I designed a boombox in Sketchup and I milled it out on the Modela in hard wax, using a 1/16" bit. I like how the tool path left a fine pattern on the surface. This model radio measures 3.5" across, and it began as a block recycled from scrap bits of wax, hence the air bubbles and the stray chunk of wood on the upper right edge.

My year project will be a diorama of a mechanical dance party on a base, and the ceiling above the dance floor will be a functioning record player. The moving figures and the record player will all work on the same motor. I'll be casting these boomboxes in different materials to position around the diorama.

This article was written for the MAKE Magazine blog.

Since October of 2009, a handful of small groups of students have been taking part in an educational experiment called the Fab Academy. The Fab Academy is a distance learning collaborative that's built on the infrastructure of the Fab Lab network. Labs in Spain, Iceland, Kenya, Amsterdam, India, and Rhode Island participate in Wednesday morning lectures by videoconference. The curriculum is concentrated into two week topics with a project due at the end of each and a more ambitious annual project due at the end of the year. This series of articles for the Make: Online will follow each of the two week sessions in the curriculum and highlight the work, tools, and techniques being developed in the pilot year of the Fab Academy.

All the endmills are now in this cigar box, which lives near the Modela. Grab the SVG file for the insert here.

My press-fit construction kit:

The parts have come out! Here they are separate:

Attempting to cast one out of urethane plastic with a layer of soap scum failed, as I hadn't mixed the plastic enough and weird white blobs of goo got stuck in the mold. I'm currently making another mold from the wax original after having stuck the bit that came off back on.

-\n

I've been in L.A. for about a week now and I'm really eager to get back to the lab. I have so many ideas about how to incorporate every lesson thus far into my big project, especially making molds to cast multiples of tiny body parts for the characters I've been sculpting. I'll also be molding some 3-D rendered forms. Complicated and interactive automata dioramas!

I hand- sculpted the heads above in Cernit. I flameworked the glass eyes, and the "hair" on the right is made of trochus shells.

Jonathan's machine uses flexible couplings:

Decided to print an "old school rocket" from thingiverse for the lab:

Seen here in front of Jenine's "Providence" sign.

For my final project -- a pinball machine themed on an opera whose libretto is written by monkeys on typewriters -- I want to have a central chorus pit with five or six monkeys on typewriters. This seems like a perfect application for the molding and casting unit. My wife (Jill Colinan) is making the monkeys, so I thought I'd cast the typewriters for this assignment.

The Fluxamacutter is a design for a simple vinyl cutter that satisfies these criteria:

• Inexpensive ($50-$100 in parts)
• All parts can be cut on a 24"x12" laser cutter
• All press-fit construction: minimize hardware fasteners
• No precision parts required: all hardware cheap and widely available
• Arduino-compatible
• Plug-and-play replacement for existing HPGL-speaking cutters

The initial cutter will be able to take 15"-18" rolls, and will be designed to scale to 24" rolls.

After seeing David Carr’s political map relief I was inspired to do something similar. I thought it would be cool to model the Boston skyline. Since I also wanted to see how fine I could get the resolution, I took a jpg, and using the GIMP program, made it a black and white image with 50 colors and then put it through cad. I had it create a file with the following specs:

z min: -.75″

nz: 50 (one pass for each color)

tool size: 1/32

At 20, 20 speed the file was going to take about 12 hours. I was still going to try to cut it but Shawn pointed out to me that our 1/32″ bit didn’t have a long enough shank to cut at -.75″.

I went back, edited the file down to 10 colors and filled in the sky so as to leave just the buildings.

Then I created a .rml file in cad using a 1/16″ bit, .-.5 z min, and 11 nz.

After about 2 passes, the machine did a dramatic z drop and I had to stop it. Shawn suggested that I use more nz steps so I created a new file with 30 steps.

I piped the .rml files directly to the serial port through the command line as the computer thats hooked up to the mini mill has older software.

I piped the .rml files directly to the serial port through the command line as the computer thats hooked up to the mini mill has older software.

