“Prusa Air”

3D Printing & Imaging Computers & Mobile Craft & Design
“Prusa Air”

I love the look of this Prusa Mendel RepRap 3D-printer fork designed by Thingiverse user Mecano. Shown uppermost is a concept rendering of his second prototype, Prusa Air 2, which hasn’t been built yet, and immediately above, the physical prototype of Prusa Air 1. Among Manuel’s stated design goals for the project were “a little beauty,” which I daresay he has already achieved, admirably.

16 thoughts on ““Prusa Air”

  1. Christopher O'Brien says:

    I hope that everyone who is interested in 3d printers has seen the printrbot kickstarter which reached completion. 8x8x8 build volume, and very inexpensive.

    1. Sean Michael Ragan says:

      Me too!  We covered it back at the end of November, right after it met its funding goal:

      http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2011/11/prototype-quick-build-low-cost-3d-printer.html

      Can’t wait until they start shipping printers!

  2. John Borden says:

    Definitely impressed with the minimalist design.  Repraps are cool, but they’re bristling with way too much hardware.  Might be underestimating the cost, but it looks like building one of these should be pretty budget friendly.

    1. Sean Michael Ragan says:

      One of the primary design goals of the RepRap project is self-replication.  They have made a deliberate decision to not prioritize aesthetics in the quest for a printer design that print all its own parts. 

  3. Anonymous says:

    There’s beauty in simplicity. This proves it!

  4. Joel Westerberg says:

    Where can I buy those notched rubber loops, and what exactly are they called? I’ve been searching a lot but haven’t found the kind of store that sells them.

    1. Sean Michael Ragan says:

      It’s called a “timing belt.” 

      http://www.sdp-si.com/eStore/CoverPg/Drive_Components.htm

  5. Anonymous says:

    This sounds like a fantastic machine. I would love to win one!
    rex at rexaco@aol.com

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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