Paper Fabber?

 

I am fascinated with all things simple. The craft paper shopping bag? Perfect. It's not about the economics of reuse but for some reason I think it is a beautiful material.

 

I have been involved with the  Fab@Home project since 2006/2007, and now also Fab Lab ABQ and NextFab.org. I am always playing with alternative materials to build fabbers. The fab@home project is not just about the output of the machine but also a learning process through building the machine. In these times of budget cuts - how do we create a system that can be used semester after semester in the classroom and still have students benefit from the experience of building and modifying the system at a lower cost?  Use paper.

 

The added benefit? It is 100% recycled. This chipboard is manufactured by www.newmanpaperboard.com in Philadelphia with the kind assistance of Nancy Walker who didnt hang up the phone when I tried explaining what I was doing. This is also the only papermill that I have found in the US that will sell small quantities of this material without requiring you to buy a  "truckload." The material is great for prototyping parts yet durable enough for furniture. I have a couple of PackFlat Tables, lights and a chair made with this same material in my house that I have been testing for an installation that I am working on and they are holding up great. It has a very consistent color through out and is one reason that architects have always used it for topographic models. 

 

What the chipboard can't do is participate in the scaling up  of the fab@home Version 1. This is a process pic of the big fabber. It will have a build area of  2'-0" x 2'-0" x 2'-0". The chassis needs a couple mods still but the motion control is ready to be installed. If it tests well then we will expand the build area to 2'-0" x 2'-0"  x 5'-0". Why? to print a chair of course and investigate printing clothing and show the true scalability of open source systems like this.

 

A full update is on its way but for now a little teaser: Fab Lab ABQ might be hitting another first - "The largest open source printer built to date?" - who knows? who actually cares? I just want to print a chair and a dress.

 

-Kenji Kondo