Tag Archives: sale

Every Body Needs a Skull

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Delicious brains

Delicious brains

Is there anyone out there who built their own Polargraph, but does not have a plastic case for it?1

In designing my own I’ve got two perfectly serviceable cases that I’m not going to use.

Each case fits Sandy Noble’s PolargraphSD which consists of an Arduino Mega 256 clone plus an LCD touch screen and his custom shield for running the drawing robot.  I’m also going to be taking my current Arduino Uno plus Adafruit Motor Shield powered drawing robot apart.  When I do I will have another plastic case.

If interested, please drop me a line.

Oh, what’s with the skull and brains?  Well, if you have a robotic brain, wouldn’t a nifty plastic skull go nicely with it?

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  1. Photo courtesy of chotda [↩]

Unbelievable deal on Cupcake CNC’s

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Apparently MakerBot is getting ready to launch a new 3D printer and is putting their Cupcake CNC’s on sale.  I’ve had an absolute blast with my MakerBot over the last nine months.  I bought the Deluxe Kit for $950.  With shipping and taxes it came to just over $1,000.  I haven’t confirmed it with MakerBot, but it looks like their new Cupcake Starter kit is the same thing as their Deluxe kit except it doesn’t have the extra 5 pounds of plastic.  Sure, this kit doesn’t have the MK5 plastruder, heated build platform, or automated build platform – which means it’s basically identical to Cupcake kits sold a year ago.  Oh, and the Starter kit is only $650.

If you’ve been looking for an excuse to buy a 3D printer anyhow, this is your chance.  I don’t know what the new printer is, but $650 is a crazy deal for a kit with everything you need.1

  1. Yes, I now write for the MakerBot blog, but all I really do is post what I would have written here anyhow over on their blog.  I don’t get kickbacks or anything for saying how awesome I think this deal is. [↩]

A complete-ish RepRap sold

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A few days ago I posted about a RepRap Mendel for sale on eBay with all electronics, motors, belts, etc fully assembled. 1  The auction (for a set sold in Ireland) settled at 760.00 Euros or about $1,017.18 USD.

Frankly, I would have thought it would have sold for more.  Printed parts are still selling in the $300-$450 range, electronics clocking in at $250 or so, bearings at $50, and all the other bits probably costing another $100 for belts, rods, nuts, bolts.  This means just the materials would cost $700 – $800.  Then there’s the delay and extra expense of sourcing all of the parts for yourself.

Interestingly, I had thought the bottom had fallen out of the RepRap printed parts eBay market.  However, a set of printed Mendel parts just sold on eBay for $455 on April 5.  I suspect the difference is that these parts are being generated and sold in the US which makes for an easier and slightly cheaper transaction

  1. To be fair, the seller mentioned it would require some adjustment to start printing. [↩]

Full RepRap for sale

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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? [↩]

Fair wages for Robots!

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Several hours ago I posted about two eBay auctions for full sets of Mendel printed parts.  I just checked on them to check out where the two auctions ended.  One ended at $446 (actually, at 330 Euros, for a seller located in Ireland) and the other at $455 (seller located in Ohio).

Why, then, would an auction just two days ago go for $630 (rather, 420 pounds)?  A sale at 420 pounds implies someone else was willing to bid 415 pounds.  I’m guessing it’s a combination of factors that went into a $600+ sale – perhaps because the English really want RepRaps, people wanted to support Adrian Bowyer, anyone who bought RepRap parts from Adrian himself can basically be assured they’re getting quality parts.

This tells me $450 seems to be the going rate for a set of Mendel parts (for now).  This raises an interesting conundrum.  Will the prices go up as more people become interested in RepRap?  Will the prices go down as people start printing and making available more RepRap parts?

Either way, suppose the going rate is $450 for 60 ‘bot hours.  That’s $7.50 an hour.  This is less than the minimum wage in California!1  This means if human help is required at all in the production of RepRap parts, the entire process is taking longer than 60 hours and the hourly rate is even lower than $7.50/hour!

I’m not saying RepRap parts should cost more.  I’m just saying I was really getting used to the idea of a gnome sitting in my living room earning above minimum wage while I slept.

Oh well, I guess I’ll just have to take solace in running a robot sweat shop.

  1. $8/hour right now [↩]