Slipping the key into his pocket, Kravenbell reached out and pushed open the dusty steel door.

It used to be a temporary store for auto repair parts, but when the garage went bad and the spacious warehouse became a utility room, he asked for it to open a Bell studio.

After a trip to Asia, Kraven's mentality changed dramatically, and he no longer wanted to be a passable mechanic, and planned to start his own business and open a studio. Old Seaman supported this, and lent him the education fund that he had prepared for a long time, but was not used in the end, and lent it to him, along with the old treasury.

As for the scrap copper and rotten iron in the warehouse, Daddy Pei said that you should try to solve it yourself.

Then he found his childhood friend Robin Jefferson, who had returned to town for the summer vacation, and hooked him to work as a free laborer on the grounds of finding childhood memories and witnessing the latest technology.

The latter did exactly that, and as soon as the door opened, he threw himself at the pile of old furniture, pointed to one of the tables and exclaimed excitedly: "Haha, it's here! ”

When Robin was a child, he often came to Bell's house to play, and the two of them would lie on this low table to do homework and crafts, and use colored pens and knives to carve and draw on the table.

"Since you like it so much, take it home when you leave!" said Kraven behind him.

"Please, this is a low table for kids, what do I want it for?"

"When you have a child, give it to him!"

Robin shook his head when he heard this, although he had a girlfriend and started a cohabitation life, neither of them had any interest in holding their children to go to college, and the safety measures had always been in place.

After thinking about it, he opened his mouth and retorted, "But what about you? Crane, it seems that the one who hasn't found you yet?"

The latter nodded, "Well, Kelvin is too young to find a girl who can electrocute me." If my studio is successful, gets big VC funding, becomes CEO, goes public, and is on the pinnacle of life, I go to New York to find a baifumei to come back and be my wife. ”

"What?" Robin asked, unable to understand his friend's meaning.

"You know, I went to Asia some time ago, and where I learned all these things. Bai Fumei is their standard for ideal beauty, which is the abbreviation of fair-skinned, wealthy, and beautiful. ”

"Good goal, go for it, Mr. CEO!" Robin patted him on the shoulder, "I'll cheer you on." ”

"Come on, I need your strength now," Craven pointed to a wooden cabinet in the corner, "Let's get rid of this clutter first, and then free it up, this cabinet is just right for some tools or something." ”

Robin looked up at the cabinet, "You're not going to return it to the Swedes? ”

As the world's largest furniture manufacturer, Sweden's IKEA has conquered cities and lands all over the world, but recently it has been a bit disgraced. Because of several child fatalities in North America, the families of the victims have joined forces to file a class action lawsuit and file large claims, forcing IKEA to announce a massive recall of more than 30 million problematic chests of drawers.

Since the recall is limited to North America, consumers in other countries feel discriminated against and have protested and criticized, which has made Swedes anxious and have to expand the scope of the recall, but it is difficult to reverse the impact.

"I know, but this is a thrift market bought without an invoice, although you can return it, but it will be a lot of trouble, so I might as well keep it for myself. Well, you can apply for their free reinforcement service. ”

Chests of drawers can tip over in non-normal use, and IKEA has long warned that they must be fixed to the wall, and has launched a paid service for home reinforcement. This seems to be the least costly and can make a small profit, but it turns out that they pick up the sesame seeds and lose the watermelon, and wait until the unreinforced cabinet crushes the child, and they start to provide consumers with free reinforcement or return services.

"Hey, you've got the math. ”

"I'm now saddled with tens of thousands of dollars in debt, and of course I have to do everything I can to save every penny. ”

Robin couldn't help but roll his eyes, "I need more student loans, should I ask you for an hourly wage?"

"That little money doesn't make much difference," Kraven rolled his eyes and pouted, "Why don't you be my part-time salesman, there will be a commission!"

