[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kx9zEoS5XLs]
MakiBox is a riff on the open source RepRap 3D printer that fits a print head and motor inside a box about the length and width (but not the thickness, silly) of a sheet of paper. The MakiBox kit will start at $350 while an assembled kit will cost $550.
The project is being built by Jon Buford, a well known hardware guy in Hong Kong whose last claim to fame was this teeny tiny Android headphone extender. He runs a hacker space in China and works closely with prototyping houses on the mainland.
He also runs, Makible.com, a hardware project funding site akin to Kickstarter. The project is fully funded so you’ll be supporting a sure thing and considering this is based on the RepRap you’ll be working with known hardware and software. The question remains, however: do we need 3D printers on our desks? If not now, when?
John Biggs is a writer, consultant, programmer, former East Coast Editor and current contributing writer for TechCrunch. He writes mainly about technology, cryptocurrency, security, gadgets, gear, wristwatches, and the internet. After spending his formative years as a programmer, he switched his profession and became a full-time entrepreneur andwriter. His work has appeared in the New York Times, Laptop, PC Upgrade, Surge, Gizmodo, Men’s Health, InSync, Linux Journal, Popular Science, Sync, and he has written a book called Black Hat: Misfits, Criminals, and Scammers in the Internet Age.