NYC Resistor

Vise Grip Wire Strippers - so simple, and yet so much fun!

For the craftsman and the shade tree mechanic alike, tools can represent an extension of oneself and a useful companion who eases the journey to a finished project. This amazing tool is a true companion which turns one of the most tedious aspects of electronics into a simple pleasure.

The IRWIN Vise Grip Self-Adjusting Wire Stripper has a satisfying click and solid feel. As it mercilessly rips the rubber sheath from that offending bit of copper, you can’t help but feel a sense of pico-accomplishment. It’s a smooth action, smooth operator and it takes the tedium out of wire stripping. And I loathe wire stripping. I raise a glass to you, wire stripper mechanical engineer!

These babies should be fairly easy to find, and they seem to sell for about $23.
Photo courtesy of Bre Pettis

Watching this amazing video over at Wired is pretty much guaranteed to blow your mind. Dr. Atala is printing body parts using a setup not unlike RepRap.

He’s using a modified HP printer with an elevator plate added to allow the device to day down multiple layers of organic cells and cross-linkers. He’s had enormous successes and has produced working bladders as well as heart constructs that actually begin beating within hours of being printed.

I’m curious whether Dr. Atala utilizes the bubblejet’s ability to spray precise patterns, or if he’s simply laying down stripes of material with each pass. If the latter is the case, I don’t see any reason why, once perfected and refined, RepRap wouldn’t be able to produce similar results, and possibly on a much larger scale.