly. Greg Noll's famous Waimea board as an example. Collector's would pay big bucks for an original, naturally, but there's only one original. If you could recreate exact replicas of surfing history, I think the costs could be recovered.

 

[bfactor]

Probably the best way to do that with current technology would be to scan the board with a 3D profiler, convert the design to G-code, CNC a new board from foamcore, then apply the glass-epoxy coating by hand. I'd imagine you could do a pretty good job with access to those processes. No idea how expensive that would be.

 

[NOD]

Or to build guns

Especially if you wanted to kill the President.