Just a thought (Noob alert!!!)

Has anyone ever considered 'adapting' a RepRap style of machine into becoming something close to a CNC milling machine?
Everything I've seen here thus far (and remember, I am VERY new to the forum) seems to involve deposition of a platsic to progressively build up to a target.
While it's not TOTALLY straightforward, I believe it'd be possible to extend the basic concepts to make a destructive machine. (i.e. Build an elephant by removing anything that's not 'part of an elephant').

Existing reprap hardware appears to have three primary 'degrees of freedom' (X, Y and Z).
I'd envisage adding at least two more of a 'circular nature' rather than the existing 'linear'
1: An ability to 'rotate' the bed thru 360 degrees
2: An ability to 'rotate' the 'print head' (which would be a milling tool) through a 180 degree arc (or perhaps the ability to 'titl' the bed through a simlar arc).
Obviously, the intended 'target' would probably need to be firmly attached to the table before starting (especially if the table was a 'tilt mode' table).

Anyway, it's all just a THOUGHT for now.
I've got to START by crawling before I try running!!! Hopefully, I'll be squirting some plastic in the next few months!

(I'll also 'troll' the forums to determine who else has considered such a significant adaptation)

You have missed tho whole point.

3d printing is additive,. Ie no waste (well very little)
vs subtractive, where 90% of material could be thrown away.

You just want a 5 axis cnc mill.

But in the 3d printing world, there are people working on adding more axis, so they can print anything without having to worry about overhangs and support etc... But its in its infancy. generating 5 axis gcode is much harder than 3, you have to know the dimentions of the extruder so it doesnt wipe out one thing while trying to print another.

Also short version of CNC vs reprap. CNC requires strong expensive drive screws, Reprap wants cheap belts for speed.
Only one printer so far has drive screws, [trinitylabs.com] and they are planning some light milling addon (last I heard)

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2013 02:56AM by Dust.

I completely agree that what I was describing was far closer to a 5-axis CNC mill than to a standard Reprap.
And I also completely understand the difference between additive printing and subtractive.
So yeah, I _do_ (to use your words) 'get the point' of the whole reprap project, and I'm still VERY interested in building one (and then rebuilding it MANY times with 'tweaks' in a classic DIY fashion).

Put simply, I'm just not going to be satisfied ending up with something that 'everyone else has'. (OK, I've exaggerated a WEE bit there... LOL).
It's entirely plausible that I might end up with something totally 'foreign' to the Reprap community, and I'm perfectly happy with that IF that's what transpires. There's nobody but ME that will inhibit me from morphing the beast into whatever I desire.

Having said all that, I have a HUGE amount to learn first, so it's quite logical for me to start off with something that's a little more 'traditional' so-to-speak before I allow 'the MacGyver' in me take control. (i.e. Crawl, THEN walk, THEN run). Where it all ends up is anybodys guess. Heck, it might end up 'morphing' into some grotesque autonomous model car...
That's all a LONG way down the proverbial track though. My post was merely 'musing out loud'. Perhaps I should keep such 'musing' to myself in future if that's considered 'poor netiquette' on this forum?

Oh BTW, I'm still VERY interested in your 'vitamins' and frame for the Mendel i3, so if I've not offended you too badly, just let me know...

Its just a discussion. Discussion is good, it leads to new ideas (insane and orther wise )

It is an interesting crossover. A disscussion I have had with some friends, goes like this. A CNC makes a good reprap but it is a little slow, a reprap can do milling but the belts limit it's power to cut away material. So then you could add laser cutting as well. Maybe a universal machine. The compromises seem to mean that something that will do all will either be compromised or expensive. I'm playing with a Shapeoko at the moment. The CNC community does not seem to be as advanced as the reprap community in terms of software. But that is just a personal observation, I never liked DOS much and CNC milling still seems to be in that place.