Does anyone have plans or a direction to get started for a large 3d Printer. 4X8 feet or larger?

AirBus is working on a printer large enough to build an aircraft fuselage, but on the more affordable end, the German studio called BigRep claims to have a printer scaled to produce furniture for only $40k. Build volume on that one is roughly 40 inches on a side. http://www.engadget.com/2014/02/19/bigreps-one-3d-printer-furniture/

Kirk

One of the cost factors for anything on that scale will be the filament cost. Running around $30 USD for a spool of generic filament (2.2 lbs), then an extruded chair or table would cost less if made from ebony than plastic if it had sufficient internal structure to support a person's full weight.

Kirk

I would prefer it use old plastic bottles or cheap china made junk toys $40k is out of my range. I do have the skills and tools to build a complex machine, but a good blueprint or example would be best. I will look into the machine you posted. Thank You!

Plastic like the HDPE used in milk jugs has been successfully used in 3D printers, like the one the University of Washington students created to print out their milk jug-based boat.

University of Washington Students 3D Print Out Boat, Place Second In Race : TreeHugger

They ran into problems that the plastic does not want to adhere to the prior layers, it shrinks by almost 2% as it cools and a number of other issues but in the end they got it all to work. The printer design was based on the typical cartesian gantry system used in milling machines, CN routes, and the familiar RepRap designs like the Mendel. You can adapt that very easily to whatever your medium would be. Many of the concrete fabricators use a similar gantry structure to allow them to move the extruder above the build volume.

http://julianh72.blogspot.com/2012/03/thats-not-3d-printer.html

The alternative is a robotic arm used to deposit material within the volume, as was used by the creator of the "Endless Chairs" who used melted refrigerator plastic shells for his fabrication.

Endless Chair Goes Straight From Lineland to Spaceland, Skips Flatland : TreeHugger

Large print volume printers tend to be one end of the innovation spectrum, with high-resolution printers being the other. Big printers like this oversized RepRap (http://hacknmod.com/hack/massive-reprap-diy-3d-printer/) have been around for several years now, but people are pushing the envelope trying to print entire structures at the upper end, while the hobbyist designs are generally more focused on improving resolution and increased the layer smoothness (the stair-stepping of successive layers).

Kirk

A combination of a 3D printer and a plastic recycler like the Filabot or one of its cousins could be fun - just chuck all those free McDonald's plastic toys into the hopper to be ground up and reformed into something more fun or useful.

Kirk

Thanks for the info. I have much more research to do but hope to post my build once I begin. Thank you again!!!!

John,

Anytime! Just ask and many others will gladly share their expertise. Let no one tell you what cannot be done, though - it is an amazing time to be designing!

Kirk