cheap DIY 3d printers

I built a MendelMax 1.5 for about $450.  Very sturdy unit.

Dear Roy,

  I'm a mentor for a high school robotics team and as part of our off-season learning projects we are also building a MendelMax 1.5.

  Yesterday we got most of the electronics installed and ran a test print in the "air".  We have not installed the print bed yet so we just moved the z zero up a few inches and let it run.  Worked fine, amazingly enough, but I shouldn't have been suprized, my kids are pretty smart.

  In anycase, we'd love to chat with you about your experiences (since as you, ours is widely sourced and home built) about your experiences.  It would be great to understand your print platform and which up-grades (since it seems 10 come out a day) you are pursueing.

  If you're interested, I can be reached at:

docdavies2005@gmail.com

Doc

Hey Daniel

Yes I do build my own 3d printers.  I have built 5 so far. 

Nate

Can I set you a challenge build a tiny tiny one that fiits on a desk ?

Hey Daniel

I would check out this link as most printers will fit on a desk without a problem.  http://www.reprap.org/wiki/RepRap_Options.

Nate

Imean stupid small

Hey Daniel

I suppose you could make it small but then what do you plan on printing with it.  Having a smaller printer means you have a smaller print area.  I always seem to run out of room with my current printers so going smaller would be questionable to me.  If you plan on printing really small objects I could see this but why limit yourself.  I would be more than happy to help you out if you would like to build one.

Nate

Smaller means cheaper and I'm on a budget of about 100GBP which means I should save but I only need to print about 5 cm high and 4 wide

iam geting http://makibox.com/details/product/A6-LT and i want to mod to link it to a notebook and 3d scaner

Hey Daniel

To build a printer for 100GBP($153) is going to be hard to do.  The cheapest i have been able to build a printer for was around $300 and thats because i was able to print all the parts off another printer i owned.  The printer Billy posted is a little over your budget bud not far off.

Nate

Hey Billy

When you say mod it what exactly do you mean?  To get it to work with a notebook all you do is plug it into the usb port same goes for the 3d scanner.

Nate

i want to put the notebook on the frame of the 3d printer and expand   the 3d printer by 3ft len by3ft deep by 3ft tall and add a portable hard drive to it beside the 3d scaner it the cheaper way i can go  with the skills i have

i want to put the notebook on the frame of the 3d printer and expand   the 3d printer by 3ft len by3ft deep by 3ft tall and add a portable hard drive to it beside the 3d scaner it the cheaper way i can go  with the skills i have

im a noob at this

i do armor builds iam thinks about use the 3d printer for that but it use a  programm of pepakura viewer that prints on card stok

what do you plan on using the notebook and hard drive for?  I do most my modeling on my desktop then put the model on a sd card and plug into my ramps board and print from that.  As far as making the printer bigger by 2' would be nice in theory but you will lose accuracy big time trying to accomplish that.

Nate

well like i said  im a noob at this and dont no the limits let

Not a problem Billy.  If you have any questions while your doing the mod just let me know.  I will see what i can do for you.

Nate

ok do u have a old one  that i could buy from u to lean on

Hey Billy

I currently dont have any extra printers laying around.  I had one but my 3 year old son wanted it in his room.  I dont think he would like me taking it away. 

Nate

ya  my son and daughter want to see some toys  being made by one

i get the a6 ht  but then i have to wait 6 to 10 weeks for it but first have to save for it and get a note book so i can have alot of op to play with

Hey Billy

That is a long time to wait.  I was looking a the makebox website and dont see what firmaware they are using on the board and what software they use to communicate from the computer to the printer.  All the printers i have built in the past used Pronterface to interface the computer to printer board.  The board i either used Sprinter or Marlin but changed to only use marlin now.  As for the modelling software i use Autodesk 123D Design and for the model slicing software i use Slic3r.  All these are free. Do you happen to know what they are using on the Makibox machines?

Nate