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Open-Source 3D Printer Lets Users Make Anything
An anonymous reader writes "Picture a 3D inkjet printer that deposits droplets of plastic, layer by layer, gradually building up an object of any shape. Fabbers have been around for two decades, but they've always been the pricey playthings of high-tech labs — and could only use a single material. A Fab at Home kit costs around $2400 and allows users to print anything from Hors d'Oeuvres to flashlights."
You probably remember discussing this almost a year ago. Enjoy more on this at that coverage of the same story.
My work here is dung.
You solve a problem like this by laying down sand or another substance to act as the free space and support the structure.
After building you remove the sand and your 3d model emerges.
liqbase
No it isn't. We still have one really major step to take (that we can see from here/now). Molecular level construction. I don't mean nano-tolerance specs for things this could print, but by building things at the molecular level you finally get the ability to do self-replication. Right now the problem is that you need a scale - if you have a stick you use to measure things by, you add to the error of *every* measurement with each generation... which prevents self-replication. If you use a molecule (or some universal constant) as your stick, though, you lose this problem... stack a certain number of molecules into a stick of a useful size, or use the speed of light (in some medium) to measure distance for your "unit length" as part of the replication process and you'll have the same error in every generation. We already do this for manual manufacture... just, because we don't try to make self-replicating fabricators, we only have to measure (using the standard of the speed of light in a vacuum) once every few years to replace the "standard" used in manufacturing rulers.
Molecular level construction could also be useful for, obviously, building really small things. Or for building really big things semi-automatically.
Once you can spec the atomic placement in manufacture.... *then* there will be no need for brains in manufacturing. That we can understand today. Who knows, maybe there is something useful beyond that level that we just don't understand yet. But for now this is the one major step left in the ability to manufacture things.
Does a line appended to your comment give your post meaning in and of itself, or only in relation to those without?
Erm, Rep Rap
I know, it won't fab everything but the few remaining bits are easy to get.