Challenge - chap 3D printer

We see this question a lot lately.

Bare minimum is $400, so in that range, might as well buy a Printrbot kit that *will* work.

Remember cheap isn't always cheap. If you spend $250 and build junk that doesn't work, you're loosing money.

We see this question a lot lately.

Bare minimum is $400, so in that range, might as well buy a Printrbot kit that *will* work.

Remember cheap isn't always cheap. If you spend $250 and build junk that doesn't work, you're loosing money.

Yes, but I asked for 3D printer that works. And you can always spend more money, than you planned to to get it working.

Well, there you go then.  I guess you have your answer.   Expect to spend $400-$500 for a "cheap" 3D printer "that works". 

That's not exactly what I meant

If I were you I would look into using stepper motors from old printers and buying belts and pulleys to move the pieces, I looked at prices, and belts seem to be the least expensive option, its still not going to be cheap!

Edit: look at things like the reprap

ben it is possible to recycle parts... in most cases the only thing you really need to purchase are  the arduino and sheild boards... along with a hot end... personally im for going the heated bed and other extravagant bits to get this thing working... you can always upgrade later!  $400 is one full pay check for me... thats alot... but its not as bad if its more like 100 to start then 50 here and 50 there over the span of a month or two... slowly upgrading it when you can!

We are not saying it is not possible. Just that the results won't be worth the time and money you put into it. I still have the first 3D printer I built. I put it together from a pile of parts I scrounged up. It worked but the print quality was awful and it was really slow. Eventually I scrapped it and started over with a standard design which is running great.

Lots of factors come into play. The torque of the stepper motors, the ratios of the belts and pulleys, the pitch of the belts, etc, etc. All these things need to be adjusted in the firmware and tuned to get decent results. After while you realize what is killing your quality and reliability is the inconsistency in parts that you got by scrounging. So we usually suggest people avoid months and months or frustration and failure and go with something that's a known quantity.

There's a "race to the bottom" with 3D printers now, with $500 models being shown at CES.

It's rapidly approaching the nexus of it being cheaper to buy one than to build one.

The only reason I see for building one yourself is for the challenge of "doing it yourself". More of bragging that you were able to create it from parts... or If you are into the whole thing, then trying to make a new printer that no one has come up with, for which we are almost out of space for them.... I like the challenge of building something, I'm already planning to buy a simple one from pritrbot, just to finish some parts I'm missing, since mine went down last year, so I can finish my reprap with 14"X16X8" build platform...

"Then,now is the time to make improvements,better designs,faster processing times;all the while driving down the consumer price! Better!...Faster!...Cheaper!"...Fudd's Corollary to Moore's Law.

I would never discourage someone from building a 3D printer. Mostly I am trying to change this perception that you can scrounge a bunch of spare parts and build something that works well and saves you a bunch of money. My experience is when people do this they end up so frustrated they give up on 3D printing or they end up spending more to get it working right then if they had just bought one.

I've built about four myself and helped several other people build theirs. I keep building them because I am often trying new ideas and I just like building them. Also I am not looking for cheap but instead something that has higher quality, speed and the features that I want the most.