The MakeSlide Project. Type A Machines. Your first 3d printer. RepRapWiki. TEDxEWB Talk: Adrian Bowyer at Imperial College, London, introduces RepRap RepRap is humanity's first general-purpose self-replicating manufacturing machine.
RepRap takes the form of a free desktop 3D printer capable of printing plastic objects. Solid freeform fabrication: DIY, on the cheap, and made of pure sugar. In February we gave a sneak preview of our project to construct a home-built three dimensional fabricator.
Our design goals were (1) a low cost design leveraging recycled components (2) large printable volume emphasized over high resolution, and (3) ability to use low-cost printing media including granulated sugar. We are extremely pleased to be able to report that it has been a success: Our three dimensional fabricator is now fully operational and we have used it to print several large, low-resolution, objects out of pure sugar. The general idea of our build process– that of stacking solid two-dimensional printed layers– is actually common to most solid freeform fabrication methods. Our machine employs what we believe is a fairly novel low-cost technology to accomplish this: selective hot air sintering and melting (SHASAM). The printing process begins with a bed of a granular printing media that has a fairly low melting point. Www.x-object.com.