Vigor Geek

The FormBox is a new household tech appliance that could be preferable to a 3D printer (for some). It’s a vacuum former, and here’s a little gift to clue you in on both what it does and how fast it works:

Fornax vacuum mold maker

Boron is a new kick-starters campaign, so you can’t exactly go out and buy this thing today. However, with over half its goal and 22 days left to fund (currently). I’m pretty certain this is a safe bet. The project team has worked on multiple successful kick-starters and inventive campaigns before.

I’ve been watching 3D printers for a number of years, and for most people the main barriers have been cost and complexity (to understand and use). At least for the average person. Only in the last year have 3D printers become available in the big box stores – like Lowes and Home Depot, but they continue to be $1,000 and up. With this Kickstarter the lowest price to obtain a FormBox unit is $349. I’d say that this is pretty affordable to start making and manufacturing your own items at home.

Why the FormBox is revolutionary (and you should watch what happens with it)

Pay attention to the part of the Kickstarter where they talk about this project funding for the next items they plan to put out as part of what they call them “desktop factory”. Imagine a little legion of affordable machines that will allow crafty and creative people to create their own prototypes and designs from home.

I have always said that everything in life and the world operates in some sort of cycle. Hundreds of years ago every person had some type of singular talent by which they derived their livelihood. Everyone knew the butcher, the baker, the banker, the blacksmith, the typesetter. A hundred years later many of the singular skills from main street USA were beaten up and diluted by the industrial revolution. A hundred years after that (today), those industrial jobs have disappeared by 80% or more and the original skills people had to have been mostly lost over multiple generations.

What I’ve been witnessing are lots of displaced workers who are left to obtain new skills in service related fields like medical, sales, retail, and Tech. I have likewise seen lots of people try and augment their income either by some type of freelance work for hire, or by creating something (arts, crafts, woodworking, etc.). What we are missing are people that are interested in, and have skills in science and engineering.

My hope is that people will get devices like this in their hands, and use them to make things for themselves and others, building their creative skills and inspiring the children in the homes in and around them. I hope that they enable people to become “makers”, and inspire the young to create and make their own items (which will hopefully inspire them to imaginative or engineering backgrounds).