Fab@Home Homemade 3d printer
Solo Projects (Ideas, Shares)
Fab@Home Homemade 3d printer
ACE001
11-21-2006, 12:28 PM
So I saw this site Fab@Home.com and am psyched to build this thing! I'm looking for a way to laser cut the enclosure for cheap because if it costs to much I wont be able to build it.
check out this wiki prject here:
http://www.fabathome.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
Anyway, I thought someone here might have some friends with a laser cutter or cnc machine I could borrow. The best price I got on the laser cutting was $493 which is too steep.
What other some 3d printers do, instead of using a viscous medium like this one, is they use an inkjet head to spray a fine layer of power with a hardener which gives a much finer result.
Your help in locating some of the services & items required is appreciated.
Cheers
Craig
Re: Fab@Home Homemade 3d printer
joshkopel
11-29-2006, 7:40 AM
Hey Craig,
Pretty ambitious! I was looking at that as well. I was thinking about dental epoxy and an ultraviolet LED to harden it.
Have you though about a water jet? It might end up being cheaper. I know of this one (http://www.bigbluesaw.com/) and there may be others.
I do have a manual mill/drill machine if you need to make some parts. I would love to help build one of these.
Josh
Re: Fab@Home Homemade 3d printer
ACE001
12-01-2006, 8:35 PM
Thanks Josh. I'll check it out.
THe dental epoxy is a great idea! The trouble with this project is the size of the panels. 2ft X 4ft.
I wonder if there are any build-at-home waterjet or laser cutter projects out there!
I might take you up on the offer. This is a very cool project but some of the components are a bit pricey. If the dental epoxy would work, then it would be worth it.
Cheers,
Craig
Re: Fab@Home Homemade 3d printer
bbustard
03-21-2007, 1:03 PM
Any progress/updates on building this? I would love to see it. There is another group making something similiar. I'm not sure which is better but in case you haven't seen it.
http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome
Ben
Re: Fab@Home Homemade 3d printer
barnes
04-10-2007, 8:42 AM
I'd love to see this, but I'm not one to dive into it. No where near enough funds. Good luck!
Re: Fab@Home Homemade 3d printer
FarMcKon
06-22-2007, 9:03 AM
Craig,
I've always been turned off a the high cost of 3d printer substrate, and the few things I've seen built for UV sensitive plastic seem pretty bit brittle.
I'd be interested in doing software and/or simple EE work for a fabber come winter. Especally if we could figure out a way to make the fabbing cheap (a-la the candy fabber). Right now I have an IF interface I'm working on to complete (I'll be posting it in the projects forums in a second.).
Have you checked out the
Candy Fabber
? It uses a heating element and granulated sugar for fabrication. It's a lot cheaper than UV sensitive liquid plastic, and I think I have a way to make the 'final item' out of somehting more solid than sugar. I think it could be done by coating the candy-fabbed object with some kind of plastic spray, or mould plastic, then melt the sugar out (with just warm water) and then fill the mold with something more durable.
That might be a better way to make cheap mistakes, but make a good durable item out of the finished design.
- Far (Jon McKamey)
Make:Philly 2007