Is this possible?????
 

Ok, I give in.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8aghz...eature=related

It's either a con of some kind or something different. Very different.

Or is it? Some 20 years ago I saw a fully automated high precision machine tool in action, a kind of mix between a very high precision lathe and milling machine.

The operator drew a picture on a TV screen of what was wanted, loaded the chuck, pressed the button and it did what was asked of it. Internal threads, external threads, facet cuts, whatever......... The machine I saw wasn't big; from memory the useable table length was no more than 3 ft or so but it still cost £500,000+. The next model up had an engraving tool that could write both externally and internally on a piece of hollow tube. Accuracy was somewhere in the region of "if you need to ask you won't understand the answer".

The one I saw had to be programmed manually so the operator needed to know what they were doing, but there's no reason to believe that nowadays measurements could not be taken automatically from a pattern.

Pretty much what a modern CNC (Computer Numerical Control) machine does today. The operator provides alphanumeric input to describe the part and the machine will grind them out until stopped. The chief difference is that a CNC machine has to be provided with "blanks" either metal, polymer. etc. so it does not create the part from whole cloth so to speak.

I take your point Merrylander. Because CNC measures real movement rather than what the control dial tells the operator, machines with good beds but worn lead screws can cut very accurately.

What I'm asking is whether an object with moving parts could be replicated in the way the video shows. You'd not only need to scan the outside shape in 3D, somehow you'd have to scan internal parts. Could this be done through solid metal like an adjustable spanner? And even if it could, how could the copy be formed in such a way that the jaws on the spanner could move as normal? Maybe what the machine does is make accurate copies of every single part, leaving the assembly to a human:rolleyes:

Alternatively it could be a two stage process. The parts would go from the replicator to the assembler, then packed automatically and ready for sale. But with everyone laid off except the computer programmers, no-one could afford to buy them.

But it has a bright side; everyone lying in bed all day replicating themselves:D

Cool. Maybe, eventually, we could "print" usable vacuum tubes?

Dave

I expect the thought of me doing that would royally piss off most all of the group here.:p