Nanochick wrote:

Fab@Home is a website dedicated to making and using fabbers - machines that can make almost anything, right on your desktop. This website provides an open source kit that lets you make your own simple fabber, and use it to print three dimensional objects. You can download and print various items, try out new materials, or upload and share your own projects. Advanced users can modify and improve the fabber itself.

Fabbers (a.k.a 3D Printers or rapid prototyping machines) are a relatively new form of manufacturing that builds 3D objects by carefuly depositing materials drop by drop, layer by layer. Slowly but surely, with the right set of materials and a geometric blueprint, you can fabricate complex objects that would normally take special resources, tools and skills if produced using conventional manufacturing techniques. A fabber can allow you explore new designs, email physical objects to other fabber owners, and most importantly - set your ideas free. Just like MP3s, iPods and the Internet have freed musical talent, we hope that blueprints and fabbers will democratize innovation.

Cool...I want to make one:)

The opposite, of course, is a CNC machine. I tried to convince a friend who wants to build a pinball machine to build a CNC machine first, but he shied away on the basis of requiring precision rods, linear bearings and stepper motors. Oh well...

I remember hearing about this years ago in Don Lancaster's Hardware Hacker column... it was called a Santa Claus Machine then.

I suppose if someone worked it just right with modern materials, it would almost be possible to make a machine that makes more machines....

RE: Fab @ Home: Open Source 3D printer