3d printing!

[Tom]

I got a 3d printer the beggining of this summer and have been working on tweaking it ever since. I was In the middle of my best print and I quit the program by accident( I know) So theres no telling what the quality is just yet.

Anyways I was wondering how many people would be interested If I started printing out some reprap parts to make your own 3d printer. You'd still need the electronics, belts, motors ect but this would save you $40-$80 for the printed parts , If people want them and my quality is good then I'll start giving out parts for shipping. Would love to have some other people help out too

RepRap "Self replicating" 3d printer wiki link http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page

 

[Vulpes Abnocto]

This is quite relevant to my interests. I've been considering getting into the RepRap project for a few months, now.
About how much could you send the parts to Georgia, for?
On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being 'can be done by a three year old' and 10 being 'requires cybernetic brains to figure out') where would you rank the difficulty of putting together the initial Reprap model?
What are the common challenges to quality that a new maker can expect?

 

[Gahars]

I'm not quite ready to jump on board with 3D printing yet, but I like where it's going. Maybe in a few years...

Not exactly, on topic, but worth sharing: 3D printed homes.

 

[VampireLordAlucard]

3D printing sounds cool, but I'd have no idea what to make with it.

 

[Vulpes Abnocto]

If you ever have a $200+ piece of equipment
that dies due to a stripped-out plastic gear that you can't buy anymore,
you'll figure out uses for 3D printing.

Also, This.

 

[MelodieOctavia]

I got a 3d printer the beggining of this summer and have been working on tweaking it ever since. I was In the middle of my best print and I quit the program by accident( I know) So theres no telling what the quality is just yet.

Anyways I was wondering how many people would be interested If I started printing out some reprap parts to make your own 3d printer. You'd still need the electronics, belts, motors ect but this would save you $40-$80 for the printed parts , If people want them and my quality is good then I'll start giving out parts for shipping. Would love to have some other people help out too

RepRap "Self replicating" 3d printer wiki link http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page

I have been wanting to get a RepRap, but I just can't afford one. Though if I ever can, I'll definitely be selling creations to get my money back I'm thinking small. Like custom parts that aren't available for purchase, such as stripped gears like Vulpes mentioned in a previous post, Raspberry Pi cases, Phone cases for old/not commonly known phones, custom D&D dice, phone stands (for watching netflix and whatnot), on top of many other ideas that I have scratched down on paper, and some, actually made 3D models for.

 

[dickfour]

The reprap is nice for prototyping but it's finished products look like crap. I think you'd need a much nicer 3d printer for finished products other than gears and reprap parts

 

[Tom]

This is quite relevant to my interests. I've been considering getting into the RepRap project for a few months, now.
About how much could you send the parts to Georgia, for?
On a scale of 1 to 10 (1 being 'can be done by a three year old' and 10 being 'requires cybernetic brains to figure out') where would you rank the difficulty of putting together the initial Reprap model?
What are the common challenges to quality that a new maker can expect?

Well , I bought my parts as a full kit, so I didn't have to source any parts. (seemecnc.com H-1 one of the cheapest printers out there)
The shipping depends on the reprap model , either a prusa, mendel , huxley or even a prusa mendel )best of both worlds)I'm thinking $5-7 for shipping, I think they would all fit in a padded envelope but Like I said it depends on the reprap model

Putting it together was rather easy , I'd say about a 5-6 . Some common problems are skewed prints(which I had) and poor quality in general Like some rogue pieces of filament around the print,I'll post some Of my bad prints and the one Of my best, Waiting for my hotend to dry , Once it does then I'll be printing again.

 

[Tom]

Oh and FYI If SOme other people have a printer and want to help out we could do smaller 3d prints too(like whistles, rings ect) , just supply the .stl

 

[FAST6191]

I have not put together a reprap but looking at the stuff and having done similar things with makerbots (also higher end rapid prototyping) it is more a case of instructions and being methodical- if you have done maintenance on your power tools or otherwise rewired a house and can hold your own in rudimentary woodwork (I hand you some biscuits and/or dowels and you don't look at me strangely sort of thing) you are probably way beyond what is necessary for this. Open source hardware seems to work in much the same manner to open source software though so a couple of hours fiddling, the temptation for percussive maintenance and a fine line in creative swearing at to be expected for the first runs and ten months down the line you will wonder how that happened (until such time as a random tweak is made and it starts over again).

Issues I usually see with CNC and 3d printing tech- more for the latter but people try to make modern stuff or they try to print a finished product and that is what usually kills it. You can do it but expect to machine it to finish or otherwise get good enough at CAD* to add build structure (the raft is the most basic of these). Accuracy for these sort of things is technically at the millimetre and maybe even sub millimetre level but that carries a huge asterisk with a long list of restrictions if you want to pull it off.

If you are really interested you might instead want to give http://www.shapeways.com/ or http://www.ponoko.com/ or something like it a spin for a couple of things to see if this is what you want- wild guess I reckon you have run across something you could probably make with a half hour in a decent machine shop (something that requires a machine shop and the time in the middle of the day to do it) but they are either made of unobtainium or priced not far off "should sir have to ask" levels.

Really short version- if you have the sort of thing that would have been injection moulded in 1995 (late SNES/n64 era) or before these things are great (which does mean a lot of industrial machinery made to this day), if you want injection moulding to around 2003 then that shapeways and co link (although they can do a lot better with certain materials and different processes) or you can get one of the couple of grand ones and if you want something technically impossible by injection moulding then new car price to the value of the thing is probably something you want to speak to a tax accountant about as it is that valuable but still a viable business expense if you really want.

*I was on about it the other day but http://labs.autodesk.com/technologies/fusion is pretty good if you are not versed in CAD and should be good until April if you want to try out this whole 3d printing/rapid prototyping stuff.

 

[Tom]

Crappy one




Good one


both




printing the good one



teh printer



The Pick Of destiny I printed, also good