My 3D Modeling and Casting project is to make a model of the outside of the TARDIS.  I used the scale and dimensions from G. Hartley's plans to make an 8 inch model TARDIS.

G. Hartley's Original Plans

I used these plans to create a 3-D model in Google Sketchup

However, as the milling machine cannot carve out negative space, the faces on the sides or the model could not be created.   In order to create a machinable mold, I had to take the 3D model apart into three sections:  the roof, the front door and a side (3 of the sides are the same).

In addition, I also removed some details that were in the original 3D model, like the light on top of the box and the all of the "Police Box" lettering.  The light was not transferring properly into the CAD file and the lettering would be too fine for the bit on the milling machine. (I plan to create a sticker or letter by hand).  I also scaled the model down from 8 inches high to 4.8" so it could fit within the block of machinable wax.

Shawn Wallace (Fab AS220 Director) also suggested that I cast an LED into the model and use it for the light on top of the box.  Brilliant.

The Roof, Side Door and Front Door

Sketchup exports .stl ASCII files and I needed them to be in binary.  I opened the files in Meshlab and then exported them as .stl binary files.  Next I ran the .stl files through stl2png.py to convert the depths to grayscale.

The final result (roof not shown)

The next steps are: 1. Mill out the 3 of the mold pieces 2. Cast with rubber, making 3 casts of the side view 3. Create a laser-cut box that will hold the mold together when it is being cast with hydrastone. 4. Cast with hydrastone.

My 3D Modeling and Casting project is to make a model of the outside of the TARDIS. I used the scale and dimensions from G. Hartley’s plans to make an 8 inch model TARDIS.

G. Hartley’s Original Plans

I used these plans to create a 3-D model in Google Sketchup

However, as the milling machine cannot carve out negative space, the faces on the sides or the model could not be created. In order to create a machinable mold, I had to take the 3D model apart into three sections: the roof, the front door and a side (3 of the sides are the same).

In addition, I also removed some details that were in the original 3D model, like the light on top of the box and the all of the “Police Box” lettering. The light was not transferring properly into the CAD file and the lettering would be too fine for the bit on the milling machine. (I plan to create a sticker or letter by hand). I also scaled the model down from 8 inches high to 4.8” so it could fit within the block of machinable wax.

Shawn Wallace also suggested that I cast an LED into the model and use it for the light on top of the box. Brilliant.

The Roof, Side Door and Front Door

Sketchup exports .stl ASCII files and I needed them to be in binary. I opened the files in Meshlab and then exported them as .stl binary files. Next I ran the .stl files through stl2png.py to convert the depths to grayscale.

The final result (roof not shown)

The next steps are: 1. Mill out the 3 of the mold pieces 2. Cast with rubber, making 3 casts of the side view 3. Create a laser-cut box that will hold the mold together when it is being cast with hydrastone. 4. Cast with hydrastone.

Anna Kaziunas France
[http://www.kaziunas.com]

Creating a bzr repository:

First, inform bazaar as to your personage:

bzr whoami "Mr. Foo <mrfoo@as220.org>"

Then, make a directory for your repository: mkdir repository

Initialize the repository:

bzr init

Add the current directory:

bzr add *

Make the first commit:

bzr commit -m "Hello World"

Now, every time you want to add files, run

bzr add <files>

again, and

bzr commit -m "Message".

To check out your repository

start an ssh server (openssh-server in ubuntu, check the box in the preferences window in OSX), and run

bzr branch  sftp://user@ip-address/path/to/directory

Then

bzr pull

To update the repository, bzr commit again and then

bzr push

Have fun!

-\n

Elliot and Shawn were debugging the modela, Elliot bet $1 that switching zmin to a negative number wouldn't fix the contouring problem (even though it'd been his suggestion to do so) and then Shawn bet $1 that adding a white background would fix Elliot's contouring problem. Shawn won both bets. I still haven't finished building Jonathan's machine, I cut another threaded rod that was too short, and our chemical filter isn't working. Susan, however, installed a new, quiet fan, so the leafblower has been obsoleted.

