I'm excited today that my computer science degree I am working towards might have given me my first big help with my myog addiction.

Talking to some classmates today, one mentioned this open source 3D printer called the RepRap. Since it is open source, the software as well as the designs for the machine itself are freely available on the internet. This machine is meant to be used as a rapid prototyper for plastic parts and as an experiment in self replicating machines.

Here's a link to the wiki page http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page

This caught my attention because I know within the last couple of weeks people were talking about starting a group purchase for the lineloc buckles that are on some packs now and the minimum order was somewhere around 2000 (possibly double that because you had to buy both the buckle and the latch separately I think).

From what I can tell, this machine can be built for under $1000 depending on if you buy it unassembled or not, and about half of the machine is made from plastic, so you can make more copies of the machines once you build one. It seems to me that for the collective price of buying that large order of custom parts, we could simply buy a machine and start producing copies of it. Then we would be able to make any plastic parts our imaginations could dream of. Of course, it is open source so problems may exist, but I haven't found many mentions of that yet. I just thought the connection between this technology and the MYOG community here was worth mentioning.

I'd be really interested to know if anyone has ever worked with something like this or has any information on it at all.

nm

Edited by greg23 on 08/29/2011 11:05:18 MDT.

Chris,

I see you're in Athens. There may be a hacker space in Athens, but if not the next time you're in Atlanta, drop by Freeside. There you can see a few 3D printers in action. Not sure if they have a RepRap, but they have several models of 3D printers including some that were built in house by another 3D printer. Robots building robots building...