Digital Lathe

product service : 2011

Digital Lathe is a project that wants to highlight the potentiality offered by digital fabrication tools. It aims at giving the possibility to end user to design and produce a personalized object.

A system was developed in which Arduino estimates the real diameter of a physical collapsible circle and sends the data to Blender that consequently modifies a parametric vase. Thanks to a 3d printer, it is then possible to manufacture the produced design.

FabLab Italia set up a shop during Turin Street Fair, making their digital lathe accessible to the public.

This video is (further) proof that it’s fun to empower makers. FabLab Italia set up shop at a Turin Street Fair, making their digital lathe accessible to the public. The lathe works by allowing people to manipulate the radius of an object at various points along the axis. The radius is adjusted by twisting the wooden discs. Potentiometers measure this twist and the values are then conveyed via Arduino into Blender, which produces the STL file, which is then output on the MakerBot. I like every thing that’s going on here, particularly the looks on the faces of people who have just made something new! This would be a great thing to do anytime, with a MakerBot, an EggBot, a knitting machine; whatever. Just set it up in public somewhere and watch people react to it.

[via Adafruit/johngineer]