I imagine the furniture would be a little more than uncomfortable, and the dinnerware… different.

Though it does seem like it would be awesome to have.

@groovenstien – I’m working on building my own LED movers from some old stepper motors and some RGB LEDS. I’ve been using an arduino for right now, until I can actually get the thing built, then I’ll use a different type of microcontroller to run the thing. To control the stepper, you’ll need to know how many coils/wires it has and you’ll need either an H-Bridge or possibly a Darlington Array. I’d be more than happy to answer some questions for ya, just drop me an email at tonytuba(at)aim(dot)com. I’m also curious what lights those steppers came out of :)

Hmm, i get this error in chrome:

Warning: Visiting this site may harm your computer!
The website at http://www.blueprintmagazine.co.uk contains elements from the site iasitvlife.ro, which appears to host malware – software that can hurt your computer or otherwise operate without your consent. Just visiting a site that contains malware can infect your computer.

@groovenstien – the 4 wire is more than likely a 2 coil motor and u’ll need an H-Bridge, the 6 wire could be 2 coil, but with separate power ins. Here’s a great page with lots of examples of circuits and even some code for various microcontrollers.

http://www.tigoe.net/pcomp/code/category/arduinowiring/51

Definitely read the opening section regarding IDing your stepper because that 6 wire could also be a unipolor stepper. Shoot me an email if you got any other questions so we can keep the comment trolls at bay. :)

@Jeff
when they don’t need money to support their sites :P

Interesting idea – using this to build structures on the moon. Kind of makes sense, since doing manual labor on the moon would be pretty tough. It would have to be proven to be pretty sturdy though!

And @walt – fluid structures make sense for this kind of device, since they are more difficult to do with traditional methods. Anyone can make a rectangular shed, but the benefit of these devices is that they can make more interesting shapes!
-Taylor

@grovenstien – where are you getting the spare DMX lights from? I’m curious because I’ve been looking at sources of salvageable stepper motors…

@tehgringe – I got some 12v steppers from a local surplus shop here in Chicago, but if I do make a legit reprap, I’d rather get brand new ones.

@nave.notnilc I have no problem with them having advertisements, but they need to figure out ways to ensure those ads are not malware. It kind of defeats the purpose of having ads if no one goes to your site because your browser detects malware.

Forgot to mention, the inflatable buildings for lunar bases and space stations are being developed by Nasa and Bigelow Aaerospace. The most interesting, in the short term, being Bigelow’s efforts. The company’s founder is the owner/founder of one of the biggest chains of hotels in the US. His primary goal for his space station designs are to create a commercially owned and operated orbital hotel in the next few decades. He’s already launched scale sized prototypes and will be launching a full-sized prototype soon.

@lowlysoundtech: Sorry about that, should have put a little more effort in to provide some links. Here’s one to an article on Nasa’s effort to design an inflatable building system for a moon base:

http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/Science-Fiction-News.asp?NewsNum=1057

Here’s a link to the Bigelow Aerospace web site:

http://www.bigelowaerospace.com/

holy crap!

One interesting offshoot of having a fullsize house/building “3D printed” is that you could also do a perfect scale-accurate dollhouse sized version without much trouble.

@Taylor the wikipedia article on SLS mentions glass as one of the typical SLS materials. I think the main problem would be making sure the glass absorbs the laser energy and heats up to sintering temperature. Might be more of a problem with sand than with glass powder (sand is actually crystalline, and at micro scale has lots of flat surfaces and is surprisingly clear.)

****… I was thinking of that…

The various Solid Print tech paths all have their situational Pro/Con points. Scaling factors interacting differently for material/technology choices will make some projects truly Non-Trivial to design. That is, till we climb a horridly non linear learning curve. The path from RepStrap to printing whole houses will be damned interesting. And likely potentially disruptive to several economic niches. A formless curb caster can make a house from concrete slurry cast into stacked “Rings” right now with only minor hacking of the gear.

Some of us grew up reading SF stories where a “Matter Duplicator” turned stuff like Martian sand into fully furnished houses complete with stocked freezers. And of course- a home model duplicator with 2 sets of charged batteries :)

I’d settle for spraycrete over robotically laser welded rebar today.

google crome didnt like the link to the blueprint webpage. Said it contained malware and the such. Anyone else get that?

their http://www.d-shape.com/ totally sounds like http://rockprinter.com/ to me, a mention of it would have been nice, I guess.

@lowlysoundtech : printing furniture is actually a very good idea. This is the first time I write about an actually possibly profitable production for a 3D printing machine : it can be customized a lot, doesn’t need much articulated part neither various different materials. Is there a material that is printable and sturdy enough for this usage ?

Im surprised that I am the first person to mention that this machine could make some really wicked playground equipment structures. have geeks lost their ‘child heart?’

@grovensien – ah, I see my Google powers are failing me once again – cheers.

Out of interest do you happen to have any of the model numbers/part numbers for one of the steppers you salvaged. I want to compare the datasheet for it against the stuff I have got to see if it is worth picking up some old DMX lights.

@alex,

Yes, we did – and if you had read the comments you would have seen the resulting discussion.