Machines Building Machines

Machines Building Machines

While the take over of Skynet and the extermination of the human race by machines may be several years down the road still, it seems John Conner's warnings went unheeded as we head toward a brave new world where our 3D printers can create parts for more 3D printers! As seen here, we were able to print replacement parts (Kudos to Lawsy for the file) on the Makerbot for a Solidoodle printer.

replacement parts

With just a little over 3 hours in print time with .1mm layer height, we in the JMU math lab were able to create working replacement parts to fix the Solidoodle feeding mechanism. 

replacement parts installed

Above is a close look at the new and improved, 3D printed, feeding mechanism on the Solidoodle.