"It's not impossible to think about it," Robin propped his chin on, "By the way, what are you going to do? I only know that you are going to open a studio, but I don't know what you are going to sell." ”

"Something interesting," Kraven snapped, not directly. Opening the bag he brought, he took out an old hoodie and threw it to the other party, "Hurry up and get it, you'll see." ”

The area of the warehouse is quite large, covering an area of about 1,500 square feet (about 140 square meters), and all kinds of miscellaneous items are randomly placed on the ground to occupy half of the area. The two of them changed into old clothes and started to do it, and completed the entire cleaning and tidying work in less than an hour, and even had the leisure to play games in the car repair shop for a while.

Back in the warehouse, the smell of dust in the air has disappeared, and the sweeping robot has completed the cleaning of the cement floor, and ran to the corner to recharge. As for the corners that the robot can't reach, and the dust and dirt on the top and bottom of the cabinet, the two rough men said that I didn't see them and treated them as if they didn't exist.

Opening the door, Kraven walked to the pickup truck parked outside the door, climbed into the car body in three or two, patted the cardboard box next to him and said, "The answer is about to be revealed, Robin, are you excited?"

"I'm not excited at all," the latter leaned against the door frame and pointed to the cardboard box, "Isn't it a 3D printer, I've seen it at school." ”

"It's not an ordinary 3D printer, it's a 3D machining center. ”

"What's that?"

"It's more comprehensive and powerful, just like the difference between a CNC machining center and a CNC machine. ”

"If it's as good as you say, $20,000 won't buy it. ”

"Of course $20,000 can't buy it, I rented it. I have a week to see the results, and if the business is good, I'll renew the lease or I'll return it to Bee Columbia. ”

"Understood," Robin nodded, walking over and lowering the tailgate, "Then let's get started!"

He was slightly surprised when he put his hand on the bottom of the box, it looked as big as a chest freezer, but the actual weight was much lighter, "It doesn't seem heavy?"

"Of course, look here, the net weight is 75 kilograms. ”

The cardboard box was carried into the warehouse and placed on a sturdy solid wood dining table, and the two of them unpacked it with their hands, and the mystery covering the 3D machining center was finally revealed.

It looks a bit like a merchandise display case, with a transparent viewing window at the top, so you can see the empty inside, which is a little disappointing.

Carrying the bucket of materials in, Kraven happened to see the disappointment on his old friend's face, and said with a smile: "Don't worry, you will see its magic soon." ”

As he spoke, he put down the bucket of materials, raised the tablet in his hand, and snapped several photos at his friend.

Nearly blinded by the flashing lights, Robin exclaimed, "Crane, what are you doing?"

"Don't be nervous, I'm taking pictures to collect data. This will make you a unique souvenir," Kraven explained casually, then turned the tablet around and handed it to the other person, "See, which look do you like?"

Robin looked down and saw three rows of portraits on the screen, dressed in different backgrounds, all looking like historical celebrities. He alone knew the mysterious smiling Mona Lisa, the bearded Lincoln, the prancing horse and the sword Napoleon, and the Oriental emperor with a ridiculous hairstyle, and many others he did not know.

When he looked down, the people in the painting turned their heads to look at him, and stretched out their hands to greet him, which startled him, almost thinking that he had seen a revitalized oil painting, and the computer in his hand was almost not stable.

"Be careful, this thing doesn't resist falling!"

"Who told you not to remind me, it's your fault for falling," Robin stabbed back with a hint of annoyance. These characters are just short animations synthesized, only simple interactive actions, and it is really embarrassing to be scared by them, so the anger is transferred to the other party.

Kraven was secretly happy that he had succeeded in playing tricks on Robin, and he didn't pay attention to the other party's complaints, but just urged him to choose a look.

