Haven't seen this design before:


http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/shai/deltaprintr-a-simple-affordable-3d-printer?ref=category


Seems the carriage, or the acrylic arms, may be the weakest link.

 

this is really new 4 me

 

People have been making delta CNC machines for a long time.

It's not a great design for a lot of reasons, but they do look very cool.

 

Looks net, Wonder how long the parts last before they ware.

 

One of the really neat things about 3D printers is they can make plastic parts for other 3D printers! My friend build a design from scratch (a lot of it was her personal work), then sold it to buy a better design (it made a good down payment) called a polyprinter. I'll see if I can put pictures up on this thread later.

Dallas MakerSpace, a club for DIY types, has several. The inventor of the polyprinter donated several (I think he still owns them) to see what the general public would do to them. He has not been disappointed, part have been bent and damaged because the fools can always outsmart something fool proof, but it gives him a chance to make his product a bit more rugged and less prone to basic human bone headiness. I'm going to join this group when I get a bet more healthy, the dues are more than reasonable (especially given the workshops). It is $35/mo for unemployed folk and students and $50/mo for most other folk.

It is fascinating to watch one of these machines fabricate plastic parts from scratch. They are also being used to make parts out of materials that can be treated as wax for lost wax casting, making pretty decent metal parts.

The club just got a new CNC milling machine, that's going to be fun.

I'm thinking of making a specialty cabinet for a workshop to store my parts, it has a good woodworking section, plasma cutter, lathes, you name it.

 

Looks very much like the Rostock which has been around for a while - http://reprap.org/wiki/Rostock

 

Everything I know about 3D printers, I learned from watching Grey's Anatomy. I have no idea if the story line of creating body parts using 3D printers is feasible, but if it is, it could eventually make a huge difference for people needing transplants. Maybe even for amputees.

 

The latest theory on making human parts is that you can start with a porous substrate that gets filled in with live cells. A 3D printer seems to be a match for this need.

 

I have heard of a vet who is buying a polyprinter to make models of bones from scans. There was even some talk about making new parts for damaged bones from plastic, though I don't know if it will go anywhere.

 

Everything I know about 3D printers, I learned from watching Grey's Anatomy. I have no idea if the story line of creating body parts using 3D printers is feasible, but if it is, it could eventually make a huge difference for people needing transplants. Maybe even for amputees.

They are using them to deposit live cells, onto other live cells.

 

Ah, good to know. I like knowing stuff even if I can't use it right this minute.

 

Everything I know about 3D printers, I learned from watching Grey's Anatomy. I have no idea if the story line of creating body parts using 3D printers is feasible, but if it is, it could eventually make a huge difference for people needing transplants. Maybe even for amputees.

I did a term paper on sterolithography....we would take skeletal scans from a hospital, transfer to the appropriate format, and reprint smaller scale bone fragments. This was in 2009 so this was all fairly new. I wish I could remember all I had learned about the subject.