I want to attend the Midwest RepRap Festival, but selfishly- I don’t want to be tied to a booth… I want to hang loose and just enjoy. Yes, I could pay employees to set up a booth and tie the company line, but it sounds “salesy”. I’m a true RepRap enthusiast, so I have a better idea…
Are there people out there who are:
Already going?
Already displaying a printer?
Have space/bandwidth to add an open source, Printrbot designed printer to their display?
No strings, just one free non-standard bot to play and display some of Printrbot’s RepRap moho?
My offering/options would be:
the new Printrbot Big-E
the Printrbot Plus Overkill (very long y axis)
the yet-to-be-revealed Printrbot Simple-y Stupid (very very wide X axis)
the yet-to-be-revealed Printrbot Playyyyyy (24" y -get it? 6 "y"s!)
These are all fun, open source side projects that I am encouraging / will encourage people to build on their own… Only the Big-E is a real product, but not a real source of income.
These are all not-so-serious entries into the “because you can” category that I think RepRap folks enjoy.
If you want to be considered for the freebies, just email me at Brook at Printrbot and verify that you meet the criteria… It wouldn’t hurt to let me know why you want such a strange printer, too!
I wouldn’t even worry about it Brook! Just set up and walk around and hangout. It’s not so big and I don’t think anything will walk. Just make your table home base and enjoy yourself.
I already have several printers making the journey from Minnesota. Otherwise that sounds like a lot of fun.
What do you think about doing a build where local attendees helped build it (with some assistance of all the great makers who will be in attendance), then give it away as a prize to some aspiring young maker? There will likely be a few kids who would love the process of building it, and some who would love a printer but cannot afford the means to acquire one.
Great to hear you will be there. I look forward to it all year. It’s such a great group to talk shop and drink beers at night with.
I’ll do my best to be there. It’s a 10 hour drive from NJ, so there’s that small detail to contend with. My printers are also folded sheet metal and have stationary beds with moving Y axis (and I’ve built as large as a 24x48 inch machine that way) so there’s a lot of resemblance with what @Brook_Drumm posted here.
There’s always been people that set up stuff, set out cards & promo material and left their table 90% unattended. It’s a very informal event. It’s really hard to describe, but it’s kind of like a Maker Faire for 3D printing but tighter community and even less formal. Kind of a swap meet of ideas more than for parts, though some do sell parts too.
If I can line up some people, I’ll ship the printers there to build/setup. I’m not worried about them walking off, just love the idea of no business worries I am giving these away, so it’s not about that. I’ve put out some feelers to some others attending- I don’t think they are on G+
