The Free Talk Live BBS
Free Talk Live => General => Topic started by: Looking from outside on May 10, 2013, 09:57:03 PM
-
Ever taken apart a standard bubble-jet printer? You will find gears, and tons of other little grooving things. Almost all of them can be "printed" but where it gets a hell of a lot more complicated is when it comes to electrics, as in motors and switches, and electronic components, as in the motherboard and printing head(s). While the motors and switches might be feasible in the near future I suspect that a motherboard full of integrated circuits, capacitors and resistors, a lot of them micro sized is well beyond reach for the moment. The only solution I can see is having the plans to print the printable parts but the motherboard and electricals and the printing head(s) would have to be part of a kit that one could order. But a completely self replicating 3D printer? For the moment I call it bull.
-
Not to mention you would have do some odd things with space time in order to print something as large as the external measurements inside the printer bay space.
-
Not to mention you would have do some odd things with space time in order to print something as large as the external measurements inside the printer bay space.
The idea of a self-replicating printer is to be able to print all the parts to build another. It's not expected to print the entire working printer in one shot.