After seeing this video, I can safely confirm that you can probably make anything with Lego. Well maybe not anything, but at least we know that it’s possible to build a printer from Lego.
This amazing project took a member member of the B3ta forums about three weeks to complete, and he’s basically used Lego and a felt tip to create a fully functioning (monochrome) printer. Take a look:
This is probably one of the funnest printers I’ve ever seen, just genius.
Enrico Dini from Pisa in Italy has decided to build whole buildings using sand or even moon-dust. His 3D printer like machine, The D-Shape, sprays a thin layer of sand with a magnesium-based glue from hundreds of nozzles. The glue binds the sands into a solid rock like material, that layer after layer can build up creating anything from furniture to sculptures and hopefully someday full buildings. According to the creator, the d-shape process is four times faster than conventional building, costs a third to a half as much as using Portland cement, creates little waste and is better for the environment.
But Dini has bigger plans than just building houses here on earth. He’s talking with La Scuola Normale Superiore, Alta Space, and Norman Foster to modify D-Shape to build with moon dust. This would make moon-bases much more plausible.
This concept by Jon Cumberpatch is not really a printer as such, well it is in a way a printer but it’s not, Let me explain. The ScribbleBot is a wireless printing device that follows a preset drawing path downloaded from the internet, the idea is that the printer does the drawing but you have your hand on it so that you learn how to draw. I suppose it could work if you did the same drawing over and over again. But is it that useful really, I’ll let you decide that for yourself.
ScribbleBots from Jon Cumberpatch on Vimeo.
This braille printer concept by Chinese designer Danni Luo that could help the blind distinguish similar items using printed braille labels. The user can input information using the built in microphoneand this information is then embossed in braille onto a 25mm x 50mm label that can be stuck onto items that are hard to tell apart such as cds, medication bottles, files, etc.
