3D Printer kit build

The world of 3D printers has finally hit the balance of quality/price for me to finally bite the bullet, and I've been asked to do a build thread, so here we go. After researching, and researching, and doing some research I decided on a Prusa-style printer. It uses Cartesian coordinates (X,Y, and Z, axis) with multiple motors and belts. This style has the print bed moving on the Y axis. Not my first choice because I could see a tall build falling over due to the movement? I guess we'll see. So, here's why I chose the model I did. I chose the Prusa 10 i3v because it has a 10X10X10 build envelope. That's bigger than all but a few, and at a much cheaper price than anything comparable. Most units ride on round rods with bushings for the movement. This one uses aluminum extrusions and tapered Delrin bushings for speed and accuracy. But there are two reasons that, together, were the deciding factor. Price and customer service. The printer is under $600, depending on how you outfit the printer. The other factor, customer service, was huge to me. Others have said that Colin at Maker Farm (www.makerfarm.com) is very responsive and knowledgeable. I've asked him 3 questions I think, one when I was deciding what unit I wanted, and twice during the build. He always gets back to me in a matter of a few hours, even in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday. That's huge. Colin is great. So, anyway, on to the build. What showed up on my door was a relatively small box full of fun and goodness. The frame of this unit is wood, birch plywood, with all the pieces laser cut with amazing precision. The instructions are clear and concise, they are a series of videos actually. Each step has an accompanying video, that helps. I'm just realizing that I didnt take a ton of pictures, I was having too much fun putting it together. The engineering is great. Lots of parts can only go together one way, by design. Anyway, here's a few of the sub-assemblies from day one of the build. The kit came on pretty much the worst weekend. I was busy and only had a few hours to fart around. More updates to come....

I am interested to see how this compares to the older Makerbot I have at work. Toying with picking something up for myself soon.

I find it so interesting that many of these high-tech 3D printers are made from wood. It makes sense, wood is light, strong, cheap and easy to work with...but it just seems ironic.

Very cool, what do you plan to make with it?

I look at the various printers and kits on the market from time to time, but so far, have not made the leap of buying one. Please post some more updates as you get yours together and get it sorted out.

If you don't mind me asking, how much did you pay for it?

I upgraded the hot end and bought a spool of filament. I think the final tally was $630??? You can get one for under $600.
If anyone is considering one, I really cant say enough about Colin and MakerFarm. I'm not a 3d print-geek, so knowing I have support after my paypal goes through is important to me.

turtl631 wrote: Very cool, what do you plan to make with it?

I'm not 100% yet. I know Im going to make some upgraded parts for one of our toilets. Not very cool, I know. But the alternative is either a new toilet, ot replacement pressure vessel. Either way is a few hundred. The printer will 1/2 pay for itself the first time I use it.

You guys need to watch "Printing the Future" (on netflix streaming). It shows the businesses trying to get in on the ground floor of what they think will be a huge market.

In short, I don't see it.

They're trying to sell to the general public, people who eat at McD's on the way home where they watch 5 hrs of TV. So you somehow get them to spend $799+ for a 3D printer, they bring it home, set it up, then realize that in order to actually make stuff, they have to be, you know, creative, using their brains. As a friend said, "$799 can buy a lot of lap dances." That's a good slice of America right there. Where these companies go wrong is thinking that everyone's as creative as they are. No, if they were, they'd have their own companies.

I see these being successful with company R&D departments, though once you go there, they're going to want better units, either stereo lithography or even the laser/metal deposit type units for $$$$$ that can actually make real, useful stuff. How many hard plastic toys does the general public make before they realize that they could have spent 1/50 the amount at the local toy store for better stuff.

For Jack and Jill Public, I see piles of their printers showing up soon on CL.

In reply to kb58:

I just don't have the patience, or even desire, to spend enough time learning the software to become competent enough to design the parts. I see that as being a major problem for 99% of adults.

Now, if you're talking about kids/teenagers wailing away on a 3D printer in their bedroom, well, yeah...there'll be plenty of that! No different than the YouTubers, Photoshoppers, bedroom-music-producers, etc. And they'll be damn good at it!

I think of the 3D printer like the PC. In a few decades it'll be much more commonplace. Not every house, like a PC is now, but like a PC was in the late 80's. And it'll be the same as with PCs. There'll be those that are using them to their fullest, and those that just check their AOL mail and play games, and there'll be those that are designing stuff and making it. Designing stuff on blender or sketchup isn't very hard really.

I'm betting in the not too distant future you will be buying the designs and printing them on your printer. Much like you can do with cards, and forms on your inkjet.

Need a plastic part for your car? Here's the file with a license to print two.

In another 10-20 years, metal deposit printers will be where plastic printers are now. Affordable enough to have one on your desk.

Very cool! There is a guy down the road that has his own pro unit that he uses at home. He is a engineer by trade but bought the unit to maybe do side work with. I can see it for rapid prototyping and R&D but every home having one? I cant see that. That being said I have been keeping my eye out for a 3D printing business to pop up near me, as soon as it does im taking over my resume. It would be a cool field to work in since its just now taking off.

In the 70's and 80's nobody could envision every house having a computer, now I'm posting this on a computer than allows me to call or video chat to another continent, while finding the nearest Thai restaurant, and even tells me when someone sent me a virtual letter from Africa, with no postage, paper, a pen....2 minutes ago!! And it fits in my shirt pocket and has a camera that rivals a full DSLR!! What Toyoman said is what I envision. I need a part for my food hydrator or my hoverboard. I purchase the file that allows me to print one copy.
I tried to do an update tonight, but can only get to the site from my phone.

