Reprap - self replicating, 3-D printer

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YouTube - RepRap http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iMhG4fWQnlE

RepRap is short for Replicating Rapid-prototyper. It is the practical self-copying 3D printer shown on the right - a self-replicating machine. This 3D printer builds the parts up in layers of plastic. This technology already exists, but the cheapest commercial machine would cost you about €30,000. And it isn't even designed so that it can make itself. So what the RepRap 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).

 

On the page linked above they show pictures of a parent machine with a child machine, meaning one 3-d printer printed out the parts for the second one. Pretty neat stuff.

 

 

Here is a time-lapsed video of the first machine being assembled:

YouTube - Building RepRap 1.0 "Darwin" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mo5Hp_6uD-E

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Very, very cool!