The Maker

The Maker

Ponoko^[25] provides laser cutting & engraving services to turn your designs into custom products. You select from 99+ beautiful materials, download our design template, add your design to it, then upload it to get an instant online quote to make your design real. Pricing starts from $1. You can make 1 or 100,000. And your designs are made & delivered as fast as same day.

Thinking flat is about simplicity, and sometimes layers. In 3D Printing we
think in layers of plastic; in Laser Cutting we can think in layers of
whatever you are cutting.

A great example of flat layers adding up to create more than just flat
thing are Raspberry PI cases.

A good example of a flat cut product that makes good money, is the wallet!

Kickstarter^[26] has an article about wallets Why are there so many wallets on Kickstarter?^[27] Take a look at Trayvax^[28] and Dango Products^[29] for more ideas.

Sarah Kirkham and Anna Warren created a Leatherworking^[31] business where
they use a laser cutter to create fancy products.

Consider creating a similar business (see The Founder)

Visit Tactile Craftworks^[33] for product demos.

The price^[34] of the CNC plasma cutter used in MAKE IT REAL^[35] videos
below ranges from $30,000.00 - $45,000.00, pro version is up to $92,000.00

As the part 2 says, having someone else run cutter is actually reasonably
priced.

Visit the the Hacksmith^[36] YouTube Channel for more.

Man At Arms^[39] use a similar cutter, but tend to use the resulting product as a template/test for real blacksmithing.

You can see the Plasma CNC in action at 4:03^[41]

A small desktop sized waterjet is about $8,000.00, take a look at
Wazer^[42] It can cut 0.120" Stainless Steel, Marble, Boro Glass, HDPE,
Silicone, and Carbon Fiber.

Here is a small business example based on a large waterjet
waterjetknives.com^[43]

Visit Cut in Half^[44] and Waterjet Channel^[45] for more shenanigans.