Making a printer that can print itself


Back when I was at HP, I became fascinated with the notion of "3d printers" going mainstream. Previously the purview of engineering and model shops, 3d printers are fairly simple in concept: start from a computer model of an object and use something akin to what cakemakers use to deposit frosting on top of cakes to "squirt" layers of resin along the X-Y plane on a movable platform. Then you move the platform down a few millimeters and repeat the process again and again until you've got a full object.

I never did get anyone at my former employer very interested in the idea of taking this relatively small market niche mainstream, but during the process I did read Cory Doctorow's Makers, the only novel I've ever heard of when the main character is a 3D printer (not quite, but almost) and was even more hooked on the notion of just about anyone having a 3D printer. Image my surprise then when I ran into Bre, Zach, and Adam squirreled away in a warehouse in Brooklyn selling 3d printer kits to hobbyists crazy enough to think that they wanted a piece of that future today. Of course, I had to get to know them, and of course I had to get one.

I bought a kit and am hoping to chronicle its assembly here. For now, all I've got is the stuff out of the box. But stay tuned...

Makerbot parts