The primary costs of the reprap are not the printed plastic components which could be injection molded in bulk.(who has CNC mill time to donate? I'll write the code)

The primary barrier to entry is still the electronics cost, and the metal vitamins. I have a printout pie chart on the whole thing, and most people who want a reprap are stalled on the cheapest part: the printed plastic.

So I see two issues: how can the vitamin cost be reduced, and more importantly: who can donate the laser time to fabricating makerbot frames, or the mill time to mendel molds?

A third alternative would be a stamped sheet metal die and cutter for a makerbot style body. If the design were optimized for sheet metal: the makerbot could be a viable comercial product at toys'r'us.

None of the focuses people are currently working on seem most or least important, however my priority is to reduce the cost of the XYZ frame and extruder head to where CNC mills can be repstrapped for a song, and the XYZ frame can be fabricated without a reprap to start with. That transitional "missing link" may conflict with the goal of self-replicating, however it is an important stop gap in the developement of self-replicating tech.

No matter how you look at it: We must reduce the price point to the $100-$300 range if we want explosive growth in the development community. All other design problems would be solved by the resulting abundance of labor.

The two strategies to this are a clean slate re-design for a barebones 3d printer which requires minimum equipment, or design optimization and production tooling for mass production.

My preference is for both to be tackled simultaneously, and although I have some time to dedicate to mold work for the mendel, I'd rather focus my energy on the clean slate as the injection molds would become antiques in short order.

I propose that such a mass produced reprap be named "Macbeth" or "Oedipus." as it's own children will kill it off.

How many total Darwins ever existed? It takes hundreds to justify injection molding.

The real barrier has always been the RP parts. If someone reallys wants one of these printers they either make a mcwire, knowing that it's a complicated and technically challenging project, purchase a Makerbot/BfB, or try to create something new.

At this point the majority of the RepRap based printers in the world are repstraps. I would LOVE to know how many total RP based RepRaps are in existance.

My guess, less than 100.

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repraplogphase.blogspot.com

@JohnnyCooper

I just don't agree and what I have seen from my perspective here in the states doesn't line up. Makerbot literally can't make enough units at the $950 price point, clearly there is market demand here at that price point. For me the electronics were the easiest part, point, click, credit card, 5 days later they were here ready to go. If they had already assembled machines (I don't think they can for legal reasons) with no wait and were charging $1,200-$1,500 I sincerely doubt they could keep them in stock.

The printed parts are what seem to be unobtanium, no one has even been able to mail me temporarily an extruder carriage to start molding on. Also printed parts represent the amortized cost of the machine used to print them (another reprap, cupcake, etc) so I am at a point where I view them as a huge lag on this project (others clearly disagree with my position). If I really want a set of printed parts I can give maker bot $950, wait a month and a half, and spend a week or more of my time printing them. I can't possibly express how wrong-headed that seems to me.

Eventually I do think price point is an issue, right now at least here in the US there are still more than enough people comfortable with a $700-1000 I would rather get devices in their hands to start. Then they can start printing off cheaper machines...

I am certainly on board with your enthusiasm to get the parts manufacture going. I don't even think we need to go as far as metal toolings for manufacture, When I did some estimation for having toolings made for the mendel I could not figure out how to get under about $38,000, there are tons of parts none of which had any consideration given to mass manufacture.

If someone can get me some parts I will make molds and document that process for others and return the parts (or even X2). There will be some drilling and finishing necessary but a lot could be duped off from one set of molds.

I haven't given up on reprap yet but I am starting R&D on another project and whichever starts printing the stuff I actually need first is the winner. I will be trying a rack and pinion setup on my mcwire, we will see how it goes, probably this weekend.