The time has come to release our new 2023 Not A Wheelchair collector's coin made with
the very machine in the box behind me.
This thing is awesome.
(box rattling) (dinosaur noise)
Crikey!
I think it's waking up.
Let's get started.
[Intro]
We've been making our 4-wheeled off-road wheelchair for a few years already.
But now we're designing and prototyping our own custom rigid wheelchairs.
Custom, lightweight wheelchairs, like the one my wife uses, currently cost around $5,000
and take about 6 months to get through insurance.
And I think we can make our own for a fraction of the cost in a fraction of the time.
And the machine in this box is going to help us do it.
[Unboxing sounds]
This is the FabLight 4500 and it's the most cost effective laser cutter for both sheet
and tube that's made here in the USA, and will be essential in making cost effective
wheelchairs...and dinosaurs.
Was that a dinosaur?
Yeah, dinosaur noise right there!
And there we have it.
Very kind of them.
We have the laser proof glass and then access to the bed down here.
This machine has the ability to laser out flat metal sheets as well as cut circular
or square tubes.
It can cut quarter inch steel, stainless, aluminum, copper, and brass, along with titanium
and a bunch of other metals.
Technically we could throw wood or plastic in here, but the laser's a bit too strong
for those materials.
And the ventilation system isn't set up to handle materials that start on fire.
Flammable materials are better cut on a CO2 laser.
The laser is plugged into a normal 110 volt outlet and uses the same amount of power as
a hairdryer.
Now personally I don't use a hair dryer, but it's very cool seeing the equivalent amount
of energy focused down into a laser beam .005 inches thick – about the width of a human
hair...which I don't have much experience with either, but you get my point.
The metal under the laser beam liquifies and then compressed air blasts that molten metal
out the backside of the cut.
Let me show you where that air comes from since we had some issues setting that up.
The compressor we're using is back here in this enclosure.
It's capable of producing 170 PSI that's fed into these blue air lines running around the
top of the building.
The blue airlines run along the ceiling to right back here behind the laser into an auxiliary
tank.
The auxiliary tank is what helps us maintain the 150 PSI the laser needs to blow out the
molten metal.
Coming from the auxiliary tank the air is cooled and dried before being fed into the
machine because any moisture in the lines would cause damage to the cutting head.
Now this machine is not cheap.
It cost us over $100,000 dollars.
But the speed at which we will be able to cut and cope metal tubes will more than pay
for itself in the time savings – especially while we are rapidly prototyping and distributing
our beta designs.
The tubes are inserted and easily cut inside the machine since it automatically rotates
so the laser can hit every surface.
And when it comes time to remove and use the tube, it can just snap off at the precut tabs.
Normally when a company buys a new machine they pass the cost of that machine off onto
their customers.
Our customers are people who use wheelchairs and I'd rather not do that.
So let me introduce you to Alex, the Accessible Allosaurus.
He's a self-assembleable skeleton of a dinosaur that's fun for all ages.
We're selling Alex for $19 dollars to help offset the cost of this machine, as well as
bring down the cost of accessibility to those who need it.
Remember, I don't make any money from this business.
One hundred percent of your purchase stays right here keeping our prices low.
Alex is pretty dang cool – just like you.
Link is down in the description.
At some point in the future, after we're done prototyping, we'll probably have to upgrade
our equipment since lasers get much bigger than this one.
And just for kicks and giggles, I'm back here with my friends at OSH Cut to compare how
my $100,000 laser compares to a $1.2 million dollar laser.
You might remember OSH Cut as the company that cut out all the metal I used on my electric
Humvee project.
And their machine is quite a bit faster than ours.
But it is very cool seeing how far lasers have come and how easily we'll be able to
scale up production to bring down the cost of wheelchairs around the globe.
OSH Cut can cut Alex in just 48 seconds – 5x faster than our much smaller machine.
It's also 12x the cost though so I'm happy with what we have.
Someday we'll have a machine as cool as this one, but until then, our FabLife 4500 is going
to work just fine.
With the final purchase of our laser we now have all the bending and welding equipment
we need to start prototyping and testing legit wheelchairs.
[Machine sounds]
When it's time to laser out our new 2023 Not A Wheelchair collector's coins, I think we've
come up with a method of fixturing that I'm pretty proud of.
The fixture plate is made out of eighth inch aluminum and what we're doing is removing
structure from the aluminum plate to amplify the elasticity of the metal, creating a spring
out of what used to be a flat panel.
There's no need to use screws or clamps to hold the coins in place.
That spring made out of flat aluminum does the job perfectly.
And finally, the boss has arrived.
-[Cambry] This year to raise funds for this project we are doing 3 different colors of
coins.
The silver one is $15.
The black one is $50.
And if you're feeling super generous, we have a gold coin that's for $100 bucks.
-All of which are laser cut right here in our shop.
You might notice when you get your coin there's going to be some dried molten metal on the
back called dross.
The liquid metal rehardens on the surface after it's been cut and I think it looks kind
of cool.
-We don't make a profit off of this.
One hundred percent of the money stays right here in the business.
It keeps the lights on, the designs coming, and makes accessible equipment more available
by being inexpensive.
-Yeah.
We're not here to make money off of people in wheelchairs, we're just here to make cool
stuff as inexpensively as possible.
And even just by watching and sharing this video, you're helping a lot.
But if you do happen to have a few extra bucks, getting one of these coins goes a really long
way.
-And if you get one in the next week, you get a signed thank you card with our photo,
from us.
-We're going to sign each and every one of them.
So like always, huge thanks for watching.
Thanks for supporting this project.
-And we'll see you around.