

Makerbot's new 3D printer prints at 100 microns - iamwil
http://store.makerbot.com/replicator2.html

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heliodor
For a more realistic take on it, think of it as a tenth of a millimeter
instead of 100 microns!

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jamesaguilar
Cool. Once these things are self-hosting, it's going to be the beginning of
the beginning.

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IsTom
I'm not sure if it's possible, the part that heats up the material can't be
made from the material with the same temperature of melting as what it prints.

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jamesaguilar
It would have to be a different technology.

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jlgreco
Ceramics or epoxy seem like to candidates. Something that has a curing step of
some sort. Do you think you could make a kiln out of the same sort of material
it is designed to fire?

Two or more printers that together can be self-hosting seems like a
possibility to me. The only limitation would be size and price I think.

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r0s
It imagine something like electric welding for metal components.

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smartt
Didn't the old Makerbot print at 100 microns? The notes about the THE FREE
UNIVERSAL CONSTRUCTION KIT <http://fffff.at/free-universal-construction-kit/>
referenced this as a limitation when trying to print LEGOs.

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MBCook
Both the Replicator and Thing-o-Matic could, but you had to get your printer
tuned very well. The default was ~300 microns. If these come out of the box
tuned that well, that's quite nice.

I don't think (though I'm not sure) the Cupcake was capable of that, at least
with the stock Z axis.

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onebot
Did anyone else feel like they were being trolled by some kind of Steve Jobs
joke during the video or lifestream?

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reustle
This looks really great. Can't wait to see one in person. I'm sure I'll see
some at MakerFaire next weekend!

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braum
Ultra-Bot on Kickstarter is about to offer an upgraded platform of 8x8x8" or
512 cubic inches. It has a very good resolution and can handle PLA and ABS
thank's to the heated build platform. There is also a future option for a dual
extruder.

For $1,099 you get an assembled Ultra-Bot with heated build table. Soon they
will offer another, larger, Ultra-Bot for $1,249 with the larger 8x8x8" build
platform.

[http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wjsteele/ultra-
bot-3d-pr...](http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wjsteele/ultra-
bot-3d-printer)

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daniel_levine
I am a huge Makerbot fan and they really do a great job improving every year.
Bre is also a great pitchman, looking forward to my Replicator 2

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ars
Can it still use ABS? Because PLA is not a good plastic for structural
materials - the glass transition temperature is too low.

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qwertzlcoatl
No, it does not. The platform is made out of acrylic and apparently does not
heat up. It looks like the Replicator 2X is designed to use both ABS and PLA
but the standard Rep2 is PLA only.

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Zenst
I'm wondering how far of the ability to print out CPU. Certianly would appear
that 3D printers will become viable for manufacturing more and more common day
objects. I'm sure the ability to have more than one print head(ink/material if
you like) and able to switch then things realy start to get very exciting.

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duskwuff
> I'm wondering how far of the ability to print out CPU.

None. Current 3D printers can only print in a couple materials as of present
(mostly plastics), none of which are semiconductors.

The resolution is nowhere near what you'd need for that, anyway. 100 micron
resolution sounds pretty small, but it's still about a tenth the resolution of
70s-era semiconductors (10 µm), and about 4500 times the resolution of current
tech (22 nm).

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Zenst
The time it would take me to design a CPU from scratch then I feel it is
something that will be viable come that day I'm close to hitting print. But
not today or any year soon then, but one day in my lifetime (cancer pending).

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duskwuff
If you want to build your own CPU, learn Verilog and get a FPGA development
kit. It's totally doable; here's an excellent example of what can result:

<http://www.linusakesson.net/scene/parallelogram/index.php>

You can get a decent Xilinx board for under $200; the "web edition" of their
dev tools are free.

