How to build your own 3D printer?

3D printer is hands down an amazing invention! It has given the freedom to print anything and everything that one could even think of. However, major problem with people is that it is quite expensive in nature. If you search extensively, there are possibilities that you might find few cheaper ones; but then you will have to compromise on quality. As a result, many business owners or sole proprietors think of building these printers on their own. Isn’t this a great idea?

Let’s build it from scratch

If you get engaged in research, you can find out that the worldwide community of enthusiasts using these 3D printers is growing massively. Amongst them, there are few who can easily afford buying these 3D printers from top manufacturers. But there are still a few who prefer create a good 3D printing machine on their own.

If you have made up your mind to create your own 3D printer, there are two primary methods to start up with the same:

• Fully customized 3D printer

This is one way through which you can create a printer right from scratch. This means each and every detailing related to the printer is being done on your own. Every aspect right from nuts, bolts to its wiring has been taken care by you. This methodology can prove to be a very interesting learning lesson for you. It makes you familiar with all detailing of printer creation and as a result of which you can later carry out repair work also very easily.

But the only drawback of this technique can be one needs to fully equipped with all technical aspects in order create a 3D printer in this manner. If you are new to this field; this can be a very daunting task for you. After all, gathering all required parts of a printer and then assembling then manually would definitely not be very easy.

• Get 3D printer building kit

Get a good branded 3D printer building kit and start your printing process quickly. This can be a simplest way to build your own 3D printer. If you search online, there would be a wide list of manufacturing companies that offer these kits at quite reasonable prices. When you purchase these kits, you will find that there comes a manual with it and all step by step instructions are mentioned in it. This now gets easier for you to assemble the printer as all you need to do is just follow the instructions and carry on with the assembling part. No need to go and gather different parts as all will come together in a box and you just need to follow the method and steps mentioned in the manual.

But this won’t allow you to get in depth knowledge about functioning of printer as you are completely unaware about the technical details related to the parts assembled by you. However, if you face any problem in future; a technician might help you to get it fixed! So if you want to get the printer at the quickest possible; just go only and get your 3D printer building kit today itself!

Start up with building process

Once you have made up your mind on the right technique to make a printer, next question would be what kind of machine you desire to make? Well, this can depend on many factors stated below:

• Appearance

How do you desire your printer to look like? This is the first question that would come to your mind once you have started up the process. After all, first impression is the last impression. When you are working on it, its appearance would make you feel better to engage with it. Some futuristic and trendy design must be running in your head. Preparing such a design might be almost impossible if you decide to design all parts on yourself. Hence, the better way out can be get a kit from market and start creating an amazing 3D printer for yourself. Once you have finished assembling process, just make sure the look matches the one given at the end of kit manual.

• Specifications

This refers to what you want from the printer? How much electricity units should it consume? What are size of parts? Can it utilize multiple filaments at once? Does it possess a heating bed? Should it be completely manually driven or partially automatic in nature? Remember if you plan to make a very advanced or fancy printer, it might end up having several loopholes. Hence, the best way out is start with a very basic printer design and later on you could keep adding on required features top it. Best part is all this can be done as per your requirements and necessities.

Assortment of parts

If you opt for a 3D printer building kit, each and every part related to creation of the printer would be included in it. So this can reduce your time to create printer to almost its half. But if you have decided to make it from scratch, it would require very high creativity and a long list of essentials. For this, first create a list of parts required for a printer which you can easily get online at various websites. Next you can also find several e books or instruction manuals in which detail process of making printers has been explained.

Once your feasibility report is ready, next step is the buying process. There are two options when it comes to buying of printer parts. First is to get them fresh or there are big manufacturers who sell the used 3D printer parts at extremely discounted rates. But an important part is you need to carry out a proper quality check before buying these parts to ensure smooth functioning in future.

Prepare the software

Once the hardware part of your printer is ready, next step is to connect it with the computer system through 3D rendering software. This would send command to your printer about the design, dimensions, shapes and sizes of 2D carvings that are to be converted into 3D models.

Final step

As of now, you have create the printer and your filament is by now being added to the extruder. Now start with printing process and if you find any difficulty, just go online and there are many sites where all details and steps of creating models are stated in detail. Happy 3d printing!

My name is Nicky Bella.I am living in Illinois United States.I have completed my degree in Marketing from The University of California.I have 4 years of experience in different multinational organizations.