Gadgetory

if you need a snack this is the vending machine for you but if you want to create a 3d model step right up dream box is the first-ever 3d printing vending machine located on the UC Berkeley campus it was built by a trio of recent grads who were frustrated by the lack of access to the technology it's existed in research labs and it's existed at big corporations to do rapid prototyping and that's as it remains today so it's sitting in a couple labs on campus and to get access you need to be a PhD student to be a researcher you need to be a grad student the creators hope to democratize 3d printing and ultimately have these machines in public places like shopping malls or copy centers this prototype cost just under ten thousand dollars and took about five weeks to build we have the heart of the machine which is the 3d printer then we also have an arm a robotic arm to remove the print from the platform we have a distributor mechanism that will choose one of the four drawers stand up into to get started you'll need to register then upload a design of your own or choose an object from the dream box store you can pay using PayPal the cost usually under $15 less than 24 hours later you'll receive an email with an unlock code enter that on the dream box and it will unlock a drawer so you can pick up your model roughly half the models printed are for personal projects but figurines from video games and shows like Game of Thrones are popular too what you can't print is a gun in recent weeks pro-gun groups have produced firearms using 3d printers and successfully fired them one was created relatively cheaply using a desktop 3d printer that sells for seventeen hundred dollars and about twenty-five dollars in raw materials the dream box creators told us their policy strictly prohibits users from printing firearms what's more the dream box printer couldn't handle the intricate parts of the gun dream boxes print queue is busy thanks to a steady stream of orders which is why customers must wait a day to collect their models even most designs can be printed in under an hour the tricky part now is minimizing maintenance we remotely monitor a machine using a couple of different tools we can essentially do a remote desktop into the machine that's actually in the vending machine the computer in there we also have multiple cameras to keep track of quality as well as how the printer is running currently the dreambox can't print anything larger than a loaf of bread and all models are created from a single material plastic but 3d printing is evolving rapidly and could do much more in the near future where we're going is printing metals so printing custom jewelry or printing essentially custom pieces that are actually used in machines you could feasibly print a replacement part for your dishwasher for your washing machine imagine instant appliance repairs or phone cases that perfectly match your party attire all on-demand just hit ctrl P in Berkeley California I'm Sumi das cnet.com for CBS News