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Hm this article is very light on details. I remember hearing about the RepRap ~15 years ago: https://reprap.org/wiki/RepRap https://reprap.org/wiki/RepRap It

by chubot 5y ago

Hm this article is very light on details. I remember hearing about the RepRap ~15 years ago: https://reprap.org/wiki/RepRap https://reprap.org/wiki/RepRap It's an open source project to make a 3D printer that prints itself. I thought it was a very cool idea, but I haven't heard anything about it in 10 years. The home page has a video from 2010, which makes me think the project is dormant. I'd be interested in updates from people who have followed more closely. It looks like the article didn't mention any recent progress on ANY self-replicating machine project? It does feel like people get overexcited about downsides before anything actually works.

tbrownaw 5y ago
That's from when 3d printing had the same sort of, er, enthusiasm that Blockchain (and isn't it interesting that my phone decided that needed to be capitalized) has more recently. Proponents insisting that or was going to fundamentally change the world and all that.
- fragmede 5y ago
  More recently? Bitcoin's initial release was 12 years ago, which isn't too far off from when 3D printing first started hitting the scene. 3D printing has changed the world, but because there's an expensive printer to get access to, vs Bitcoin's accessibility as pure software (you don't need to buy mining hardware up get into Bitcoin) means its reach has been limited to the corners of the world that has them.
marcosdumay 5y ago
Hum... You linked to the page of the original RepRap. Yeah, it was never too popular and everybody stopped using it long ago. People were replacing it since it was published. Last time I looked, the most popular RepRaps were variants of the Prusa i3 design (that one being more than 10 years old too). But there has been such a large explosion of designs some 5 or 6 years ago that it may be on the minority, even if it's the most popular one. Anyway, that wiki is full of great information that is perfectly applicable today. Just because the one design that gets the name of the project was improved into an unrecognizable format, it doesn't mean the idea died.
- chubot 5y ago
  OK but what's the best resource on what has happened / what progress has been made in the last 10-15 years? How are they better and what are the blocking issues?
  - marcosdumay 5y ago
    Oh, I've reread your comment, and you want progress on self-replicating. RepRap won't lead to a full self-replicating machine. It's by design. The focus on self-replicating is because the most a machine is able to build itself, the cheapest its parts will be. A 3D printer nowadays can print almost every non-commodity part of itself that isn't electronics or runs very hot. There's no progress for it to make on that dimension. It has successfully taken down the price of printers. What progress has been made on the last decades were about things like easiness of printing, printing speed, materials handling, printer size, print volume, quality of printing.

by chubot 5y ago

tbrownaw 5y ago

That's from when 3d printing had the same sort of, er, enthusiasm that Blockchain (and isn't it interesting that my phone decided that needed to be capitalized) has more recently. Proponents insisting that or was going to fundamentally change the world and all that.

fragmede 5y ago
More recently? Bitcoin's initial release was 12 years ago, which isn't too far off from when 3D printing first started hitting the scene. 3D printing has changed the world, but because there's an expensive printer to get access to, vs Bitcoin's accessibility as pure software (you don't need to buy mining hardware up get into Bitcoin) means its reach has been limited to the corners of the world that has them.

marcosdumay 5y ago

Hum... You linked to the page of the original RepRap. Yeah, it was never too popular and everybody stopped using it long ago. People were replacing it since it was published. Last time I looked, the most popular RepRaps were variants of the Prusa i3 design (that one being more than 10 years old too). But there has been such a large explosion of designs some 5 or 6 years ago that it may be on the minority, even if it's the most popular one. Anyway, that wiki is full of great information that is perfectly applicable today. Just because the one design that gets the name of the project was improved into an unrecognizable format, it doesn't mean the idea died.

chubot 5y ago
OK but what's the best resource on what has happened / what progress has been made in the last 10-15 years? How are they better and what are the blocking issues?
- marcosdumay 5y ago
  Oh, I've reread your comment, and you want progress on self-replicating. RepRap won't lead to a full self-replicating machine. It's by design. The focus on self-replicating is because the most a machine is able to build itself, the cheapest its parts will be. A 3D printer nowadays can print almost every non-commodity part of itself that isn't electronics or runs very hot. There's no progress for it to make on that dimension. It has successfully taken down the price of printers. What progress has been made on the last decades were about things like easiness of printing, printing speed, materials handling, printer size, print volume, quality of printing.