- A proposal was floated to build a fully kinematic, human-powered self-replicating RepRap by replacing electronics with purely mechanical control: bicycle/hand-crank power, Jacquard-loom-style punched-card program storage, and whiffletree 12-bit positioners.  
- Merkle’s 2018 arXiv paper on “mechanical computing using only links and rotary joints” was cited as evidence that logic and memory can be implemented without semiconductors.  
- Discussion of how to synchronize multi-bit mechanical actuators without sudden acceleration: using continuously moving bars, hydraulics, or broadcasting tiny motion steps over power-line or radio to many replicators in lock-step.  
- Brian Minnick’s 2021 manuscript “A Self-Replicating 3-D Printer” and a newly posted transcript were shared as the closest existing design study; participants noted its reliance on electric motors and speculated on purely mechanical alternatives.  
- Solder-paste sintering (rather than melting) was explored as a way to print conductive traces on low-temperature FDM substrates; challenges include volatile flux, shrinkage, and surface-tension control, with Rose’s metal suggested as a lower-melt alloy.  
- Historical references: the 1930s Z1 mechanical computer, 1800s Jacquard looms, and a 1958 U.S. patent for an all-mechanical CNC arc-tracer were brought up to show prior art.  
- Participants lamented the absence of a modern compiler that can translate digital logic or G-code into kinematic mechanical mechanisms, calling it an open tooling gap.