My own plastic gnome

…or Minimum Wage Rights for Robots!

MakerBot posted a screenshot of a RepRap Printed Mendel Parts auction that sold for 420 pounds – roughly $630.84. 1  2  Others have been posting RepRap Mendel auctions as well.  One just sold for roughly $453, another for about $270, with two more auctions around $450 each with at least 3 more hours to go.

Using Spacexula’s Mendel production files, 24 STL sheets of parts, averaging 2-3 hours a print, we’re talking roughly 60 MakerBot print hours. 3  Assuming I only have the patience to print up one STL sheet a weekday and two sheets on the weekends, starting on a sunny Sunday like today, I could finish in 19 days.

Assuming very little human intervention, $600 for 60 hours of MakerBot operation is a pretty good deal.  It’s like having a fussy gnome who eats electricity and plastic living in your home and earning just above minimum wage for you. 4

  1. According to Google and at the time of this post. []
  2. I couldn’t find a link to the actual auction at first, but then figured it must be a private auction.  It turns out this was the RepRap eBay auction posted by Adrian Bowyer a little while ago.  You might need to be logged into eBay to visit that link. []
  3. This assumes no failed prints. []
  4. You know, like those shoe gnomes that made shoes for the cobbler in that children’s fairy tale. []

5 Responses to “My own plastic gnome”

  1. Bre says:

    Imagining a MakerBot as a gnome manufacturing things for you made me laugh out loud. I like that analogy!

  2. rodbotic says:

    I agree.

    does the gnome sit in the corner too?

  3. MakerBlock says:

    Don’t see why not. :)

  4. [...] with a specific focus on RepRap tech, I feel smarter!  Or, at least, more informed about why my fussy robot gnome can be so [...]

  5. [...] or two others would want to print them out if the designs were available. [↩]Or, perhaps a fussy gnome? [↩] by MakerBlock | Categories: Tinkering Dad | Tagged: comment, makerbot toy, poll, toy, [...]

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>