Atomic Tail

I've been following Chris Anderson's long tail musings since last October's Wired article.  Brilliant stuff.  Chris' current blog post is a step towards the next dimension.  Literally.  In it he describes a process for creating a DIY toy rocket launcher from Quake3. 

Not creating an image of the rocket launcher, but a 3D, plastic/metal "real copy" of an object that doesn't exist except as an image in a video game.  Atoms from bits, in your basement.  Using an image capture program, CAD software and a 3D printer or milling machine.  By the way, if you've never seen a CAD-controlled 3D milling machine, get ready for a "Wow!" experience of the first order.  I saw one of these bad boys creating a styrofoam Nissan sedan several years ago and it forever changed my worldview.  Here's one that makes jewelry.  I've been waiting for home market versions to show up ever since. 

We may be a ways away from that just yet, but home fabrication of simple objects?  Looks like we're getting close.

Wait 'til those guys from MAKE get their hands on this stuff!

But we're also into a zone that will make the RIAA copyright situation look like a little spat.  If I'm able to make a pefect Chewbacca clone and hack its paint job and sell it at a local flea market and on eBay, what do you think George Lucas is going to do? 

Well, it's one thing if I'm a Taiwan-based toy manufacturer, but what if I'm a 14 year old in Dubuque?  Times 500,000 in towns all over the country.

What happens when we're able to "clone" any simple non-mechanical object made of readily available inexpensive material?  Stay tuned.

Comments

[csven]

"But we're also into a zone that will make the RIAA copyright situation look like a little spat."

Nice to know someone derived the point of why I posted that piece. I've known about grabbing data for a while; there was a pre-HijackGL tool that I'd read about some time back (but to be fair, I had to be reminded of it recently). But back then there were two things missing from the equation that made it worthwhile for me (one of which is resolved and the other might be). I posted the Quake 3 rocket launcher, but that wasn't the target of my recent effort (after all, better model data is available in the Quake 3 game files).

The reason I posted that was because Seth Godin's piece which I'm discussing seemed myopic to me. The real issues are broader and more complex; and the big one now imo is IP. In my post when I'm referencing Mr. Godin's "accomplice" term, I'm really getting at the issue that soon the tables will be turned - hence the hope that the Marketing attitude toward consumers will change ("partnerships"), because the consumers will soon have more power than many people realize.

[Nick]

"Using an image capture program, CAD software and a 3D printer or milling machine. By the way, if you've never seen a CAD-controlled 3D milling machine, get ready for a "Wow!" experience of the first order. I saw one of these bad boys creating a styrofoam Nissan sedan several years ago and it forever changed my worldview. Here's one that makes jewelry. I've been waiting for home market versions to show up ever since.

We may be a ways away from that just yet, but home fabrication of simple objects? Looks like we're getting close."

There are already thousands (if not tens of thousands) of people doing this. I've been all over the net today commenting about this because I'm a bit of a home shop evangelist (both manual and CNC), the best place to start is the cad-cam-edm-dro yahoogroup.

Depending on your electronics expertise you can get running for between 1-2k. I sell small CNC mills online and I have customers from every hobby and profession buying them because they need to prototype-produce without the hassle of going through a machine shop. There is a hidden revolution going on now in home shop CNC, and it is really exciting.

Here is great site that shows how one guy did it:
http://www.cuttingedgecnc.com/

I would link to my site but I hate comment spam...

[csven]

"There are already thousands (if not tens of thousands) of people doing this."

sure there are. they're all hijacking streaming videogame data that's lower quality than what they can simply rip from the game files on their PC, going through all sorts of contortions to extract the part they want when the individual file is readily available, and making sub-standard parts at home from it.

either you don't get what this is about, or you're busy salivating at the idea of convincing people to buy a home CNC machine that doesn't really make sense for this application.

[Nick]

I emailed the comment author privately but I wanted to expand on this conversation a bit (apologies to True Talk)
"sure there are. they're all hijacking streaming videogame data that's lower quality than what they can simply rip from the game files on their PC, going through all sorts of contortions to extract the part they want when the individual file is readily available, and making sub-standard parts at home from it.either you don't get what this is about, or you're busy salivating at the idea of convincing people to buy a home CNC machine that doesn't really make sense for this application"

The point I was trying to make wasn't that people are specifically ripping off videogame object design and making sub-standard copies, but that people are fabbing objects in their home shops that may or may not be copy protected in some manner. This may be a part that has a manufacturers logo engraved on it without permission, or a design for a particular item that was reverse engineered from a photograph or 3D scan.
I think I understand to a certain extent that you are expressing the same sort of concept that Stephenson did in "The Diamond Age", with the "feed" vs. the "seed", and whether things will have value when they are only virtual data.
Whatever. For the record I precisely did not post any links to my business at all because I didn't want to be accused of "salivating". I found that comment a bit unfair, I'm just a machining evangelical.

[Tom Guarriello]

First, csven and Nick, thanks for your comments. On the commercial use of comments: no sweat. Nobody did anything to make me uncomfortable. If I were selling the kind of equipment Chris Anderson wrote about on his blog, I'd be eager to let people know about it, too.

csven's bigger point about the "partnerships" between customers, marketers and manufacturers of all kinds of merchandise is the one I'm interested in, as well. When the deeper functional capability starts kicking in, and it's possible, as someone said somewhere, to make something other than a "statue," then the IP issues are going to be even more difficult to ignore.

[Jason]

If you think the CAD controlled milling machines are great, wait until you get a load of a 3D printer in action. It'll blow your mind. I've watched designs come to reality in both, and the possibilities you get with a 3D printer are awe-inspiring. I'm starting up a business to produce 3D printouts for smalltime designers and hobbiests, but I'll follow Nick's example and not put up my business info. (also, my website still looks like crap, but I'm working on it)

[Tom]

Jason, I can hardly wait to get a load of 3D printers. When your website looks less crappy ;) drop by and let us know.

[fignoggle]

for not all that much money you can buy a sieg x2 mini mill and perform a cnc conversion on it. then you can make all the 3d parts you want! check it out: cnc conversion plans