Tabletop Machine Carves Craft Pieces and Other Items
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CREDIT: Roland DGA
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There is a lot of hype around 3D printers these days, which use digital designs to lay down layers of plastic or metal to make real-world objects. But they tend to be big and expensive. Roland DGA Corporation has created an alternative with the iModela milling machine.
It's small, about the size of a large toaster or minimicrowave. Unlike the popular MakerBot 3D printer, which builds up layers of plastic, iModela carves materials into objects imagined in computer-aided design software into 3D objects. The unit comes with design software to help beginners, and there are several downloadable patterns from community of users that you can use immediately. The big limit is the size – projects have to be smaller than 3.39 inches wide, 2.17 inches long and 1.02 inches high.
That said, it can work with a wide variety of materials, including wax, plastics and balsa wood. Besides small crafts, it would work well for creating wax molds, as well as larger objects that can be built in pieces.
A real attraction is the price: $899. The cheapest 3D printer on the market, the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic, sells for $1,099, and the company's latest, two-color model sells for $1,750. Bothalso take up a lot more room, and are slightly more complicated to use – a MakerBot requires that you change the plastic when you want a new color (or run out), whereas an iModela just needs to be cleaned out after use.
iModela works with most computer-aided design software, and the company sells an assortment of parts. So if something fails, it isn't a chore to replace it.
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