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"  The new Othermill is a tabletop CNC milling machine that looks, at first glance, quite a bit like a Cube, MakerBot, or any of the others in the new breed of affordable 3D printers. It was created by a San Francisco R&amp;amp;amp;D shop called Otherfab, which was cofounded by Saul Griffith, who is part of the westward MIT Media Lab migration that has fueled a lot of entrepreneurial, maker-oriented ventures in the Bay Area. (He&amp;#039;s also a Popular Mechanics adviser.)  This project blew through its Kickstarter goals in one day, and for good reason: It promises to bring one of the most powerful and sophisticated manufacturing processes down to a DIY price point. (Kickstarter supporters get one for a $999 pledge; retail pricing isn&amp;#039;t set yet.) The bed is about 4 inches by 5 inches, with 2 inches of vertical travel in the cutting surface. That&amp;#039;s plenty big enough for cutting out custom circuitry, which is the machine&amp;#039;s primary mission.  The Othermill can also cut small molds and engrave just about any design. And it can do it in nearly any material, including wood, chocolate, metal, and plastic. That versatility is the key attribute that distinguishes milling from printing, and it should make this a useful tool for prototyping and one-off projects. A 3D printer uses an additive process, laying down successive layers of material. Such printers can create intricate shapes, but they can work with only a handful of materials. CNC machines are subtractive\u2014they cut from above. That brings some limitations, but the ability to precisely shape with varied materials, including metal, make CNC mills vastly more useful for many projects.  The Othermill is related to the MTM Snap, a build-it-yourself CNC mill designed at MIT. A similar progression from an academic, open-source project to a commercial product was followed by 3D printers, which can trace their lineage back to the RepRap project. Both of these technologies are being fueled by, and helping to fuel, the current boom in innovation and small-batch manufacturing. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gear/a8973/othermill-the-desktop-cnc-machine-built-for-diyers-15506747/>