Best/cheapest 3D printer kit?

Fluxedo

Well-Known Member
What're the best and cheapest 3d printer kits out there? I've seen a few for 350$ But the bed is only 4x4x4.
 
Here's a 4x4 inch one for bout $300. That's the cheapest complete kit you'll find. http://printrbot.com/shop/printrbot-simple/

I also recommend building a 3d printer yourself. You can build a reprap which usually have a 20x20cm build volume cheaply. It will be difficult to build one yourself without a kit but your choice.

BTW, even kits are challenging to build. My 3d printer took 11 hours to assemble and a week to get good prints. If you want to build your own, I can supply you with printed parts to build one if you want. Search "reprap kit" on ebay. I recommend the prusa i3 models. Stay away from china :)

I'm also working on building a 2nd 3d printer for the challenge. I dont need 2 printers so I will possibly be selling one of them. I wont be finishing it for a few weeks since I'm building it from scratch and I just started it a few days ago
 
How difficult are repraps? And other than the 3d printer bits I buy from someone else, what other parts do I need?
 
Fluxedo said:
How difficult are repraps? And other than the 3d printer bits I buy from someone else, what other parts do I need?
It's hard to say. The actual assembling them isnt very hard, its getting them to work good. You need to calibrate the machine, play around with print settings, troubleshoot when prints fail (and believe me! They will fail... a lot... but mostly at first).

And there are a lot of parts. So sometimes it is easy to just buy a kit.

parts list:
smooth rods, threaded rods, more threaded rods, linear bearings, wire, a bunch of different bolt/nut sizes, printed parts, psu, stepper motors, pulley, gears, circuit board, endstop switches, hot end, thermistor, heated bed, glass, fans, filament, extruder, etc. A LOT of parts. The price adds up. You can probably buy all the parts yourself for around $300-400 but like I said, sometimes it's just easier to buy a kit.
 
I think I may just go with a kit. I just wish I could get bigger than 4^3. I'll keep looking.
 
You think I could print what I'm printing in halves and glue the together? It can I not cut a 3D model?
 
The Peachy Printer will be $100 when it's ready to be purchased, and it looks like it'll be really good.
 
I will defiantly be buying peachy but I have my doubts. It uses resin instead of abs/pla like normal 3d printers.
 
Peachy isn't out yet, looks a little choppy for my needs, and I see a few design flaws that I couldn't deal with.
 
gman said:
grossaffe said:
Resin > Plastic.
why?
They're stronger, and they also print faster. The main downside is that resin is going to be more expensive than the plastics (especially since you can extrude plastic by recycling materials).

You'll see resin being used for some high-stress applications such as Goalie Masks (fiberglass; but alone fiberglass may as well be fabric, it's the polyester resin that makes it tough) because it has the strength to withstand the impact of 100 MPH slapshots. You won't see plastic do that.
 
Uh, what? Not all resins are created equal. I'm not sure what they're using in the Peachy Printer, but I doubt it's high strength polyester resin.

Using an audio output to directly control mirrors strikes me as an extremely ghetto solution. I'm not sold on the Peachy Printer yet. Its design is too strange for me. I'm not dismissing it out of hand, it's more of a "we'll see".
 
XCVG said:
Uh, what? Not all resins are created equal. I'm not sure what they're using in the Peachy Printer, but I doubt it's high strength polyester resin.
Peachy is actually having a multitude of different resins developed (working with MakerJuice) with different properties so you can determine the right resin for your needs.
 
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