3d printer project at Victoria University of Wellington School of Design

There was recently a design contest at VUW School of Design to create inexpensive 3d printers. Apparently Ponoko had some involvment, possibly a sponsorship. I found the prettiest printer to be the Equinox, which also was designed to be environmentally friendly, using a lens to focus sunlight to dry recycled paint as a printing process. I was going to say the printer itself looks like an astrolabe, but it really looks like an armillary sphere, a sort of 3D astrolabe.

There's a high-res photo (low-res version below) that shows some of the mechanics, which were laser-cut on Ponoko. I am very much hoping that the university and/or students will publish the plans for the Equinox. It's very cool that people can use a service like Ponoko to build their own printers.

Very slow progress on my CNC mill. I finally purchased the 3-axis Xylotex controller. It is my hope to connect it this evening and conceivably mill a piece of wood. So I need to move a PC to where the mill is, run a network cable, load the PC with EMC and configure it, and set up the shop-vac to collect sawdust. I'll mount the Xylotex board and power supply and fan on the side of the mill, but that's for later.