I recently ordered a MakerFarm 8" Prusa i3 RepRap 3D Printer kit from
http://www.makerfarm.com/.
Based off hours of research, I was able to narrow it down to this kit once I learned about the RepRap community. RepRap, short for replicating rapid prototyper, is an open source community for 3D printers involving hobbyists/DIYers, designers, engineers. The concept is that you can build your own printer for an affordable price, with back-end support for hardware and software from the community. There are many designs made available by various people, using the open design concept under the GNU General Public License. The particular design I liked was the Prusa i3, which is simple, yet very sturdy.
My initial research started with looking at consumer based ready to use printers off Kickstarter and other places like the MakerBot, Ultimaker, Pirate3D, Cube, and Printrbot. I dislike MakerBot a lot because of their claims about superb quality, overpriced hardware, and them starting to draw away from releasing open source designs. The only thing which is great is the Thingiverse repository for 3D models which they started since they were one of the earliest companies to produce a fully made 3D consumer printer.
Having a 3D printer will be very handy for quick production of enclosures, parts, and models designed throughout my engineering path.
Below are some more photos:
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| Assembling the printer |
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| RAMPS 1.4 shield + Arduino MEGA 2560 |
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| Extruder mounted |
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| Finished assembly with spool ready |
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| Printing an object, with a new foam mat to reduce vibrations |
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| 3D printed fan nozzle with scoop to exhaust hot air from the hot end upwards (adjustable) |
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| Light module using 4 LEDs in series with 100 ohm resistor |
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| The module is running off of 12 V directly from the PSU |
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ReplyDeletedrukarka 3d