I am a professional Mechanical Engineer based in Christchurch, New Zealand.

I'm new to 3D printing after finishing building a Prusa Mendel i2 based repstrap several weeks ago. The frame is welded together from 1/2" steel square bar so it is nice and rigid. I've had heaps of fun making several downloaded models and some parts of my own design. My greatest success to date was modelling and printing a couple of replacement parts for the water pump of a vintage car for a friend. They have now been successfully used as consumable patterns for investment castings in brass. Fantastic results. See my printer running on youtube. I am also dabbling with laser/webcam 3D scanning at the moment with encouraging results.