Access to traditional CNC cutting equipment, particularly routers and milling machines, is being eclipsed by the 3D printing and home shopping revolution. Van, do you need a bench grinder? Try the Bantam Tools (née Othermachine) or Carvey or Carbide 3D Nomad bench grinder. Small but versatile grinder for all purposes. Maybe Pocket NK? Buy the router. Maybe Shapeoko, or X-Carve, or ShopBot, or… you get the idea. The MatchSticks machine [Rundong] is a CNC workshop machine and can be classified as a milling machine, but it does not work like a more traditional machine. This computer also controls the carpenter.
At first glance, the MatchSticks are perhaps more similar to the Pocket NC with a large Makita router sticking out of the side. There is a transparent spring-loaded X-axis plate with holes for holding the material, mounted on a bracket for movement along the Z-axis. Under a large convenient handle on top, the router is connected to its own Y-axis carriage. The only strange can be the tablet, which is screwed on the other side. And when you think about it, it's surprisingly small for such a big car. What would it be for? MatchSticks doesn't work by cutting the whole piece at once (that's what you, the adaptive carpenter, are for), it's really a tool to do the hard work and show the person how to do it calmly.
The complete process for creating MatchSticks is as follows:
- Choose a design to create in the included interface and specify the desired parameters (size, etc.).
- The MatchSticks tool will suggest the amount of material you need and then ask you to cut it to size and prepare it with other tools.
- For any part that requires CNC machining, the tool will guide the user to place the workpiece in the bed and then cut it.
- When everything is ready for final assembly, MatchSticks will once again tell you where to hit the hammer.
This way, [rundong], [sarah], [jeremy], [etani] and [eric] were able to build a much smaller machine without sacrificing many practical features. It is almost programmatic, focused on a goal. Why reinvent what a table saw can do when the user probably already has access to a table saw that will cut the workpiece better? MatchSticks is a single-target focused machine that makes complex tasks easy.
It should be noted that MatchSticks was developed as a human-computer interaction study for the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, so it's not yet a commercial product (we're looking forward to it). The full text of the study is available here to learn more about the project, its aims and lessons. Their intro video is available after the break.
Thanks [etane] for the tip.
