Maker Erik de Bruijn has already persuaded his RepRap 3D printer to produce parts for a “child” printer, as have others using the RepRap design. That’s one of the main objectives for the RepRap project: a self-replicating machine. This was first accomplished in mid-2008, as we reported then. On Friday Erik announced on Twitter… Continue reading RepRap Grandchild Produced
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$100K For a Better 3D Printer!
The Foresight institute has announced their version of the X-Prize, the Kartik M. Gada Humanitarian Innovation Prize. The idea is to award a hardworking team who can develop a drastically improved RepRap 3D printer design. There will be an interim award of USD$20,000 on December 31st, 2012 and a grand prize of USD$80,000 on December… Continue reading $100K For a Better 3D Printer!
The Tyee on 3D Printing
There’s a long article introducing 3D printing concepts appearing at The Tyee, a British Columbia-based electronic newsmagazine: “The Replicator, No Longer a Star Trek Dream”. The article contains interviews with Neil Gershenfeld, Director of MIT’s Center for Bits and Atoms, Adrian Bowyer, inventor of the RepRap, Fab Lab users, a RepRap owner, University of Missouri… Continue reading The Tyee on 3D Printing
The Homemade 3D Printer
Those new to the concept of 3D printing are often even more amazed to find out that it’s entirely possible to actually build a 3D printer yourself! It’s not particularly easy and you must have very reasonable hardware talent, but definitely possible. You’ll need to select a method of depositing print media from many… Continue reading The Homemade 3D Printer
3D Printing Market Still Growing
You might have noticed a slight financial crisis around you in recent months, but in spite of that, the 3D printing universe is still expanding, at least according to research done by nextgen. In their recent report, “3D Printing” on “Rapid Prototyping/Additive Fabrication/Solid Imaging via Stereolithography, Fused Deposition Modeling, Selective Laser Sintering and Inkjet Technologies”… Continue reading 3D Printing Market Still Growing
Purple Crayon
Today’s discovery is Purple Crayon, a startup company intending on producing an inexpensive consumer-oriented 3D printer. And that’s not all: An old school garage style startup, Purple Crayon is a new company dedicated to developing and selling consumer personal fabrication technologies. At its core the idea of personal fabrication is to provide anyone the… Continue reading Purple Crayon
The RapMan
We’ve seen several RepRap kits before, and here’s another low priced option. This one is specifically designed for educators. This fills a need for educators unable to afford the still-quite-expensive commercial 3D printers – because The RepMan is priced at only GB£750! The price breakthrough will permit a great many more schools to consider… Continue reading The RapMan
Two Routes to Low Cost
Fluid Forms poses an interesting question: how to obtain an inexpensive 3D printer. They correctly point out the two possible courses of action for obtaining inexpensive 3D printing solutions: Commercial units, such as the Desktop Factory and MCOR printers. Open Source hardware solutions such as RepRap, Fab@Home and the recently announced MakerBot The problem,… Continue reading Two Routes to Low Cost
The RepRap Symbiosis
Adrian Bowyer, the force behind the RepRap project, recently explained some of the thinking behind the idea grand idea of RepRap: Create a machine that can replicate itself. Bowyer writes: Life is the nearest thing to magic that this Universe can do, and – like everyone – I have always been delighted by the… Continue reading The RepRap Symbiosis
Oh, Really? RepRap Meets O’Reilly
Zach Smith of the RepRap Research Foundation is set to conduct a workshop at the O’Reilly ETech Emerging Technology Conference being held March 9-12 in San Jose, California. Zach’s session is scheduled for Monday the 9th in the afternoon, and his session abstract says: An exciting 3 hour workshop led by Zach Smith featuring… Continue reading Oh, Really? RepRap Meets O’Reilly
Wired Names 3D Printing as Top Story
Wired’s GeekDad blog published a list of their “Top 18 Geek News Stories” for 2008 and the first one on the list was the self-reproducing RepRap device, which occurred earlier in 2008. We suspect non-geek society doesn’t quite realize the importance of this event, as shortly after the reproductive event, the child parts were destroyed!… Continue reading Wired Names 3D Printing as Top Story
Dev Hardware on RepRap
DevHardware has a rather lengthy article talking about the current state of affairs in 3D printing in their article, “The Printer That Prints Itself”. The article describes Dr. Adrian Bowyer’s quest to reduce the cost of 3D printing from the many tens of thousands of dollars to levels affordable by hobbyists. His open source strategy… Continue reading Dev Hardware on RepRap
RepRap Video
This wonderful video by Kyle Ronan shows a home-built RepRap printer in action. RepRap is an open source project that intends on providing the design for an easy-to-build 3D printer that is capable of reproducing all the parts that it’s made from. And, it’s actually already done this! Still needs some assembly, however. Back to… Continue reading RepRap Video
RepRap Chicken and Egg: Solved?
