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From Fab @ Home
Fab@Home is a project dedicated to making and using fabbers - machines that can make almost anything, right on your desktop. This website provides everything you need to know in order to build or buy your own simple fabber, and to use it to print three dimensional objects. The hardware designs and software on this website are free and open-source. Once you have your own fabber, you can also download and print various items, try out new materials, or upload and share your own projects. Advanced users can modify and improve the fabber itself.
Fabbers (a.k.a. 3D printers or rapid prototyping machines) are a relatively new form of manufacturing that builds 3D objects by carefully depositing materials drop by drop, layer by layer. With the right set of materials and a geometric blueprint, you can fabricate complex objects that would normally take special resources, tools and skills if produced using conventional manufacturing techniques. A fabber can allow you to explore new designs, email physical objects to other fabber owners, and most importantly - set your ideas free. Just as MP3s, iPods and the Internet have freed musical talent, we hope that blueprints and fabbers will democratize innovation.
Most commercial 3D Printers today are limited to one material at a time, and their proprietary technologies limit experimentation. Moreover, their price range - tens of thousands, to hundreds of thousands of dollars - is typically well beyond what an average home user can afford. Our goal with this open-source, multi-material printing is to explore the potential of universal fabrication: Machines that can use multiple materials to fabricate complete, active systems. Keep reading...
- To read more overview - Visit Project Overview
- To get Fab@home, and start building - Visit Getting Started
- Questions? - Please visit the Frequently Asked Questions page
Fab@Home News
07:00, 29 July 2008 (UTC): Version 0.23 of Fab@Home has been updated. This update was released to fix minor bugs reported by some users and to add tooltips for the new dialogs. Please test it, and comment on its performance and any bugs discovered. Thank you for your help with testing! Contribution from Renato Archer Research Center (Campinas, Brazil).
13:30, 25 July 2008 (UTC): In case you still want to hear more, listen to Fab@Home co-creator Evan Malone interviewed for a full hour on the The David Lawrence Radio Show of Hollywood California
15:57, 22 July 2008 (MDT): Koba Industries Inc. has developed an ultraviolet-cure adhesive deposition system! The UV-cure system consists of a UV-cure adhesive (Koba UVG-1) that works in conjunction with a UV LED array (Koba LED-1). UVG-1 is a highly viscous, shear thinning gel that has excellent build properties. Once cured, it is very hard and can be sanded, drilled, filed, tumbled, sawed, cut, routed, and otherwise finished. LED-1 is a low-profile array of UV wavelength LED's. It mounts directly to the tool holder, and doesn't interfere with the build process in any way. Check out the addendum here, and a short video of the first fabbed part to be integrated into an existing assembly here. UVG-1 promises to open up a whole new world of practical, buildable parts.
9:27, 22 July 2008 (MDT): Koba Industries Inc. has released the C-4 Interface Board! The C-4 allows for connection of the Olimex microcontroller board to the Xylotex motor amplifier board with no ribbon cable work. The C-4 also provides power taps for auxiliary equipment (e.g. a 2nd tool, cooling fan, UV LED array, etcetera), labeled, easy-access solder pads for an additional motor axis, and a power jack that the power supply plugs directly into. Check out the addendum here.
12:00, 18 July 2008 (MDT): Version 0.23 of Fab@Home has been posted and supplants version 0.22e. This version has some new features that were developed by the Renato Archer Research Center (Campinas, Brazil) in parallel with the 0.22 software developed by Evan. We strongly recommend you to read the Release Notes to understand how the new features work before use this version. Please test it, and comment on its performance and any bugs discovered. Thank you for your help with testing!
8:48, 18 July 2008 (MDT): We recommend that the *.printer file be amended such that the JOGSPEED parameter be set to 10 mm/s or less. We've notice repeated stepper skipping problems with speeds above 10 mm/s, especially on the X axis. Also, DO NOT PUT A SCOPE OR A METER ON THE XYLOTEX STEPPER OUTPUTS! It will fry your board, as indicated by the red light flashing. Koba Industries Inc.
13:55, 16 July 2008 (MDT): Koba Industries Inc. has partnered with Solidworks Corporation. We will now be distributing Solidworks 2008-2009 Student Design Kits(150 day Solidworks License) with all complete fab@home kits and assembled machines sold to educational institutions in the USA.
20:03, 14 July 2008 (UTC): Version 0.22e of Fab@Home has been posted and supplants version 0.22d. 22e fixed a bug which was causing occasional crashes during slicing, and also found and fixed a bug in z table motion calculation during builds.
20:03, 14 July 2008 (UTC): Version 0.22d of Fab@Home has been posted. Errors which led to layer offsets after pausing have been corrected, and a new tool file parameter "MINPATHLENGTH" has been added to remove paths shorter than a certain length (in mm) to prevent excess material deposition. Please test this version, and comment on its performance and any bugs discovered. Thank you for your help with testing!