-\n

Today I began participating in pilot year of the Fab Academy program at AS220 Labs. The Fab Academy is based on the MIT course MAS.863 - How to Make (Almost) Anything and provides instruction in the mechanisms, applications, and implications of digital fabrication. I am starting a semester late, so I will be working on the current assignment while making up the first semester.

Learning the Basics of the Roland MDX-20 Milling Machine

As mentioned in the previous post, Atari Punk Console Workshop, I had some issues with fitting the wiring in the Altoids tin without breaking any of the soldered connections (poor planning on my part).  I made a second attempt with a new case and I was much more successful.  I used a "New World Tea" (now Arbor Teas) company tin.  (They provide really superior tea, if you are in to fine loose tea, check them out.)

Video of the console in action (turn your sound on):

[slidepress gallery='apc']

The gallery of photos below documents how I put it together.

[gallery link="file" order="DESC"]

For a complete step by step instructions or to purchase the APC kit see Jimmie P. Rodgers site.

It seems I do this every few years or so.  The star for the Christmas tree stops lighting up and try as I might, I can't find the loose bulb.  My quick fix for a this is to:

1.) Find a new strand of lights to use and plug them in to make sure they work. Any strand of Christmas lights will do, but it will be easiest if you use lights similar to the previous star lights.

2.) Take the star apart and take the lights out. (they are usually made of two halves of plastic that pop open or they are completely open to begin with)

3.) Wind them through the holder (that held the previous set of non-working lights) and secure with electrical tape.

4.) Keep winding the lights and taping them at the heaviest point all the way around the star. Try to emulate the original design, the lights will fit better.

5.) Fit the re-wired star back into its casing (if it has one). The one I am working on has tabs that have to fit together in order to close it.  You may have to rearrange the wires in order to get the case closed.  Don't force it or you will break the plastic.

6.) All done. Christmas crisis averted.

Note:  As no actual wiring was occurring - just reconfiguring the shape of the light strand, I left the lights on while I was working.

The results of Shawn helping me work through the problem of having multiple button with several positions

I'm making a "Persistence of Vision" toy, which will show a programmed message in eight red light- emitting diodes. In the lab we have a roll of copper foil backed with a conductive adhesive. I used a knife to cut out a hand shape. (In this case, I found it faster to work this way than to use the vinyl cutter.) I covered a small metal container with a vinyl sticker to insulate the foil board from the conductive tin. I soldered some surface mount LEDs and resistors onto the copper.

Here is the hand after I drilled holes through the tin and soldered wires to the fingers. The wire on the bottom is ground.

This is the inside of the tin so far!

Our last module was on computer numerical machining and the assignment was to make something big on the ShopBot.

A few years ago, I made these star-shaped boxes on the laser cutter with thin (1/8″) plywood. For this assignment, I thought I’d scale up the design and make a few for my mom.

In my original design I used tension fits to pressfit it together, which was fine on a small scale. As I contemplated the modifications I’d have to make to scale it up, I realized that I’d need to actually model it in 3D and carve angled edges to accommodate the angled corners of a star shape. I did the 3D modeling assignment, but I did it in SketchUp because I didn’t have the time to become sufficiently competent in Blender.

Eliot, (one of the student in my class) hadn’t completed the 3D assignment so he made a model in Blender and carved it on the ShopBot. I figured I could do the same with my project and become proficient (sortof at least) in a more conventional 3D modeling environment while completing my CNC machining assignment.

Not so fast.

It was the middle of the first week before I reached a solid decision. (I was still working on hacking parts for our PCB Fab assignment from the previous module…aahhh.) After seeing what Eliot was doing and playing around a little bit I decided that this could only be so hard. Thats true of course, but “only so hard” turned out to be about 4 times more confusing than I had thought.

We played around with the program, completely ignoring the “extrude” tool for the first couple of days in favor of an agonizingly complex and excruciatingly inefficient combination of {select-push/pull-cut-delete-create face-face is warped-cut again-delete extra faces and edges-it looks good-no its skewed-cut-my brain is now crashing} rinse and repeat as many times as needed… method.

