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MakerBot Cupcake 3d Printer

Before getting into the substance of the post, here is a quick explanation of digital fabrication:

Digital Fabrication is the capability to take a digital representation of a concept (e.g. a picture in Photoshop, a vector illustration in CorelDraw, or a 3D model in Blender) and, use digital fabrication equipment (laser cutters, 3d printers, desktop CNC mills, etc) to translate that concept into a physical object. You could, for example, design a display case in CorelDraw, send the design to a laser cutter and precisely cut the pieces in wood and acrylic. A detailed explanation of Digital Fabrication (aka fabbing, rapid prototyping, desktop manufacturing, personal fabrication, etc) can be found [here]. (Oops. Surprisingly, I was not able to find a solid, detailed explanation of digital fabrication – including Wikipedia – guess I’ll work on that next.) An interesting primer on fabbing is here.
Though Digital Fabrication has been around for years the equipment has been cost prohibitive for the maker community (individuals and small groups of geeks, needs, hackers, crafters, artists, small businesses, etc. – reminds of that line from the office secretary in Ferris Bueller). Fab Labs are great but the laser cutter in a Fab Lab costs over $15,000, the 3D printer costs $30,000 plus (over-priced) materials and the ShopBot is another $15,000. Using open source and low-cost fabrication equipment it is now possible to set up a functional Home or Small Business Fab Lab equivalent for as little as $5,000 (desktop – laser cutter, 3d printer, cnc mill plus computer w/ software) and this price will likely continue to drop in part due to projects like Cupcake .

It is really not possible to overstate the significance of bringing digital fabrication equipment to the desktop (desktop = small & affordable) – you can (or, in the near future, will be able to) take your concept and quickly Design, Test, and Build (DTB) it (short production runs, at least). In other words, if you have an idea for a product and you have the know-how to create your product; lack of capital won’t be your road block or your excuse for not getting it done. Historically if you wanted to create a product you needed to find a design firm with the necessary technology to create your prototype ($$). Then, once you have the prototype you need to find a manufacturer to actually build your product ($$$) – setup fees, minimum quantity requirements, etc. meant significant up-front capital without really knowing whether the product is viable. When all was said and done, you were probably looking at a year or more of preparations, design, manufacturing and out-of-pocket costs. While this process is not going to change overnight, low-cost and open source digital fabrication opens the door to rapid product development for the masses. Once you have an actual – physical, tangible and working – product you can actually determine whether people want to buy it or if it is viable for whatever purpose you have in mind. Once you’ve demonstrated that your product is viable then it may make sense to make the investment to hire a design firm to improve your design or a manufacturer to scale/reduce the cost of your production – but this takes place after you’ve proven product viability. This ‘fail fast, fail cheap’ model is common for web (software) startups – get your product out quickly, find out if people want it, revise/abandon/improve it. Digital fabrication is kind of like the Golden Gate Bridge for product development – it gets you over the early, rough terrain quickly and inexpensively.

Cupcake is an open source CNC 3D Printer – you can source the parts yourself or purchase a complete kit for $750. Cupcake is a variant of the open source RepRap project and utilizes the Sanguino variant of the open source Arduino project. That is probably more detail than necessary but – in other words – Cupcake is at the bleeding edge of open source digital fabrication. Though the current iteration of Cupcake is not ready for industrial use it is important for several reasons:

1. It is a real 3d printer – you can design objects using the 3D modeling program of your choice Sketchup, AutoCad, Blender, etc. and produce tangible 3D objects. The skills learned working with Cupcake are directly transferable to higher end digital fabrication equipment.
2. It is completely open source – you can modify the physical shape, the software, the extruder, any aspect of it, to suit your needs or as an educational exercise. Cupcake can not only print using ABS plastic (the plastic of Lego bricks) it can also print cupcake frosting (hence the name). Here is a recent video of Cupcake performing on the Jimmy Fallon show. (there is a link to the video in the comments section)
3. Because Cupcake is useful, fun, hackable and affordable (but not yet industrial caliber) it is what I’d classify as a social technology. Makers will be drawn to it not only for educational purposes but for social purposes – Maker Parties – where people hang out, drink beer, wine, pop, chat and make stuff. Think Pampered Chef for geeks. In the process an army of makers will get exposed to the possibilities opened though digital fabrication and they will get trained on how to actually use the stuff. Fun plus education = killer app.
4. Within two years Cupcake (or a variant) will be mature enough for industrial use.

