Cameron and I went to the Dorkbot FabLab last night at the UW campus in the ART building.
The room was packed. There were the three planned speakers, plus the guy who has been experimenting with clay and powdered glass in 3D powder printers and firing them was there. They talked him into getting up and giving a talk, too. It was very interesting, he said that the $100,000 3D powder printers required $50,000 in powder (I think he said $500 per pound) and ink each year, until he bought a few used (one for only $1,500!!) and started experimenting with slip and other powders that cost more on the order of $50 for 50 pounds.
It was videotaped, the video should be posted on their website in about a week:
http://dorkbot.org/dorkbotsea/Dominic Muren gave a Powerpoint presentation covering pretty much every type of 3D fabrication technique. Mostly it focused on additive rather than subtractive. Melted plastic, frosting, sugar (melted with a tiny hot air stream), powders of every type, and more.
The other two speakers, Willow Brugh and Matt Westervelt, have makerspaces (shops you can go and use their fabrication machines) in Seattle and spoke a lot about the machines they have available for use by the public.
There were a couple of melted plastic CNC Fab machines. one was made of plywood cut on a laser cutter (cool burnt-looking edges) and it was being used to make corner pieces for the other. The plywood machine was inspired by the MIT "MtM A-Z" which was made on a Shopbot, redesigned to be cut on a less-expensive and more available laser cutter. They'll be posting the design files online.
Steve Greenfield
Electronic Engineering Technician student
Electronic Technician 20+ years
CET Computers and Consumer Electronics
IPC-A-610D CIS Specialist