Are there any companies like ibm, Apple, hp, Microsoft, etc for the 3d printer that I should be researching?

mtn wrote: Are there any companies like ibm, Apple, hp, Microsoft, etc for the 3d printer that I should be researching?

3d Systems and Strasis come to mind.

Here's the latest update.

Just about all the subassemblies are done I think.

Now the frame starts to come together. Most parts have square locating holes with captured nuts in one piece, and a bolt coming through to clamp them together. Between the torque on the bolt and the precision of the cuts, these parts are tight.

It's starting to look like a 3D printer now!!

How come the parts that separate this from other, lesser printers, the extrusions.

The extrusions and the tapered rollers effectively create a "V" that the three axis (how to you spell axis in plural?) ride on. This allows it to be faster and more accurate than other printers. I don't care about the speed (because they are all slow by my measure) but the accuracy is what I'm after. Here's a shot or two of one of the rollers in the extrusion

I don't know which picture is worse than the other haha.

Fast forward a few minutes and the build bed and controls are mounted (the control panel is on top). All the drive motors are mounted and the threaded rods for the Z-axis are in place.

Another consideration in my purchase was the availability of an SD card slot. I didn't want the printer to have to be next to the computer, and I didn't want the computer to be tied up during a long print. This way, I download the file on the SD card, take the SD card to the printer (where ever that is) and print it.
Using Kapton tape, I secured the bed thermistor to the heated bed and I'm ready for the next step.

A heated build bed is important because it helps the plastic to stick to the build bed, and prevents uneven cooling of the part as hot plastic is being added over here, while the plastic is cooling over there.

The bed is mounted, the spool holder is mounted (upper left) and it's really taking shape now.

There is space between the heated bed and the platform that the heater mounts to. There will be a piece of glass on top of the heated bed. That air gap between the heater and the wood platform can make it take longer to heat up. So I went to a craft store and bought some cork tiles and cut them to fit. This does two things: it insulates the plywood platform from the heat of the bed (110C) and it allows the heater to get up to temp faster. There's no risk of fire with the heater and the the plywood though, some people actually use cardboard where I used cork, so there's no fire hazzard, just efficiency to be gained.

The next step is the electronics, then....IT LIVES!!!

DrBoost wrote: I think of the 3D printer like the PC. In a few decades it'll be much more commonplace. Not every house, like a PC is now, but like a PC was in the late 80's. And it'll be the same as with PCs. There'll be those that are using them to their fullest, and those that just check their AOL mail and play games, and there'll be those that are designing stuff and making it. Designing stuff on blender or sketchup isn't very hard really.

I'm with Dr. Boost on this one. Home computing (the first Apple as an example) started out as a cottage industry also. Once the technology goes mainstream and companies like HP, Apple etc get on board I expect 3D printers to be the ipod / smart phone etc of the future.

Great project BTW, thanks for sharing!

When I see 3D printers, I see easy to make plastic patterns to be used in a backyard aluminum foundry.

Very cool to see it coming together! I can see the printer working as a faster way or ordering things from online. Just go online and order something and its made that night.

DrBoost- what program are you using to build the 3D models? Do you just design your object in AutoCad and plug it into the 3D printing software to be transfigured into something the printer can use?

This is what I'm talking about. This is amazing

in reply to Skervy: I've only used google sketchup. It's a free CAD-type program with a less technical side than AutoCAD, so a shorter learning curve. There's also Blender, and others as well.
In reply to RossD: Yup, that's what I was thinking.

DrBoost wrote: This is what I'm talking about. This is amazing

WOW now that really is amazing! Ya I have some background in AutoCad and Autodesk inventor witch would be hard for someone new to just "pick up", sketch up is much easier although iv never used it haha. I should have made my question more specific, what file types does the printer use? I would assume it comes software that converts a digital 3D rendering and converts that into the code needed to run the printer head.

That or you would have to wright out code for the printer to follow. This sucks I watched my roommates do it in school, a few hundred lines of code to print out a little key chain.

Skervey wrote:

DrBoost wrote: This is what I'm talking about. This is amazing

WOW now that really is amazing! Ya I have some background in AutoCad and Autodesk inventor witch would be hard for someone new to just "pick up", sketch up is much easier although iv never used it haha. I should have made my question more specific, what file types does the printer use? I would assume it comes software that converts a digital 3D rendering and converts that into the code needed to run the printer head. That or you would have to wright out code for the printer to follow. This sucks I watched my roommates do it in school, a few hundred lines of code to print out a little key chain.

You start with a 3D file. Then that goes through a slicing program. That takes the file and divides it into the individual laters. That is then sent to the printer as a g-code file. So in short, no coding or anything like that. Just a little processing. Along the way, you can modify, or fix the file before printing.

I'm sure you know already, but a Xbox Kinect is a cheap 3D scanner.

I am trying to come up with legitimate reasons on why I should get a 3D printer, other then using it as a new toy.

I don't need another hobby...I don't need another hobby...I don't need another hobby...I don't need another hobby...I don't need another hobby...I don't need another hobby...I don't need another hobby...I don't need another hobby...I don't need another hobby...I don't need another hobby...I don't need another hobby...I don't need another hobby...