I know, you may be 5 layers of neon-green acrylic away from overdosing on your custom design addiction. Too bad, it’s about to get 1,000x worse. Ponoko and CloudFab have teamed up to combine the goodness of 2D laser-cut design and the multi-dimensionality of 3D printing to bring you… Personal Factory 4.
This is probably one of the best ideas to happen in the diy-fab scene yet. Ponoko has always been the source for custom laser-cut design. Now, they bring material suppliers, fabbers, creators and DIYers together to release the 4-headed hydra of product design delight.
How does it work?
Here’s a quick overview from the Exclamation lamp design you see above. The main difference, is you now have the ability to use 3D design files and with existing designs, receive all the major components it takes to assemble your product.
Make
For an existing product, click the “Add to Personal Factory” button to add the design to your Ponoko account.
Choose your material choices for each design file.
Click ‘Make it’ to get an instant online price, then proceed to checkout.
The downloadable designs is fabricated, packaged and shipped to your door.
Customize
If you want to customize the design, click the “Download” button, tweak the designs as you see fit, then upload them to get an instant online price to have them made and delivered to your door. That you can even do this, to me, is absolutely amazing.
This is certainly a new direction for custom built product design. The internal components dictate, to a certain extent, the external package. This opens up design, helps introduce the whole idea to people who are new with DIY fab, and lets the idea people explore existing designs and inspire others. See how it all works and get in on the action at Ponoko.
Via Ponoko
