A few years ago it was expensive and almost impossible to manufacture custom mechanical parts at home. Recently we have seen the rise of the low cost 3D printers (usually under 1000 $), allowing you to have your own factory at home.

One of the most prominent projects of this kind is RepRap, a self replicating manufacturing machine which is capable to print all kind of plastic parts. What does self-replicating mean ? Well .. if you have a RepRap for yourself, then you can build one for a friend (the plastic parts at least) !

The printer works by melting a plastic filament and printing the 3D object out of thin layers of plastic. The results are quite impressive for a low cost machine.

If you already have one of those mighty machines, then you can download some object designs from www.thingiverse.com.