- model car shape - router is better
- wing from a long/huge piece - hotwire cutter is better

With linear bearings, belt drive should be pretty accurate, but I think even 1/16 should be good enough in most cases of cutting something large from the foam?

Laser cutter sounds very interesting even if's just high power diode etching wood. See http://hacknmod.com/hack/make-300mw-burning-laser-cnc/
I wonder if combining several high power diodes with some kind of mirror system would provide sufficient power for cutting thin wood. Then laser tube and expensive optics would not be needed.

When you have built something from Contraptor that you can show, please feel free to create a page in this wiki with pics/explanations of your project, we'll definitely link it in the Contraptions page and let people know about it. Also, we can link from home page to your site if you're looking to attract contributors to your project.

RE Shan Zhai operations - Google is our friend:) http://www.shanzai.com/index.php/market-mayhem/asia-analysis/270-shanzhai-factory-photo-tour

Cubspawn Machines are dedicated to some finished design (although it will still likely undergo refinement)
Contraptor is more flexible for the purpose of finding the "right" design (or a good enough solution to commit to)

Unless of course I'm missing the mark (always possible :-) )
you may intend to build large finished machines with contraptor components and scale up to 1 1/2" or 2" or 3"angle and all the rest…
either way I see a slightly different intent in the endpoint for the two approaches, and I think they are complementary - I really didn't consider the prototyping aspect much in the cubespawn design, just interchangability, stackability and modularity.

which is why I'm so pleased to have bumped into your project, because it DOES! ;-)

I too wonder what Shan Zhai operations look like, and what machines are needed to build thier very sophisticated products on a small scale..

I have a meeting with a vacuum forming plant owner tomarrow to pitch the cubes as a labor saving trim-out line for 14 products in his plant - I am doing it for the development progress it will bring to the project - if it works out we all get the benefit of the developement - so I may drop off for a while, but will post finished designs as they happen - sorry this is getting so far off-topic - I would like to link to your site from cubespawn and state my position there: use Contraptor to explore implementation stategies, Then populate the cube with the solution.

upward and onward!
James

It's true that for the same cost, Contraptor has wider selection of components of different lengths which allows to explore a lot of different designs. I think the choice of building material really depends on what you're building. I played with several Contraptor designs in Sketchup using 80/20 instead of angle and everything fits very nicely. I used 80/20 mostly for structure and Contraptor for linear motion. One potential problem is that 80/20 is heavier than angle and depending on design/configuration, it might require more powerful steppers (which might require more powerful stepper drivers and power supply). But generally, I see a lot of advantages in having several different construction sets which can all be interfaced with each other.

On melting, one thing on my "someday maybe" list is to figure out a way to make solid aluminum objects from powder using additive fabrication + microwaving in silicon carbide, similar to this: http://home.c2i.net/metaphor/mvpage.html
The objects can then be finished with a Dremel to spec without taking a lot of time to mill.

I wonder if Shan Zhai factories use commercial pick and place equipment?

I'm thinking contraptor is the first step in a bootstrapping cubespawn set! sequence like this:

Start:
Minimum Requirements: Hand drill, miter saw, drills, (other tools) parts and raw materials…

Prefered tool set: Powered Miter saw and a drill press + other stuff

build jigs for drilling aluminum angle, drill 'em
lather, rinse repeat for other basic parts

Add cubespawn frame (12 sticks of 80/20 1010 aluminum 449 mm long(17.677"), 8 corners, 24 bolts)
Build cubespawn frame, use contraptor motion, make cubespawn parts

Finish cubespawn mill

Make a CNC contraptor set

Make Linear steppers on cubespawn

Use contraptor for custom functions within your cell-set

and someday: melt down the handmade cubespawn and the handmade contraptor sets to re-use thier materials in the furnace, re-melt, and extrusion cubes… ;-)

Now you may ask: "Why not just stick with the contraptor?" and I reply: cubespawn is what you build once you've committed to a design, contraptor is how you explore that designs specifics… different, complementary FMS tools! exciting stuff! I wish the Shan Zhai Ji (山寨机) builders would now join us and advance the design…, maybe we can contact them…

This looks great! Contraptor was envisioned for prototyping exactly this kind of stuff - home/garage/desktop manufacturing robots. I like the modular aspect of your cubes, I think modularity is one of the keys to open source hardware being successful through being faster to go from idea to implementation, software analogy I'm thinking of is high level SDK.

Looking forward to collaborate with you

Perhaps we can collaborate on it.

ril3y

Transporting between cells are pallets that the workpieces or work holders are attached to.
These are conveyed from cell to cell by linear motors in the base of each cube, on a set of tracks…
Making linear motors one of the first open source components I want to get a design together for ;-)

In the mean time I plan to build one of your kits on the CNC router/mill cell to mock up tracks, look at a placement strategy for pallet lockdowns and generally kick ideas around…

Great stuff!

James

Cool stuff at cubespawn. It looks like 80/20 stuff right? Vitaly has got some 80/20 in some of his contraptor designs. Meaning, hes bought some 80/20 and incorporated it into the contraptor framework. Tell me more about the pallet handling system. Sounds cool.

ril3y

I have a project also: www.cubespawn.com, but it is still in a fairly preliminary state, I see this construction kit a a perfect way to explore new ideas within my project - this is so obvious its brilliant!!

Hats off to your fine concept! This will make a huge contribution to accelerating the development of a whole spectrum of prototypes.
keep up the good work!

I also think the most exciting application will be to light manufacturing…
For me, a pallet handling system, servicing multiple machines, will be quicker and easier to develop, using your kit.
Thereby speeding up the process to automate open source component manufacturing.

James

I think the XY plotter application is the most interesting usage of contraptor and would like to see more development in that direction. Or perhaps you want to see a vinyl cutter. Or a pick and place design. Contraptor robotic arm? Etc…

ril3y