Thread: 3D Printer weekly Kit

It's 90 weeks at $11 per week right?
So that's nearly 2 years to get a 3d printer, design unspecified, at a cost of nearly $1000
You'd be better off buying a ready made printer with support and warranty and no 2 year wait.

Lots of sub $1000 printers available both ready made or as kits. If you want to learn about how 3d printers work, get one of the kits, join a 3d printer forum, and start building.

I have a Ord Hadron printer at home but I tend to use the Makerbot we have at the local maker space.

Do you have a link?

The only one I can find on Google is 90 weeks at USD11 an issue. That is quite expensive for what it will end up being.

These newsagent weekly things inevitably end up being a very expensive and slow way of getting a product.

If cash flow is a problem I would suggest saving that amount per week. In another year the technology will have improved further. You can already get acceptable units for $500

+1 to buying a kit, as already mentioned they are getting cheaper and better as time goes on, I can't remember the make but there was one that was around the $500.00 mark that seemed quite good, the downside was that you had to buy their filament, which was a little dearer than the ebay stuff, but if it worked reliably then it would be probably worth it.

Also the software for the machine was limited compared to some other options, but at the end of the day it was very simple to use, which if you are new to 3d printing would be a bonus. If I find the link I can post if you are interested, otherwise some googling will provide plenty of options.

Russell.

you can get a RepRap Prusa for far cheaper than that from fleabay or aliexpress.. proven design, will actually complete unlike most of those magazine series.

Thanks for that Gents. Good thing I only bought part 1, wasted $4.00, oh well couldn't buy much with that anyway.
Kryn

Yes building your own should cost you a few hundred $$. Looks like a lot of people spend silly money on these. I've built a few from scratch. You can get everything locally or off ebay. It's an open hardware/software design and the infos freely available(reprap.org). Look at the Prusa Mendel or I3 designs very easy to build.

Hi,
I would like to make a 3D Printer from scratch, No printed parts or kits.
I enjoy the construction and can print parts to upgrade later if it works.
Any one got plans or a link to such a printer?
Cheers

Have a look here http://www.reprap.org/wiki/Prusa

You can build this from Aluminium extrusion or various sheet products. It's a simple but proven design.

Electronics available from BilbyCNC (no affiliation) or sourced from eBay

Generally these things require lots of LM8UU linear bearings, 608 Roller bearings, some 8mm stainless or chrome hard rod for the slides.

The electronics bill of material includes

Arduino Mega2560
RAMPS 1.4 shield
4 or 5 x Pololu (Stepstick) 4988 stepper controllers (15 bucks of eBay for the set)
Smart LCD Controller (~$20) (optional)
5 NEMA17 Steppers
12 Volt PC fan for cooling RAMPS
3 x micro switches for limits
Heated bed for build platform
6.8 Ohm power resistor
2x 100K NTC thermistors for temp sensors (extruder and bed)
450W PC Power Supply.

If you want to slurge, get some 1/2" ball screws for the Z axis instead of 8mm threaded rod.

By the way Shoot for printing ABS (approx 240degC heat) for which you need the heated bed. If you can print that you can print everything else. ABS is strong and durable, PLA on the other hand is brittle.

The simple 6.8 Ohm x40W power resistor is capable of reaching temps above 250C on the hot end. Bilby have these and just about most of the other stuff.

I've noticed on eBay there are several "3d printer kits" of electronics on offer which oddly can cost more than the sum of the parts. Be careful if you are tempted to buy from a one stop shop, take note of what's included and price them separately. also a lot of chinese sourced stuff is free shipping! but can take weeks as you know. Prices differ widely. I've used arduino mega2560 clones for $15 and work just as well as the genuine ones costing over $60. RAMPS 1.4 is dirt cheap now, I've seen them for $5 on ebay and $20 with drivers.

Originally Posted by triden

Hi,
I would like to make a 3D Printer from scratch, No printed parts or kits.
I enjoy the construction and can print parts to upgrade later if it works.
Any one got plans or a link to such a printer?
Cheers

Hi Swarfmaker1,
Really appreciate the time and effort you put into your post.
Thanks for all the info. Had a quick look, lots of info to follow up on.
I do have a home made CNC router so i may have a closer look at THIS as well.
Although my cnc has a 3kw spindle, if i remove it and attach a print head the mass would not be so great and should handle the speed of 3D printing.
Cheers

Triden, that's a good way to start. I've never tried mach3 or Linuxcnc for 3d printing others have done it with success. The hot ends are easy to build.

As somebody that is using LinuxCNC to run a 3D printer, I would probably suggest not going that way, not that it is necessarily a bad thing, just that the Ramps boards are so cheap now and they do everything, heated bed control, heater control, stepper drives all done, etc.

With my setup I also trialled using the Beaglebone Black card for the controller, so that was a bit of a learning curve as well.

I had four Gecko G251's as well as a handful of steppers, and some other parts which is why I thought that would be a good way to go. I approached the build as a small CNC Router which probably didn't help, it ended up being rather heavy and cumbersome, of course this has nothing to do with the controller.

If I built another one (I need help !) I would go the Ramps board and try keep everything as light and easy to maintain as possible, having the hotend mounted so removal is difficult doesn't help as well as the extruder tucked away at the back so it is hard to get to is also a bad idea.

Teething problems can also drag on, they are finicky little things, if you have started to go bald, owning a 3D printer might finish the job !

Having said all that they are REALLY cool to watch in action, I never left the machine unattended, partly because of the teething problems I mentioned but also it is just so cool to see things "growing" on the platform.

Cheers.

Russell.

I use LinuxCNC for a mill and a lathe. I did see the benefit of having a compact unit in an Arduino and the RAMPS board. I use a laptop mostly these days and having the Printer front end on that is handy. I personally wouldn't use LinuxCNC or Mach3 for a printer but others may wish to do so and I guess a choice they make but I'm very enthusiastic about the RAMPS boards. The Pololu stepper drivers are truly amazing little devices for something smaller than a postage stamp that can pack such punch. I use one in a rotary table hand held controller which I designed and built. with a Teensy 3.1 board as the brains.

When using the Smart LCD controller with the RAMPS board you get the benefit of printing without a PC. I agree with you about the fact that the Arduino and RAMPS stuff is so cheap now that you can't go wrong. I've looked at the other electronics solutions such as Generation 7 , but the Mega2560 + RAMPS1.4 is just about the cheapest solution and still capable of running dual extruders and servo for auto bed leveling.

My 3d printer has the usual Arduino/RAMPS combination and is controlled via a Raspberry Pi running Octoprint.
It's easy enough to switch over to the lap top if needed.
I'm not sure what firmware I run on the Arduino, it's a been a while since I fired the printer up.

I didn't realise that the Ramps could do dual extruder, very interesting.

I looked up Octoprint...also very interesting.

I happen to have some very small linear rail with three bearing blocks, not much good for anything CNC...unless of course you wanted to build a delta type 3D printer with about 600mm Z travel...might have to go scavenging some parts from my existing jammed 3D printer and get busy, like I need another project lol.

Russell.