Comments on: CandyFab

CandyFab

exogenous — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:02:36 -0800

Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories has made a 3D printer that forms objects out of sugar.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:17:25 -0800

Totally beyond awesome. I would have stopped at CNC toast, but a gigantic screw made of melted sugar... the mind boggles.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:20:58 -0800

This is amazing. We're in genuine Willy Wonka territory here, and I'm not being facetious. Did you catch the bit about other substances that can be used with this device? Fine-tune the machine to enhance the resolution. Load up the hopper with chocolate chips. Punch in the 3-D model. Get a solid chocolate replica of anything you want. My friends, we're seeing the genesis of the best-selling Mother's Day gifts of 2010.

By: brain_drain

brain_drain — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:23:21 -0800

Next project: Sheena Easton's sugar walls.

By: LionIndex

LionIndex — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:25:25 -0800

I've seen this used to make architectural models. You send 'em your autoCAD drawings, they futz with them a bit, and then presto! Model.

By: YoBananaBoy

YoBananaBoy — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:31:28 -0800

Sugar Cubes! Oh ...

By: Steven C. Den Beste

Steven C. Den Beste — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:32:43 -0800

That is monumentally wonderful. The choice of sugar as a fabrication medium was inspired, for all the reasons they said.

By: Dizzy

Dizzy — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:35:11 -0800

This would go well with my cereal-and-fruit-fabricator.

By: itchylick

itchylick — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:41:59 -0800

Did you catch the bit about other substances that can be used with this device? If I load up the hopper with nuts and bolts, can it self-replicate?

By: ericb

ericb — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:48:11 -0800

There was an interesting article on stereolithography [aka 3D printing] in the New York Times on Monday: Beam It Down From the Web, Scotty.

By: prostyle

prostyle — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:50:21 -0800

Our machine employs what we believe is a fairly novel low-cost technology to accomplish this: selective hot air sintering and melting (SHASAM). Haha, awesome. Fine-tune the machine to enhance the resolution. Load up the hopper with chocolate chips. If I load up the hopper with nuts and bolts, can it self-replicate? There is no hopper. The printing process begins with a bed of a granular printing media that has a fairly low melting point. Using a narrow, directed, low-velocity beam of hot air, we selectively fuse together the print media, forming a two-dimensional image out of the fused grains. We then lower the bed by a small amount, add a thin flat layer of media to the top of the bed, and selectively fuse the media in the new layer, forming a two dimensional image that is also fused to any overlapping fused areas in the layer below. We have taken a very different approach from most other fab projects in that we have a comparatively large printable volume, but less need for precision and high resolution. Our fabricator is not designed for prototyping machine parts; it's designed for fun, for large-scale 3D illustration, for sculpting, architectural models, and other applications where resolution isn't the only important factor. It's too bad my NC Routers, Mills and Lathes aren't designed for Fun™... These guys certainly are fun though, thanks for the link!

By: Esoquo

Esoquo — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:50:27 -0800

The architecture office I am at just invested in a 3-D printer (which I am so excited to be trained to use) , I should recommend we make one of these. The only downside is it takes forever to print something, but maybe in 50 years you can turn it on, pick a shape, and make it candy in seconds. I don't know if the chocolate would work. . . you'd have to get the gun to create 94 degree air. . .

By: ericb

ericb — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:51:07 -0800

"One company that wants to be the first to deliver a 3-D printer for consumers is Desktop Factory....The company will start selling its first printer for $4,995 this year."

By: LordSludge

LordSludge — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:52:00 -0800

I don't think teleportation or light-speed travel (let alone FTL) will ever happen. I do think remote stereolithography will get good enough for it not to matter. But, then, I'm a mechanical engineer, so I would think that.

By: Dizzy

Dizzy — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:54:29 -0800

ericb-- Excellent link. My inner geek gets all hinky when the author uses "Transporter" for "Replicator". And don't even get me started on Heisenberg Rectifiers. Like I'll actually post this.

By: Dizzy

Dizzy — Wed, 09 May 2007 13:54:50 -0800

Wait.

By: Green With You

Green With You — Wed, 09 May 2007 14:00:17 -0800

I'm sure the porn industry will find a use for this in a short time. Get a fab of certain body parts and give them to loved ones to eat at their own leisure! Nothing says love like edible sex organs.

