It has been widely argued that the traditional manufacturing model of non-adjustable standarised products has started to shift towards alternative ways of manufacturing, such as 3D printing and other desktop manufacturing techniques. The need of adjustable or modular machines arose while the need of constantly improving machines and products followed suit. This is the point when peer production products and processes in combination with the “LEGO Bricks” and the LEGO Mindstorms NXT Educational Robotics Kit come to the fore.

A 15-year-old high school student from Greece, Marios Papachristou, has started building an open source LEGO-based 3D printer and he is looking forward to completely materialising his project. This project, inspired by Arthur Sacek’s Milling Machine, builds on the RepRap 3D Printer open designs and knowledge. It aims to motivate people in the fields of art, computers and design communicating the potential of open source and hardware movement. The webpage of the project can be found here.

Marios Papachristou has established a collaboration with the P2P Lab, located in Ioannina (Greece), with the goal to document the development of the project as well as to highlight the socio-economic impact of the conjunction of LEGO and peer production products and processes. Once the project is fully realised we will inform readers of this blog while a wiki section within our wiki will be created to document the on progress project. For the time being you may see pictures of its current status (for hi-re images join the project’s google plus group here).

The RepRap-inspired Lego-based 3D printer

The custom drill head

Y & Z Axises

15-year-old Marios working on his project

Motors controlling Y & Z Axises

Top Perspective View