3D print building (it's coming a long way)

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Some really neat updates in the 3D building space, particularly with some companies who are working on different ends like maximum regulatory compliance and maximum local material use:





The primary trouble I see them running into - people use their homes as a store of value. The way they're getting around this: the company in the top video is building back/guest houses (something apparently most construction contractors don't consider to be large enough to be profitable) and I see the second company (WASP in Italy) finding most of its work in developing markets since it's essentially tech-cob.

Howbout 3D printers that print ...3D printers.

That print other 3D printers! Machines that reproduce!

Well it would raw materials.


Okay...a three D printer that has limbs so it can walk around and manipulate things, and a mouth to eat...that roams the country side "foraging for food" - tearing up fences, stripping cars, etc. It digests the food then uses it as raw material to ...reproduce other three D printers!

NOW were talking.

And then the omnivorous walking three D printers can multiply and take over the world!

The whole idea behind the "reprap" project is 3d printers that print 3d printers.

There are some parts that are hard to print like the electric motors or the circuit boards, and the CPUs which run the whole thing. Usually these are gotten from someplace else and called "vitamins". Some parts are cheaper to get from non-3d-printed sources (like steel rods or lasercut plywood). When these are used to create a "mostly" reprap 3d printer, which is then used to create a "true" reprap 3-d printer it is called are called "repstrap" (a reprap-bootstrap).

A whole lab full of reprap-like machines for fabrication is called a "fab lab".

In theory your self replicating robot could be a fab-lab on legs - the devil is in the details.

Google for "reprap snappy" for the "most printable" reprap 3d printer.

I have pages of notes someplace - there is a reprap wiki you can google for.

There is another project which I cannot recall the name of which is focused more on the whole "lab" - when I remember the name I will post it.