15th Anniversary Minimug - A toast to RepRap!

Exactly fifteen years before this object is posted, a gent named Vik Olliver printed a tiny "shot glass" now known as Minimug. Here's what he said on 6 January 2007:

"To the RepRap!" That's my toast, made with a very small fabricated shot-glass. The shape is vaguely reminiscent of a leather tankard, and its dimensions are 25mm dia. (average as it deliberately tapers), 2.3mm walls, 21mm high. Production took 5725 seconds (95 minutes) and used a notional 3cc of polymer. Oh, and it is watertight (even holds schnapps for a while). The "bubble" around the deposition head is the neck off a plastic drink bottle and keeps the cooling air off the head.

I claim first RepRap'd utilitarian object!

Seriously though, if we can manufacture watertight containers, we're not too far off making bioreactors and some medical equipment.

This was the second attempt. On the first, the swivel on my feeder bottle (see below) became stuck, and the filament wouldn't de-kink. This slows the passage of the filament down, and the output thins out to nothing over a couple of layers. I now have two swivels on the feeder bottle, and I've replaced the croc lead with an old MP3 player strap.

The RepRap project was created to invent modern 3D printing as we know it. In the old days, before anyone sold a modern desktop 3D printer, people would print plastic parts to help others build printers. Then the new owners could print parts for more owners to enjoy. Everyone helped everyone else succeed, and new ideas were shared freely.

Your Prusa printer, and indeed nearly every 3D printer on the market today, owes its existence to RepRap. Prusa continues to uphold RepRap's commitment to freedom - you can still print all the plastic parts needed to build another printer, and build or make all the other parts in various ways, using the freely available drawings and files. You're also free to make any design changes you like; when you share them freely with others, you will carry on the spirit of RepRap.

It only seemed fitting to repost the Minimug here at prusaprinters.org (edit: now called printables.com) in honor of this event, so here is the original STL. You'll find it is lying on its side—you can try printing it that way, as some did in the old days.

I made my own minimug today, too, using my most "vintage" filament, the leftovers of my Prusa Galaxy Silver. I rotated the minimug in PrusaSlicer so that the base was down (see the 3MF file).

Now it is your turn. Carry on the tradition! After you have built your own printer, print a cup for yourself and sip the celebratory drink of your choice from it. (Note: See "food safe" reference below. Don't reuse your minimug. Note that strong drinks may dissolve certain materials.)

Illustrations:

• Vik Olliver's Minimug from 2007 alongside mine in 2022. What do you think his layer height was? I'm using 0.3mm.
• Vik's original photo, unprocessed.
• One of his other attempts. You probably can't imagine how hard it was to print things back then, when everything was still being invented.
• Meanwhile, on the other side of the planet, Adrian Bowyer (shown) raises his Minimug of the same design. That we can “send” physical objects around the world was still a fairly novel concept in those days.
• Here's to you, Jo, for your part in making RepRap and Open Hardware what it is today.

References:

• http://blog.reprap.org/2007/01/cheers.html?m=0 (the PDF download is a copy of this)
• https://help.prusa3d.com/en/article/food-safe-fdm-printing_112313/
• https://reprap.org/wiki/Minimug
• https://3dprintingindustry.com/news/interview-vik-olliver-first-reprap-volunteer-didnt-just-build-3d-printer-133892/

Edit: New Printables feature: Model origin added.