3D Printer (RepRap)

About £350 excluding the filament (the material you print with). I'm sure with a bit of shopping around you could have one up and running for under £300 easily.

I just got into this, well I donated to the Kickstarter for one.
Price wise that's amazing as mine cost me 3k and its the same size as that!!!

There is some much possibility in this field, definitely could turn a profit if you know how

As there seems to be a fair bit of interest in the machine I will do a mini build thread below.



The material isn't that much a 110M 1Kg role of the green ABS was £19, the nylon (1lb in weight) was £28 and the other two (premium ABS and PLA 1kg I think) were £26

You can also put a laser on a reprap as they are basically the same thing mechanically.

Mini Build Thread

Step 1: The Frame

There are basically two different types of frame: Single plate and box. as the names suggest single plate frames are made from a single plate of some strong and stiff material, usually aluminium. Box frames are usually wood. I chose to make a box frame as I thought it would be cheaper and easier. You can buy laser cut frames of both types, but a laser cut alloy single plate frame is about £60. I used 12mm MDF. the plans are here

Box frame plans

I always think woodwork is easy, IF you have the right tools. I didn't have the right tools. Even so it is an easy thing to build being just 4 pieces. just make sure that the front face is square to the base otherwise you will print at an angle on the z axis.

This is the only pic I took of the process




Step 2: Rods

You will need approx.: 1M M8 threaded rod. 1M M10 threaded rod. 1M M5 threaded rod. 3M 8mm plain rod (in some hard and stiff grade of steel).

Cut to the lengths on the RepRap site (although I think the x-axis ones need to be longer than they say by 20mm). I used a 1mm cutting disk on the angle grinder, took about 5 mins.

Step 3: Hobbed bolt

The hobbed bolt is what feeds the filament into the hot end of the extruder. Its basically an M8 bolt with a knurled cut out section. Again you can buy one already hobbed but I wanted to do as much as possible myself. They are ideally made from one of those bolts where the part of the shank nearest the head is unthreaded. I couldn't wait to order some from screwfix (they din't have stock but could get some apparently) so I just bought a pack of two normal m8 bolts from Halfords. It needs to be about 50mm to 60mm long.

If you had a lathe then the may well be an easy way to do this, but this is how I did it

Put the bolt in the pillar drill and file a grove of about 4mm radius (after checking how far down the bolt it needs to be of course.)



Then take bolt out of the drill and put M4 tap in the drill. Slide two 608 bearings onto the bolt. set drill to lowest speed and hold the grove we filed earlier against the spinning tap. it should rotate the bolt and cut a thread into the groove. (remember to lubricate).



The finished article



The teeth need to be nice and sharp and there needs to be no trace of the original thread left in the hobbed section othervise it will just rip the filament out of line.

More later

That’s pretty cheap! How about good quality 3D printing materials with reasonable price? This one is what I found so far--http://www.3d2print.net/shop/. My first order is about to arrive next week. I’m so excited to try the Nylon 618 filament for home furniture replacement. I don’t know that you can purchase 3D printer with filament for only £350, such a good steal.