Open Workshop
Useful information
- Team members
- Ewan Brammall
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Keywords
- distributed 3dprinting Open-Design machines pottery university
Short Description
It is a new member of the open design family that allows the distribution of workshop tools.
Detailed Description
Open Workshop is a new way to create machinery at home using 3D printed parts and readily available materials. It allows expensive machinery to be created inexpensively, meaning that a wider range of people can access machines that otherwise would have been difficult or expensive to access. At the heart of each machine is a drill, where I have designed 2 mechanisms one that allows for the speed to be adjusted and kept there and one that allows for on the fly adjustments. I wanted the machines to be easily assembled to not alienate users that don't have experience with wood working or assembly, so connectors have been included for 3D printing to make the creation of the machines super easy. The final output for the university hand in was the creation of a pottery wheel to show an example of one machine, and a website for the sharing of the parts. Where hopefully these 2 things can spark the creation of more machines to be shared. For more info please visit www.openworkshop.co.uk
Project Details
- Does your design take social and cultural challenges and human wellbeing into consideration?
The project came from looking at craft workshops and how they can bring us together. The problem that I found was that in order to host these workshops, if machinery was involved, was that the machines were very expensive to acquire. This reduced the amount of people that could host these workshops. Open Workshop reduces the cost of these machines meaning more people can express their creative freedom, and use making to improve their wellbeing, and not be limited by the outlaying cost of the machine.
- Does your design support sustainable production, embodying circular or regenerative design practices?
The connectors mean that the machine can be easily disassembled for repair if parts break. If the user is bored of the current machine and wants to try a new hobby they can disassemble the current machine and use the parts to create a new one. It also uses a drill that is easily accessible meaning a new power source doesn't need to be created for it and can carry on being used for its intended use as a drill after the machine has been used. For more info on the supply chain and circular design please go to the bottom of www.openworkshop.co.uk/about
- Does your design use principles of distribution and open source?
On https://www.openworkshop.co.uk there is a page for each part which allows the user to download the parts for 3D printing along with animations of how the part is assembled. For the machines there is also a set of visual instructions with a video explaining how to assemble the machine. Finally it uses readily available timber sizes for the wooden supports that can be picked up anywhere.
- Does your design promote awareness of responsible design and consumption?
It allows people to try different hobbies with inexpensive low environmental impact machines, so they can try using an Open Workshop machine and if they don't like it they can disassemble it and create another machine. This stops the user just buying a high end machine that is created and shipped to them with a high environmental impact, where if they don't like it they have to throw it away, meaning a machine has been created for a small amount of use. For more info on people, planet, profit please visit https://www.openworkshop.co.uk/about
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