What kind of printer do you use?

I might build my own, considering the cost of a kit on Ebay for the basic Prusa i3R is 269.00 I should be able to use the CNC to cut out the frame parts and buy the rest, including the upgrades that you mention, for that cost. I have lots of acrylic laying around to use for the frame or I could use high density 6mm plywood.

i looked at that route was going to cut all the acrylic on my laser but the supplies cost almost as much as the kit. acrylic sheeting is surprisingly expensive. Well and me having almost zero patience. I went the less but instant gratification route. I was thinking of building a sla/dlp type printer now though as they are still near 1000.00us.


this model is 3000.00us

Hi @Historiker , trust me I went down that road , im a diy man I love the tech challenge and over the years I have had several iterations of 3D printers , the last one being the Rostok Mini ... so my collection to date = Mendel 90 ( nopheads design , Rostok mini and the first way back was the Reprap Perusa .... the money I spent on bits way outweighs the end result for me , so this time I bit the bullet and flexed the plastic to the tune of £289.00 and in less than 3 days think it was, I had a machine to fit the bill and allow me to get on with some actual printing rather than tweaking , changing designs , buying bits that were not used LOL and generally NOT getting any 3D printing done :-( ..
Things have moved on nicely in the 3D printer market and for that money , without being flippant it was a great way to go ... Been there seen that done that, advise you skip that pain .... then again were builders here so if that's the new challenge and I know its not beyond your skill set so you'll have great resources out there and here as well to call on in one respect Go For it LOL in another Go Buy it'll be less pain

I have stacks of acrylic out in the shop (Craigslist finds) I would have to buy everything else but the cost would be cheaper than buying a basic setup and then upgrading as you recommend.

yes you are correct. my only reservation came with the set up and firmware as @wannabeaflyer2 points out. you have built a cnc though right? this shouldnt be an issue for you. look forward to your progress. cnc table will be perfect for acrylic.
They also sell hardware and electronics bundles not sure on prices.

@Historiker, I built mine from scratch a year or so ago. I went the really DIY route and only used stuff from the shed - no hardened linear rails or bearings. The x-axis was just from a cut up PTFE? cutting board sliding on aluminium extrusion - was smooth and had no noticeable play. All electronics were from china. I did it mostly as an experiment to start with. I was surprised how well it printed given the crude build. (picture below, couldn't find one of the complete unit.)



I've only ever printed ABS, never got round to buying a roll of PLA so far. The inductive sensor bed levelling worked really well.

After about 9 months I decided to print parts to make more of a traditional unit with hardened chrome rails. Revised unit shown below. It is bigger in size than a complete or kit unit but that's not an issue for me.



Like everything it comes down to your own preferences balancing time, cost, money, etc. Either way having a 3D printer is extremely valuable for the DIYer.

+1 @RufusDufus
interesting use of string

HaHa, you noticed. It is actually braided fishing line. I had read that it was very flexible and didn't stretch over time.

When I built the original printer the GT2 timing belt was one of the slowest parts to come from ebay China. I got impatient and went to the local tackle shop to get the fishing line. It worked so well I never bothered to change it and carried it over to the revised design. It is simply tied to a cable/zip tie and then pulled tight for tensioning.

at least you used coated screw for anti corrosion. top notch.

I started in 2011 with a repstrap made from old inkjet printers and scanners :

The electronics was also built around salvaged stepper drivers and power supplies from printers :


With this repstrap I printed the plastic parts to make my current 3D printer :

In this picture I used the electronics from the old printer

I designed it to be rigid and powerful enough to move a dual extruder and mill circuit boards :

So I also designed and built the final electronics :

I made a wiki with all the files to replicate it : http://reprap.org/wiki/Heavy_Mendel

I like the use of fishing line by RufusDufus, I used stainless steel fishing line for my printer :

awesome hacks guys, i love it

LOL you see that's why I love this forum ,,,,so many ways to skin the proverbial cat , our machines sometimes look like something the cat dragged In ( there's the cat reference again ) but they bloody work and they do what we require very well until something better comes along ,, gentlemen I salute ya'll , I don't know about "Great minds think alike" More like great minds have the same toys Damm right to

Bruce, I found the printer that you linked to for 299.99 on ebay...just clicked "Buy Now".... Thanks for your input.

Now....what useless but fun stuff can I start printing out? LOL

A drawer full @Historiker. I spent 6 to 8 hours assembling it. Wasn't bad. Grab some 8x10 glass from Home Depot they are under 2.00 so grab a few. I got a bunch of filament from micro center 15.00 a kg.

Ooohhh....micro center.

I asked my wife where she wanted to go for our anniversary next month. She said "how about Chicago? Don't they have a MicroCenter? Would'nt you enjoy that?"

No one should EVER wonder why I love this woman....

There is a micro center les than 30 minutes from the house.........they get a lot of my money.

When my sister-in-law worked for GM (VP in Human Resources, boy was she mad when we kept buying fords, lol) my wife would entice me to go visit them with a trip to Microcenter over there

I'm using Korean FDM 3D Printer. Name as Cubicon Style.
Cubicon is good for maintaining printing condition.

hi there, I have a few 3d printer. My favorite one is a stratasys bst, runs like crazy 24/7. as for free software I use creation workshop, it is free, and can do additive process 3d printer and laser and dlp 3d printer.

Ok, you see the key to good 3d printer is to understand that the better, thicker, stronger the hardware is the better your printer will be in the way that it will require less daily tweak. To make a nice one you will need just under 1k. The thing is you can get a used Stratasys for around 2k which is so much better than any other printer out there. I have 2 Stratasys that I bought broken on eBay for $700 shipping included and it took me just a few days and around $200 to fix them. But if you want to build yours, remember:
- strong well balanced frame (aluminum is best for that and the thicker the best, I also put my printer on a flat marble surface to ensure stability
- heated bed or heated environment
- big rods and big motors to ensure reliability
- good extruder head

I have build a few of them from scratch and got good results but I always had to maintain them every time I did a print, and quality was good but not even close to my Stratasys. Let me know if you need any 3d print for your printer, I can probably print them and we do some type of trade. I am looking for someone to code a patch to use x-simulation software with my Mame arcade games emulator.
Good luck in your printer build