Kickstarter campaign nets 80+K for CNC router startup

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By Peggy Townsend
UC Santa Cruz

Makesmith CNC markets “The Most Affordable Desktop CNC Router”

UC Santa Cruz student Bar Smith just wanted to solve a problem: How could an electrical engineering major like him turn ideas into prototypes when the equipment he needed to do so was out of financial reach?

Bar Smith, right, and Tom Beckett are marketing their affordable CNC router after a successful Kickstarter campaign netted them more than $80,000. (Photo credit: Peggy Townsend)

Two years later, the shaggy-haired College Ten graduate and his business partner, Tom Beckett (Kresge ’13, history), not only came up with a solution but now find themselves entrepreneurs. After a successful Kickstarter campaign netted them more than $80,000, the two are marketing a programmable desktop 3-D router that carries a price tag within reach of the masses.
Instead of a machine that costs many hundreds or even thousands of dollars, theirs sells for $200.

“It lets people compete in a world of really complex things,” said Beckett.

A tool like Smith and Beckett’s, dubbed a CNC (Computer Numerical Control) router is the opposite of a 3-D printer. While a 3-D printer is an additive technology — it builds something from the ground up — a router is subtractive. It allows a user to carve a shape out of a variety of materials from wood to circuit board to polystyrene foam and even brick.

Continue reading full article here: http://news.ucsc.edu/2014/06/desktop-3D-router.html

For more information:

• http://www.makesmithcnc.com
• https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/makesmithcnc/makesmith-cnc-the-most-affordable-desktop-cnc-rout
• http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/santacruz/ci_26119408/ucsc-alum-designs-affordable-desktop-digital-router

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Sara Isenberg publishes Santa Cruz Tech Beat for the benefit of the extended business and technology community. When she is not volunteering her time for the tech scene, Sara makes her living by managing software projects, web strategy planning, and providing development team services (including account management, vendor management, strategic partner management, beta project management, referrals to qualified technical team members, and more). Please visit her website: Sara Isenberg Web Consulting & Project Management, or contact Sara by email if you have any project management, account management, or Development Team leadership or service needs.

Tagged CNC, Kickstarter, UCSC