Apologies in advance for cross-posting this from the makerbot forums.
I just want to get this disseminated as much as possible as it takes a
certain "critical-mass" to make it successful.

I also realize the reprap community and forums are pretty well organized, but unless they incorporate all other 3D printer topics it is just a small branch of what could be a much larger community.

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It seemed to me that there was really a big lack of a "centralized" 3D
Printer community and forum. I'm sorry but wikis and google groups
just don't cut it. Upon request, cnczone.com has graciously added
forums for 3d printers.

[www.cnczone.com]

If you have not seen cnczone before, you should really check it out,
lot's of cool DIY CNC stuff. I do not think it will replace or detract
from the current makerbot forums, but will hopefully provide a single
point of reference for all 3D printer projects and allow for greater
cross-pollination of ideas. Just look at the 80/20 based CNC router
designs as an example of what we could incorporate into the 3D
printing world.

What do you all think?

I like cnczone.com it has lots of helpful technical info. it also has a lot of knowledge on emc2/mach3 that i do not think this community is ready to receive as of yet. that may change if we get some hefty cpu power machines running linux based firmware (emc2) and that is just my guess where it may head . I would ask around bit more and maybe chat with the admins of this site.

a thing that this community does have is knowledge along the same path. they are passionate about there electronics, and are at the point of only accepting designs that are printed from a 3d printer that is open sourced. so support on this site is specialized around electronics, and around printed parts and printers that make those parts.

An area i would like to see more focused and to the front is for those doing bootstraps. boot ups to make a 3d printer. the cost advantage there leans more towards a machine with emc2/mach3. Also read up on mendel, gen3 electronics.

I hope i summed it up ok,


thx.