XpertFab’s ‘Creation Workstation’ Launches on Kickstarter: Desktop Factory for 3D Printing, Milling, Etching & More

According to health experts, sitting at our desks all day is killing us. The information is out there nearly everywhere we look, forcing us to envision bored and sedentary but dutiful office workers (certainly not you or me) slurping Mountain Dew and munching doughnuts at their desks, eschewing the gym and the jogging path day after day.

With the new Creation Workstation from XpertFab, they plan for you to be bustling around, overflowing with creative ideas, and putting them in action from A to Z. You should be traveling at a fast pace driving this show.

“Mill your circuit board in the morning, cut out your aluminum space-frame over lunch, 3D print your enclosure and body pieces in the afternoon, and assemble your new quadcopter that evening,” suggests the XpertFab team, which comprises the desktop CNC machine and engraver manufacturing company based in Cameron Park, California.

The Creation Workstation allows you to roll out your own desktop factory, with capabilities to work and create in five different fabrication modes beyond their basic milling workstation, adding on:

• 3D Printing – using a MK8 extruder head with a 0.3mm nozzle, and 1.75mm filament. Heated bed optional.
• Precision CNC milling – employing a 300W purpose-built spindle, and 4,000 steps per inch, which can be increased to a whopping 32,000 steps per inch by using the microstepping option.
• 2.8 Watt laser etching and cutting – using FabCAM software to convert milling or engraving GCode to laser code, and then converting images to laser intensitiy arrays for etching.
• Drag-knife cutting – transferring design outlines to cutting instructions
• Diamond tip engraving – using simple type-in text, set position and engraving process

XpertFab has just launched a Kickstarter campaign for the Creation Workstation, in hopes to raise $100K by July 5. Each package comes with:

• 300W CNC Spindle head
• FabCAM and Autodesk Fusion360 software
• Three end mills
• Three milling blocks to get you started
• Custom XpertFab baseball cap
• VIP tech support and resources

Pledges begin at $1299 and allow supporters to start off with the basic machine. With an early-bird pledge of $1699, you receive the Mill and Print Creation Workstation. There are numerous options, with $2499 offering the ‘Does-Everything Multi-Function Creation Workstation.’

“We have many satisfied customers around the world using our products in one form or other,” states the team. “The Creation Workstation is the combination of all of those technologies into one versatile and highly-capable machine.”

The workstation was created with three adjectives in mind–large, versatile, and easy. Allowing you to switch between modes, you can create projects as large as 13” x 15”. It’s not enclosed, as many users will use the machine to create pieces such as guitars or parts that may need unrestricted space for overhang.

The sturdy machine is constructed from aircraft-grade aluminum and is ready upon arrival, with no ‘tweaking’ required. It even offers an optional custom-built isolation enclosure to cut down on noise, if you might perhaps have family members who are trying to sleep while you are busy at work.

The Creation Workstation is a high-resolution machine, featuring up to 32,000 steps per inch, with about one micron per step, and 99% repeatability, which is crucial to milling and jewelry making.

Along with the use of FabCAM desktop software and their microprocessor firmware, XpertFab has created a new electronics that supports each mode of operation:

• Microstepping for high-precision CNC milling
• Thermal control for 3D printing and pulse width modulation for laser intensity control
• Pulse width modulation for laser intensity control

“Simply plug in the Creation Workstation’s USB cord and run FabCAM on your Windows, Mac or Linux PC and start creating,” states the team, along with describing how you can transform photographs into milling lithopanes within minutes.

FabCAM also allows the use of augmented reality in a video feed so that you are able to inspect and completely evaluate all the aspects of your project from every angle before you start.

With the Creation Workstation, supporters also receive a one-year subscription to Autodesk’s Fusion360 CAD/CAM software. This perk is valued at $1K.

“We’ve partnered with Autodesk to enable their CAM software applications to output GCode specially for FabCAM, so you can go straight from design to production mode without any in-between editing or tweaking,” said the XpertFab team.

You should be burning calories just watching this machine go. Is the Creation Workstation something you are interested in supporting on Kickstarter? Would you be interested in the 3D printing aspect alone, or adding on other features? Discuss in the Creation Workstation for 3D Printing, Milling, Etching & More forum thread over at 3DPB.com.