Comment by wongarsu
17 hours ago
Calling it a RepRap, with full explanation that that means a printer that can print itself, does make it sound like it could be a goal
But even if you could get a positioning system that small, I'm pretty sure you can't scale resin printing down three orders of magnitude smaller than this printer. Maybe a tiny CNC?
Or more likely they refer to eventually printing the mems devices used in the printer
Vik, the guy who made this, is one of the original reprap people
None of the reprap 3D printers can fully make themselves. They all still need additional parts that can't be 3D-printed, like motors and controllers.
I think some basic versions of both motors and circuits are 3d printable now. I doubt good enough for driving a reprap, but perhaps later.
Supposedly "the answer" is a discarded engine block: https://makezine.com/article/maker-news/patdelany/
"Open Source Muti-Machine": The heavy, ultra-stiff mass of the cast iron dampens vibrations and forces the cutting tool to move in a perfectly straight, micron-accurate line dictated by the factory-bored cylinders.
Ask an AI about it, but conceptually it's an amazing concept. There are probably billions of "nearly micron-accurate" machines, and if you're 1000% repeatable 90° then the world is (eventually) your oyster.