The molten plastic I smelled while walking the floor of Autodesk Univesrity 2011's exhibit hall was coming specifically from a Morgan-Press injection molding machine. As crowded as TechShop's booth was, I managed to score a quick video demo from engineer Charlie Nguyen, who was busy pumping out poker chips that attendees could subsequently have custom engraved at a nearby Epilog machine.
For those of you in the Detroit area, TechShop is holding an open house for their new facility there on December 26th. We New Yorkers, meanwhile, will have to wait a while longer to get our hands on some TechShop machines; their Brooklyn facilitated is slated for a 2012 ribbon-cutting, which they will presumably do with a laser.
» Part 1: What They Do
» Part 2: The ShopBot and Epilog Laser Engraver