The RepRap project has been working on bringing 3D printing to the masses by creating a extrusion printer that can also make the majority of its own parts. For the most part, these print ABS or HDPE plastics which are strong and recyclable. In order to create these replicating printers, similar machines called RepStraps are built out of either laser-cut parts or machined elements. They are functionally equivalent to RepRap printers, but are not made of printed parts. [nophead] documented his RepStrap, HydraRaptor, that is based off a milling machine. He had already printed a set of RepRap parts, and he documented printing a second set. The machine worked for about 100 hours over the course of 2 weeks, printing about 1.5 kg of parts. He made a few adjustments, such as replacing ABS bearings with HDPE to reduce friction. The parts are for Factor e Farm so they can get started with 3D printing.
Related: RepRap pinch wheel extruder
A real man can make all the parts on a vertical mill and a lathe. Therefore making sure there is a resistance to the robot overlords. Manual machinists are a dying breed but we will fashion the weapons to avenge the human race!
I’m not sure if anyone is still following this thread, but I figured I’d add my 2 cents. The negative crap posts here were started by Stunmonkey. If you check back here and on Makezine for other Reprap threads you’ll see that he’s just a common troll. All he does is parrot the same negativity and use ad-hominim attackes like his “repcrap” nickname. He takes a concept that Reprap developers have stated as one of their their, long-term, end goals (complete self replication) and pretends that everyone is claiming it does it now.
As for the emotionally unbalance posters, with anger management issues, that decided to try to turn this discussion into a, rambling, referendum against socialized medicine, please remind me what that has to do with Reprap or, even, Hack-a-Day in general? Even if many of the people involved with the Reprap project tend to express what you feel is a “Liberal” viewpoint, nothing I’ve ever seen on the Reprap site, or in any of the news pieces on the project, ever references socialized medicine in any way. Perhaps you need to re-asses your obsession with the issue, and willingness to impose your aggression against it in inappropriate forums, and seek professional help do deal with it.
Which company is working is working on this technology.
Thanks
http://www.iyogi.co.uk
Speaking for myself alone I have to say this discussion has been an astonishing display. With some credible theoretical basis for both extremes cheering or jeering at RP itself-let alone any one machine. And often the shrill whingings are centering on points way out of scope for the RepRap dialogs… So it seems doomed to de-evolve into more of what we have seen so far. A parade of the clueless competing for a “who’s the most uncouth” in expressing their lack of clues… And folks- that’s my being kindly gentle!
So? Let’s be fraking real eh? TANSTAAFL is one unalterable invariant. The related seeming invariant is some human natures.
“When you only have a hammer- everything resembles a nail.” But do we have to be unhackerlike and swallow that hoary old meme unchallenged?
I openly challenge the posters on this thread to a different sort of challenge. Can any of us do better than the RepRap while staying in it’s parameters overall? It’s ironic that the mass of comments on a device arguably called a “Constructor” are tending to be derogatory
I read the comment above, about “a reprap in every slum”. I live in Brazil, a country with lots of slums. And believe me, people there need simpler things, like sanitation, health care, electric light. And above all, they need Education and jobs.
What can I do with your academic proof-of-concept? Print plastic cups, cloth hangers? People here can buy these things in the streets for cents. And the life of these people just don’t change for that.
Face it: reprap is just a toy. You won’t change the world printing plastic crap. Sorry about that.
BTW, is 3d printing a promising technology? Yes. For prototyping, testing and mold-making. A great tool for industrial and product designers. I use 3d printing and CNC milling in my work all the time.
But repeating this mantra of “revolution” about your tool, you are doing a bad service to this technology. You know it’s not the true.
akhenathon, You seem to have a very limited view of the reprap’s capabilities, and seem to think that the design will not improve. Let’s assume just a little more development comes along and we get to the Mk3:
Sanitation: No, you don’t print sewers, you don’t print holes to shit in. But RepRap can print plumbing fittings, and these cost a lot more than pipe.
Health care: RepRap already prints water filters and simple laboratory equipment. It can print devices to make antiseptic and water purification chemicals from salt. It can print and operate small analytical machines for diagnosing illness and we hope to be able to get it to synthesise pharmaceuticals. It provides a whole new way of open sourcing healthcare.
Electric light: We can print micro wind turbines, and I could probably fabricate a wet rechargable battery from common materials – RepRap’d parts can be redesigned to cope with whatever scrap materials are available. In a few years we’ll probably be able to manage enough chemistry to do solar cells and OLEDs.
You underestimate people in slums. They are creative – they have to be. They improvise, and find new ways to do things. They don’t look at a freebie and go “oh, what a pile of crap” they look at it as a resource and focus on what they can do with it rather than what they can’t. You should try the same thing once in a while.
All you haters are blind! This stuff is in an experimental phase of development. Look at recent history, you donks. When Steve Jobs and Bill Gates were building boxes with little blinky lights there were myopic haters saying that computers were stupid and useless too. Haters are always wrong. history has proven this over and over.
^^^ WITH YOU CYBORG!
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