I took a look on the web and was immediately hooked, I work at the University of Sussex (UOS) and the next day I spoke to the head of the Cad Lab about the rapid prototyping facility at UOS, I was fishing to find out how much it would cost me to get a set of Mendel parts printed.
It turned out the only type of rapid prototyping the university could offer was resin printed and this would not be strong enough for actual use.
The following day however I got a call from the head of the Cad Lab who informed me that I should go an speak to the head of the rapid prototyping department as they have a RepRap sitting in a cupboard collecting dust and that I may be able to commandeer it! less than 10 minutes later I was standing in front of an aging and sorry looking Darwin that had seen better days.
It was explained to me that a few years ago a group of MSC students had built it as there final year project and that it had managed to print a "couple" of example components before being retired.
It was supplied as is with no software, or serial cable, but other than those omissions it all seemed to be present and correct (electronics wise) the guy at the rapid prototyping facility said that he would be happy for me to take it away but I would have to confirm this with the resident professor who had run the course on which it was built, and as a complete stroke of luck I happened to know who this was.
So to cut a long story short, after meeting the professor expressing an extreme interest in the project he was happy for me to "take it to the next level" Later that same day I took the Darwin home for a much closer look.
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