LePaul

Exactly (2 posts up) That's why I wondered about using aluminum. :mrgreen:

I like the debate/conversation :cool: Again, I don't mean to sound like I am bad mouthing the wood material. The Ultimaker is ideal for tweaking, mods and hacks so that is why I am asking if this has been done.

Heavy? I'm not sure I would agree with that, completely. As someone who has done a lot with aluminum (2 all-aluminum R2-D2s!), the material size isn't really what I would consider very heavy. When I think of printers, I am thinking of the HP and Ricoh types I work on all day at work. Strong, sturdy and able to handle the stresses the internal components create. There are, of course, other materials that could be used. Lexan comes to mind. For me, it is all a matter of appearance. The Replicator and Solidoodle brands are metal and while I feel they are way inferior to the Ultimaker, I would really like a metal version. Yes, I know I can paint the wood and ignore the burnt edges of the laser cutting process. But again, I think a metal version would look pretty amazing. (And I didn't mention anodizing or polishing the metal to a mirror finish :-P )

I was curious about environmental conditions in production (as mentioned with PLA's needs) I certainly think those guys are on to something and suspect working the kinks out of the process will eventually make for a clever machine/process.

I found the link for the drawings and am viewing them in Adobe Illustrator. I saved them as a .AI format file so I could then open them in SolidWorks. From here I can manipulate them some. I see the wood pieces are 4mm and 6mm Here in the USA, I don't know of any place I can get that size thickness 6061 aluminum. Doing the conversions... 4mm = 0.15748 6mm = 0.23622 To match the 4mm, I know I can buy 0.16" thickness locally To match the 6mm, I know I can buy 0.25" thickness locally But in the world of precision printing, I wonder if this will cause problems. Has anyone laser cut/water jet/milled their own parts from material other than wood? If the difference in tolerances from wood to aluminum isn't a deal breaker, I wouldn't be opposed to trying it. (Why not be unique, right?) I know there is a Beta kit available that is everything minus the 4mm and 6mm laser cut wood pieces and the acrylic build platform Thoughts? Thanks!

Well let me add to that ...finding millimeter sized aluminum is a challenge since everything here is Imperial. My concern is that the close-equivalents wouldn't work well.

I was hoping for some more interesting sample pics of what dual extruders can make. The ones posted left me kind of hoping for something better. I really liked the robot in the ice one.

I'm in Bangor! 100 miles south of you.

How thick is the material used for the Ultimaker? I have access to a CNC machine and I have to tell you, it is very tempting to cut these panels in aluminum. Polished, it would look pretty amazing =)

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/833191773/filastruder-a-robust-inexpensive-filament-extruder?ref=live I'm a bit new to this one but curious if any of the Ultimaker community was part of it? Paul

A friend knows I am close to purchasing an Ultimaker and asked if I had read about the kickstarter project to produce your own filament... http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/833191773/filastruder-a-robust-inexpensive-filament-extruder?ref=live I was curious what Ultimaker fans thought? Paul

I've been saving to purchase one and noticed this online tonight...from China? http://www.ebay.com/itm/Ultimaker-compa ... 231bbaae6e Just wanted to make someone aware of this Paul https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pauls-R2-D2/433737735192