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posted by janrinok on Thursday June 11 2015, @01:52AM   Printer-friendly
from the big-boys-toys dept.

MakerBot's 3-D printers will soon be able to produce items that look like bronze, limestone, and wood, thanks to a new line of plastic-based composite materials shipping later this year. But the launch may be too little, too late: Entrepreneurs and artists interested in working with metal and wood are already embracing desktop milling machines that can handle the real deal.

The calculation is simple: Buy a MakerBot Replicator, the leading desktop 3-D printer, for $2,889, and you can produce plastic prototypes or the kind of trinkets that you might find in a Happy Meal. Buy a small-scale milling machine like the Othermill, which retails for $2,199, and you can make jewelry and mechanical parts out of everything from aluminum to walnut.

"Once you can cut metal, you can make things that last," says Danielle Applestone, chief executive of Other Machine Co. "For the first couple of months that I was working here, I was scared of cutting with metal. It was louder, I was worried I was going to break the tool. But as soon as I jumped in, it quickly became like wax to me."

"Metal is power, it really is," she says. "You don't go back."

It should be noted that MakerBot's base model also went from $400 to almost $3K when Stratasys acquired them.


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  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday June 11 2015, @05:15AM

    by MichaelDavidCrawford (2339) Subscriber Badge <mdcrawford@gmail.com> on Thursday June 11 2015, @05:15AM (#194848) Homepage Journal

    He had good reason to be; I once met a welder who helped build the world's largest steerable dish radio telescope. He is now disabled, completely unable to work and in constant pain because tiny bits of metal are embedded in both his hands.

    One of my grandfathers was missing half his thumb, and that was from working with wood.

    Hot metal looks like cold metal.

    If you use a lathe or milling machine the wrong way, it's not just that you could break the tool, but you could put your eye out if not actually kill yourself. On a good day you might just destroy the tool.

    While I was at caltech a promising chemistry graduate student was doing an experiment in a large glass vessel that produces gas that should have been vented out safely, but was trapped in the flask for some reason. The flask exploded and severed one of her carotid arteries; while she survived she was permanently brain damaged.

    I may have gone crazy at Tech but at least I can still write code.

    --
    Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
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  • (Score: 1) by bitrotRnotbitrot on Thursday June 11 2015, @05:37AM

    by bitrotRnotbitrot (5444) on Thursday June 11 2015, @05:37AM (#194853)

    I believe it is a she rather than a he, but yeah these are not toys.

  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by LoRdTAW on Thursday June 11 2015, @12:44PM

    by LoRdTAW (3755) on Thursday June 11 2015, @12:44PM (#194929) Journal

    Working with tools is always dangerous. I grew up in a machine and woodworking shop. We had 3 CNC milling centers and 2 CNC turning centers (lathes) and a big CNC router with twin 4x8 tables and four 7.5HP spindles. Table saws, band saws, automatic bandsaws, drill presses, you name it. Everything could maim or kill you, hell a chisel and hammer can remove a finger. The most scary tools in my opinion are the lathe and table saw. Lathes can pull you in, wrap you around the work and rip you apart in an instant. An arm can come off quite easily. Table saws are just menacing with their howling blade spinning a few thousand RPM and you're trying to cut 2 inch strips up against the fence without using your hands to remove the strips once cut.

    Big lathes, are simply called widow makers. A family friend works for the DEP and they have a large lathe with a 36 inch chuck and a 30 foot bed length for turning pump shafts and other large parts (like big sluice valve acme screws.) Before he worked there, a worker was pulled in a killed. What was left was just gibs, bits and pieces. You had to be very careful when you worked that lathe and always ensure there is no loose clothing or other things which could be caught.

    One thing is certain. Always take your time when using power tools. Doesnt matter if its a cordless drill. ALWAYS wear goggles and if you can, gloves (because sometimes gloves can get caught up). Pay attention to what you are doing and you should be fine.

  • (Score: 1) by WillAdams on Thursday June 11 2015, @03:06PM

    by WillAdams (1424) on Thursday June 11 2015, @03:06PM (#194979)

    Yeah, hard to emphasize too much how much one needs to consider safety, safe work practices and appropriate protection gear.

    Hopefully all covered in the Operating Checklist:

    http://www.shapeoko.com/wiki/index.php/Operating_Checklist [shapeoko.com]

    • (Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Friday June 12 2015, @06:28AM

      A friend of mine came up with his own particular way to register his disapproval with safety training.

      At the end of the session the foreman would ask them all what they had to say about what they'd just discussed:

      "I learned a lot." in a deadpan voice.

      A few years later an entire stack of plywood slipped off a roof then fell on his back. While not disabled that I could tell he told me it caused him chronic back pain.

      --
      Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]