CNC with Truespace? -- Thanks! 2004-06-15 - By Kris Krieger
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At 05:14 PM 12-06-04, Bill Neumann wrote:
>Hi Kris,
>
> The model you asked about is a ball bearing assembly. It's one of the
> free samples Z Corp will send to you on request ... and yes, all the
> bearings move inside the assembly. :O)
That's pretty cool.
Kind of reminds me of some of the various hand-sculptures I've seen (in
both "real life" and virtually) where artists made orreries and the like by
hand-carving the sub-components from various materials. Almost seems like
cheating but OTOH, it'd be interesting to make such things affordable to a
lot of people - I guess some poeple might call it "anti-art" but one could
also argue that it could be the democratization of art. I guess ti depends
upon whetehr one emphasizes the skil to create the thing or the creativity
to design it...interesting philosophical question...but there is potential
there as well.
> The other model is a quick little deep sea submersible design I threw
> together when I heard Z Corp was giving away free samples, made from a
> file you could send them. Like I said, they still do that from time to
> time, so keep checking back and maybe they'll run that special again. It
> isn't a very good model, but it only took me a few minutes to make, so
> hey ... :O)
I dunno, I knew exactly what it was so it couldn't have been all bad <G!>
>As far as selling the prints as art ... that might be interesting to try.
>The thought I had originally, was to make small sculpture or jewelry in tS
>and then use the STL object as a prototype to show a prospective customer.
>And when the design was finalized, you could make an RTV mold from the STL
>piece, inject it and do a lost wax casting for the final product.
I did a little bit of "old-style" Lost Wax more years ago than I care to
admit <g>, in a jewelry-making course. Thing is, if the polymer model is,
as you mentioned, sandable, and if it would melt, it mightalso be an
interesting way to do that. It'd be a real boon to peoplewho are highly
creative, and yet for some reason don't have full use of their hands.
I'm also wondering whether this has ever been, how to put it, a program of
any sort - a sort fo "art therapy" of artistic expression for people who
are variously paralysed or maimed but can use one of the various interfaces
to operate a 3D program. Something like the folks who do mouth-painting
and foot-painting.
Then, too, there might be people who can create fine/artistic designs, but
for some reason, either have no access (or can't afford) a pottery setup
(pottery wheel plus firing oven etc.) or who, as above, can't use their
hands. I dunno why but it's always bothered me to think that there are
people who are creative like that, but who can't create things only because
they can't use traditional means. Seems like this could be one way to open
up new worlds to at least some folks.
Of course, it's unlikely that something like that would get funding - too
many porkbarrels and so on. But it seems to me to be a potentially
interesting idea.
There are also other possibilities - such as making individualized/form-fit
health-care items for people, such as splints or supports for people with
chronic joint problems, and things like that. Usually, doctors just send
you to the drug store to buy off-the-shelf stuff that is OK fopr minor and
temporary things, but never at all satisfactory for epople with chronic
and/or severe conditions. With this 3D printer, if you used it in
conjunction with a 3D scanner or 3D "point entry" <?real name?> system,
where you use a stylus/"pen"-type thing to enter surface parameters into a
3D program, personalized supports/splints should be fairly quick to make up.
Well, of course, we all also know that they'd prob. charge a couple
thousand $$ per item so I guess that, in practical terms, it'd never become
common use. But if a person or company was not nauseatingly greedy,. seems
to me like charges could be moderate yet still pay off the
hardware/software costs in a moderate amout of time and still make a
moderate profit. Not a get rich scheme, just osmething that potentially
could make people's lives a wee bit easier.
Heh, democratization of art, lower prices for living aids - such
impractical and hallucinatory fantasies......
- Kris
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