Topic: [Updated] Self replicating 3d printer chain! Bitprint! (Read 5268 times)

While currently I think this could be a beneficial project, if done correctly and non-profit, it might be best to do this in the future.

At the current rate in which these printers are being upgraded, bigger build spaces, new hotends, etc and as well as the recent continued rise in btc prices, I think this should be done a little later. At least until one of the two mentioned things start to slow down

Just in case this topic is still interesting to someone, we started offering adafruit.com gift certificates at btcbuy.info. I am not certain that you can get every electronic part for reprap, but for those of you who are looking to get then for bitcoin, might be worth looking

Interesting. For the time now, however. I might put this on hold and try to buy a printer out of pocket, or raise donations and print little trinkets and rewards for people (maybe sponsors and I would print some parts with their logos on them)

I was talking with tecshare, and right now we just need lots and lots of planning so we don't end up making any mistakes handling money.

If anyone wants to help post ideas, send some coins, pm me, submit anything to get this started.

You can run it as a private company over gpg . Each financial member just registers their pubkey and you manually run motions etc and votes are weighted by the funds people contribute. You need a treasurer to receive funds, an accountant to write reports and statements and a secretary to run motions etc. This is an "investment club" or "association" and doesnt need to register whatsoever because you arent offering shares to the public.

Something worth thinking about is molding and casting the parts, after the first batch has been printed. Much quicker, cheaper to do in large numbers, and should provide a similar end product. Not quite as cool, but probably more effective.

Im not sure!

I'm thinking some sort of donation drive that also allows user feedback. We want to make some sort of a business that also promotes people printing parts for others for free..

Can't wait for the chain to get big!

AWESOME! Glad this is coming together. Mush pm me if I can help get this running. Also, I share your apprehension with tying this to GLBSE, is there another way we can do this?Pperhaps with a shared key wallet so that a certain number of members must submit keys to unlock group funds? How would the structure actually be designed? Should we register it as a nonprofit? Lot of stuff to answer here to keep this ball rolling.

After talking with rusty, he is willing to loan the printer to us so we can start selling parts to people from STL files they send me. The profit will be saved to 1)Build rusty a new printer which he will take for the old one OR 2) pay back rusty for the printer. I will be setting up a fund on GLBSE later for the project, and I am very excited that other people are interested as well.

If you would like to help out cover our GLBSE fees, or just donate now, you can send some coins to out temporary donation address - 1MQxE4CBEzURoVkJedNNd8TJrCU52gLTw4 -

or if you're a litecoin fan - LVUm7AvafQBxmiCK87WtNQfAwSu1EWi6EW

The printers we would be making and distributed to people would be models of reprap- you can find out more about reprap in this neat video http://vimeo.com/5202148#

I appreciate it, we might work out some kind of deal..

All,

I own a RapMan 3.1 3D printer similar to:

http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/usd/catalog/rapman-32-3d-printer-kit

I could help in this area as needed or actually could sell this printer to the
project team based on repayment over time (as bitprint starts moving more
parts).

Just let me know! Thanks!

updated op - http://yolkplus.org/bitprint.php

I have actually found software to automate this. And I am currently working on a way to get this set up in a way so I can handle the funds without giving myself too much power.. and still accept donation input. I'm afraid of GLBSE though.

Im thinking we can get a few of these to respectable forum members who agree to print some parts for others. And maybe donate some to school clubs or something and have them automated to print out parts every so often for me to pick up.

I think a good way to get this project moving is to start a community retail outlet. In exchange for the community providing members 3-D printers, they will agree to produce a certain number of 3-D prints per month at cost to the retail outlet. these could be custom or stock items depending on demand. Members with printers could also retail their goods at a markup to the general public to fund new members builds as well as profit personally. You could have a rotating cue so that as people order things the next member down the list has to make a print to fund the community. If a member decided not to pursue his hobby he could donate it back into the pool for the next member waiting in line. You could also get bulk discounts on raw materials for buying as a group. There would be a lot of advantages to this system, but the main problem would be how to decide on its management and who runs it legally and otherwise.

How much of the Printrbot is printable?  About same as reprap?

Nevermind... I've been reading about Printrbot and see the answer to my own question, and I think you might have me hooked.
 
I like how he was talking about eventually replacing things like, say, the threaded rods with plastic versions, etc.
 
I'm going to start saving posthaste!   I also like being able to expand the various axes.   He needs to start selling those on Amazon as well, so I can use my bitcoins

You might be on to something, here is what I had in mind.

I would raise funding to procure a complete Printrbot kit, which I would use to print out the structure for the new one, which would (along with the electronic components or funding for them) to the next holder of the fund pot. Of course we would have to find a way to get this to work in the long run, and maybe a more diverse strategy of sending funds and pieces around to people. This could be pretty neat if we do it right, with everyone having access to one of these for eventually just the price of the electronics.

I think what would get people interested would be pre-made parts kits with the electronics, and other non-printable stuff ready, so that all they have to wait on is the printable stuff.  At least that's what I want.  I don't mind doing projects like this, and don't mind assembling, but the thing that stops my projects dead in the tracks is stuff like electronics that don't work (like maybe I soldered something wrong).  If I had "plug-n-play" electronics kits, and the other hardware, and all I had to do was get someone to print the other stuff, and then assemble, that would rock.
 
Heathkit for n00bs, basically.
 
btw, for you youngins who didn't grow up in the 80s, you missed some *awesome* project by the Heathkit company.  Radios, robots, computers, all shipped to you in kit form, and you soldered and assembled.   Except I don't want to solder anymore - many a night was spent cussing because I had a short somewhere in my circuits.

