How MakerBot Industries can help RepRap even more

Some people have suggested MakerBot is somehow stealing thunder from the RepRap project. 1  Here’s a super simple way every MakerBot sold could, in a very small way, help the RepRap project.

Why not put a copy of every Mendel part as an STL on the SD card that comes with the MakerBot?  Actually, why not put Spacexula’s set of Mendel production STL’s?

This is a cheap and fast way to disseminate plans for RepRap files to people who are actually capable of making them.

  1. I totally disagree, but there you go. []

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? []

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.