This is actually the "true" origination of fab@home. Of course, it all started at
MIT. I learned of it from a nice piece on NPR Science Friday:
These "fab labs" are quite extensive and are more
for actually creating pretty much ANYTHING, not just a 3D plastic mock-up.
Fab@home is actually behind the curve a bit, but
it's a good start <$10,000. I've actually seen some 3d printers that
are even cheaper than they propose. Coupled with a 3d scanner and u can
pretty much copy anything.
The main purpose of the current rendition of fab
labs, however, is to empower 3rd world countries that dont have the
manufacturing capabilities others do. If Shaka in a zulu village has a
computer and decides he wants a car for his b-day, he can just dump the raw
materials into his Fab Lab and eventually out pops a car.
The other area is for garage techies with the space
and money. I believe a decent fab lab can be built for between $10,000 -
$20,000. That would give you the ability to fabricate most anything,
including wires, nuts n bolts, plastics, etc. etc. The tricky part is the
assembly process of course. And the real beauty behind the whole system is
integration.
CADCAM tech. nowadays is so advanced that IMO it
should be a mandatory class in elementary school.
The future is now my friends... embrace it
:)
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2007 5:06
PM
Subject: RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] 3D
Fabrication at home
Jay,
I've seen greed destroy many a good thing, so I truly hope that does not
turn out to be the case here. Allot of people that would donate there
time and/or money, get really turned off by that sort of attitude. I
know he's closely related to Simon Lake but in my opinion that sort of history
belongs to the world to explore and learn from. I was thinking
after I sent the last email that allot or all the scanned data and/or pictures
of the artifacts could be put on CD's and sold on the PSUB's site, the Simon
Lake sight, Amazon.com or the like to help support a museum and get the data
into many different areas for safe keeping.
In regards to the models we could add more detail then we would know what
to do with if we did allot of period type research and could debate the likely
hood of each detail. Of course it wouldn't be exactly correct but it
would be a interesting learning experience. There are those out there
that are great at finding odd things in archives all over the world that we
had no clue was saved. So it would be interesting if one of us could
write to the History Detectives on PBS and get them to dig up some more data
and maybe pictures of Simons early subs. Or the PSUBers could pool together to
send someone good at that sort of thing to look for data for us. There
are a good number of super smart college students that need a research
project. What about students studying 19th century engineering?
Regards,
Brent
From: "Jay K. Jeffries" <bottomgun@mindspring.com> Reply-To:
personal_submersibles@psubs.org To:
<personal_submersibles@psubs.org> Subject: RE:
[PSUBS-MAILIST] 3D Fabrication at home Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2007
16:22:41 -0400
Brent,
Thank
you for your prompt reply. I to agree that important or historical
documents should be duplicated and stored at an alternate, safe site.
Unfortunately, Jeff doesn?t have a curatorial background, is severely
underfunded, and now is experiencing ill health with age. He took on
the burden of keeping the Lake materials after no one in the immediate
family took interest. The archives are kept in the first floor of his
house which is a short distance across the road to the Inland Waterway just
south of Melbourne, FL (hurricane alley lately) and have suffered
accordingly. This was my fear when first visiting the site in the early
90s. The materials are in disarray and not accessioned. It is my
impression that he feels that there is great financial value in the
materials and is rather guarded when discussing the matter of others
assistance. I will re-evaluate this opinion after my visit in late
April and let you know.
Simon
Lake grew up in South Jersey just outside of Atlantic City in a town called
Pleasantville. It is my belief that a formal museum could be located
there and would be eligible for funding from the casinos as well as the
State, and Federal governments due to the area being financially
repressed. There is a local state college that could provide interns
as part of their history program. I have considered forming a
non-profit corporation to promote this idea. Hopefully Jeff can be
convinced to support the plan as there is no one in his surrounding family
interested in maintaining the Lake historical records.
Jeff
and his sister, Melissa have previously attempted to develop interest in a
Lake documentary but have not been able to come up with a great enough
?hook? to justify funding.
I
have toyed with building 3-D models of the Explorer, Argonaut
and the Argonaut II in Rhino which then could easily be transformed
into solid models, whether as ½ ship models or of 3-D resin. There are
not many photographs of the subs and those that are available are of poor
quality. Guessing that the average man was probably 5 ½ feet in
stature at the turn of the century, the images could be roughly scaled to
develop plans from?these would just be lacking in detail.
