@nicholas.seward: I've been reading through this thread with great interest, and I really like the direction that this design is going. I am particularly impressed by the way you managed to find a great balance between cost, reprap-ability, print volume, and precision. The potential to do milling is very enticing, and it occurs to me that you could make almost every plastic part out of alumiun (on a standard cnc mill the first time) without any modifications. I would think that this should result in a Simpson design that can handle milling, and still be self replicating.
The only change that might be needed is to redesign the extruder mount to accomidate a spindle which is larger, more massive, and spinning.
On another note, have you posted the full cad files for the newest iteration of Simpson? I would love to throw the model into Solidworks during my lunch breaks and see how things might be milled.
One last thing, it might be possible to design the mounting base to be printed if you split it into three triangular sections that are bolted together. This would further reduce (albeit just slightly) the number of non-reproducable parts.
The only change that might be needed is to redesign the extruder mount to accomidate a spindle which is larger, more massive, and spinning.
On another note, have you posted the full cad files for the newest iteration of Simpson? I would love to throw the model into Solidworks during my lunch breaks and see how things might be milled.
One last thing, it might be possible to design the mounting base to be printed if you split it into three triangular sections that are bolted together. This would further reduce (albeit just slightly) the number of non-reproducable parts.