Science & Technology (prototypes)

We are always excited about the possibility of economical CNC machines and 3D printers or "fabbers"; someday we will be downloading products as easily as we do now with PDFs. We have noted that Sears sells a CNC for $ 3200 and now learn from the appropriately named Evil Mad Scientists Laboratories website that they have designed a fabber that handy types will be able to build for under five hundred dollars. Like other 3D printers, it works by stacking layers of 2D images, but instead of plastic or other materials this machine uses granulated sugar.

Sugar is a particularly good medium because it's easy to obtain, low in cost, kid friendly, water soluble, non-hazardous, non-toxic, non-intimidating, rigid despite having a low melting point, and may be suitable for making objects for lost sugar (like lost wax) investment casting. We also think that it may also be possible to make interesting food with this technology.