Make Magazine, one of the coolest magazines ever, has an article on their blog on all the progress being made in the world of 3-D printers, or as I like to call them replicator prototypes.

The article I'm referring to is The Desktop Factory - Fab@Home.

Here's a real good overview section from the article:

Lipson’s fabrication machine, called a “fabber,” can print thousands of three-dimensional objects, everything from toy parts to artificial muscles, using dozens of materials, including PlayDoh, peanut butter and silicone, by following simple directions sent to it by a PC. About the size of a microwave, the fabber costs $2,300 to assemble—roughly one tenth the cost of commercial 3-D printers.

While I was watching Star Wars: The Legacy Revealed on History Channel I happened on one of the coolest commercials I have send in a long time. It was a commercial for the Craftsman CompuCarve. You can pretty much see the same thing here.

The Craftsman CompuCarve is $1,899.99, which I think is still a little high. But if you consider the business opportunities, from everything like mall kiosks, flea markets, business logo items, and eBay and other online possibilities I think it would be easy to make you money back on the investment. (Yeah, I'm tempted.)

I'd want to make a Möbius strip or a maybe a Sierpinski triangle. It's a shame it is limited on 3-D capabilities. I think I'll hold out a little longer and see how the The Desktop Factory - Fab@Home project does. Besides I probably couldn't resist trying other things besides wood in it.

Famous Last Words: "Hey, look its winter. Let's make ice sculptures."