Work in Progress and RepRap Community Hub event - September 2013

Hello Everyone,

A lack of updates from me for a while, but I have been working very hard on many things including my new RepRap Delta Printer (3DR) -

More on 3DR shortly - an Intro Video is up on Youtube here if you want to get a head-start

So far it's been a summer of festivals and exciting 3D printer developments, lots of new machines announced and more people than ever, openly working to make technology for this great industry.

Lots of other things to also report on as soon as I get a chance - here is a taster of things to come - 

• 3DR - A 3D printed RepRap Delta printer, much more on this shortly - (see above)

Experimentation with Laybrick -' it's a bit like printing with stale chewing gum' but a very interesting material (and also finally Laywood too) 

Better mixing of multiple materials and many more colours - (method show above is using a base colour, in this case white and many feeds of colour, mixing in a single nozzle)

• Trials with PVA. (using some exciting new printers)

Nylon 645 Printing

• Taulman Nylon 645 (both colour and natural printing - it's a more clear material so very nice for light pipes!)

• Stainless steel hot-end experiments - more updates soon.

And here's the Really BIG News! 

A rather exciting RepRap community announcement - 

If you remember last year - I reported on the TCT show looking through 'makers' eyes, upset a few people, (not the intention) but it also helped make a lot more positive progress with all the the others and even the Show organisers.

I also reported on the show in 2011, if you want to see how things are starting to evolve.

After last year, the TCT Show asked me to get more involved with trying to make this an event for both the established additive manufacturing suppliers and the wider maker, developer, designer community. 

I will be doing a RepRap focused presentation at this year's show and here's the really exciting bit - 

In association with the RepRap Magazine I'm pleased to announce that in partnership with the TCT Magazine and Personalize we have organised a very exciting opportunity for the whole RepRap community.

In September this year the TCT magazine has its annual Additive manufacturing and 3D printing show at the NEC in Birmingham (UK) The TCTShow is in its 18th year and attracts big names from the industry, businesses and individual makers from all over the world.

The Show has an exciting exhibitor list and in recent years has embraced the Maker and RepRap communities with the Personalize sections of the show and the fantastic bright minds initiative. This attracted many maker based companies including Ultimaker, Makerbot, Leapfrog, Electrobloom and MiiCraft along with many other open source and proprietary developers to last year’s event.

This year the TCT Show and Personalize have further collaborated with the RepRap and maker community, providing a significant and dedicated space for the two days of the exhibition.

This space will be a dedicated RepRap community hub, where makers, designers and developers from all over the world can come and talk about RepRap and all the many aspects of 3D Printing. We can share our passions and developments, 3D printing experiences and ideas with each other and visitors to the show.

I'm even more excited to announce that joining the RepRap Magazine on this RepRap community hub will be the Inventor and father of all things RepRap, Dr Adrian Bowyer. I'm still rather stunned this is happening, and I hope you are just as excited. Joining Adrian on our stand will be the RepRapPro Ltd. Team, they plan to have a complete RepRap production facility to fully demonstrate the self-replicating nature of this great project.

The RepRapPro Ltd. team are all highly accomplished developers and designers in the RepRap community and will be showcasing their unique Tricolour Mendel and Huxley printers along with offering advice and discussion about RepRap and 3D printing for the whole community.

And, yes there's more... Also set-up on our community hub will be the ever amazing Faberdashery Team, who will also be expertly on hand to offer advice about materials, 3D printing and all things colourful and Maker related.

We have a considerable space for use at the show - RepRap Hub Stand G54 - please see the master floorplan for the entire show space.

This is a globally recognised event and a great opportunity to get involved and spread the RepRap mission. And on that note here is where we need your help -

I'm attempting to coordinate efforts in the UK and need to hear from anyone that wishes to sponsor or contribute in making this a really fantastic hub for the RepRap community.

We have a lot to do and are looking for, individuals and companies who want to help make this a great resource for the RepRap community.

And if you can operate a 3D printer, or would like to print some awesome things for the event, please get in contact at the e-mail address below.

This will be what you help make it, so please do get in contact for more information and if you can assist or even just to let us know you are going to visit the show, we want to hear from you – let’s make this a RepRap meeting event to remember.

For further information about the show, please go to the TCT Show website

If you would like to help out in any way with the event, or just want to show support, please e-mail us - and I will get back in contact - tctshow@reprapmagazine.com

You can come and visit the show for free, but you must pre register - Registration is free and open now, click here

Please do also take a look at the great work being done for the Bright minds program, a really great part of the two day show designed to get children into 3D printing, design and innovation. The fact that the TCT show are backing this Bright minds program is one of the main reasons I'm giving my time to help make this show something good for the community I hope you will want to do the same.

Do get in contact, and we all hope to see and talk to lots of you at the show.

And right about.... now - Issue 2 of the RepRap Magazine should be released- take a read, it's rather good.

Rich.

In other news -  

Makerbot got sold to Stratasys today - So much has already been written about this today, I don't want to add to the noise, but I can highly recommend reading this by Joris Peels and Al Dean's spot-on take of events here.

:)