By the time we found our good friend “extrude” again, it was Friday. I planned to work on it over the weekend. Not surprisingly by Monday, one crazy weekend and two non-supportive computers later, there was no virtual star-shelf to be ushered into the analog world.

Shawn agreed to come up to the Boston lab to help me with the ShopBot on Tuesday. Switching to crisis mode I decided to make a sign for our lab instead.

When Shawn arrived in Boston I had an Inkscape file ready to cut.

I printed this on the shopbot but the pieces are still at Keeseh so I'ven't been able to test it yet.

skateboard.svg

I opened it in illustrator and saved it as an eps, opened it in partsworks and it cut fine.

I'll post attempts to assemble when I get the actual parts.

-\n

I designed some shelves and cut them out on a Shopbot. While working, all pieces have to be secured to the bed of the machine (or to each other) because the tool is so powerful that the router could send a loose piece flying and seriously hurt someone.

I screwed my 4' x 8' sheet of MDO (medium density overlaid plywood) to the bed of the machine, and we programmed it to cut tabs between some of the parts so they would remain attached to each other. The finished sheet resembled a plastic toy whose tabbed pieces would be broken apart and snap assembled.

Here are some of the shelves after being cut on the Shopbot, and broken apart with a jigsaw.

Thanks to the Avineris for letting me borrow a palm sander. I used it to sand the tabs off the edges of the shelves.

I primed, painted, and installed the shelves in a corner.

I have more shelf pieces cut, but I haven't yet decided where to install them. Photos of my pieces on the Shopbot at Keeseh Studios will be posted after the holiday.

FELT

First attempt in felt:

I'm working on creating an chording keyboard

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chorded_keyboard

for my final project. Hopefully I'll be able to use the skills I learn in the FAB Academy to make one that actually works.

These packages are all in the Ubuntu repositories, so it's reasonable and sane to run:

aptitude install inkscape blender qcad python-scipy python-numpy python-tk python-imaging-tk eagle curl

We mirror http://fab.cba.mit.edu/about/fab/hello/ and http://fab.cba.mit.edu/about/fab/dist/ using Curlmirror. (a perl script that spiders webpages)

Some of the boards were coming out a bit hairy due to our initial use of the wrong drill bit (we were using series 1 when we need 1b), so I made a hairy hello world .cad file: hairy.button.45.cad

All attempts to create a working board without ripping off the traces or shorting out important pins have thus far been nonexistent, however, this may change shortly as Elliot's just milled a fresh batch.

I constructed this ruffle beard from fabrics that I lasercut and hand- painted. I wear it while biking to keep my face warm.

I drew these shapes, lasercut them, and assembled them into jointed figures. The joints consist simply of short pieces of bent wire.

This is a sheet of lasercut pieces for the jointed figures. The material is matboard from a frame shop.

This is a press- fit swingset that I lasercut from 1/4" thick wood.

I drew these shapes on a computer with a mouse, which took a very long time and hurt my wrist. I am investing in a tablet so I can draw more comfortably on the computer.

Bill and Anna France Celebrate Skeleton Marti Gras Style Halloween 2009 at the GCB.

ANNA’S COSTUME:

Burlesque Hat - bought on ebay, augmented with elastic under the chin.

Paper Mache Skull Mask – bought on ebay, added elastic behind the head and face padding on the inside to keep it secure and steady.

Tails Jacket – Bought on ebay, sewed white ribbon on the lapels and around the tails to set off the edge of the jacket.

Skeleton Dress – used old tunic shirt I had lying around.  Bought a large piece of skeleton fabric from a vendor on etsy.com – cut it out and sewed it to the shirt.

Bone Gloves – bought on ebay

Bone Tights – bought two pairs and cut them apart and sewed them back together so that the bone pattern would show on both sides.

BILL’S COSTUME:

Top Hat – ebay – added a white ribbon and white feathers.

