Digital Fabrication by Hand

[jodom4]

For the other 99% of makers, here's an instructable on how to make things that are just as complex and precise using tools you can find at any hardware store, and templates you can print at your local print shop.

A few of us (some college students, people who live near a coop shop like Techshop, Instructables employees...) have access to CNC machines. Laser cutters, CNC routers, water-jet cutters, and other CNC tools let us design complex geometry and produce the parts quickly and precisely.

To demonstrate this handy technique, I decided to make a laptop stand for a coworker, because he's a nice guy, he needed one, and he can't be bothered to make one himself.

Check out the instructable for a detailed tutorial on how to make complex geomerty using off-the-shelf tools and paper templates.

[TrippyLighting]

Is there a link to tis instructable ?

[josef.kucera · Accepted solution]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Digital-Fabrication-By-Hand/

[jodom4]

I forgot the link! Here's my instructables profile, I make lots of stuff with Fusion: http://www.instructables.com/member/JON-A-TRON/

[TrippyLighting]

Thanks for adding the link. I looked at your Instrucables profile. Very nice!

I don't have an instructable profile but two rather small blogs related to the things I make which are a:

Arduino High Power RGB LED Shield

Trippy Lighting

Electronics, even reflowed SMD are easy enough to make today on a kitchen table with reletively inexpensive tools.

However, someties it is simply more cost and time effective to use CNC machine of whatever variety is needed for a given job.

If you don't value your own time and have an abundance of it then that may not be a concern. However, that does not apply to at least 80% of us 😉

For those I would recommend to take a good hard look at what you want to accomplish. If for example creating a fixture turns ito its own project prventing you from what you were originally trying to accomplish, then do not shy away to approach a company that has machinery to make what you cannot in a reasonable time and with reasonable effort achieve.

This applies paticularly to things created with a digital toolchain and when you can send CAD data to be further processed for CAM/CNC.

If you follow the Trippy Lighitng link you'll see lighting systems with large white diffuse reflecting surfaces that are made from a particularly strong foam board that requires to be routed with a machine and cannot be hand-cut. I found a local company that had a waterjet cutter. They asked a fair price for cutting these , I supplied the outlinles a DXF files and had these cut in no time and with a precision I could only have achieved with much more effort, cost and time.

Similarly most of the Aluminum parts required precision machining and I don't own a lathe or mill. Having 25 years of mechatronics engineerig esxpereince certainly makes it easier to to find a company to deal with but is not required. I did find a small, local company that made parts for me at very reasonable cost and of much better quality I could have ever achieved. I sent parasolid files, we had a couple of phone coversations discussing technical dan financial details. A couple of weeks later I picked up a box of beautifully machined shiny parts.

Often smaller, local companies do value private business, so don't shy away from asking! Also, what you learn from inerfacing with people that do make things professionally is invaluable.