Ponoko: Mail-Order Custom Furniture Market
I've had the Ponoko website up in my RSS reader all morning, trying to decide if it's as fundamentally amazing as I think it may be. Here's their schtick: Upload a plan to their site (usually an EPS, I think); they'll cut the shape out of wood or acrylic and ship it to you; they'll also ship the pieces of your product to anyone you want, allowing people to sell their product designs through Ponoko without ever touching the product itself.
Now obviously, there as some fundamental limitations for now, specifically the fact that the products are constructed mostly from slot-and-tab design; we're talking laser cutting here, not 3D printing or CNCing. But you can do a lot with slot-and-tab, as some of the products in the Ponoko showroom will attest.
Of course, these sort of customized platforms are great, but they've hardly revolutionized their respective industries—most people buy t-shirts at Wal-Mart, not Threadless; more people will get their end tables at Ikea than Ponoko—but for those of us that get a kick out of buying products that are just one step removed from their designer, it's pretty neat. It also makes it possible to creating your own custom furniture without getting sawdust all over your house.
Cost varies depending on materials and shipping, but to give you some idea, this table is $500.
Company Page [Ponoko.com via MAKE]
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Thanks for the comment Joel. We've just had an amazing few days at TechCrunch 40. And the resulting interest has been simply fantastic. We're so excited about where we're heading over the next few months (let alone years!) and it's pretty awesome to have such amazing feedback through the various blogs such as yours. Agree (obviously!) with your comment re. the limitations of laser cutting - but we do see the other options (3D printing etc) very much a part of our (not so far in the future) future! At present we're 'launching' our concept, and we'll grow as our contacts around the world grow - therein being able to offer the production of 'pretty much anything! Ponoko for all is going to just be a blast! Cheers, Nic - Ponoko Online PR Chick.