21:26, 12 July 2008 (UTC): On some new PCs the Fab@Home application crashes on startup with "Exception 0xc0000005". This appears to be an ATI OpenGL driver-related issue (atioglxx.dll). If you experience this problem, please try updating your ATI graphics drivers. If you cannot fix the problem, please notify Evan
23:56, 10 July 2008 (UTC): A test release of version 0.22c has been posted. Significant errors in how pushout and suckback were handled have been discovered and (hopefully) corrected, and an error in path planning which tended to underfill areas with raster paths has also been discovered and corrected. These changes may affect your tool parameters. Please test this version, and comment on its performance and any bugs discovered. Thank you for your help with testing!
10:48, 13 April 2008 (EDT): Phorecast.com, a Swedish Science & Technology think-tank, has posted a podcast of an interview with Evan Malone, one of the creators of Fab@Home.
10:48, 13 April 2008 (EDT):Don't forget, there is a publicly accessible map of the locations of Fab@Home users around the world has been created - PLEASE ADD YOUR LOCATION IF YOU ARE A USER!
16:39, 11 April 2008 (EDT): Additional documentation on upgrading a 1-syringe system to 2 syringes has been posted...
13:26, 3 April 2008 (EDT): EngineeringTV has released a video covering Fab@Home
13:17, 1 April 2008 (GMT): Added a complete Fab@Home Model1 Part Catalog (With Photos) in PDF format to the Bill of Materials page.
04:53, 21 March 2008 (MDT): Koba Industries has eliminated the Winford board and greatly simplified the build process. We've developed an interface board that allows the Olimax micro controller to plug directly into the Xylotex board. We'll be updating the BOM and the assembly instructions shortly. Also, check out our new website and our customer map at kobaind.com.
02:16, 18 March 2008 (EDT): Beta version 0.21 of the Fab@Home application has been posted, and includes a number of bug fixes and enhancements. The source code for this version is also available on the Fab@Home CVS repository on SourceForge.net
18:42, 6 March 2008 (EST): An error in the number of #6-32 x 5/8" screws has been corrected in the Bill of Materials for the Model 1. If you know of any other errors in the parts list, please notify Evan
16:53, 26 February 2008 (EST): Information has been coming in about the version 4 firmware. The version 4 firmware does not currently work with Rowley CrossWorks. Please see the note on the firmware page relating to version 4 firmware. Work is being done to allow Rowley CrossWorks to correctly program the firmware.
10:51, 15 February 2008 (EST): The Xylotex Amplifier current limit adjustment during commissioning has been changed to reflect the differences between the version 4.02 and earlier boards and the version 4.03 boards.
10:51, 15 February 2008 (EST): We have ported the firmware (version 4) to use only Free and Open Source (FOSS) development tools (Eclipse IDE, WinARM, ARMLib, and OpenOCD). The firmware page describes how to install and use these tools in Windows. An analogous set of development tools should work on MacOSX and Linux as well. Version 4 firmware source and binary will be released shortly. With version 4 of the firmware, there are new USB-Serial drivers (version 2), which should improve the USB link stability, and reduce the need to hard reboot when the driver hangs.
11:00, 12 February 2008 (EST): A new 3D printers / 3D printing blog has sprung up which Fab@Home users might find interesting and useful...
11:35, 11 January 2008 (MST): With our new CNC machining center Koba Industries is now able to machine parts for Fab@Home. We're now offering the shaft end block significantly cheaper than McMaster Carr, shaving over $65 off the price of a fabber! We'll be updating our store soon to include the new end blocks, fabEpoxy and syringe kits, but in the meantime please email Kenji to order.
17:30, 8 January 2008 (EST): Popular Mechanics has revealed that the video they produced about Fab@Home for the 2007 Breakthrough Award is the magazine's eighth most viewed video of the year!
Movies and Photos
Here you can find some video and photos of the Fab@Home Model 1. Use the text links to download the videos, and click the photos to reach a photo download page. For more photos and video - see the Gallery of Ideas.
 UV LED's curing 40-tooth chainring |
 40-tooth chainring built using Koba UVG-1 |
 Kenji takes the UVG-1 sprocket for a test drive |
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 The latest glamour shot of a Model 1, 2-syringe system. Click here for a high-resolution version(17MB TIFF). |
 A Fab@Home Model 1 on display in the Science Museum London, UK |
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 A printed flashlight! |
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 A line drawing of the Fab@Home Model 1, 216kB JPEG |
 A perspective view of the Fab@Home Model 1, 725kB JPEG |
 A view of the rear of a Model 1, showing the electronics, 1.6MB JPEG |
 A screen-shot of the Fab@Home application, 299kB JPEG |
