1. …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. [↩]