I'm new to the scene and have questions

Hello all,

I am new to the whole 3D printer world. Until yesterday I didn't even know you could build one. I have had a interest in buying one, but being a DIY enthusiast this has gained my interest. I guess my main question is what are my first steps into this process. I know I would prefer a printer that could do larger prints with a wide variety of materials, and if it's possible multi color printing would be pretty cool too! I don't know if this is on the right form place, but I'm just really excited to get started!

You can poke around here. also the main reprap page where various designs are shown.

Most designs are on Thingiverse, I can think of one design that is similar to HyperCube on thingiverse that is not on reprap.
Simply search thingiverse for '3d printer'

Depending on your budget you could start simply but give up a few features in order to get started.
On the really cheap end, something like a TronxyX1 kit is cheaper than buying parts.
I can order parts for a SmartRap Mini 2 for about $150 with parts coming from china so about 1month wait, or 200-225 from USA suppliers.
Thats no heat bed and single extruder. I am the current maintainer of the SRM2 design.

OR to fulfill most or all of your features start with a HyperCube type design, something with a full square frame.

Good luck and keep us posted on your choices and work.

Budget $1,000. If you spend less on the printer, you will pay for it in time and frustration.

Having said that, the cheapest way would be to buy a Chinese 3D printer from eBay or AliExpress. Or, better yet, look for a secondhand printer on eBay.

Don't be seduced by a large-scale 3D printer. The larger it is, the harder it is to get level. Printing costs and time approximately go up with the cube of the object size, so a 300x300x300 object costs 3 times as much as a 200x200x200 object. There's also a practical limit of 1kg, being the size of a spool of filament. You also need 3 times the reliability.

$1000 budget

Prusa i3 mk3 kit $750

[shop.prusa3d.com]

then add the Prusa i3 MK3 Multi Material 2.0 upgrade kit $300

Great printer --- lots of support out there

I've read in many many places that a Creality Ender 3 is a solid DIY kit for entry-level printing. Plus is has a pretty large community on Facebook, so community support should be there.
[all3dp.com]

Considering the expense, it may not be bad as a starter, particularly if you aren't sure you want to really get into the hobby full-swing (it CAN get expensive). However the advice above is not wrong either.

I built my first printer from scratch and while I've gotten excellent results from it, it was a long, educational and arduous adventure. Especially since I had no prior background in mechanical design.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/28/2019 11:12AM by obelisk79.

I started out with a cheap kit. It was capable of printing, but it was never particularly good, and ultimately wasn't even fixable to become good.

I bought a slightly better kit (And because it was 2 years later, was actually about the same price. That one is actually pretty good now, with the addition of a heated bed. It has its issues, but overall I am fairly pleased with it.

In the process of trying to make the first one better, I learned a lot, and I have a self-designed printer that I'm quite happy with. I would probably choose to do things differently if I were to start over, as there are ways that it could have been even better.

I think I'd have had difficulty really getting what needed to be better if I hadn't already had that printer, bad as it was. If I hadn't been trying to make things and seeing firsthand what the problems were, I probably wouldn't have had the same understanding of just how bad some of the things about the design of the printer that I bought really were. As such, I'm grateful that I bought that cheap printer. (Even more so that it was cheap.) buying a better printer is a good start, if you can spare budget for it, but buying a cheap one isn't too bad either, if you accept that you're going to replace it. My second kit was also cheap, but was actually pretty good, so I think that the cheap Chinese kits are much better than they used to be, and most can probably be improved to be quite decent easily enough.

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MBot3D Printer
MakerBot clone Kit from Amazon
Added heated bed.

Leadscrew self-built printer (in progress)
Duet Wifi, Precision Piezo parts

+1 Supraguys story, mine is about the same though my i3 clone kit was 450 euros. I then spend more than double that to improve it, and failed in the end. I've now built a self designed and built printer based on corexy. I've recently finished the enclosure and added led lighting and two 24V fans for part cooling off the x carriage.

I don't know what I've spent on the corexy version, I think it was around 1000 euros, though I've reused some of parts from the old printer and cnc.

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Kind regards
Imqqmi

NFAN CoreXY printer:
[reprap.org]

... my first "3D-printer" was a LOM-style unit, built around my first DIY CO2-lasercutter around 1990 - the technology was with laminated adhesive paper sheets, cut with a 1,5Watts CO2-laser

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Viktor
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Aufruf zum Projekt "Müll-freie Meere" - [reprap.org] -- Deutsche Facebook-Gruppe - [www.facebook.com]

Call for the project "garbage-free seas" - [reprap.org]