Kongtechnology.com

Posted: 31 Oct 2010 08:34 PM PDT

I’m sure everyone has played with Lego bricks at some point in their childhood and the same goes for me, but give them to a creative adult and you would be surprised at what they can come up with.

Here are a couple of interesting printers made of Lego bricks. They’re even fully functional!

Lego Felt-Tip 110 Printer

Here’s one that caught me by surprise. An ink-jet printer that uses felt-tip marker for ink instead of cartridges.

Quoted below is the description from the designer’s YouTube video.

"Lego felt tip 110" printer connected to an Apple Mac. This is not a kit you can buy and does not use mindstorms. I designed/built/coded it all from scratch including analog motor electronics, sensors and printer driver, the USB interface uses a "wiring" board.

Since the printer uses only one felt-tip marker, images printed out would be monochromatic, but it certainly saves you money on cartridge ink.

MakerLegoBot

Another interesting Lego printer is the MakerLegoBot built by software engineer Will Gorman. It is essentially a 3D printer, building 3D models from Lego bricks, instead of molding them from plastic as with conventional 3D printers. Theoretically, with some modifications, the machine should be able to replicate itself.

The current design only works with ordinary Lego bricks, which must be fed into the MakerLegoBot by human assistants. For now, the system can build objects that are up to 12 bricks tall.

There are instructions on how to build the MakerLegoBot on Gorman’s site.

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