By: ericb

ericb — Wed, 09 May 2007 14:09:06 -0800

Get a fab of certain body parts and give them to loved ones to eat at their own leisure! Nothing says love like edible sex organs. In the mean time you can settle for generic candied erotic body parts.

By: mzurer

mzurer — Wed, 09 May 2007 15:01:14 -0800

This is pretty cool - They don't seem to document the step of adding media, though - Seems like that would be one of the more difficult problems.

By: MtDewd

MtDewd — Wed, 09 May 2007 15:19:26 -0800

I am curious about the use of the word 'printer'. In what sense does it print?

By: shadow vector

shadow vector — Wed, 09 May 2007 15:23:20 -0800

I wonder if it's occurred to them how much money they could make with the custom toast machine using a picture of the Virgin Mary and ebay.

By: Joey Michaels

Joey Michaels — Wed, 09 May 2007 15:49:31 -0800

Since I am not currently allowed to eat sugar, let me just reiterate, EVIL! (also awesome)

By: vacapinta

vacapinta — Wed, 09 May 2007 15:56:07 -0800

I am curious about the use of the word 'printer'. In what sense does it print? In the sense that has been used for centuries? OED: 2. a. To impress or stamp (a form, figure, mark, etc.) in or on a yielding substance; also, by extension, to set or trace (a mark, figure, etc.) on any surface, by carving, writing, or otherwise.

By: jayCampbell

jayCampbell — Wed, 09 May 2007 15:58:43 -0800

You can build your own RepRap for $500. The project's eventual goal is a machine design that can produce affordable copies of itself. Along the way people experiment with things like cake icing in addition to more conventional materials.

By: Salmonberry

Salmonberry — Wed, 09 May 2007 16:13:49 -0800

That is fantastic and making me very hungry! Around the world, dentists are shuddering...

By: ericb

ericb — Wed, 09 May 2007 16:17:31 -0800

Around the world, dentists are shuddering... Around the world, dentists are ~~shuddering~~ salivating...more cavities = more revenue. Eat up kids!

By: jayCampbell

jayCampbell — Wed, 09 May 2007 16:21:43 -0800

Desktop process for producing dental products by means of 3-dimensional plotting.

By: MtDewd

MtDewd — Wed, 09 May 2007 16:56:47 -0800

OED: 2. a. To impress or stamp (a form, figure, mark, etc.) in or on a yielding substance; also, by extension, to set or trace (a mark, figure, etc.) on any surface, by carving, writing, or otherwise.

Oh, sure- bring up the OED! I was using a 'murikin dictionary, which didn't have the '...by extension...' sense. Part of me wants to thank you but the other part doesn't think anything is being impressed by this machine (including me).

By: pointilist

pointilist — Wed, 09 May 2007 18:56:36 -0800

These folks are seriously crazed.

By: Dizzy

Dizzy — Wed, 09 May 2007 19:01:29 -0800

Robotic cake-icing is just the breakthrough I've been praying for.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Wed, 09 May 2007 19:35:27 -0800

Awesome! Interesting choice of objects they chose to produce. I'm still in shock that scientists are printing the basics of human organs. Bio-printing. It's mind boggling.

By: stavrogin

stavrogin — Wed, 09 May 2007 22:20:21 -0800

Around the world, dentists are shuddering... It's the starch that keeps sugar stuck to teeth that really gets you. Pure sugar is fine as long as you brush or chew some gum. Or so I've heard...

By: Many bubbles

Many bubbles — Wed, 09 May 2007 22:51:29 -0800

I am... suitably impressed. And hungry.

By: Tehanu

Tehanu — Thu, 10 May 2007 07:49:33 -0800

Hm. This is neat, but the end result doesn't look very tasty to me.

By: jiawen

jiawen — Thu, 10 May 2007 10:32:53 -0800

we have used it to print several large, low-resolution, objects out of pure sugar.

This reminds me of one of my favorite questions: What resolution is reality?

By: OmieWise

OmieWise — Thu, 10 May 2007 11:24:46 -0800

Very cool.

By: Mitheral

Mitheral — Thu, 10 May 2007 23:20:44 -0800

Shouldn't be much longer and you'll be able to download everything made of wood, cloth or plastic that Ikea sells. Just add suitable media. It'll make copyright fights a whole lot more interesting.