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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.
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.
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.
Patents expire after, what, 20 years? I'd be happy with an open source printer based on 20 year old technology.
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.
You'll pay an arm and a leg for tractor feed paper though.
Hmmm we don't need to build a new printer, just new firmware. More like ddwrt or tomato
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!
Time to invent dd-lpt
Probably because they wouldn't be as profitable.
HP could sell like a tenth the printers and still make more money