RepRap Manual

I have some experience in writing manuals for technical products.

If I take the time to write a reprap manual, with all the hard won knowledge I now have, but also all the hard won knowledge of all those that have gone before which is peppered all over the place.

a) would you buy it ?
b) should I sell it ?
c) would you object to me doing that ?
d) what should I do with the profits ?

When I started out there was no manual I could read, no "reprap for dummies book", there's a few "how to's", and there's a bit of troubleshooting around,
but if I actually wrote a book that noobs could buy, what would you think ?

that's it, I just wanted to ask before I started, incase I shouldn't start at all.

of course, it may exist, I may just not have come across it ?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/2013 01:56PM by DaveS.

... a really 'complete' book could be an impossible task for all the possible sometimes totally different combinations of types/mechanics, firmwares and host-softwares on the computer

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]

As Viktor points out, "RepRap" is a pretty broad descriptor... Exactly what kind of RepRap would your manual cover? There are already manuals available for many popular machines:

RepRap - Building Your Own 3D Printer by Steven Devijver
Prusa Mendel Visual Instructions by Gary Hodgson
Mendel90 Build Manual on the Wiki

There are books on Amazon like "Practical 3D Printers: The Science and Art of 3D Printing" by Brian Evans, and supposedly Josef Prusa is writing a book too.

I don't think anyone will try to stop you from writing a RepRap manual and offering it for sale, provided you don't represent it as any sort of "official" document.

But you should have a good answer to these questions:

What will set my book apart from what is already out there?
How do I know my book won't be obsolete by the time it is published?

I think the problem with writing a book (manual) about reprap is that it would be outdated soon after release. It's like trying to hit a moving target as the technology chances almost daily.

If anything maybe right something non descriptive like what type of designs work best for printing, what are the types of printers out there, how certain settings affect parts, how to finish parts (sand, vapor bath, paint...).

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As tmorris9 says, it will be outdated before it is printed, but that doesn't mean that a printed manual isn't a good idea. Until user manuals and other referrence books can be presented directly to the retina, ear or even straight into the brain, and the reader is equipped with a full set of memes to enable them to use the information, paper books will be a good idea. A Wiki is a great idea, but needs hyperlinks and nobody has done working hyperlinks on paper yet.

A good book on a subject like building a RepRap can be done though. In the British aircraft industry during and after WW2, instructions on building and maintaining aircraft had to be put together and then updated almost on a daily basis - and it positively had to be got right. The method was to divide up with an eye to the virtual certainty that there would be changes. The index had to refer to Book, Volume, Chapter, Section, Subsection, subsubsection etc.. - that way the replacement of a single page with many pages wouldn't get the index out of sequence.

So that's my suggestion of how to do it. The book would be sold as a binder and a pack of loose leaves in a shrink wrapped selophane sleeve, possibly with a pack up updates that didn't make the cut. A Wiki to match the book would allow contributions from the peer group - although it wouldn't be as smooth a Wiki as most so that it could directly be used to print the book. Users could print the book directly for themselves but anybody other than the publisher who did it for commercial gain would be met with the usual lawsuits, kneecapping etc..

Mike