Paper Mache Skull Mask – bought on ebay, added elastic behind the head and face padding on the inside to keep it secure. Fingerless Skeleton Gloves – purchased on ebay.

Suit Jacket - Savers – added white piping to lapels with ribbon.

Pants - normal wardrobe.

Skeleton Shirt – used new t-shirt.  Bought a large piece of skeleton fabric from a vendor on etsy.com – cut it out and sewed it to the shirt.

[caption id="attachment_336" align="alignleft" width="512" caption="Pumpkin in the Dark"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_337" align="alignleft" width="512" caption="Pumpkin in the Light"][/caption]

Hey hey hey Fabulous Folk! Welcome to the virtual expose of my fourth Fab Academy assignment.



For assignment #4 we were asked to create a press fit construction kit. My form and function goal was a basic set of pieces that would allow freeform construction of almost any shape.

Check it out :)

A Series of un-Unfortunate Events

I tested my initial idea in matteboard and found the combination of strength and flexibility well suited for my project. I wanted to play around with thin plastics but ruled out acrylic because it's too brittle. There were a couple scrap pieces of this white bendy plastic lying around the lab so I thought I'd try it. It worked like a charm. :) Upon further investigation I learned it's called Delrin. Delrin is an industrial strength plastic thats easy to lasercut and is used for stamps.

I originally created my design for a .05" thickness material. The Delrin sheet I had is .06" thick so it fit very well. Also we had some bugs in the laser cutter settings so it perforated the entire design instead of cutting it through. This actually turned out really well in the end because when I finally got it cut, the perforations acted as little "teeth" making the joints that much stronger.

I made a bit of a tradeoff in my design between ease of assembly and structural integrity. I intentionally offset the slots from the center so as not to compromise the center of the reed pieces which seems to already be a natural stress point. I'd like to do a little bit more research to see if this tradeoff is actually necessary.

GIK city invaded by Metabrick monster.

There wasn't a script to fetch the dependencies required by cad.py under ubuntu, so here's one: fetchdeps.sh And there wasn't an SVG of GIK, so I ran it through trace bitmap: gik.svg

Row row, fight da powa.
These were tinted red with a Bic permanent marker.
kaminaglasses.svg

Art of Illusion is messy, here's how to make a window frame. window.stl

ganked mostly from this tutorial

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.

A bunch of thin strips, 1pt or so apart, vp=5 vf=700 vs=100, make a sort of crude set of sunglasses.

This is 3D model of box I made in Art of Illusion, my semester project is a hydration bag, like the kind you find on lifeboats, that works via osmotic desalination. It's currently an extremely crude rough-draft type thing, but I think it gives a general idea of shape. The filter will have 30nm holes and be made of teflon. box.stl

SketchUp models of my robot arm...

Pinball machines need a lot of coils. I realized that my first step in creating a pinball machine would be to build a tool to wind accurate coils. The pinball machine hobbyist scene is pretty well organized, so I quickly found this chart at pinballmedic.net detailing the various coil winding schemes that I will need:

Coil chart at pinballmedic.net

I've begun a little later than everyone else, and I think I have less experience with most things electronic. Fortunately, I'm eager to learn and I can usually pick things up quickly.

My current plan for a semester project is to make a very detailed diorama, employing motors, sensors, cutting techniques, and other approaches to familiarize myself with what is possible, and to build facility with my new skills.

I have a strong background in traditional crafts (glass, textiles, metals, clay. . .) and I make dolls and puppets. I flamework glass eyes and glass teeth, sculpt the faces and bodies in polymer clay (often sculpting with sewing needles because they are so tiny!) I make the wigs, sew the clothes (I spun flax into yarn and knit the dress pictured above.) I love the idea of integrating my customary practices with new ways of working and thinking. How exciting!

I needed a dress for Nick Mazonowicz and Elizabeth Celli's wedding, so I decided to challenge myself and try a fabric that I had not worked with before - Dupioni Silk. I had the worst time finding a good pattern this year, but finally decided on the pattern McCall's "Evening Elegance" 3436.