Yes, actually.

Are they self-replicating and open source?

Well, I'll have a website up soon. I'll toss this on project on there, I'll update the thread to let you know. I think we should change focus to PrintrBots (http://printrbot.com/)

It's a cool idea but a thread in this forum is too easy. If you put more work into the idea (website, writings, diagrams, detailed plans) you would have a better chance but for all that you're better off probably just buying one and letting us know how it goes. Or offering to create things for a fee. Still, I think I've seen other threads where people tried that so you have to go one step further. Be creative and you can do something cool. Good luck.

I didnt get any donations, so i figured noone cared.

How far along are you? 
 
With more and more plastic products hitting the shelves everyday, I've been contemplating make my own "spare parts" for various crap.  What really got me thinking (which thusly led me to reprap, etc) was a part on my Dyson vacuum that broke, and i was thinking "crap now what am I going to do".  So I'll still have to buy a replacement, but it would be nice to take various things apart, scan them (or find the files online) and print my own spare parts for when crap breaks.
 
My boat has a lot of small fragile plastic things that are annoying when they break as well. 
 

Well I stopped since no one was donating, maybe if there is more interest I'll get it started again

Shoot, I missed this thread.
 
I want a reprap printer (Mendel?) so if you get one mostly done, consider me for purchase.  At least the electronics assembled/soldered/etc.
 
I'm always a day late and a dollar short for these sorts of threads *sigh*

Well I'm going to shut this down for now. I might buy one myself then sell parts to people or send them to people in the future.


Don't send any money to the address unless you don't want it back!

Haha thats awesome, btw i was able to put one btc int he wallet! woooo!

http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2012/01/the-pirate-bay-the-next-step-in-copying-will-be-made-from-digital-form-into-physical-form/251894/

I've been wanting a 3d printer since I heard about them years ago.  Then I saw one at a college and REALLY wanted one.

What are you wanting to make with yours?

How much do/will the parts that can't be printed cost?  Would someone be willing to buy these parts in bulk and then sell them for BTC?

I have all the materials for making one of these, except the head, how much does an extruder head cost ?

The dimensions for the best (in my opinion) model is here http://reprap.org/wiki/Huxley It's not that large, and even called "travel size"

How big are they? They look about the size of those overhead transparency projectors from high school. Which isn't huge, but is still kind of bulky.

They're not that big really.

And I'll be adding to the fund as soon as I buy some more BTC.

Will be donating soon.

A 3D printer would be so cool to have. It just looks like it takes a lot of room. I might be interested in your offer though.

EDIT: By the way, you might want to throw a couple of BTC to that address to let people know you'll have skin in the game too.

nice project indeed, hope they succeed replicating the metal parts too then we can all have china on our desktop

RepRap has been around since 2004. RepRap is an amazing open source project that someday everyone will know about. Bitcoin and RepRap have a lot in common. In fact, it's their common emergent properties that will allow them to work well together. I've wanted a 3D printer since the late 1980s. RepRap is close to making a good affordable desktop model, but the quality still has a way to go.

    Hey guys, as part of a cool community of open sourced self replicating things, I thought you might like the RepRap, the self replicating (almost) 3D printer! http://reprap.org/wiki/RepRap

The rep rap uses thin plastic wire to create 3d shapes and models downloaded on to your computer to make physical models, including pieces for another rep rap machine.

Now I propose a community effort to create a chain of these machines for bitcoin enthusiasts. The idea is as follows- http://yolkplus.org/bitprint.php


With affordable desktop 3D printing on the horizon, what's to stop large companies from creating and selling these devices at a large premium, protecting the designs and preventing the users freedoms to create, design and print what they want? With affordable desktop 3D printing on the horizon, what's to stop large companies from monopolizng this business? They could suppress freedomsto create, design and print what you really want. 3D printers are amazing, because they have the ability to self-replicate. As a community, we are working together to create printers that are cheap, light and can print astounding detail with absolute precision. Projects like Rep-rap, and thingiverse collect and catalog the changes and forks in designs, but there is one problem.

They aren't cheap. Yet.

Bitprint aims to collect funding with the digital currency Bitcoin, which will be used to purchase and donate 3D printers to hobbyists, maker clubs, public schools or anyone else who would promise to contribute to the project either with funding, or by simply using the printer to print more pieces for other printers. Our goal is to get enough open source, self replicating printers in the hands of the public, so that they are readily available to anyone who would want one. Eventually it will only be necessary to purchase a few electronic components to create a printer. The rest of the parts can be printed out by a friend for you!

Once a network of these printers is established, jobs could be distributed through a software such as Botqueue, having the items created sold and a percentage kept for the fund.


I will next begin printing out all the parts of the next device for another donating community member (We need a way to decide who is next in line, whether it be the top donating member, or whoever receives the most votes, whatever we decide is fair). The parts will be shipped to the next person, and we will then have twice the printing power.

The goal of this project is to get everyone access to a 3d printing machine. Once one is done, I can make one for someone else, then when the second person completes theirs, we both make one for someone else and so on! The reason we need to continue the funding, however is because the parts such as power supply, motors and other circuitry cannot be printed (Yet, the next revision should be able to make circuits!)

Also, With all this printing going on, we can also use this as an opportunity to cut down on the amount of plastics used, and maybe start our own reprap fork created and maintained by the bitcoin community.

Please let me know what you think!

Let me know how you think I should collect donations, should I start a GLBSE thing?