RepRap Central Blog

Happy New Year to you.

This is going to be an amazing year for Personal 3D Printing. We’re only two weeks in and already we’ve seen the launch of the new MakerBot Replicator 2X, a serious 3D printer for the more adventurous among you. If Doc Brown of Back to the Future fame had a 3D Printer, this would be it!

The New MakerBot Replicator 2X 3D Printer

For more details on this experimental MakerBot Replicator 2X along with videos, just click the online store link, you can order it today!

If your new to Personal 3D Printing and are not quite ready for the experimental version, check out the MakerBot Replicator 2 3D Printer, its just as incredible!

We’ll be adding more and more RepRap 3D Printers to our online store this year. We are proud to be right at the heart of this next industrial revolution and will be working even harder this year to ensure we bring the future forward, making it available today!

Thank you for your amazing support in 2012 and lets make 2013, THE year of Personal 3D Printing.

Come join us and make history!

3D Printing for fun. This print by Peter Leppik is a novel take on an Advent calendar for Christmas 2012.

This engraved Celtic Skull looks like something you’d find on the set of the next Indiana Jones Movie. Its not quite 2000 years old, it’s actually less than a day old and it didn’t exist yesterday until we printed it!

It’s about the size of a small football, made in green PLA and was printed on a Replicator 2 3D Printer. Its a modern day treasure and deserves pride of place among our prints. What treasures will you make?

You might say the build area or build envelope of the MakerBot Replicator 2 is 11.2 L x 6 W x 6.1 H inches and you’d be right. But thats not the whole picture, as Cosmo Wenman has shown with his amazing horse head statue.

The 3D Printed “Head of a horse of Selene from the Parthenon” (Acropolis, Athens, 438-432 BC)

This full size replica is made up of 27 individual 3D Prints produced on a MakerBot Replicator and assembled. Cosmo then applied a bronze finish and created this exceptional piece of 3D printed art.

In reality, the Personal 3D Printer you have in front of you, can create models of infinite size, now where did I put that picture of the QE2!

We are pleased to announce that Malcolm’s amazing  ’Robert Goble’ Harpsichord is now fully restored and is back in pristine condition. There’s more on this story in a previous post, but Malcolm needed to replace 183 Jacks (Part of the string plucking mechanism) on his Harpsichord. The original Jacks, made of delrin plastic were deteriorating fast and cracks had begun to appear. Replacement Jacks were simply unobtainable and Malcolm was facing a bill of well over £2000 to get the Jacks custom made in wood.

Malcolm contacted us and asked if we could help. We suggested using the MakerBot Replicator to recreate the Jacks and the rest is history.  Within hours of receiving the Replicator from us, Malcolm was in full production mode. He has now completed the entire build of 183 Jacks and his harpsichord is as good as new.

The new Replicator’ed harpsichord jacks in situ

Will obsolete parts become a thing of the past? they may well do so. Once we have the digital signature of a part they can always be reproduced. The Personal 3D printing revolution is enabling ‘individuals’ to make these parts ‘cost effectively’ and that’s the key contribution of this personal technology.  Combine that with zero shipping costs, instant availability of blueprints* and parts (once printed) and you have something very special happening here.

* This works already underway, but will take time. Join us and play your part in this incredible digital engineering adventure, contact us at ‘RepRap Central‘, we look forward to hearing from you.

The Robert Goble Harpsichord with the new jacks fitted

We’ve just finished 3D printing it, what can we say!

(Exceptional 3D modelling by Sergey Kuznetsov, published by Thingiverse.com)

Thomas from Rest Devices explains this quite nicely.

You may or may not have a specific need right at this moment, but as a 21st century Company, you really need to know about this amazing technology and better still get some hands-on experience. You’ll be surprised what our 3D Printers can do for you, take a moment and just think of the possibilities!

p.s. We have many large organisations trialling this technology, so whether your’e a startup or an established global business, we’ll help you get started.

We’ll you asked!

Courtesy of the University of Pennsylvania

When Malcolm Messiter set about restoring his beautiful Robert Goble Harpsichord, he hit upon a snag. The string playing mechanism in the harpsichord is made up of 183 Delrin Jacks, each fitted with a plectrum that plucks the string when a key is played. These jacks had deteriorated over time, many of them were cracked and needed replacement. After some research, he discovered that these particular Jacks were no longer made and Delrin replacements were simply unobtainable.

The classic Harpsichord made by Richard Goble

Malcolm, faced with the prospect of having 183 Jacks custom made out of wood at considerable expense, contacted us at RepRap Central and asked whether it would be possible to make replacement jacks with one of our Personal 3D Printers. After some discussion, we decided it was a project for the MakerBot Replicator and Malcolm set about modelling the replacement jacks.

Within hours of the MakerBot Replicator arriving, Malcolm was in full production mode, 3D printing Harpsichord Jacks out of ABS plastic used by the 3D Printer. In fact, he was so delighted with the results that he felt the Replicator Jacks were an improvement on the originals!

183 custom made harpsichord jacks would have cost around £2000. With the Replicator priced at £1749 and £20 in total for material costs, Malcolm’s already in profit and is now equipped with the very latest in Personal 3D Printers, the MakerBot Replicator.

The Harpsichord Jacks produced on the MakerBot Replicator

The first of the MakerBot Harpsichord Jacks in situ (top right)

Malcolms hands free tuner attachment produced on the Replicator. Want your own MakerBot Replicator? Visit our Online Store

Yet another example of how incredibly versatile these new personal 3D printers are.

They’ll not only change our future, they’ll help preserve our past too!

The Harpsichord in action with an integrated Midi player