This blog is primarily about my experimenting with 3d printers and 3d laser scanners — all either DIY or purchased, but all with the intent of making them more affordable or even cheaper by finding better or substituted parts, etc.
After much deliberation and evaluating of systems I wanted to do a Prusa 3d printer. It is open source so you can pull the plans down from the internet and even purchase electronics, nozzles, etc. This particular model is one of the more stable and easier to build despite the fact that it has a lot of pieces. I settled on this one as all of the electronics, extruder pieces, etc are included. This way I can take what I get and “replicate” the hardware and print the plastic pieces. I have found all of the pieces except the electronics, nozzles and filament at lowes for less than 120 bucks (shipping from a store for some of the rods would cost over 160 bucks)…
http://www.makergear.com/products/3d-printers
MakerGear has excellent references and a 5 star rating. They have interchangeable heads for printing from the 1.75mm to the 3mm – I think that this is a good choice at 825 +s&h to allow some money to buy filament to begin printing…which means that any modifications can be played with later… such as, printing pieces to make other 3d printers from this one and experimenting with filaments maybe even a plastruder to recycle plastics and make my own filament… we will see.
I was looking at the printrbot, however, at this time the lead time is 6 weeks and while I can’t just jump out and get a printer today, my option of having something within 2 weeks is shot by that alone if I had the money. However, I do like the 8x8x8 printing area and with this makergear I would intend to make the printable area bigger with a higher resolution and faster print times (I think everyone is looking for those things – why not contribute something awesome to the open source community).
IN MY MIND BY WINK DOUBLEGUNS 