True RepRap'ing?

When I first learned about the concept of RepRap, I found it so cool and a bit freaky. I believe that's probably what most of people had as their first impression on RepRap. It's definitely a cool (and freaky) concept - 3D printer printing another 3D printer; 3D printer performing "reproduction"

As soon as I have decided to build one of my own and started looking into the material list for various versions of RepRap, I've realized that it's not really 100% reproductive - probably not even close to that.

This may be a good news for people who are concerned with machines taking over the world and killing all humans, but it was a bit of disappointment to me.

Also, I was thinking about how many parts and components can really be made (even at sub par quality) by a 3D printer. Well, electronics will be "near" impossible (I heard there are some conductive plastics, so who knows.. maybe we can build a controller, size of a garage, which can do the job out of plastic), motors will be definitely impossible unless someone figures out how to magnetize plastic, and the hot end can never be plastic. If it's hot enough to melt plastics, then it will melt the hot end made out of plastic...

As for the other structural parts, yes we can probably print the most of them, but things like smooth rod and threaded rod will be of really low quality, and also we won't be able to print anything bigger than the size of the platform... unless we print them in modules, which will add to the lower build quality...

I think it's the same case even for high end commercial/industrial 3D printers which does not use plastic extrusion. I am pretty sure there are some parts which can never be made with the same 3D printer whatever the printing technology it's using, and the chances are that non-printer part will be key piece of that particular printing technology - like the extruder hot end in our RepRap printers.

So basically, unless someone figures out how to make an extruder (well, it really won't be an "extruder") which can conjure up whatever material using the sub atomic matters extracted from the raw material (of whatever kind suitable for sub atomic matter extraction), then we can't really build 3D printers 100% out of 3D printers....


Well, I am sorry about boring everyone with a pointless topic, especially it's very likely that this has been talked about before.

I just don't feel like working today. LOL

Coils could replace the magnets in motors, but it would take more space and probably not be as strong. There are also 3D printed paste extruders, and I am sure there are conductive/semiconductive clays out there. The biggest problem would be the controllers. Anything that could be printed with current nozzle diameters would probably fill a room. We definately don't have to wory about them reproducing on their own at this point because we have to provide the materials, and if the controller is the size of a room it will take quite a bit of material.

You will not have true printer reproduction until such time as you get to the point of an open robot arm printing at the molecular level in one atmosphere using multiple materials. While each of these things have already happened separately, they will need to be integrated for the true ability for printers to self duplicate. As with all technologies, the first one will cost a bloody fortune, however in this case the second one should cost pennies, and should be able to be the first thing produced by the first one. Take this further, lets suppose this comes to pass, and the calibration print is a child copy. Do we see and end to hierarchical society, or grey goo? Certain items, such as commercial / military shipping will surely be printed at some point in the near future to avail their manufacture to exotic hybrids and embedded materials, extended chains, cross linking and the like. My current belief is that these will be initially built on gigantic multi headed Cartesian machines, keeping their manufacture under the auspices of industry and government, but when things like envelope and material considerations become things of the past, then those limits will go out the window. Imagine something like a small robot arm mounted on magnetic treads or any of a variety of different modes of locomotion, and set about to first reproduce myriad copies and variants of it self, then to take their collective marching orders from a master computer dispensing vectral coordinate instructions to all bots involved,(whose internal processors rasterize the information) running back and forth from work to a repository of raw material, building quite literally anything, leaving those "starship in a hundred years" guys to wonder what the heck just happened. Far fetched? So was powered human flight.....

Welcome to the club. I think we all went through the stages you are talking about. From awestruck to disillusioned to practical. But whether the percentage is 30% or 50% doesn't really matter. The fact that the printer enables you to print the difficult parts for another printer and then use off the shelf parts for the rest, really is a game changer. And for many of us the fact that it builds parts for itself is not necessarily the main point. We just want to make stuff with it. At some point the bleeding edge developers will have machines that do close to all the stuff you are talking about, with the exception of the hot end most likely. At which point I will print out a shot glass and drink a toast to them. Then I will go back to making stuff I'm interested in making. Most likely just plastic parts for my own projects.