3D printing for everyone?

[monkey7]

Some smart people have come up with a 3D printing machine that can replicate itself

Being licensed under the GNU anyone is allowed to produce a 'child' printer and give it away / sell it for its ~€500 production costs. The original printer has already produced a child, and the child has already produced the first grandchild in its first few minutes of existence.

'RepRap' home site.

 

[noobieocer]

omg a free cnc machine wh00t

 

[Msm2]

Very interesting.Will it fit in my small shed.

 

[theelusiveyoda]

saw this a few years ago in pcformat magazine, it can self replicate pretty much all of itself, would be good for some case modding.

 

[Kerotan]

This is amazing, would stop people who have access to the machines having such a monopoly and charging extortionate prices for what is basically a piece of plastic and the click of a button.

 

[mayhem]

ive seen this before and have the plans some were on one of my usb drives. i see they moved from stepper motors to bi polar motors with will be much better and will all so make the parts much smoother.

wonder how much the base parts cost as i own most of the controllers all ready.

Wonder if it could do a case ....

My biggest problem is the site to lean how to build it you have to jump through so many loops it becomes tedious to even comprehend.

 

[monkey7]

That will probably become simpler once it gets out of its testing stage. The video says they are now working on a version two which can make more of its own parts and use more kinds of materials.

 

[mayhem]

its been on rev two for a long time that's the problem. I remember this about 6 moths ago saying the same thing. Think it one of those waiting game things.

 

[noobieocer]

if you do make it mayhem maybe post up a simplified guide, cuase just the mount of parts used on the thing makes my brain explode.

nothing too detailed mybe say this connect there and here and do the same for the other corners.

looking at it i dont really see why it costs £430

all it is a microcontroller programmer, and microcontroler, some motor drivers can easyly made with TIP transistors and some stepper motors, and a kind of hot glue gun.

oh btw why is bipolar motors better? i think mono polar stepper motors are easyier as the motor driver wont have to be push pull config so basic trasistor to amplify the current from microcontroller would of been fine.

 

[mayhem]

the reason ppl use stepper is because it have very slight adjustment and its easer to control with normal programs but they are not as smooth flowing as bipolar due to the way stepper motor works.

My cnc system is stepper based and isnt perfect by any means. Mind you its all conceived out a drunk idea which doesn't help.

 

[Freak]

some people on ebuyer have built them.

Most parts can be bought cheap with most of the other bits being made from others that have done it.

 

[mayhem]

linky please since this defo of interest to me.

 

[mayhem]

its oky i got all the detail and you can for get it....

£750 for the parts ... rip off.

To build you self you looking at £200 for electronics and ppl produce the plastic's for about £200 to £350. (so even building you self your looking at £400 to £550)

Printing costs are expensive as well. a simple mug will set you back £25+ in plastic alone for melting. (not inc ! ups)

unless your producing some thing that is needed and will cost more to by then its not worth having one just yet. not for home use any way. Ppl are on Rev 3 as i thought and the site is well out of date. From a little research ppl are all ready modding / improving to version 4.

 

[noobieocer]

unless your producing some thing that is needed and will cost more to by then its not worth having one just yet. not for home use any way. Ppl are on Rev 3 as i thought and the site is well out of date. From a little research ppl are all ready modding / improving to version 4.

wait i thought theres only version 1 and making version 2? wheres version 3 and 4 came from lol

 

[mayhem]

this is the links for version 3. version 4 is being worked on now ...

http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=65&Itemid=100006