DIY 3D printer, anyone?

aniceto · Aug 2012

Has anyone else jumped on the DIY 3D printer bandwagon yet?

ZacD · Aug 2012

I've been really wanting to, but don't have the extra cash right now, You can build a pretty decent printer for $500-ish, there's awesome kits on ebay that tell you everything you need and contains instructions.

GarageBay9 · Aug 2012

I'm hoping to pick up a Clondel kit from Metrix in Seattle. I'm still a little fuzzy on how much more I have to supply besides the kit to get a complete printer, but I suppose it's better than "all of it".

ZacD · Aug 2012

GarageBay9 wrote: »

I'm hoping to pick up a Clondel kit from Metrix in Seattle. I'm still a little fuzzy on how much more I have to supply besides the kit to get a complete printer, but I suppose it's better than "all of it".

controller, motors, and metal rods are the most common missing parts, they also are often missing heating elements.

Steve Schulze · Aug 2012

You built that yourself Aniceto? How much difficulty was there in calibrating it to get it to give decent results? We looked into that route at one point but decided that with the amount of time it'd take to make the thing entirely functional, we might as well just get a pre-built one from Makerbot.

aniceto · Aug 2012

I built that Ultimaker in about 12 hours, then it took 2 days to get it working correctly. I had problems with the extruder feed, but because I was such a huge noob I wasn't able to trouble shoot it correctly. I've seen more technically minded people get nice prints on the same day they've built the printer.

The Makerbot Replicator would be pretty handy with the dual extruder set up. I wasn't convinced by the quality of the prints though.

aniceto · Aug 2012

Also, I totally geeked out when I realised I could model a replacement button for my Wacom stylus and print it out within 10 minutes.

Kwramm · Aug 2012

haha! wacom replacement buttons! this is damn cool. Shame I'm not the most technical person when it comes to hardware hacks, or I would get one of those printers.

Steve Schulze · Aug 2012

aniceto wrote: »

The Makerbot Replicator would be pretty handy with the dual extruder set up. I wasn't convinced by the quality of the prints though.

I've been pretty happy with what I've gotten out of the Replicator so far. It is a bit finicky fluctuations in temperature - With the airconditioning in the office it really needs a cover, but you can get some quite fine detail out of it. It also prints support structures which I've heard is not something that all of the kit printers do.

If you wouldn't mind, I'd be interested to see a sharp closeup of the printed detail from your printer so I could compare the two. I've been toying with the idea of getting a printer of my own so that I can make a little pocket money on the side, so it'd be good to see what some of the other options are like.

aniceto · Aug 2012

Being able to print support material would be a huge plus.

Here's a print of Mars I did when Curiosity landed. Using Netfabb with ultra settings. straight out of the printer - I didn't bother polishing it.

The horizontal lines are the layers of PLA. The longitude lines are polygons.

uncle · Aug 2012

Apart from creating the whole printer, what is the cost of printing material? Looks like nice way to create custom Warhammer figurines

Steve Schulze · Aug 2012

Hm. Tricky to tell with the naturally lumpy surface of the model, but I reckon that looks like the same level of detail as we're getting.

Xoliul · Aug 2012

I was about to make a thread about this!
I realized this is like the nr 1 thing I want right now. But it still seems really expensive for what is essentially still a toy / hobby device. It looks like I'll have to spend at least £800(for a second hand makerbot), a single extruder Replicator is £1200 including shipping.

The build it yourself route appeals to me as well, but it's kind of hard to get an overview of what's required and what it will cost. The $500 DIY Zac mentions sounds way cheaper than I expected though!

Also curious what material cost is. Wondering if I could make some money back with it, as I'm sure it's a lot cheaper than using Shapeways or another service (lower accuracy though).

Steve Schulze · Aug 2012

The reels of material are pretty cheap. I think it was something like $40 for replacement reels and you really don't get through it very quickly.

