The mobile fab lab

Fab lab

A fab lab is a small-scale workshop offering digital fabrication.A fab lab is generally equipped with an array of flexible computer controlled tools that cover several different length scales and various materials, with the aim to make "almost anything"...

is a computer-controlled design and machining shop housed in a trailer. The first was built in August 2007 by the Center for Bits and Atoms

Center for Bits and Atoms

The Center for Bits and Atoms was established in 2001 in the MIT Media Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The cross-disciplinary center broadly looks at the intersection of information to its physical representation....

 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts. MIT has five schools and one college, containing a total of 32 academic departments, with a strong emphasis on scientific and technological education and research.Founded in 1861 in...

. The mobile lab includes the same computer controlled fabrication machines found in fab labs world-wide.

The MIT Center for Bits and Atoms Mobile Lab

The fab lab trailer is a 2007 Pace American Shadow GT Daytona dual axle (model SCX8528TA3). It is 32' long, 8' wide, and 7' high. The tailgate opens to add a 6' deck at the back of the trailer. The main entrance is a door on the passenger side towards the front. A 6.5' tall custom steel box covers most of the tongue. The lab requires a space approximately 60' long by 16' wide for operation as a lab. The power requirements are 240V single phase with minimum 40A service. To run all the equipment in the lab at once (including AC and overhead lights) is about 20 kW; to run only the 120V equipment is about 8 kW.

Two graffiti

Graffiti

Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....

 artists from the South Bronx

South Bronx

The South Bronx is an area of the New York City borough of The Bronx. The neighborhoods of Tremont, University Heights, Highbridge, Morrisania, Soundview, Hunts Point, and Castle Hill are sometimes considered part of the South Bronx....

 were invited to design and paint the sides and top of the trailer in two weekends.

This lab contains custom cabinetry which is example of a lab producing a part of another lab. The cabinetry was CAD-designed and fabricated on a CNC wood router similar to the wood router in the trailer. The router in the trailer is capable of making another set of cabinets.

The lab debuted in August 2007 in Chicago, Illinois during The Fourth International Fab Lab Forum and Symposium on Digital Fabrication. It's maiden road trip from Chicago to Nevada to Boston included short visits to Black Rock City, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory

National Renewable Energy Laboratory

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory , located in Golden, Colorado, is the United States' primary laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research and development. The National Renewable Energy Laboratory is a government-owned, contractor-operated facility; it is funded through...

, the Nebraska State Fair, Gadgetoff at the Liberty Science Center

Liberty Science Center

Liberty Science Center is an interactive science museum and learning center located in Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey.The center, which first opened in 1993 as New Jersey's first major state science museum, has science exhibits, the largest IMAX Dome theater in the United States,...

. It is now loaned to organizations for months or longer, typically to help create a permanent lab in that location. These have included Sustainable South Bronx

Sustainable South Bronx

Founded by environmental activist Majora Carter in 2001,Sustainable South Bronx is a non-profit environmental justice solutions organization in New York City's South Bronx neighborhood....

; Lorain, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; and Washington, D.C.

other mobile labs

• 2009: South Africa Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) operates a mobile lab based out of Pretoria, South Africa.
• 2010: The MC2STEM school in East Cleveland, Ohio operates a mobile lab, primarily in the midwest USA area.
• 2010: Amersfoort Fab Lab in the Netherlands operates a fab lab truck in Europe. In addition to several locations in the Netherlands, they have been to Germany and Scotland.

List of equipment in all labs

• at least (7) Dell GX620 computers and 17" LCD monitors. All computers are dual-boot Ubuntu Linux
  Ubuntu (operating system)
  Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution and distributed as free and open source software. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu...
  
   and Windows XP.
• LG flat panel wide screen monitor 32"
• 1GB router, 802.11 access point
• (1) Epilog 24" x 12" laser cutter
• (1) Roland Modela MDX-20 Mini-mill
• (1) Roland CAMM-1 GX-24 wide vinyl cutter
• (1) Shopbot PRS 48" x 96" CNC wood router with high speed spindle
• (1) Grizzly 4HP dust extraction system (for wood router dust removal)
• (1) Purex HEPA
  HEPA
  High-Efficiency Particulate Air or HEPA is a type of air filter. Filters that are awarded the HEPA accolade are used in various locations, whether in medical facilities, automotive vehicles, airplanes, home filters, or wherever very pure air is sought. The filter must satisfy certain standards of...
  
  filter (for laser cutter fumes removal)
• (1) HP OfficeJet 6210 All-In-One scanner, color inkjet printer, fax
• (1) 9" x 6" convection oven
• (1) Dustbuster
• (1) 1 gal shop vac
• (-) hand tools such as screwdrivers, pliers, clamps, etc.
• (1) Function Generator, 10 MHz DDS with Counter
• (1) Power Supply, Triple Output, DC, Digital, 30V, 3A
• (1) Digital Storage Oscilloscope, 150 MHz, Color
• (5) Digital Multimeter
• (1) Heat Gun
• (2) 50W soldering stations
• electronics parts: resistors, capacitors, chokes, diodes, transistors, regulators, LEDs, photodetectors, speakers and microphones, thermistors, op-amps, microcontrollers, resonators, buttons and switches, magnets, headers, jacks and plugs, ribbon cable and connectors, test clips, heat shrink tubing, solder/desolder, battery connections, batteries, motors, transducers, bell wire, magnet wire, blank PCB substrate.

External links

• MIT Spotlight page on the mobile lab
• Tomas Diez's weblog of the August 2007 Chicago-Nevada-Boston trip]
• Pace American User's Guide for Trailer