How many "parts" makers among us?

I also plan to make parts on my Glowforge. I run a product development business and have built several prototypes out of acrylic and other materials that would have been a snap with the Glowforge. I plan to use it in correlation with my herd of 3D printers.
I also plan to use it to make woodworking projects. I have a project in work that would be great for it; I want to cut hardwood inlays to be touch-sensitive buttons for an alarm clock project. The Glowforge will be great for this.

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Well what I really meant was…this is a grayt idea in itself…and was thinking…once we step aboard the USS Glowforge…maybe…some of us…ok ok just talking about myself…would not mind helping to make some of these for you to boost your sales…I know I would.yeah yeah yeah money aside…I still would…as long as it didn’t cost me too much…is all I’m saying.

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My partner, the co-owner of the future MorganForge, is a biomedical engineer who is CHAMPING AT THE BIT for the laser to be ready for parts prototyping. I’m also planning to use it to make parts that will contribute to art objects (Delrin molds, stencils, etc.) without being art objects themselves.

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I spend my day making medical prototypes and parts (at least in between seeing patients and writing code at the hospital). I can’t wait for the ability to cut parts out too on a laser. Once I have the GF, I will have the big 3 (printer, CNC Mill and Laser cutter) and for prototyping they are an awesome trifecta.

With these I can so rapidly turn over prototypes we do agile development as we learn what works/doesn’t for a given application. Some people spend months making a spec from an idea, and then iterate over designs over months. With these devices I try to do a redesign during the day, and print out the next version overnight, so you can make functional prototypes (or usable practical parts) daily.

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I need to connect him with you when he gets his own account. I imagine you and he might share some methods and modes of inquiry. What’s your practice specialty? Jerome spent most of his career in limb and joint prostheses, but he’s also designed cardiac devices and drug delivery systems, among other things.

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I am dual boarded, in hospital medicine and clinical informatics. I have started a set of maker courses here for the staff. I decided that too many people were thinking about huge devices (like the next surgical robot) and there was so much low hanging fruit of little devices that take care of little throughput and quality issues, and working with my surgical colleagues we have built quite a pipeline (most of these end up being a few dollars worth of plastic, but can save 10-15 minutes per operation) and we can just crank them through. I am working on some novel devices as well in thoracic surgery and colorectal surgery. Since I am also a programmer, some of these have embedded controllers, but keeping with the keep it simple methodology, they are all super rugged and cheap.

I’ve also tried to make my prototypes to be functional, so we can try them out on models and simulators using 3D printed functional plastics. Amazing what you can do now (here is a torture test of a part that people said wouldn’t be tough enough 3D printed) with 3D printing on inexpensive printers. I also have a faculty appointment at Tufts Veterinary School and we will be collaborating on many devices to get them dual use for human and animal medical FDA approvals (I am married to a vet, and I used to be a vet tech too)

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Don’cha just love nylon as a 3D printable? :slight_smile:

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Talk about creativity–I’m excited just thinking about the opportunities you’ve been making to create efficiencies. So cool.

Definitely plan to make some part, but mostly for woodworking jigs or replacement parts around the house, not so much production like yours, very cool use!

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I’ve thought about Glowforges as a distributed network - much like how you could sign up your game console to assist in solving complex computational problems via distributed computing when it wasn’t in use. (folding@home) All Glowforgers participating in distributed manufacturing - making use of idle machine time. As you said: [quote=“chrisgray1313, post:15, topic:2562”]
money aside
[/quote]

who knows how the economics of it would work.

But I think it would be neat for Glowforgers to participate in non-profit efforts, as in downloading designs in the catalog created to be made and sent to charities/NGOs etc.

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I actually just was interviewed by “The Hospitalist” (the journal of the Society of Hospital Medicine) by the incomparable Casey Quinlan, in a video which just appeared along with one of my colleagues on Making in the hospital.

Although along with the devices that solve real problems, somehow I want to incorporate some of the kind of human touchable stuff that you do @morganstanfield, sort of steampunkish kind of stuff. Most of what I make, while neat is very cold and practical (yes a retractor that can open the chest and gently hold a deflated lung up for the surgeon is a neat design, but a cold-hard object). Leather, wood and brass are things I’d like to play with as well (obviously not for the OR). I’m hoping the GF will help with the first 2 and my CNC with the latter (I haven’t gotten to metal by myself yet)

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That’s what we do as part of e-Nable with our 3D printers and spare time making prosthetic hands.

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Is the Hospitalist video available for public viewing or just for subscribers? I’d love to see it. The idea of Making in hospitals is beyond exciting to me.

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It is always funny what they pick from an hour long interview. I did this whole thing on why I thought making and hospitalists were a great combo, and how we could form the glue of a hospital wide maker movement, career ideas, etc, and they only put in the geeky stuff that was sort of at the end. Apparently her editor found that more interesting… My colleague Julius (the wisest man you will ever meet) forms the other half of the video.

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I get paid to build prototypes and design research experiments. but, in my off time I make discontinued/hard to find parts and pieces for local businesses!
I bought one for work, and I just took out a loan and bought one for home!

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Quick, get in touch with Funai Electric. They just announced the death of the VHS(they are the last to make them to the end of the month).

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I make props for cosplayers and other nerdy things so it’s an easy justification to add the Glowforge to my arsenal. I’m always looking for an easy way to replicate bits and bobs on the fly.

I’ll definitely be using it for prototyping as well.

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I run a small wargaming/toy soldier business so will be using the GF for protoyping parts which will go into moulds for production in metal.

I recently got a 3d printer (Cubicon Style - which is amazing!) and am already happily designing and printing parts that would be too fiddly to make (and remake) in plasticard.

Mike

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I’m forking this topic request info about materials for durable parts.

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