Upon closer inspection, Robin found that these "historical celebrities" were all synthetic, with backgrounds and bodies in ancient times, while faces were contemporary, to be exact, the faces were his own. After flipping through a few pages, he said with some dissatisfaction: "I don't want these, is there Iron Man, Superman, Spider-Man, or Rambo, Terminator, Harry Potter." ”

"It's a pity that you're late in making this request," Kraven shrugged and said, "There used to be movie and television character templates here, but they were all made and shared by users themselves, and they were not authorized and could only be used for non-commercial purposes." However, the Hollywood gangsters were still not satisfied, believing that this would hit their peripheral business. Then, after receiving the protest, Bee forced the template market to update, removing all character templates that were at risk of copyright. ”

"Oh, that's terrible," Robin replied casually, pointing to a picture, "and that's it, it feels amazing to turn me into another Mr. Jefferson." ”

"No problem, I still have a dollar background here, do you want it?" Craven agreed, turning to operate the machine.

"Of course, it would be better if it was as big as $2," Robin Jefferson agreed. The one he chose was none other than Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the United States, who was the face of the $2 bill.

"Click, click......"

With the rhythmic sound of clapping, the black plastic sheet changes shape like dough, and a blurred figure can be seen through the viewing window.

"Wonderful process, why not use that toothpaste squeezing process?"

"Is that called the molten accumulation process?" said Craven without looking back, "Of course, the toothpaste is squeezed out too slowly." ”

Melt accumulation is the most common 3D printing process, where the thermoplastic is melted into a paste by a heater, and then extruded from the nozzle like toothpaste, and stacked on the molding surface to form various three-dimensional shapes. If you modify the plastic formulation so that it solidifies quickly, you can also "print" three-dimensional lines. The advantages of this process are that the principle is simple and the cost is low, and the core components are only a three-axis robotic arm and a heating gun. Its disadvantage is that it is inefficient, requires point-by-line operation, and the processing speed is very slow.

Inspired by stamping and open forging techniques, Bee has developed a melt stamping process that shapes the dough as quickly as it does with a pastry mold. This technology also has obvious drawbacks, such as being less capable of complex structures and being more suitable for the manufacture of flat, solid objects. And the accuracy is a little bad, and Robin refuses to admit that the pitted face on the plastic sheet is his own.

"It's not busy, there's still a few processes ahead, so let's wait," Craven explained.

Because of the protective mask, the voice was a little muffled, and Robin Jefferson's ears itched when he heard it.

"Hurry up, then, I can't wait to see the final product," he urged. Because the plastic has to be heated and melted, and then constantly slapped, the noise and odor of the machine are obvious, and it is obviously not a suitable place to stay for a long time.

"Soon. If you're bored, you can go and play with your phone. ”

Accompanied by Kraven's words, the black block-style relief moved a certain distance, several mechanical arms automatically stretched out, spraying colorful droplets at the plastic block, and the special pigment quickly adhered and solidified, filling in the edges and corners of the smooth square, making the lines of the relief figures more soft and natural, and gradually having a three-dimensional texture similar to oil painting.

Seeing that the colorful relief was gradually taking shape, Robin nodded: "That's right, the one just now can't be seen at all." ”

Kraven didn't respond, and left the machine to continue to make the plastic plate with the pattern on the back of the banknote, while he picked up a circuit board and connected it to his PT computer through a data cable, and downloaded the "Thomas Jefferson" data package to it.

Unplugging the cable and taking out the two relief plates, Kraven looked at the position of the mouth to make sure there was no blockage. Place the board in the middle and secure it like a sandwich, with the pre-made clips aligned and firmly snapped together.

Then he put the electronic device back into the machining center, operated the machine and sprayed it with a scratch-resistant protective coating, then took it out, handed it to Robin, and said, "Okay, your Mr. $2 has been built." ”

"How do I use this?" Robin was confused, at first he thought it was an embossed phone case, but the other party's later actions dispelled this guess. Even though he saw Crane put a circuit board in it, he still didn't understand what this thing was for.

"Give me the phone! unlock it first," Kraven reached for his phone, opened the Bee AI assistant, and then selected the binding operation to bind the thing he had just made. Then Robin heard the plastic plate in his hand sound, "Do you need a drink?"