*I wonder what would happen if there was a way to cheaply mass-produce the entire Thingiverse Galaxy of Tools, and then drop a shipping-case full of 'em into favelas or abandoned malls.
*Robinson Crusoe would have completely wigged out with this stuff. The guys in Jules Verne's MYSTERIOUS ISLAND would have become a one-island techno-superpower.
http://www.thingiverse.com/tools
http://www.thingiverse.com/tools/category:4
(((Meanwhile, over at MakerBot:)))
"Crowdsourced manufacturing
"In the conversation about cheap, ubiquitous 3D printing, people talk a lot about distributed manufacturing. The concept is simple: instead of having a centralized factory that produces parts and then distributes them to the people that want them, individuals have the tools they need to build the things they want and distribute them without a central hub. Here at MakerBot, we fully support this vision of the future – we’re actively building tools that support this revolution. We want to take a first step toward that future by starting crowdsourced manufacturing, where production is distributed, but distribution still uses the hub model.
"That is where you, the MakerBot Operator comes in. If you have a MakerBot, then you have the means of production. We want you to take part in our grand experiment in crowdsourced manufacturing. We want you to use your MakerBot to produce the next wave of MakerBots. In essence, we want to distribute pulley manufacturing to you. Since this is just the first step, we want to make it easy and simple. You build the parts, we handle distributing them.
"Be a part of it
"We will pay $1.00 / pulley for 608 Idler Pulleys. Download the linked file for the 608 Idler Pulley and print it out. When you have at least 30, mail them to us and we’ll either send you a check or pay you by Paypal. When we make them, the bearing press fits into the pulley and yours should too! Don’t forget to check the pulley for bearing fit before sending them off, because we certainly will! We need 150 of these pulleys before September 3rd and if this experiment works out, we’ll ask for folks to print out 625 Idler Pulleys too!
"This is a new and exciting adventure for us...."
