After building a garage-sized high-speed 3D printer called the Cheetah, Hans Fouche decided that he needed to actually print something useful to convince people to buy his new machine — especially given its $US10,000 price tag. So as a proof-of-concept he created what has to be the world’s first — and quite possibly its last — 3D-printed lawn mower.
Surprisingly his creation actually works, but that’s probably because the mower’s most important bits, like the motor and its spinning blade, were transplanted from an older machine. It’s undoubtedly impressive that Fouche’s Cheetah 3D printer was able to churn out all the parts needed for the mower in just nine hours, but given everything is made of plastic, you can’t help but feel a little uneasy about what might happen were it to fail.
So it’s a good thing that while demoing the mower he wore his protective flip-flops. [3DPrint.com via Gizmag]
