What OTHER digital fabrication tools do you have/use

Everything Else
41

@Dougie: Ha, I did the reverse. Got the 3D printer and am now going to the other maker tools… Now trying to figure out how to fit them all into the workshop in some way that makes sense, particularly around ventilation.

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42

Well, with a GF you’ll be able to cut out body pieces to a few different 3D printers. The printrbot folks for instance have released their designs. You might have to do some rearranging to fit the bed size of the GF, but most of them should be cutable on it, with the possible exception of some pieces of the Plus. But it’d be close either way.

Then you’d just have to pick up some motors, electronics, and a hot end… but it would definitely lower the cost of entry.

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43

Wow. Lots of vinyl cutters on the lists. Here’s mine:
Hardware:
•Roland GX24 24" vinyl cutter
•Brother Scan n Cut
•Xerox Phaser 6280 color laser printer
•lots of jewelry making tools, including digital calipers
Also photopolymer stamp making supplies

Software:
Illustrator, Photoshop (CS5)
Sure Cuts a Lot 4
Sketchup
Roland Cutstudio

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44

Gear:

  • 1800mm X 1100mm heavily modified ShapeOko 2 named LongOko (Fusion or Illustrator then to Aspire - Powered by LinuxCNC)
  • Silhouette Cameo Vinyl cutter. (Plugin for AI)
  • DIY 2.5W laser cutter thats 500mm X 1000mm named Pew Pew (Fusion or Illustrator then to OctoPrint)
  • Solidoodle Press & Solidoodle 2 named Thing 1 & Thing 2 (both heavily modified- The SDP has a E3D Cyclops and the SD2 has a E3D v6) (OctoPrint & Slic3r)
  • HP Wide Format Printer

Software:

  • Fusion 360 (OS X)
  • Adobe Illustrator CS6 (In some cases Inkscape) (OS X)
  • Aspire (VM /w Windows 7)
45

Good shout! Thanks.

46

I have “Bertha,” a 24" Black Cat Cougar plotter-cutter, which also engraves and embosses. That’s it–the rest are hand tools.

47

I have the following tools that I use for digital fabrication and design:
CnC Shark Black Diamond Edition Vers CnC Shark Pro Plus HD 25x25x7 with CnC Shark Touch Plate
NEJE 300mW Laser Engraver Machine
Makeblock XY-Plotter Robot Kit v2.0 (With Electronics) plus Makeblock Laser Engraver for XY-Plotter Robot Kit V2.0
SketchUp Pro 2016
Adobe Photoshop CC 2015
Adobe Illustrator CC 2015

I have Autodesk Inventor LT 2016 Suite to help link my existing tools that I use for graphic design, wood working, project layout and communication with customers. I also use Cut 3D, PhotoGrav 3, VCarve Pro 8.0, Inkscape and RDWorks to prepare projects for my CNC router and laser engravers.

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48

1000mm X 1000mm X-Carve is about it. But have access to a whole bunch of state of the art stuff at work. Several laser cutters, CNC machines, metal lathes, 3-D printers, etc. Don’t really use them much myself.

49

I am currently adding the gear to do glass etching. I already have a small sandblasting tool, and a vinyl cutter but it turns out there are other ways to make the masks. There are cool photo-reactive products which you can use to make very detailed etching masks with no manual weeding steps.

Basically, you print your artwork on a transparency, put it on the resist medium, and and expose the stack to UV light with a tool like this. It’s kind of like making a silk screen except you end up with a single-use stick-on mask.

There are ways to use a laser cutter to make etching masks, but you stick film to the glass and then laser out the bits that you want exposed to the abrasive. That means that to do a curved surface, your laser needs to have a rotational tool. I have not yet found a product that lets you make a mask in the laser and then apply it to the glass.

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