[caption id="attachment_451" align="alignleft" width="480" caption="McCall's "Evening Elegance" 343"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_370" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="McCall's "Evening Elegance" 3436 Pattern Layout - On "Frosted Spruce" Silk"][/caption]

I looked at various silks in fabric stores (I was very disappointed with both the high price and the poor quality). I looked online and found a great seller on Ebay. I highly recommend Silk Baron for all your Dupioni Silk needs. They provide swatches (for a small fee & and it is definitely worth it to check the color and tone first) and I ordered a pile of them before I placed an order for several yards of "Frosted Spruce" (shown in the photos below).

What I Learned:

[caption id="attachment_369" align="alignright" width="150" caption="Overcasting silk to keep it from unraveling"][/caption]

1. Overcast all cut edges of the Dupioni. This silk unravels very easily, but if you overcast all the cut edges before you begin to sew the seams together, it is much easier to work with.

2.) For time sensitive projects - Order more fabric (and lining) that you actually need. I began with McCall's "Evening Elegance" 3436, then after cutting it out (luckily just the skirt portion) I didn't like the way the skirt was draping. I decided that I wanted to use another pattern.

3. Be flexible and willing to adapt the pattern. As I stated in #2, I changed my mind mid-project. The 2 piece design was not working the way I wanted it to, so I went in another direction. I used on of my favorite patterns instead - New Look 6862 - a simple empire style dress. Since I did not cut the bodice for the McCall's pattern, I had just enough material left for the New Look dress and the side inset modifications to make the dress more sweeping and formal (see pictures below.

[caption id="attachment_452" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="New Look 6862"][/caption]

However, I now did not have enough material to make a wrap. The wedding was on September 26 and I thought that a sleeveless dress would be too cold by itself. I still had the skirt that I made from the McCall's pattern, and using a wrap pattern from McCall's 3880 (a different McCall's Pattern), I adapted the skirt fabric into a wrap. This took some adjusting, but worked out pretty well, the curves of the skirt hem made for a unique sleeve style.

[caption id="attachment_450" align="alignnone" width="450" caption="McCalls "Evening Elegance" 3880"][/caption]

Finished Dress & Wrap Photos:

Here are some detail views of the side insert I mentioned above when discussion pattern modifications.  The New Look pattern has a very straight form-fitting skirt, I modified that by not sewing the side seams from the low hip to the hem.  I turned the dress to the side  and I created a triangle pattern out of paper that just overstretched the gap.  (None of these steps are exact, I just messed around with it until the dress looked good and hung correctly.)

I then cut the leftover fabric in the basic triangle shape and then cut that shape in half.  I wanted to give the dress detail with the decorative side seams, so I re-sewed the triangle fabric (that I just cut in half) back together and pressed it out, creating the two small triangles in the insert.  Then I adjusted the insert into place and basted the seams by hand.  I then machine stitched the seams in place.

You may notice that the bottom of the insert is inverted.  This is to keep the sides of the dress from hanging lower than the front or back and dragging on the floor.

[caption id="attachment_517" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="Side Insert "][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_518" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="Side Insert - Close Up"][/caption]

To go with the Dupioni Silk dress and wrap I made, I augmented an evening bag.  I was very lucky to find a old black second-hand evening bag with very minor staining on the outside and a strong clasp and clean inside.

[caption id="attachment_567" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="Thrift Store Bag"][/caption]

I took a piece of the silk and tucked the edges under.  Then I slip stitched it around the edges.  No other work was needed.

[caption id="attachment_566" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="Slip stiching holding the silk to the side of the bag"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_561" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="Inside View"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_565" align="alignnone" width="480" caption="Completed Matching Bag"][/caption]

Project #2: A machine that looks for inspiration from 18th century automatons (again), Mary Shelly, H.P. Lovecraft, and my fourth grade science teacher Mrs. Snabon.

So I need a proposed semester project ready to present to the world in less than 48 hrs... Do I sound stressed? The nice part is, I already have a project :) and you are going to help me with the presentation!

