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As I wrote last time this topic came up http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=295880 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=295880 Building stuff is cool. Universa
by tjic 18y ago
As I wrote last time this topic came up http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=295880 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=295880
Building stuff is cool.
Universal machines / replicators are cool.
Early prototypes of things that will be better in a few generations are cool.
However, Fab@Home and RepRap are sad, and make me embarrassed for them.
I'm hugely interested in self replicating machinery, metalworking, and other forms of constructing items (I launched http://SmartFlix.com http://SmartFlix.com based on these interests).
...and I've done a fair bit of reading on RepRap (I was considering building one a year or so back).
I am dramatically underwhelmed.
The construction is shoddy, the technique (basically hot-glue extrusion of thermoplastics) is hackish and has poor tolerances, the concept of "self replication" is grossly dumbed down (a very very large number of parts are not constructed, even from high quality inputs, but just store bought), etc., etc.
In short, I was fairly embarrassed for the RepRap folks.
Their toy is somewhat cool (although nowhere near as cool as, say, the Gingery lathe that is cast from aluminum melted in a cast iron cookpot, and machines itself as construction progresses), but to claim that it represents any important step forward in self replication ... not so much.
- shader 18y agoI suppose it depends what you mean by poor tolerances. In the beginning their stuff was pretty bad, but recently it has gotten a lot better. Here's some pictures of stuff they made a few months ago (large): (jar and lid) http://tinyurl.com/6z2ha8 http://tinyurl.com/6z2ha8 (coat hook) http://tinyurl.com/5lkhcz http://tinyurl.com/5lkhcz (x carriage pieces) http://tinyurl.com/5uq88g http://tinyurl.com/5uq88g They obviously aren't injection-mold quality, but very usable. The main problem that the reprap has is dribbling when they are moving the extruder head from place to place. This has become less of a problem lately, as they've made some better valves. Also, getting the right settings for temperature, extrusion rate, and lateral speed have taken time. At least the reprap community is vibrant, and interested in improving the tool, as compared with the stagnant fab@home. It will probably never reach "self-replication." You can always come up with another level of "self-sufficiency" that it will not meet. It will however, become a useful tool capable of making some of it's own parts cheaply, and assisting in bootstrapping slightly better versions of itself.