Ever wanted to own a desktop mill, what about one that you could take on your walk to the bus or just hand carry to a friend’s home?
Well, the San Francisco-based makers of Otherfab, a team inside Otherlab, have made this a reality, and kicked butt on kick starter by reaching funding goals in less than 24 hours!
You can still support it and get in on the “mill action” yourself via their kickstarter campaign. My great friend Alana Yoel a truly hardworking engineer, just became their manufacturing engineer, so I’m super excited to see how this takes off, as not only does this project support the Othermill, but allows Otherfab to get her onboard full-time. I’m ready to hear all about the “other” things they produce! The team of Otherfab comes from Otherlab which was started by Saul Griffith who is a serial-entrepreneur, and well-deserved recipient of the 2007 MacArthur Foundation “Genius Grant’.
What is Othermill?
Well, according to their kickstarter site: “The Othermill is a high-speed, precision CNC milling machine that delivers quality at an affordable price.” Basically, it takes the power of a mill, that cuts by moving a sharp rotating tool through a slab of material, and moves it to a portable version that moves in three directions to make 3D objects and highly precise mechanical and electrical parts. Unlike many machines, the Othermill was created to be quiet so you can work comfortably next to it. You can use the Othermill for circuit boards, but also to cut metal, wax, wood, and plastic. You can pretty much walk your mill to a friend’s home and do your own engravings or maybe even create your own custom molds for company products.
How are they living up to their companies goal?
Otherfab is blending desktop hardware, simple software, and inclusive community to make design and manufacturing more accessible. – Otherfab
The Otherfab folks not only are innovating the mill, and making it more accessible, but they are adding new accessibility to their software too, by creating Othercam, their software that will allow for owners of Othermill to use illustrator , any other vector based editor, and EagleCAD to design shapes and circuits. The decision to create an easier to use software with the Othermill is huge, as it would truly encourage more people to use CNC tools, as currently CAM software is fairly complex.
Whose backing Othermill?
Thus far over 130 backers support this project. Otherfab’s kickstarter got funded under 24hours, so the demand is heavy! From tweets seen on their twitter page, it seems people of all sorts are getting on the “other”bandwagon. Get on board to support this great project so you can own your own Othermill or be an “advocate” for their great cause. The product is available internationally too, so you’re able to buy it even if you’re not in the good ol’ USA. I became an advocate myself, because I think it’s time we got more Othermills to all the “other” makers in the world.
Watch the video to see how the Othermill works on the kickstarter site.
You can reach me @norabean. Currently I am working from Europe.
