Manufacturing goes personal

The amazing eMachineShop represents a turning point in personal manufacturing. The company enables anyone to create machine-shopped pieces using a vast arrray of techniques including milling, extruding, thermoforming, water jet cutting and far more, on any choice of materials, to create whatever they want. The company provides free, extremely easy-to-use 3D CAD (computer aided design) software which automatically inputs into their systems, so you can, within an hour of having logged onto their site, sent off a design to be created. The applications are vast - in essence you can make for yourself anything you want, at a low cost. No more unavailable car parts or overpriced spare parts for machinery, and sculptors can simply imagine their sculptures rather than work for years to acquire mechanical skills. The next phase from here is the rise of "fab labs", where the creation of the piece is done in your own office or home rather than having to be sent away. This truly is about power to the people. What will be unleashed by the power of these tools, available to anyone?