Get Your Own Evil CandyFab?

 

Quite a while ago Fabbaloo reported on the CandyFab 4000, an ingenious prototype 3D printer that used common sugar as the build media. The device uses the familiar X-Y-Z inkjet-style motion, but instead of depositing the media it simply heats a successive layers of powdered sugar to its melting point and fuses it into a solid shape.

But the really interesting part is that the calorie-laden printed objects are in fact edible! One can only imagine the amazing items emerging from gourmet dessert kitchens once these things are widely available. 3D software training for chefs? Would Gordon Ramsay scream at the printer?

But then:

Evil Mad Science plans to announce the availability of CandyFab kits sometime in the summer or fall of 2009.

And a comment on the Thingverse by Evil Mad Scientist Windell Oskay says:

Yes, there will be kits.

Won’t quite be as inexpensive as the Cupcake CNC. It’s a more complex machine, supporting a deep, heavy bed of material and a build volume ten times as large. Still, we’ll do what we can. :)

The CandyFab 6000 is still being developed, but here are the highlights:

• New mechanical parts, and no requirement to re-use old printer components
• Upgraded sofware: the cross-platform CandyFabulous
  
• Build volume of 10 Liters
• Layer thickness of 0.067 inches
• One Arduino board per axis
• Food-safe sugar containment
• Laser-cut casing
• Highly expandable

These are just the preliminary specifications, as "There's plenty of room for improvement, and finally we have a machine that can be improved."

As the Evil Mad Scientist says, "it's looking sweet."

Via Evil Mad Scientist, CandyFab wiki and Thingiverse (hat tip to Thomas Amberg, once again!)

Comments

[Dublin beekeeper]

Edible items seem to be allowed to be unique. Home made cakes and such are actually preferred to more mass produced versions. Could printed food be one of the early uses for home printing technology?

Printed mii avatars for use on Wedding/Birthday cakes. What other business opportunities for printed food are there?