FreeFormFab

CandyFab 4000: 3D Sugar Printer

Earlier we gave a sneak preview of our project to construct a home-built three dimensional fabricator. Our design goals were (1) a low cost design leveraging recycled components (2) large printable volume emphasized over high resolution, and (3) ability to use low-cost printing media including granulated sugar. We are extremely pleased to be able to report that it has been a success: Our three dimensional fabricator is now fully operational and we have used it to print several large, low-resolution, objects out of pure sugar. More about the Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories 3D Fabricator Project.

(One of the first objects made with the 3D sugar printer.)

Source: Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories

Oproep: Samen RepRap machines bouwen

Protospace in Utrecht start vanaf maandag 10 november met een groep die gezamelijk RepRap machines gaat bouwen. Zin om mee te doen? Mail dan even naar Erik de Bruijn of naar Siert van Protospace. Wel uiterlijk maandag 10 november even laten weten. En ook hier geldt hoe meer zielen hoe meer vreugd.

RepRap: Replicating Rapid-Prototyper

Look at your computer setup and imagine that you hooked up a 3D printer. Instead of printing on bits of paper this 3D printer makes real, robust, mechanical parts. To give you an idea of how robust, think Lego bricks and you’re in the right area. You could make lots of useful stuff, but interestingly you could also make most of the parts to make another 3D printer. That would be a machine that could copy itself.

RepRap is short for Replicating Rapid-Prototyper. It is the practical self-copying 3D printer, a self-replicating machine. This 3D printer builds the parts up in layers of plastic. So what theRepRap team are doing is to develop and to give away the designs for a much cheaper machine with the novel capability of being able to self-copy (material costs are about 500 euro). That way it’s accessible to small communities in the developing world as well as individuals in the developed world.

Following the principles of the Free Software Movement we are distributing the RepRap machine at no cost to everyone under the GNU General Public Licence. So, if you have a RepRap machine, you can make another and give it to a friend.

Source: RepRap