Wall-side CNC machining, or extreme free-style graffiti
(2009-02-07)
Today, fenn, genehacker and I were talking in #hplusroadmap on irc.freenode.net about Hektor, the spray-paint output device, and other whiteboard-based weird axial coordinate system machines to draw and write. And then it occured to me that, since we were talking about graffiti the other day with Dave Rauchwerk re: Hektor, that the next step might be to do horizontal machining hanging from the side of the building.
Imagine the reaction that pedestrians and drivers would have to seeing your likeness cut out of the side of a building. Climb the wall one night, hoist up the CNC machine parts, and then mount it on the edges of the buildings with some rails, get the mounts all set up, then load up the PCB and microcontroller, or some crapbox with the design that you want, and let it hack away at the surface all night. I'm sure this general framework could work for spray painting elaborate pictures as well.