RepRap Roundup

I noticed a lot of recent development projects that seemed particularly relevant to the self-replicating 3D printer scene, so I thought I’d throw down some shoutouts!

First we have something that kind of wowed me: printable belts!  Naturally a plastic belt is going to have some durability issues over time but for temporary or low-torque purposes– a hint of the future wave of previously “vitamin” parts becoming printables!

Also, someone’s crammed all the Mendel parts– onto a Mendel build platform.  Nice use of snap-apart support structures!

Mr. Kim throws in with his big series of things which are part of his larger effort to make a drill press Mendel framework.

And last but certainly not least we have a Mendel clone based on molded plastics from my own school, the University of Washington (okay I’m not in the ME department but I like to pretend sometimes).  The ultimate goal of the RepRap project is of course self-reproducing machines, but here in the early stages, it really pays to be able to leverage the tools of the past (molds) to bootstrap availability.  Uploaded to Thingiverse too! Neat!