(phys.org) Using under $1,500 worth of materials, including a small commercial MIG welder and an open-source microcontroller, Pearce's team built a 3D metal printer than can lay down thin layers of steel to form complex geometric objects. Commercial metal printers are available, but they cost over half a million dollars.

 

I found a link to mtu.edu news release on the 3D printer, but have not been able to access the server, yet. It appears to be overloaded, rather than down.

Your phys.org link just comes back to this page.

Your phys.org link just comes back to this page.

Yes, the Michigan Tech slow web page is the same story. I found a page with a table of contents and an incomplete book. Perhaps technical details are pending.

 

http://store.elsevier.com/coArticle.jsp?pageid=18200010&utm_source=Joshua+Pearce&utm_medium=marketing&utm_campaign=Open-Source+Lab+Free+Access

The Michigan site is going fine now. That's some cool stuff, open source distributed manufacturing. The democratization of obtaining stuff. Open source desktop molecular printing is hopefully coming some day.