ZacD · Aug 2012

Xoliul wrote: »

The build it yourself route appeals to me as well, but it's kind of hard to get an overview of what's required and what it will cost. The $500 DIY Zac mentions sounds way cheaper than I expected though!
).

http://www.ebay.com/itm/RepRap-Prusa-Air-Mendel-3d-Printer-Complete-Frame-Kit-Preassembled-NEW-/150890906704?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2321cc8450#ht_1169wt_1163

RepRap Prusa Air Mendel 3d Printer, Complete Frame Kit Preassembled, NEW -$300
What you will need to finish:

*step motors
*electronic board
*power supply
*extruder

EarthQuake · Aug 2012

do want

What sort of skill level is required to build one of these?

Ferg · Aug 2012

A couple of my friends have built various kinds of DIY 3d printers and its been on my to do list for a while. Just now getting settled back in seattle after a couple years of nomadic freelancing, so hopefully it won't be long.

Neat little pintrest DIY 3d printer page for those looking to explore some options: http://pinterest.com/finklean/diy-3d-printers/

Justin Meisse · Aug 2012

If you're interested in diy 3d printing, search around to see if you have a hackerspace in your area: List of Hacker Spaces

ZacD · Aug 2012

Also, going off the wacom button replacement, everyday practical applications

Justin Meisse · Aug 2012

This seems interesting if you are handy with metalwork (which I'm not!)
Eventorbot

You guys should also check out Make:/url], best magazine evar!

The blog is pretty nifty too!

Xoliul · Aug 2012

Justin Meisse wrote: »

If you're interested in diy 3d printing, search around to see if you have a hackerspace in your area: List of Hacker Spaces

Sweet! I thought they just had this in the US, I might go and visit that London one some time soon.

I still prefer to end up with my own printer, but they do laser cutting and have a makerbot, so I could learn to build at least some of the parts there. So exciting haha!

aniceto · Aug 2012

EQ: It varies. With the Ultimaker, you just need to be able to use a screwdriver and pliers, which they supply.

I love how you can download plans from Thingiverse and print out upgrades for your own machine.

Like this extruder that lets you print with food.
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:21302

Or a new filament feed system
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:19551

Or sound dampening feet
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:14802

also stuff like this
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:16726
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:18391
http://www.thingiverse.com/thing:27062

Xoliul · Aug 2012

Hey guys, one thing I really wonder about is the software to drive these things. Can you only use specific software with specific machines? I'd hate to pick one that has some horribly convoluted method...

Or does it not matter at all, and do you just need to produce a file to feed to the machine? Do different machines have different file formats ?

aniceto · Sep 2012

all the printers in here use g-code, and there's a few different programs, like Cura, ReplicatorG, and Netfabb, that you can use to convert STL files to G-code.
So you can model in your favorite program -> export mesh as an STL -> convert STL to gcode -> send gcode to machine for printing.

cptSwing · Sep 2012

Hah, if I'd have had this as a kid, I'd have saved gazillions of euros that were wasted on Warhammer figurines..

Bigjohn · Sep 2012

Yeah, the software is all open source and there are several different ones for each step in the chain. You basically need to export an STL file, which you can easily do out of Max. Then you need a slicer which will convert it to GCODE, basically make layers out of it. Then the one to actually print the GCODE.

I messed with it last year. It was fun, but I have to warn you to temper your expectations. This tech is still quite primitive. I went in (like a dumbass, I know) expecting to print my zBrush sculpts and was kinda disappointed. The overall process of building it, learning how the whole thing works, messing with all the programs, that was tons of fun. Strangely enough, when it came to actually printing stuff that's when I lost interest

The quality just isn't there for the cheap ones. And you really do need a dual-head printer to print any sort of sculpt since support structures are absolutely necessary. It's possible to generate support structures even with a single-head printer, but then you're dealing with quite a bit of work after the thing is printed.

Overall though it's an awesome technology.

Oh and also, in the future you could print your own drugs!