| I know that this is the stated goal of the reprap, but it's practically impossible [1]. Now, if the goal was to build a factory that could build more factories, then sure. How do you build motors for the rep rap? How do you build the circuit board for the rep rap? How do you build a heating element for the rep rap? How do you build an extruder head than can withstand the heat required to liquify the material that it's made of? Don't get me wrong, I think that the rep rap is awesome (I carry a little gear that I printed on one at my local hackerspace around on my keychain so that I can tell people about how yes, we're living in star trek and yes, replicators are almost a reality), but it's nowhere even remotely close to being able to print itself, and likely never will be. I wish that makerbot got more attention. It's a much better, much more reliable printer. http://www.makerbot.com/ [1] - I want to clarify: I'm not saying that people shouldn't try things that are impossible, in fact my personal philosophy is basically the exact opposite of that (if something sounds impossible, do it). I just think it's important that budding hackers realize that the rep rap has an interesting goal but that the product itself is currently pretty sub-par when compared to other things that are available. If you've already got a makerbot or something like it, and you want to build a rep rap for fun, then I applaud you, but I definitely wouldn't look at it as an alternative to a "commercial" (if you consider makerbot commercial) alternative. |
This sounds vaguely like a Java library.