• @[email protected]
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    6611 months ago

    Why nobody has made an open source ink jet printer design like reprap, I will never understand. The printer industry seems primed for disruption with all their bullshit and their half century old technology.

    • RQG
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      1911 months ago

      My guess. They couldn’t get the printer to work. My 3D printer has a lower problem count than my ink jet regular printed at this point.

    • @[email protected]
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      11 months ago

      The accuracy required for the ink droplets just isn’t there for prosumers.

      I can (and have!) built multiple extruders for a variety of 3D printers. Some of my own design.

      Sadly, the tolerances for an inkjet are at least an order of magnitude greater.

      I have zero doubt that a few clever hardware hackers could design an open source inkjet printer. But A: They’d get sued back to the mesolithic by every printer company with a patent. And B: the process would likely involve micro machining your own hardware.

      I’ve just said, “fuck it” to the entire industry. I’m in my early 40s and I’m reasonably sure that my Brother laser will outlive me. And possibly the heat death of the universe.

      • @[email protected]
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        11 months ago

        Patents expire after, what, 20 years? I’d be happy with an open source printer based on 20 year old technology.

        • @[email protected]
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          911 months ago

          I’d take a tractor fed dot-matrix printer over my current one just so I could play with the paper thingies on the edges.

    • @[email protected]
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      511 months ago

      Right? Why buy a paper printer for less than $100 when you can spend $2000 on a 3D printer + materials and time spent learning and fucking up! Wish I thought of that!

    • @[email protected]
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      211 months ago

      Probably because they wouldn’t be as profitable.

      HP could sell like a tenth the printers and still make more money

    • @[email protected]
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      111 months ago

      Ya, the abacus industry is also ripe for disruption. Legacy industries would love your pro insight.