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Where are the plans, code, designs?

Former Member

I came across the Ben Heck show / Element 14 site and watched the videos and thought "Yes, I'd like to build a 3D Printer too". So, I sort of assumed that somewhere on the site would be either product(s) I could buy or code and designs I could download or just something other than watching Ben whizz through how to build his 3D printer.

 

Have I missed something? Is there a web page where all this exists? Searching for "3D printer" just brought up various tech spec sheets and nothing that looked like CAD design files or downloadable code etc.

 

Or are my assumptions way off base?

  • You might want to check out the following site:

     

    http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page

     

    There are a lot of these types of projects appearing on the web at the moment but this seems to be the most popular (And I think the original).

  • I helped Ben with this build so I can say there really are not any complete build plans/instructions.

     

    Ben uses Adobe illustrator to make 2D plans of what he wants to do and from that puts together the files for his ShopBot. The rest is a lot of time holding parts up in the air and visualizating how it will come togther.

     

    Also, in this case, a lot of the parts and ideas came from other projects. The extruder came from MakerGear. The control electronics is a RAMPS board plugged into an Arduino Mega. The RAMPS boards can be found from Ultimachine.

     

    The controllers for the RAMPS board are Pololu A4983 stepper driver boards.

     

    Most of the plans were derived from information at http://reprap.org. The Prusa Mendel was the primary inspiration for his design.

     

    Personally if I was getting started from scratch today I would buy a kit from http://makergear.com. They have excellent designs and after sales support. They also have a pretty active IRC channel were lots of other 3D printer builders hand out and help each other with tweaks and getting the best performance from our machines.

     

    -- Chris

  • in reply to ckraft

    Thanks for the reply Chris. I can understand your explanation but not the missed opportunity! I can understand Ben's purpose in making the video was, perhaps, to inspire others into making their own 3D printer. It just seems such a waste though for those that would deerly love to follow in Ben's footsteps and make their own printer but don't necessarily have the facilities, spare time, or equipment (until they've printed it!! haha).

     

    Not a criticism - just an observation.

     

    I'll check out the websites mentioned in your reply as well as Kelv's. Thanks to you both.

  • in reply to Former Member

    More complete plans would boost viewer invovlvement. A lot of us would like to follow Ben's trail. We'd be happy to tweak and tune his designs and report back on the results. He's got access to an army of pretty smart unpaid volunteers if he wants to give us alittle more to work with.

     

    -Jim Hart

  • in reply to Former Member

    I am sure that the plans will be released eventually.

     

    I was just making the point that they are 2D Adobe illustrator files. Many of Ben's designs are one-off's so he often doesn't have a detailed design/parts list. Plus sometimes he works with other folks, like me in this case, who bring over parts that work and he doesn't really know what they are or where they came from.

     

    I am happy to help someone get started with building a 3D printer. There is an amazing amount of detail on the reprap.org web site and really a fantastic supportive community that has built up. I am regularlly on the Makergear IRC channel talking through ideas with other folks.

     

    -- Chris

  • in reply to ckraft

    I would even love to have the 2d files for this build I can work out the rest

     

    thanks

    Rob

  • One problem, similar to what Chris touches on, is there's a large difference between "files well done enough for me to build something" and "files comprehensive enough for people to copy it"

     

    More often than not, by time we're done with a project we're on to the next.

     

    If there's anything specific you're interested in, email me. Please note many of my designs - especially ones I do outside the show - are not for public  consumption.