@contradevian Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 http://www.lovingadg...licator-201012/ On display at a show it was knocking out bottle openers, but they reckon more advanced versions in a few years will be able to build a cell phone (without the chip). Early days, but one wonders if home replicators in the future could turn the whole globalisation thing on its head. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@contradevian Posted January 10, 2011 Author Share Posted January 10, 2011 Oops sorry. mods please move to Off Topic! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomandlu Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Oops sorry. mods please move to Off Topic! Well, it might be able to make a house one day... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SomethingHasToGive Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 http://www.lovingadg...licator-201012/ On display at a show it was knocking out bottle openers, but they reckon more advanced versions in a few years will be able to build a cell phone (without the chip). Early days, but one wonders if home replicators in the future could turn the whole globalisation thing on its head. Another one is the RepRap Project, which is an open source project to make 3d printers that can be self replicating. Last time I checked they could make all of the non electronic components but they are working on making PCBs too. Also if you are interested in these things Cory Doctorow's novel Makers is all about a near future where people make stuff using 3d printers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nationalist Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Once a replicator can make a copy of itself it's game over! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@contradevian Posted January 10, 2011 Author Share Posted January 10, 2011 Another one is the RepRap Project, which is an open source project to make 3d printers that can be self replicating. Last time I checked they could make all of the non electronic components but they are working on making PCBs too. Also if you are interested in these things Cory Doctorow's novel Makers is all about a near future where people make stuff using 3d printers. Really interesting stuff. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloo Loo Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Can it do £20 notes? sorry, of course it can, someone has printed 5 bn of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@contradevian Posted January 10, 2011 Author Share Posted January 10, 2011 I could see a resurgence in home manufacturing with these machines, perhaps even making small plastic components for cars and computers. I could make more sense than having them made half way round the world, by robots, to have them made by "robots" here. This is clearly technology thats going to improve, and this is before we get into nanotechnology, which would be the next stage of any "replicator." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fluffy666 Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 http://www.lovingadg...licator-201012/ On display at a show it was knocking out bottle openers, but they reckon more advanced versions in a few years will be able to build a cell phone (without the chip). Early days, but one wonders if home replicators in the future could turn the whole globalisation thing on its head. I can imagine that your home replicator might need some standard components (memory and processing chips, electric motors, etc), but the rest would be reasonable simple. Having components built to a very fine scale with an arbitrary degree of complexity allows for very strong and lightweight designs as well. This will be great for the military; not only will you have pilotless aircraft (and driverless tanks, soon), they will be able to build themselves in the field from an automated base. Can't see anything going wrong with that.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gigantic Purple Slug Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Another one is the RepRap Project, which is an open source project to make 3d printers that can be self replicating. Last time I checked they could make all of the non electronic components but they are working on making PCBs too. Also if you are interested in these things Cory Doctorow's novel Makers is all about a near future where people make stuff using 3d printers. I would like to have a go at Rep Rap but the project seems a little ill defined at the moment. The kits on offer seem a bit incomplete and there seems to be quite a large amount of hacking required in order to get these things to work. Anyone else had a go ? Also I'm interested in what effect these systems will have on patents on basic devices. For example if I come up with a novel but simple design I patent it to stop other people making it. If someone copies it I can take legal action against the factory that makes it. But if everyone can make these things easily at home ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RapMan Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 I would like to have a go at Rep Rap but the project seems a little ill defined at the moment. The kits on offer seem a bit incomplete and there seems to be quite a large amount of hacking required in order to get these things to work. Anyone else had a go ? Also I'm interested in what effect these systems will have on patents on basic devices. For example if I come up with a novel but simple design I patent it to stop other people making it. If someone copies it I can take legal action against the factory that makes it. But if everyone can make these things easily at home ... I have a rapman (http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/content/rapman) as I'm quite interested in this technology and particularly want to be able to supply small quantities of parts that are out of manufacture - eg, plastic parts for cars/boats etc., as well as supporting innovators with the ability to provide prototypes. I'll also start to print RepRap parts when I'm happy with the output From my printer, I have printed a women's torso, which my sons took to work and cast in bronze as my Birthday present ... http://i1034.photobucket.com/albums/a430/marpate1/torso.jpg If you're interested further, take a look at thingiverse (http://www.thingiverse.com/tool:36/things) for items that you can print from a 3D printer. And, for a real treat, have a Google for 3D scanner and now life becomes interesting Cheers, Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Riedquat Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Also I'm interested in what effect these systems will have on patents on basic devices. For example if I come up with a novel but simple design I patent