In other words, Cupcake is practical, educational and most importantly, fun. Cupcake (or a variant) will be the first killer app and the by-product will be a large contingent of trained fabbers. Though I’m a fan of Fab Labs they are too expensive to have the same type of pervasive impact.  I’ve ordered most of the electronic and mechanical parts and I’m laser cutting the housing using materials of my choice (antique 1/4″ plywood in this case).  I was hoping to have my printer up and running in time for Ingenuity but with parts back-ordered (due to surging popularity) and such, I don’t see it happening. Instead, I’m offering to run a Cupcake “class” where interested parties can gather, learn the essential skills (soldering, installing a bootloader, etc). A complete Cupcake kit costs $750 (if you can get one) and has all the parts needed to build a functional printer. Modeling software to design the objects you want to print is available in commercial, educational and open source flavors, depending on your preference.  The class will be free (to audit) or have a nominal cost (for hands on) – materials and equipment will be provided and you don’t need to buy a Cupcake kit (but bring it if you have it).

Building Cupcake is a fairly involved process including assembling the frame and moving parts, the extruders (one for ABS plastic and one for cake frosting (really)), surface mount soldering, some programming, 3d modeling (to have something to actually print). But if you are interested in digital fabrication, rapid prototyping, 3d printing, etc., this is a great way to get involved. Depending on the level of interest, I will need to find a place for this to take place. Other cities have facilities for projects like this – there is TechShop in SF and Portland, the Resistor hackerspace in NY City, The Fuse Factory in Columbus, OH, Hack Pittburgh in Pittsburgh, AS220 in Providence, and I’ve read that a Techshop may open in Detroit. Cleveland is behind the curve here – one Fab Lab at a community college, an hour away, with restricted lab hours is not enough. A dedicated fabrication center – full of equipment (saws, lasers, 3d printers, CNC, electroplating, metal-forming, etc.) and offering frequent classes – would rock!

The 20th century saw the emergence of low-cost, home-use tools like table saws, band saws, and routers. In the 21st century the list will grow to include laser cutters, 3d printers, desktop CNC mills and yet to be determined precision digital machinery. The means of production is coming soon to your desktop…Get Ready!

A recent Financial Times article covered the DIY (Do It Yourself) culture and Cupcake!

Let me know if you are interested… If there is interest, I will follow-up with a time/date/etc  for the class.

Rick at makergear dot com

“I am so blown away by the welcome I am receiving in the NEO (North East Ohio) area – and today it went even further with this amazing blog post from Lynn-Anne Gries.”

“Though Lynn-Anne focuses on WHY venture capital is a good thing, I’ll ignore the many holes in the VC model and focus on the good news – outside of Silicon Valley, LA, NYC, Boston and D.C. Lynn-Anne’s argument holds water.  Startups DO need an influx of capital – and venture money is the primary way to do that.”

“But the problem is that so many of the high profile VC deals, firms and funds are so insular that all they talk about is Twitter, Twitter, Twitter.  Their singular focus on finding the next Twitter causes them to ignore the companies ‘down the pyramid’, those companies which WON’T go public or be acquired…”

via Marc’s Voice » Why do I love Lynn-Anne Gries?.

The Worst U.S. Cities to Work in IT – CIO.com – Business Technology Leadership.

Taking this with a grain of salt since I don’t know if Greater Pittsburgh’s Braddock has an ArtsBraddock or a Beachland Ballroom type venue like I do in my neighborhood:

If you own a home in Ohio, you’re almost four times more likely to undergo foreclosure than if you live in Pennsylvania.