R/Jay
Respectfully,
Jay
K. Jeffries
Andros
Is., Bahamas
A
skimmer afloat is but a submarine, so poorly built it will not
float.
From:
owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org
[mailto:owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org] On Behalf Of Brent
Hartwig Sent: Sunday, March 18, 2007 2:39 PM To:
personal_submersibles@psubs.org Subject: RE: [PSUBS-MAILIST] 3D
Fabrication at home
Good Morning Jay,
The expedition sounds very interesting and perhaps a little fun to.
I hope you guys get to go and find some thing substantial to boot.
With regards to historical records and other materials I usually like the
idea of scanning all the documents and taking tons of pictures of every
thing else and putting the items in more them one place on the planet. So
that if one place is routed with fire, theft, water, etc. there is still
allot left to see. Perhaps allot or all of the above has already been done,
just my thoughts. I know it takes allot of work, care and money,
and I don't like to suggest others should do a bunch of work without
pitching in myself. So perhaps I should see if Jeff Lake would be
interested in any help from me or others in the group in this regard.
Do you think that would be ok with Jeff?
Of late we have talked about a scholarship from PSUB's, and perhaps that
scholarship or one like it could be used to work on the Simon Lake data and
materials. I was really hoping there would be more detailed pictures
and data on the Argonauts, but that is what it is. I believe
that some quite nice model's could still be made from the little data
at hand. They wouldn't be exact of course, but I think interesting
none the less. I've been learning how to overlap materials like the
materials used on the Aurgonauts in CAD and cutting holes for rivits and
placing rivits on compound curved surfaces. So it's getting interesting.
One would think that the History Channel, Discovery Channel, or the like
would be all over this with there great interest in war history and
interesting history in general.
Regards,
Brent
"Idealism increases in direct
proportion to one's distance from the problem." - John Galsworthy
From: "Jay
K. Jeffries" <bottomgun@mindspring.com> To: "'Brent
Hartwig'" <brenthartwig@hotmail.com> Subject: RE:
[PSUBS-MAILIST] 3D Fabrication at home Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2007
01:27:02 -0400
Brent,
The
Simon Lake Museum is in poor shape due to inadequate facilities and no
funding. Since I last visited some time ago, two hurricanes caused
water damage to many of the records held. Jeff Lake (Simon?s
grandson) is living off of what he can make selling off documents with
Simon?s signature and other items out of the collection.
Unfortunately, there are no drawings available in the collection (or in
the National Archives) of Lake?s personal submarines to design accurate
models from. Even most of the photographs are of poor quality.
Would really like models of these subs.
I
am trying to arrange a meeting with Jeff in late April to conduct research
of the final resting place of Simon?s submersible Defender that was
supposedly scuttled in the Long Island Sound. I am slated to be a
member of the expedition that searches for the sub this summer.
Take
care,
Jay
Respectfully,
Jay
K. Jeffries
Andros
Is., Bahamas
A
skimmer afloat is but a submarine, so poorly built it will not
float.
From:
owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org
[mailto:owner-personal_submersibles@psubs.org] On Behalf Of Brent
Hartwig Sent: Saturday, March 17, 2007 8:52 PM To:
personal_submersibles@psubs.org Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] 3D
Fabrication at home
I was very happy with the results of my prototypes made
from using the SLS (Selective Laser Sintering) DuraForm
polyamide (PA) for it's great detail and for testing my living hinge. I
could sand it really smooth and paint it as well. The SLA prototypes
didn't look near as good to me. The prices have come down quite a
bit now that there is allot more competition out there. A guy could take
his CAD models of PSUBS and scale them down to make models out of them
using the SLS parts to make molds off of. I was thinking it would be
fun to make a couple of model kits of the Simon Lake submarines, like the
Argonauts to help support a Simon Lake Museum.
From: "Rick
and Marcia"
<empiricus@telus.net> Reply-To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org To: <personal_submersibles@psubs.org> Subject: Re:
[PSUBS-MAILIST] 3D Fabrication at home Date: Fri,
16 Mar 2007 21:56:03 -0800 >For all you CAD/CAM types out
there . .
. > >http://www.physorg.com/news92328869.html > >Enjoy > >Rick
Lucertini >Vancouver,
Canada > > > > >************************************************************************ >************************************************************************ >************************************************************************ >The
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53 >Weare,
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