I dunno.  The devices are somewhat interesting, but it seems to me
that there's a pretty big gap between a three-axis nozzle that can
extrude 'stuff' and a really useful "fabricator."  Otherwise people
would be adding nozzles to existing 3-axis machines (CNC mills, routers,
etc are all pretty old hat) at a furious rate just to jump on the
latest high-tech buzzword bandwagon.  Playdough, hotglue, and silicone
are easy and obtainable, but I gotta wonder whether you can really make
anything useful out of them at reasonable speed.  The fancier high
tech photosensitive or quick-hardening resins used in the commercial
3d fabricators are ... far away in price, shelf-life, and usability.

I'm familiar with the general issue from dealing with mechanical PCB
etching.  I have an LPKF PCB router, which I find useful but rather
limited, and expensive to run.  LOTS of people are off trying to build
similar things on a budget, and I look at what they're doing compared
to what the LPKF looks like (or their main competitor, T-Tech) in terms
of tooling, rigidity, software, and so on, and sort of shake my head.

It's a lot of work to end up with a toy that can make toys.

(now, some neat software is likely to come out of the efforts,
maybe...)

BillW
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