Hmm, a full-on engineering workstation for the cost of a LiveCD? All it needs is Linux EMC and some fairly trivial hardware hacks to become a fab station.

Don Lancaster is a pioneer hacker. His site has a huge amount of practical electronics/computer hacks. One of his most clever hacks is using postscript to drive hardware in the real world, but there's plenty to go around.

Build a laser cutter on the cheap.

From the page: "This project demonstrates a simple hack to create a large format laser cutter utilizing all the scrap electronics you may have lying around. If you have a broken scanner or two, the cost can be just about 30 dollars for the entire project."

Extra chops, the creator gives credit due to Don Lancaster for his excellent Postscript driver.

Also of interest is this 30W DIY laser cutter table from down under, via Make.

Divotfiller's blog is chock full of DIY, CNC and low tech fabrication links. When I visit, I feel like a kid in a candy store.

Very well documented DIY 18" bandsaw build. No doubt he spent well under the $1000 a commercial unit would have cost.

From the page: "This page chronicles the experiments, design and construction of my homemade 18" bandsaw. "

Searchable HackerSpace database. This page links to New Mexico HackerSpaces, but the site is global in scope.

Hold on to your hats, manufacturing is quickly scaling down so that the garage level designer can compete with major manufacturers. This is going to be interesting.

Fascinating study of the Next Big Thing. I could write volumes on why this is both desirable and inevitable. I'll spare you my droning, somebody already beat me to it, and seemingly with a fair bit of humor and eloquence.

Thank you, msiegel, for pointing me to this entry on m3talsmith's blog.

DIY: fabricate your own wire wrapped carbon resistors from pencil lead.

DIY 3 axis CNC mill. Creative Commons licensed. Most parts can be sourced from Home Depot, parts numbers provided. The HobbyCNC stepper motors and drivers about half of the expense. 12" x 14" x 2", uses a Dremel to power the spindle.

From the page: "The DIY LIL CNC project is a set of plans for an inexpensive, fully functional 3-axis CNC mill that can be built by an individual with basic shop skills and tool access.

The DIY LIL CNC can be built for around $700. This cost includes all the stock hardware and sheet material used in construction. CAD files for custom laser-cut parts are distributed along with the plans. Anyone with access to a laser cutter can use these files to fabricate all the panel parts necessary for construction; those without ready laser-cutter access can use local or online laser-cutting services."

Oh man, it's the Erector set of my dreams! Thanks, msiegel! Costs about $300. Those are some nice drawer slides, should work well for a DIY CNC machine.

Thanks, Anneliese!

Enabling microfab/design, one garage at a time. Via msiegel.

From the site: "During the 2007 US Presidential debates, Tom Brokaw asked candidates Obama and McCain whether our challenges would be best solved by ... 'funding a Manhattan-style project or by supporting 100,000 garages across America to encourage the kind of industry and innovation that developed Silicon Valley?'"

...

"'It has been the risk-takers, the doers, the Makers of things - some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.' Barack Obama, Inaugural Speech 1/2009"

I'm a pretty decent maker, and have all the skills this kid demonstrates in the second video. Many do. What impresses me is how he manages to combine them all and pull this project together with only two months of fabrication. I don't think I've ever used all these skills in any two years I've been alive, and I'm more than twice his age! Friggin Über |_3E+ Chops.

Combining open source and organic gardening practices with modern fabrication technologies, this site aims to create sustainable faming communities with minimal material input. This is serendipity. Thanks, msiegel!

From the site: "Open Source Ecology is a movement dedicated to the collaborative development of tools for replicable, open source, modern off-grid "resilient communities." By using permaculture and digital fabrication together to provide for basic needs and open source methodology to allow low cost replication of the entire operation, we hope to empower anyone who desires to move beyond the struggle for survival and "evolve to freedom."

"By our analysis, most of the technologies needed for a sustainable and pleasant standard of living could be reduced to the cost of scrap metal + labor. There is immense potential for social transformation once this technology is fully developed for building interconnected self-sufficient communities, since people will be freed from material constraints and able to seek self-actualization. "

A peek into the SpaceX launch vehicle manufacturing plant, repurposed from an abandoned 747 assembly line.

Great instructable allows you to create features with as small as 0.5mm pitch, even BGAs.

From the page: "Today's semiconductors have matured to the point that any amateur electronics buff can wield the latest system-on-a-chip processor and combine with state-of-the-art sensors to make the cutting-edge control systems necessary to realize so many potential energy saving or energy producing inventions."

HOWTO: fabricate diodes, capacitors, CRTs and more.