Today I'll be taking up just a little bit of space on the web to tell you about the results of a system of "mindstorms" which have bombarded my brain since you last heard from me.

Here it goes:

Occasionally I suffer from a severe lack of creative thinking. One of these spells perfectly coordinated its arrival with the second week of Fab Academy.

I wanted to do a cool artistic project but was having trouble coming up with concrete ideas. At the same time, I was really intrigued with the topic of the first week's assignment: artificial self-reproduction. Last week they asked us to conceptualize a self reproducing machine. My idea was based on integrating robotics with CNC machining technology.

I finally decided on a compromise. I would like to attempt a basic demonstrative model of the first assignment and add an artistic twist.

I'd like to build a robotic arm that would be programed to build a structure out of blocks. The blocks would somehow interact with the robot to aid it in building the structure. I'd like to keep the materials used in building the robot and the blocks as simple as possible. My goal is to illustrate the idea that the parts for a machine can be built and assembled in the same system.

As far as the artistic part goes, I want the blocks to give some sort of cool audio/visual feedback.

Wish me luck!

Graphics coming soon! :)

9/30/09- simple model

This post illustrates my initial thoughts about embracing the possible anomalies and ugly ducklings that may come with self-replication.

Ok, so now its not enough to be able to make almost anything- or to be able to make something that can make almost anything. Now you want something that can make its self, virtually unassisted? You humans are never satisfied... Oh wait, thats me too. Well, why should we be satisfied if we don't have to be? I'd like to share some of my thoughts on this week's assignment: design and document a self-reproducing machine.

It is true that the ability to reproduce ones self is an organic quality of living creatures, fundamental to our continued existence and not inherent in the absence of life. However, researchers have successfully demonstrated artificial self-reproduction in mechanical machines.

During my limited research on this topic, I noticed that most of our modern self-replicating machines are assembled out of completed modules and do little more than reproduce. The more practical self-replication projects have the capacity to make various objects, including parts of themselves but are not yet completely self-replicating.
Here I'd like to briefly discuss my ideas for a machine, capable of complete self-reproduction.

I would propose combining Computer Numerical Control (CNC) fabrication technologies with robotics to achieve a system which would:

• build a child machine in modules using fabrication technology
• assemble those modules into a working replica of itself and
• finally transfer a copy of its own self-replication program into the now complete child machine

This child machine would then be able to to build grand-child machines. The "genetic code" for reproduction of this machine would include CNC design files for each required module and the robotic assembly program. The entire reproduction process would be completed with minimal human intervention.

CNC fabrication technologies have allowed us to build just about anything at small and large scales and in various materials. Utilizing this technology in a self-reproducing system would eliminate the need to supply pre-completed modules and reduce (though not eliminate) human involvement.

As the modules for the new machine are completed, robotic arms would configure them into a child machine. The robot would be controlled by a time sequence and data collected from contact events occurring during the construction of the child machine.

This post describes and documents a simple machine that can replicate itself. As with any self replicating process, the major limiting factors and design decisions are:

• The method of supplying raw material
• How to seed or start the process
• How to represent the code that controls the process
• How state transitions and signals are communicated
• How to represent a mechanism abstractly that does not require magic or alien technology to realize
• The utility of the final thing

I started the design process thinking about ways a machine can piggyback on biological processes (e.g. a tree) to provide the raw material and base for replication. Kind of like automated topiary, not unlike a topiary chair.

AS220 Labs has been asked to participate in a pilot project of MIT's Center for Bits and Atoms: The Fab Academy. We're one of ten Fab Labs around the world to offer instruction and guided investigation of mechanisms, applications, and implications of digital fabrication. If you are interested in participating in the Academy, please send a short letter of introduction to shawn@as220.org. This is a 40 week program, roughly equivalent to taking the class "How to Make (Almost) Anything" at MIT. Tuition is $3,500 for the whole year, and we'll also be offering access to individual 2 week certificate programs. For more details, see the Fab Academy site or contact shawn@as220.org.