That is the finding of a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, based on an analysis of foreclosure rates in Cuyahoga County verses Pittsburgh’s Allegheny County.

The report examined foreclosure rates in Greater Pittsburgh’s Braddock and Cleveland’s North Collinwood neighborhood, two areas with similar demographics as well as socioeconomic statistics…

via Rust Wire » Blog Archive » Why it’s Better to be a Homeowner in Pennsylvania than Ohio.

Great quote Frank:

“I know it sounds counterintuitive, but right now, in a recession, is when you want to open a business,” said Revy, a slightly scruffy-looking but professional-sounding 38-year-old financial planner who had Mangia restaurant in Lakewood in the 1990s.

“But if you make it now, imagine your success when the economy turns around.”

Waterloo Cafe is the missing piece in the Waterloo Arts District pie – Cleveland.com

We’ve been using Strategic Doing with a number of different initiatives in Milwaukee. One of our most successful: The Milwaukee 7 Water Council.

“The United Nations on Tuesday will designate Milwaukee as a U.N. Global Compact City, making it one of 13 such cities worldwide, in a move that will help the region promote its image abroad as an international hub of water technology.”

U.N. names Milwaukee a water technology hub

One of the major advantages of Open Source approaches to Economic Development: Speed.

Purdue conducted the Strategic Doing workshop for the Water Council last June. We have come a long way in less than a year.

The PD has started down a productive path in measuring the costs of bloated government in Cuyahoga County.

While one of the largest counties in the country, Cuyahoga County also suffers from one of most inefficient government infrastructures in the country. This heavy overhead — while making life fat and happy for local pols — destroys economic development like weed killer on a lawn.

The graph above — compiled by the erstwhile Center for Regional Economic Issues at Case Western Reserve University — plots all of the counties in the country.

The red line shows that as counties get larger, their productivity (measured as public employees per capita) generally improves…except in Cuyahoga County. (The reason the line is not very steep is that government is a service business where costs are driven by headcounts.)

I shared this report with the Greater Cleveland Partnership when we produced it in 2004. But nothing happened.

No surprise there.

In my view, the business leadership in Cleveland has struck a devil’s bargain to keep out of the way of local patronage, as long as local pols support the real estate interests that run the GCP. These real estate developers have a narrow agenda: they want free access to the County treasury (Gateway, Browns stadium, Tower City, Ameritrust, Juvenile Justice complex, etc.) and political support for casino gambling. That’s a bit crude, but it’s pretty close to what I saw while I was at REI. It’s also no surprise that Forest City pushed hard — and successfully — to eliminate REI.

You can download the REI report here.

Props to Cimperman and Zone for seeing the opportunity about land-based wind turbines. I expect they’ve be able to strike the right tension between asthetics and safety and encouraging innovation.

City is wise to consider wind turbine regulation – Cleveland.com.

Team NEO is looking to leverage fans of the region and social media and could use our help:

On Friday, April 3rd and Saturday, April 4th, Team NEO is hosting top site selection consultants in Cleveland Plus region for a Familiarization FAM Tour that shows off Northeast Ohios best assets and attractions. These professionals are hired by companies worldwide to analyze to business attributes of a region, then help the company make the decision where to locate and create jobs.  Not only are we going to show these important the Rock Hall, Great Lakes Brewery and NASA Glenn, but well also showcase our regions innovation, entrepreneurial spirit, workforce and university assets. To sell the region, though, WE NEED YOUR HELP We need you to tell our guests why Northeat Ohio is a great place for business Our guests will be sharing their experience in real time, maybe asking you questions along the way.

I’m excited to see them using the media in this way.

via Team NEO 2009 Fam Tour

Offline and online I’ve been involved in many conversations of late about how we in Northeast Ohio choose to tell each other our region’s story. I find it one of the more facinating and important conversations as we work together to build a strong future for our region. Jack Ricchiuto added some very valuable insight to the conversation on AdvanceNortheastOhio.org and I’m hoping some of the loyal BFD readers will jump over there and help me refine how I and others think about and tell the region’s story.