Portable 3D Printer

Labor will probably be larger than material costs.  What were you thinking this would cost in the end?

I figured that. And I don't really know but I figure it would cost less than one I could just buy anywhere else, besides I would like to have a portable one.

I would highly doubt that Ben making a one-off would be cheaper than buying an already produced one out there.  Ben is an engineer and having an engineer fab something at engineer rates would probably not come out cheaper than the fab costs for interns or cheaper assembly labor they would have at a 3d printer company.  As well as the time it would take for him to design it too.  It's not uncommon for consulting firms to charge $100-200 an hour for an engineers time.

If portability is what you're desiring, just get one of these

http://deezmaker.com/store/#!/~/product/id=23715422

Portabee 3D Printer, Portable & Cheap 3D Printing

Tim

Hey there! I've been wanting to get into 3D printing for some time now, but money's always been pretty tight for me. On top of that, most people don't understand what I do and most of those people assume it's something malicious and have gone to great lengths to prevent me from messing with RFID chips or even old desktop components. For that reason, I can't buy parts online and that's caused serious problems for me.

So, what I'm working on is essentially building a 3D printer from inexpensive, locally procured materials. In addition to these problems, I also don't have much in the way of tools beyond EXTREMELY basic automotive and carpentry related tools. I refuse to believe that this is impossible. When I was younger and more reckless, I used to build all kinds of things from radio transmitters the size of 9 volt batteries to contraptions I probably shouldn't begin to describe here using only hardware that my extremely over-protective mother and probation officer (who frequently thought I was making IEDs) allowed me to have. I don't mean to brag, I just wanted to illustrate that I've done similar things before.

This 3D printer won't be compact or pretty and I expect it to be somewhat buggy. I have a small collection of ancient flip phones, RC cars and various other electronics that I use for projects. I'd like to run it off of an old gateway laptop I have here that I've been meaning to do something with, but I know someone who might be willing to go into the city for me to get a raspberry pi or something like that. If anyone has any advice, please let me know. Any and all help is appreciated!

This is very thoughtful of you. I understand your position because I too am going through the same phase right now.
Building a 3D printer and that too without any heavy artillery and only basic tools stuff is very challenging.
I appreciate your work and determination to carry on despite various obstacles.
I do get a picture of the 3D printer as to how it looks like in mind.
When you are done making it can you also post some info on the basic stuff used in your 3D printer and the costs so incurred.
My opinion may not matter to you but anyway
GOOD JOB MATE

TC

And keep doing the good stuff.

Thank You for sharing your insight.
P. KISHORE KUMAR

I don't think I was sharing insight so much as asking for help. At this rate, it'll probably be some time before I can actually pull this off. I'm currently unemployed (mostly because I'm 16 and a felon. Those two things make it very hard to get a real job,) but I've managed to set aside about $100 for parts. You can straight up buy some 3D printers for just over $300 now, so I figure that if I double what I've saved I'll have nearly enough for what I need. The amount of time needed to do this could vary significantly. There aren't a whole lot of jobs doing yard work this time of year. I'll see what I can find though.

I'm still researching though so I'm still not sure how much it'll cost me, but I'm fairly confidant that I guessed pretty close. Once I get the money and find a place where I can get the components I need, I just have to talk someone in the city into picking up the parts for me and set it up somewhere where my grandfather won't find it. I recently got my mom on board with this and the idea of getting a raspberry pi or two to tinker with (on the condition that I pay for all of my projects). I'm happy about that, but I suppose there will always be people trying to stop me from accomplishing whatever it is I'm working on.

I'll let you know when I've made some progress, but (again) that might take a while. Thank you very much for feeding my ego Mr.Kumar

I doubt $100 will be enough to build your own printer, especially if you don't have access to get parts online.  I mean the electronics alone usually run over $100 for a homebuilt.

4-5 steppers (depending if you have a dual axis), a driver board for those steppers, a power supply, extruder assembly.

I said "I figure that if I double what I've saved I'll have nearly enough for what I need" Meaning I was hoping for the parts to be in the $250 range even though I recognize that might be a bit optimistic. Please read what I've typed before you try to correct me.

Not sure how I misread that, I thought you were thinking that you could save money building it yourself, which is not always the case.  Most people think you can just take any scrap and turn it into a printer, but its usually more trouble than it's worth.

For cheap parts I recommend eBay for the steppers, I got 4 for my CNC machine for like $50, and the printrbot is a good driver board as it has everything on board

http://printrbot.com/shop/printrbot-extrudrboard/

Some people go the Arduino and RAMPS route, but unless you are buying knockoffs, that will run more than a printrbot board will run for the same functionality.