da | On-Demand Coolness, III

Last winter, I thought it was cool when I could use the internet to submit my photos to be professionally printed at a local camara shop (cheaper than ofoto, and able to handle 9x12 enlargements quite reasonably).

This summer, I thought it was cool when I could use the internet to submit a 3,200-page print job to a Staples in Toronto, collated and stapled in preperation for a conference, picked up there instead of here.

This winter... the creme de la creme of on-demand jobs is: emachineshop.com. It's a machine-shop over the internet. (Injection Molding, Rubber molding, Milling, Turning, Laser Cutting, Waterjet Cutting, Silk Screening... ). The site is seriously fun just to look at the tools they have. And I just tried out their downloadable CAD program, which looks reasonably like other CAD I've looked at, except this one comes with a "what material should this part be made of" button (Aluminum? Copper? Teak? Nylon? Acrylic? ...) along with a "calculate price for this job" pulldown. Bulk jobs sound reasonable, at least to me- a laser-machined aluminum raindeer (3/16 inch thick aluminum, if I remember) in the "sample jobs" directory goes for $3.50 a piece for 100 pieces, or $70 for a single one.

This is very cool, but I don't have time to play with it now. But after the new year, I'd love to come up with a good excuse to try them out. (custom etched clear plastic beer-coasters anyone?)...

Oh. And I almost forgot the other reason I was going to post about on-demand creativity:

On staples.ca printing batch jobs over the internet: they are currently running a special for $10 off a print-job sent from your computer. The email ad was pushing custom xmas cards and calendars. I just realized that they said any custom print job ordered over the internet was valid. But it's only good until the 16th of December.

So, if you wanna get something printed and bound really cheaply or even totally free, you can. :)

If you want a copy of the email (which needs to be printed and brought when you go to pick up your order), I can shoot it your way, just leave a note in this entry (or mail me, my lj address is on my user page).