10 months ago
Rocky Mountain Reprap Fest 2025
This year, I attended Rocky Mountain RepRap Festival (RMRRF) on May 17-18, 2025 at the Pedersen Toyota Center in Loveland, Colorado. My interest in RepRap is longstanding. Learning about the goals of the RepRap project was one of the most formative influences on me as a young person. Ever since, I was attracted to projects with the core ideas of creating machines that replicate themselves, rapid iteration, open source community development, and decentralized manufacturing. In 2012–2014, I acquired the parts and built a Prusa Mendel XL RepRap. Yet, this was my first time attending a RepRap festival.
## Logistics
I flew Frontier Airlines and rented a Bronco at the Denver International airport for transportation during my trip. I accidentally took a toll road from the airport to Loveland, CO, which is something that one can avoid in exchange for a little extra travel time. I camped at Boyd Lake State Park in a tent, alongside my festival buddies, Sean and his mom, who camped in an RV. Boyd Lake is a solid choice for accommodation; it has restrooms, showers, and water access, which made the camping experience quite comfortable. We were also lucky with the weather; it got a little chilly at night, but overall it was pleasant. If you’re traveling to Colorado in May, pack for all conditions: cold, temperate, hot, and possibly rainy. Layers are your best friend.
If you want to avoid renting a car, there’s a public transit option worth considering. You can take the RTD Rail from the airport to Union Station in Denver, then hop on the Bustang to Loveland. Boyd Lake is relatively close to the Loveland Bustang stop, “The Hub.” That said, unless you’re a hardcore cyclist, you’ll likely need a rideshare to get between Boyd Lake and the Pedersen Center I used this transit option myself when I returned to Boyd Lake State Park from the Airport to camp an additional night because my flight home was interrupted by inclement weather.
## Festival Recap
The festival was well attended and there were many great projects, makers, and companies to explore. If necessary, it is possible to cover the entire festival in a day, whether one goes on Saturday or Sunday. But as we were attending both days, we covered most of festival on Saturday but left a little early to go have lunch in Downtown Loveland.
Prepare to have your ticket ready on your phone at the door. I did not and this caused a minor delay as the horrible signal in the area made me unable to readily download my ticket. Even though the conference is free, the event wants you to register so they can know how many people are attending. Once we showed our tickets, we received a map, complementary bag, name tag, and swag. One of the swag trends at RepRap fests are poker chips. Poker chips make great souvenirs that are easy to collect and store because they’re all the same form factor. I feel like this trend could catch on at DEFCON, too.
I was certainly not dissapointed. The festival features such an amazing diversity of 3D printing technology, huge printers, printers with 6 interchangable toolheads, printers with non-cartesian beds, printeres optimized to print very fast, conveyer belt printers, and more. And no where else would one see such a wide variety of 3D printed creations, such as a lifesize batman, an R2D2, a Mclaren sports car, and a full-size street lamp. Zachary 3D Prints and Makers Corner have some really great footage of everything that was at the fest.
On Sunday, while Sean showed his Mom some of the festival we had covered the previous day, I found a quiet corner to demonstrate my 3D-printed Dragonstaff. I didn’t take any footage of this, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. I enjoyed how the Dragonstaff was an ice breaker and conversation-maker with many folks at the festival, including many fellow flow artists and prop-makers. However, I particularly appreciated how many children were amazed and enthralled by it, a welcome surprise. My festival buddy gave out circuit boards for the Tetra Bio Distributed PAPRa. I recently began working on building one a PAPRa myself; as I write this blog post, my printer is making the parts.
Let’s talk about some of my favorite projects at the festival.
### Baby Belt
* Web Site
* Github
The Baby Belt is very cool and has immediately entered my queue of desired projects. I’ve always wanted a conveyer belt printer, and this conveyer belt printer in delightfully small form factor seems like a budget friendly choice that would meet my needs perfectly fine.
### Rack Robotics
* Web Site
* Github
Rack Robotics had a live demonstration of wire EDM technology used in their desktop wire EDM machines. From their docs: “Wire Electrical Discharge Machining (Wire EDM) is a manufacturing process used to cut intricate shapes and contours in electrically conductive materials, such as metals. It operates by generating a series of rapid electrical discharges between a thin, electrically charged wire (usually made of brass) and the workpiece, which is submerged in a dielectric fluid (usually water). The electrical discharges create intense localized heat, which melts and vaporizes small portions of the material. This allows for the creation of complex geometries with high accuracy and fine surface finishes.” This is incredibly cool tech and presents a compelling alternative to traditional CNC machining. Check out this video at Rack Robottics RMRRF booth this year to see the demo.
### Recreator3D
* Web Site
The Recreator3D project focuses on transforming used plastic bottles into usable 3D printing filament. From their docs: “The PET1 Plastic Pultrusion Unit allows use of valuable material you’ve already paid for! Being able to make filament in the comfort of your own home eliminates the need to transport filament, which reduces the carbon footprint, e-waste, and product waste.”
I’d been following this project thanks to Sean, who kindly gave me some parts for the pulstruder printed in PET. I plan to start building mine soon.
This project stands out to me for its ecological importance—decentralized recycling is vital if we want to ensure that single-use plastics actually get reused. While I don’t go through many plastic bottles personally, I hope to collect some from my local community and convert them into filament at virtually no cost.
### Nevermore
* Github
The Nevermore Micro is an activated carbon filter designed to mitigate the emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and ultrafine particles (UFPs) from 3D printers. If you’ve ever printed with ABS, ASA, polycarbonate, or other technical filaments, these materials release VOCs and UFPs that are potentially harmful when inhaled, especially over long periods or in poorly ventilated spaces. While larger manufacturers often have enclosed systems with built-in filters, hobbyist printers frequently run open-frame or partially enclosed machines in bedrooms, garages, or home offices, exactly the environments where long-term exposure could pose a risk.
It’s a community-built solution, designed by makers for makers. The Nevermore Micro can be installed inside many printer enclosures, where it actively filters the air near the hotend and print bed. It’s compact, efficient, completely open-source and printable. Personally, I see this kind of innovation as vital. Just like we wear safety goggles when soldering or use ventilation when laser cutting, we should normalize air filtration as a baseline best practice for filament-based 3D printing.
### Honorable Mentions
* Cocoa Press [Link]: I loved seeing it in action, though I didn’t get to taste any samples.
* Head(amame) [Link]: Great sound experience and love the idea of my own custom headphones – I’d love to print one someday!
* V1 Engineering [Link]: Very cool open-source machines, interactive demos, and I love that their builds are mostly 3D printed!
* Positron [Link]: A compact, portable, upside-down printer that caught my attention.
* Icoscanner [Link]: A Dymaxion-influenced 3D photogrammetry scanner made from a geometric shell embedded with cameras.
* HueForge [Link]: is a software platform that transforms digital images into 3D printable art with depth and color transitions. Their display was incredible– they made it from many gorgeous faux bricks and showcased numerous art works. A labor of many hours, for both print time and assembly. HueForge software is not open source and does cost money to purchase.
## Final Thoughts
I had a fantastic time at RMRRF and fully intend to attend again, maybe even at one of the sister events elsewhere in the country. It was an inspiring and energizing weekend that left me excited about the future of making and open-source tech.
If you find yourself in Loveland, I highly recommend the food at Himalayan Curry Kabob. The menu is excellent, service is great, and everyone was impressed with our food.
Just published my write up on RMRRF: goldfishlaser.github.io/blog/blog/2025/05/29/rep...
#rmrrf2025 #reprap #openhardware
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