RepRap Creates Child, Grandchild

One of the coolest possibilities of the home fabrication movement is the prospect of a fab printing out a working copy of itself. One group, called the RepRap project, considers that capability to be so integral to its mission that chose a name that reclected it -- RepRap comes from Replicating Rapid Prototyper.

Well, guess what, it happened -- a RepRap created a copy of itself. And then the child created a 3rd generation.

Adrian Bowyer (left) and Vik Olliver (right) with a parent RepRap machine, made on a conventional rapid prototyper, and the first complete working child RepRap machine, made by the RepRap on the left. The child machine made its first successful grandchild part at 14:00 hours UTC on 29 May 2008 at Bath University in the UK, a few minutes after it was assembled.

I cant stress enough go cool this technology is. The prospect of people being able to create all sorts of necessary products in their basement, paying only electrical and raw materials costs, promises to revolutionize the way we live.

Print your own chain mail!

Thinglab sample, originally uploaded by toxi.

Check out this awesome rapid-prototyped mail on Karsten Schmidt's Flickr page.

RepRap Timelapse!

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Check out this cool timelapse of NYC Resistor(1) folks doing a test print on their RepRap(2).

1) What or who is NYC Resistor? A hacker collective in downtown Brooklyn. Founders include vlogger Bre Pettis and hardware hacker Tom Igoe. The organization's web site says members "meet regularly to share knowledge, hack on projects together, and build community."

2) RepRap is a open source rapid prototyping project by the RepRap Research Foundation. They describe their project this way: "Instead of printing on bits of paper this 3D printer makes real, robust, mechanical parts. To give you an idea of how robust these parts are think of LEGO bricks and you're in the right area." The cooler-than-cool goal of the organization is to be able to actually use a RepRap to print out another printer. Right now they can do only a quarter of the machine, but it's still a worthy goal. Wanna build your own? Check out their site and find out how you can get parts and software.

Unfortunately, NYCR's RepRap just printed out... well, not exactly mush, but not a whole lot better. But that's why it's a test print! Good luck, guys.