Zach Kaplan wants to enable people with ideas to make things. His long form moonshot goal is that anyone can go from idea to finished product in just five minutes.
Kaplan and his team at Inventables have developed Carvey, a 3d cutting tool currently being funded through Kickstarter. The funding money will be used to buy components in large numbers and begin the process of manufacturing the machines.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/carvey/carvey-the-3d-carving-machine-for-the-maker-in-all
Carvey's work area is 12 x 8 x 2 3/4 inches. The machine comes with brackets to cut up to 3/4 inch and additional clamps will allow the user to cut up to 2 3/4 inches. Wood, soft metals, foam, plastics, and circuit boards can be cut with Carvey.
Precision is discussed several times on the campaign page. The team says that Carvey can be repeatable between 0.001" to 0.003", but the tests they've run show a tighter tolerance can be maintained.
Easel software that comes free with the machine will allow users to carve in 2.5 dimensions. This means x and y movement with straight down in the z dimension. Importing g code data from CAD, CNC or other software will allow for a true 3dimensional surface cutting experience.
Carvey looks to be an amazing machine that can change the way we think about small scale machining for consumers. The team from Inventables has teamed with MNML for the design of the machine and a long list of other contributors is credited as testers and development partners.
Fully functional machines are going for $2399 through this Kickstarter campaign and are targeted for Autumn 2015 delivery. The entire project feels professionally done, well planned and well executed thus far. Seeing Carveys on every desk in ten years as a complement to a desktop 3d printer would be fantastic.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/carvey/carvey-the-3d-carving-machine-for-the-maker-in-all