Build your own 3D printer
Thursday, July 30th, 2009
3D printer’s is a pretty expensive gadget and I don’t think many home users has one one their desk, but now the open source project Reprap has created a 3D printer you can buy in a kit and build for as low as 500$ and best part is that when you have build it, you can use it to print a copy of itself.
3D printing is not a new invention it has been around for 30 years and over the year they have been cheaper but they still easily cost over 40.000$. 3D printing is used in companies to print prototypes as a part of the development process.
Reprap is probably the first 3D printer that has been targeting home users, at first it will mostly be for play but in the long run it can be used for printing plastic thing you need in the general around the house, for example you can print a missing battery cover for your remote control or some plastic spare part for the kids toys. The plastic is pretty solid so the possibilities are endless.
The Reprap team is working on a version 2 that also would be able to print electronic circuits to make the 3D printer able to print more of its own parts, the release Reprap can print about 50% of its part now witch will increase on the new version.
