Article: "A powerful telescope you can build at home"

[SarDragon]

I wonder, has a 3D printer ever been constructed by.......another 3D printer? Something to think about when you have absolutely, and I mean absolutely, nothing to do!

Sorry about the tangent. The idea is there. Another creative opportunity for the cadets and seniors. Is it feasible? Maybe. If Groups could get behind the idea squadrons could get together to reduce the cost further.

There's a whole open source concept that does this. As mentioned, the electronics would be an issue, but there's a community of modders who are designing and improving a printer that can print a new printer to the most complete extent possible.

Thanks to conductive inks, 3D printers can now lay down circuit traces as they go.

That's the least troublesome aspect. There are also motors and integrated circuits. Oh, fine pitch gears, too. The 3-D printing I've seen doesn't have fine enough granularity to make smooth enough surfaces that small.

[JC004]

The electronics for the one in the article are done with an Arduino board.  That platform has a lot of possibilities, and it's another thing I've been exploring for cadets.  It's dirt cheap to do projects with them too.

The organization behind this is also offering a board for sale, inexpensively.