Have we reached the bottom already?

Having reached the bottom of a market can actually be a very good thing.  It means anyone who wants a set of RepRap parts can have them for as little as the market will bear.  Right now there are lots of options for someone who wants to get involved in building a RepRap/RepStrap.  You can get a MakerBot, RapMan, ShaperCube, Profound Devices, Isaac Mendel, or pick up a large selection of parts on eBay.

As an owner of a MakerBot, I’m far more likely to want to print up my own RepRap parts than buy them.  However, each of Spacexula‘s Mendel print sets would probably take me 2-3 hours of print time plus about 15 minutes of human intervention/monitoring.1  I would of course also print up parts for any friends/family who wanted parts. 2  I’d be willing to do this to create my own Mendel, but the idea of spending three weeks3 , say $30 in plastic4 , and about six broken up over that three weeks fiddling with stuff5 makes me wonder if there’s a better way to make $300.00.

Setting that aside, I wonder where the bottom of the RepRap parts market is heading?  Spacexula has suggested around $250 or so based upon the price for lasercut parts.  I suspect the price of printed parts will always be higher than the price for lasercut or molded parts – because of the time involved.  Lasercut parts can be cranked out as quickly  as a lasercan cut. 6  Molded parts can be churned out as quickly as the poured material can be dried.  Plus, no matter how nice lasercut/molded parts are – you still have a RepStrap, not a true RepRap.  Assuming identical quality, I’m probably always going to be more interested in printed parts over alternatives.

  1. Such as setting up, warming up, untangling plastic, checking, peeling off, etc. [↩]
  2. At this point, this is purely theoretical/hypothetical since none of my family/friends are interested in their own RepRap.  Hmm…  Maybe I should talk about RepRap MORE??? [↩]
  3. A little over one sheet a day [↩]
  4. I haven’t weighed a sheet of Mendel parts, so this is pure conjecture. [↩]
  5. Assuming no extruder clogs, blocks, PTFE bulging, oozing down the threads, and problem free printing… [↩]
  6. How many phasers could a laser slice if a laser could slice phasers? [↩]

$100 CNC mill?

I caught sight of this through Spacexula‘s RepRap Aggregator Feed – a $100 open source CNC mill.  I was just thinking the other day how cool it would be to have an additive and subtractive CNC machine sitting next to one another.

But, $100?!  It’s like someone would be paying me to build the thing.

I actually felt sorry for that bastard

Edit: Jeff – Just in case you read this – I do not really think you are a bastard.  I follow your blog and am very appreciative of your in depth posts and analysis on all things MakerBot/RepRap.  The title is more about me feeling like a sucker than a commentary about you.

Jeff posted about totally abandoning his dreams of building a RepRap Mendel.  He said what pushed him over the edge was the constant question, “So, what are you going to build with it?”  Of course, the guy had to post this on 4/1.

I actually felt sad at the thought of him turning his parts into a “melted sculpture of failure.”

I suppose it’s not his fault.  I traded my MakerBot for some magic beans yesterday.

Full RepRap for sale

A complete1 Mendel for sale?  That’s incredible!

There has been a truly amazing progression2 in RepRap parts lately.  While I’m not crazy about eBay as a way of selling3 , it’s a very democratic4 way of disseminating RepRap parts.  The first few parts and sets of parts were all printed, then molded, now MOLDS are for sale?!

Yes, the Platonic ideal of RepRap is that a machine makes the components of the next machine.  But, is it not also part of the RepRap ideal that these machines be disseminated as far and as widely as possible?  It’s really great you can use a RepRap to build another – but that doesn’t mean it’s the best/most economical way.

These RepRap mold are advertised to be good for roughly 50 pourings.  It is advertised to create 9 vertexes at once, but they all appear to be 1/2 vertexes.  The posting also suggests it takes 12 vertexes for a full RepRap.  So:

  • 12 vertexes per RepRap / 0.5 vertexes halves = 24 vertex halves required
  • 24 vertex halves required /9 vertex halves per sheet = 2.67 sheet uses per RepRap
  • 50 uses per sheet / 2.67 uses per sheet = 18.75 sets of RepRap vertexes

Admittedly, this is only a set of molds for the frame vertexes, not the entire set of parts.  However, it’s really only a matter of time before a set is up for grabs.

This makes me wonder – is there a different market value to printed parts rather than molded parts?

  1. ish [↩]
  2. transmission?? [↩]
  3. having sold things on eBay myself [↩]
  4. fair? capitalistic? [↩]

Significantly less disgusting than friendship bread

So-called “friendship bread” is a ball of dough you cultivate, add ingredients, split off some of the dough, give away some of the dough, make bread, and keep a little bit around to cultivate for the next batch.  Whoever gets some of the dough then does the same.  I guess the idea is there is some sort of continuity between all these loaves of bread everywhere though (oh dear god forgive me for saying this) time and space.1

Whenever I think about friendship bread I throw up a little bit in my mouth.

What I find far more interesting…  is the idea that someone could have a RepRap where every plastic part came from a different machine.

  1. I don’t profess to be an expert on friendship bread.  I could have some of the finer points wrong. [↩]

If wishes were fishes…

…we’d all cast nets.

There certainly seems to be enough people wishing for RepRap/RepStrap parts.  RepRap forums, MakerBot Facebook  page, and various other forums/pages have a lot of posts from people asking for RepRap parts or expressing a desire for the fundage for parts or kits or promising some sort of exchange of goods (at least one offer of “services”) for parts/kits.

I wonder how many people out there want a set of Mendel parts.  I also wonder how many people out there want sets of electronics.  Now I wonder just how many RepStraps there would be in the world today if everyone who wanted one had one…

Seems like only yesterday

While searching up a link to the eD’s first sketch for the Mendel I realized that post is about a year and a half old.  That made me wonder how long I’ve been interested in the RepRap projected.  I first read about it in a SlashDot article back in April 2008.  I remember thinking that a DIY level 3d printer was just a fantasy.

Now, I’ve got one sitting in the next room and objected printed with it all throughout my home.  (Several window latches, a sugar packet holder, various little toys, etc).

What’s even funnier is realizing that I’ve been boring my friends and family with RepRap talk for more than a year and a half as I enthusiastically gushed about the possibilities of printing ANYTHING on a homemade printer than can make copies of itself.

Enney Meaney

It occurred to me today that a lot of people are using their RepStraps to build Mendel parts.  Then I wondered, “How many Mendels are in operation now, anyhow?”

I would guess a dozen or so – with far more on the way.  What I find interesting is the seemingly large proliferation of Mendels (or, at the very least, blogs about Mendel parts and construction) versus the dissemination of Darwins within the prior year.

If this is the case (and I really have no evidence of this, just my impressions), is it something about the RepRap project that has suddenly taken hold?  Something about the Mendel over the Darwin?  Is it the increased RepRap documentation, more YouTube/Vimeo videos?  Is it the availability of parts on eBay, plastic/resin parts from molds, or something else?  Is it MakerBot?  Thingiverse?  Facebook, Twitter, MakerFaires, or MakerTweetBook?  More mainstream coverage in the media?  Was is health care reform, killer bees, or the loss of the Mars rover?  Is it subliminal messages embedded in the MakerBot website?  Have we been plugged into the Matrix?!?!

I know someone is going to say “a combination of these things” – but really, if you had to pick one thing, what would you say it is? 1

  1. P.S. I’m voting for the killer bees. [↩]