RepRap, the project aimed to develop a 3D printer that can reproduce itself, has an obvious problem. Where do you get the first printer from, if you don’t have one to print itself? Yes, you could order a kit, or make it from plans. But there is now an easier way: using the Ponoko personal… Continue reading RepRap Chicken and Egg: Solved?
The Sarrus Linkage
Forest Higgs posts an interesting approach to a key problem in building a self-replicating 3D printer. This of course, is the main objective of the RepRap project. They’ve actually performed a replication already, but there are always ideas for improvement. That’s where the idea of a linkage comes in. As you might imagine, the 3D… Continue reading The Sarrus Linkage
What Supports 3D Printing?
We’re thinking not of financial matters here, but “matter matters”. Specifically, the issue of printing overhangs. A 3D printer deposits material layer by layer – and there’s kind of a major issue if there is nothing underneath the layer. Print media falls by gravity and your object doesn’t quite look like it should. Bad. The… Continue reading What Supports 3D Printing?
RepRap Child Destroyed!
Readers may recall the RepRap project recently hit a milestone: their machine was able to (mostly) reproduce itself. The resulting child was, of course, of great historical interest. It was taken to OSCON 2008 for show and tell, but apparently did not make it back: Instead of simply smacking the box around a few times… Continue reading RepRap Child Destroyed!
RepRap Reproduces
RepRap is an open project that provides a design for a home-built 3D Printer with a difference: the design is capable of printing itself. We’ve described RepRap before, but this time a significant milestone has been achieved: RepRap has actually reproduced! We have a picture of the results of the reproduction process from the RepRap… Continue reading RepRap Reproduces
3D Toys with Fabr
Many people are considering unique uses for and implications of 3D printing. Lou Amadio wants to be able to print toys for his four-year-old son, or at least create replacement components for those toys inevitably broken or lost by the youngster. Lou’s approach is a bit more extreme than many might consider: he’s not only… Continue reading 3D Toys with Fabr
Bowyer Raps on Rep-Rap
At Poptech 2007 Adrian Bowyer presented concepts of machine reproduction, focusing on the open source project, RepRap. Yes, that’s correct: machines replicating themselves. RepRap is an open project attempting to be the first “practical self-copying 3D printer”. In the 18 minute video Bowyer shows us a breakdown of the machine, including delineating which of its… Continue reading Bowyer Raps on Rep-Rap
Buy Your Own Fab – Today!
It’s getting dangerously close to that holiday season, and what better gift than your own fab? What, you don’t have $40,000 for a Z-Corp? Neither do we. Sure, we’ve heard about the DesktopFactory $5000 3D printer, but who’s seen them in the stores? Meanwhile, you could always build your own Fab@Home or RepRap 3D printer… Continue reading Buy Your Own Fab – Today!
Build Your Own Fab
I Make Things is publishing four videos of weekend projects that will lead you to building your own RepRap 3D printer. The first episode covers the electronics, and includes a short video explaining the basic components required and how to put them together. RepRap is an open source project for a 3D additive printer that… Continue reading Build Your Own Fab