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.

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.

I would never discourage any ONE person or group from building anything that they could imagine! Whether this thing be failure or not? As I look back on my 6 decades past...I've been many times over on failure than success! Although retired via permanent and restrictive infirmities;I still manage my share of scrounging and dumpster diving! I've built my machine shop many times over,each time improving and refining the accuracy of each machine. they may not be the finest machines ever built,but I know how each one works and how to fix or fabricate a replacement part!

When people learn to do things for themselves-by themselves,they will learn forever. Chris,I appreciate what you have shown us in the past. Element 14 is truly a community where the exchange of products,design,learning and free discourse of information can be passed to all that seek  it!  My time on the soapbox has run into overtime;I yield.

I agree, sorry if I sound like if I was discouraging him, not my intent... I'm new to the element14 community, I've only been reading and looking at this community less than a year.. I actually built my first 3d printer last winter, and tried building a second one printing parts with the first one, 'till it stopped working...(bigger print surface, and as you said looking for better quality/resolution in the prints.

I agree, sorry if I sound like if I was discouraging him, not my intent... I'm new to the element14 community, I've only been reading and looking at this community less than a year.. I actually built my first 3d printer last winter, and tried building a second one printing parts with the first one, 'till it stopped working...(bigger print surface, and as you said looking for better quality/resolution in the prints.