On: MakerBot ($750 3D Printer) is a million dollar plus startup

[alastair]

Sounds like the eventual goal of the Reprap project. "RepRap is short for Replicating Rapid-prototyper. It is the practical self-copying 3D printer" - See http://reprap.org/ for more info.

[mbrubeck → alastair]

That's not surprising, since MakerBot founder Zach Smith is a RepRap contributor and also runs the RepRap Research Foundation (http://www.rrrf.org/). MakerBot's fabricators are based on RepRap designs and software, and they also sell RepRap parts in their store.

The two projects still contribute code and ideas to each other, for example: http://blog.reprap.org/2009/08/one-of-my-partners-at-makerbo....