Saturday, January 22, 2011

3d Printer?

So I'm come across an interesting site.

www.reprap.com

It is an open source community that is dedicated to building 'self-replicating machines'. Essentially, create a 3d printer with parts that can be created by that 3d printer to in effect be able to replicate itself. This will give the ordinary person a 'factory' in their own household (using thermoplastic extrusion) that they can then make another 'factory'. This can be exponentially branched out which will let more people have a factory and keep everything cost efficient.

Looking at the information, the 'hardest' part of this project is essentially the extruder part. What it does is take a spool of 'PLA' plastic (thermoplastic), heat it up and spread it layer by layer according to a design to make something. Looking at the videos on the site makes everything look amazing. Especially since a lot of their videos show them making the parts for the next 3d printer and some of those parts are complex.

I intend to create my own reprap. It will be made using wood (or even 'Cheese Plastic"), threaded metal rods, stepper motors and an arduino (for the computer interface). It will have a cmd line front end that will allow you to choose a folder of images (so even people without 3d designing software can create items).

We will have to see what happens.
It could just be another one of my 'wishes' but if things work out, could be really cool.

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