it to stop other people making it. If someone copies it I can take legal action against the factory that makes it. But if everyone can make these things easily at home ... It'll be a similar situation to music / software / films etc. now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@contradevian Posted January 10, 2011 Author Share Posted January 10, 2011 I have a rapman (http://www.bitsfromb.../content/rapman) as I'm quite interested in this technology and particularly want to be able to supply small quantities of parts that are out of manufacture - eg, plastic parts for cars/boats etc., as well as supporting innovators with the ability to provide prototypes. I'll also start to print RepRap parts when I'm happy with the output From my printer, I have printed a women's torso, which my sons took to work and cast in bronze as my Birthday present ... http://i1034.photobu...pate1/torso.jpg If you're interested further, take a look at thingiverse (http://www.thingiver.../tool:36/things) for items that you can print from a 3D printer. And, for a real treat, have a Google for 3D scanner and now life becomes interesting Cheers, Mark Fascinating and very affordable too. Coupled with this, the possibilites are amazing! https://www.nextengine.com/ Just scan a part and start replicating! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarahBell Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Plastic printers been available for a while. http://hydraraptor.blogspot.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
non frog Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Can it do £20 notes? sorry, of course it can, someone has printed 5 bn of them. No it can't as they would all have the same number and be counterfeit. Fortunately no one has printed any of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
19 year mortgage 8itch Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Can it do £20 notes? sorry, of course it can, someone has printed 5 bn of them. Couldn't print them fast enough Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
@contradevian Posted January 10, 2011 Author Share Posted January 10, 2011 +1 All profits (above the opportunity cost of a venture) tend to zero as competition reaches perfection. We are heading for a very strange future of no wages or profits, but limitless, abundant everything! (Maybe religious "nutters" have got it right.) EDITED: To make the economic point technically correct. Open Source manufacturing comes of age. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken_ichikawa Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Except replicators like that would not only make China obsolete but it would make almost every job on the planet obsolete as well and thus the concept of the state would be irrelevant as people would make thermonuclear weapons and they would use them as they are freely avaliable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RapMan Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Fascinating and very affordable too. Coupled with this, the possibilites are amazing! https://www.nextengine.com/ Just scan a part and start replicating! To bring the costs down further, look at the open source models ... eg., http://www.makerscanner.com/ - I've started on this, but haven't got too far yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RapMan Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Plastic printers been available for a while. http://hydraraptor.blogspot.com/ I think that nophead was involved in the early days of reprap before he made the hydraraptor, although I could be wrong. If anyone is interested in building a reprap, I don't think that you'd go far wrong with the plastic items from nophead http://shop.ebay.co.uk/nophead00/m.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thod Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 Plastic components are only good for some applications and for many of those the type of plastic is important. Much more interesting would be a high temperature version to make things in iron. A plastic wheel bearing is not going to work. If you added a second tank full of liquid plastic, you could plastic plate the metal. Of course you would have to let the iron cool first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RapMan Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Plastic components are only good for some applications and for many of those the type of plastic is important. Absolutely. There are a range of plastics that these machines can print with, but they tend to be limited to less than three print heads so are limited in what can be done. I guess most popular is ABS which has a huge range of applications. PLA is also possible for those more "green" Much more interesting would be a high temperature version to make things in iron. A plastic wheel bearing is not going to work. If you added a second tank full of liquid plastic, you could plastic plate the metal. Of course you would have to let the iron cool first. http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4640 - but, yes, plastic bearings are not likely to be popular Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fluffy666 Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Except replicators like that would not only make China obsolete but it would make almost every job on the planet obsolete as well and thus the concept of the state would be irrelevant as people would make thermonuclear weapons and they would use them as they are freely avaliable. You clearly didn't understand the message of Terminator 2.. ('Why dosen't it become a bomb and blow us up?') Routine elemental transformation is at least a couple of centuries away, some time after we start using miniature black holes on an industrial scale. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bloo Loo Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 enough of this 19th century technology. to replicate things, they used to use a thing called a mould. lets keep it Simple Stupid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
6538 Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 It was mentioned on some shooting discussion board agaes ago that as soon as you can buy CNC equipment at your local B&Q then all gun laws will be rendered wortheless because you can just download a program off the net, chuck a pice of metal at it and it'll chuck gun parts at you. This seems to do the job even better - if one comes along that can fashion stuff out of metal as well as plastic, that is. Okay, it won't be as good as a commercially produced firearm as you need specific steels with specific heat treatments and so on, but it would be pretty damn good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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