Last year at Maker Faire we ran into the folks from Pensa Labs, the crew behind the very cool DIWire CNC wire bender. They were back again in full force this year with a new, improved, and soon-to-be commercially launched wire bender.
The first time we saw the DIWire it was a very cool piece of kit, but something that might not hold up to the rigours of a production environment. The latest version, a 14×8.5×5.5 inch machine designed to be set into a table, allowing for rapid manufacturing of nearly any shape imaginable bent into 1/8″ and 1/16″ steel wire.
Making any shape with the DIWire is extremely simple: if you have an SVG file, just import it into the software, define a few points along a path, and slip in a length of wire. One of the guys from Pensa was able to re-create the Hackaday logo is a few minutes.
It’s an impressive piece of kit that a few makers, hackers, and architects are using to build structures that can’t be made any other way. The DIWire will soon be released to the public, so check out their site for updates.
Very nice! Not something I would use often, but good to know it is available.
It looks much nicer as version 1 but I think they lost the 3D feature now? Indeed something I don’t need, het I can see it being used in manufacturing certain product…
The DIWire kit would be great for fractal and helical antenna designs. You can easily produces HDTV and WiFi antennas cheaply and test new designs quickly.
Nice. Good call on antenna bending. I was having a hard time coming up with a realistic use for something like that.
I have a friend that fabricates high-end custom signs and furniture that would probably use a larger version of this every day…
Would this not be more awesome if scaled up to bend rebar? :P
I hate to be a hater, but the design has a very big flaw, the straightening part. The rollers are awfully arranged, you need the rollers in a “W” pattern, because it needs to be bended and then straighten. Also it would be a good idea to have at least another group of rollers at 90º. The way they made it only works with somewhat straight wire.
This is a good example, and I would not use less than this, specially if I wanna sell it: http://www.eraser.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/1378.jpg