Arfa Daily wrote:


"Ian Field" wrote in message
...

"Doug White" wrote in message
. ..
Robert Macy wrote in
:

On Jun 22, 4:33 am, "N_Cook" wrote:
Anyone here tried it or thinking of building a 3D printer?
I saw a demonstration be these people last
weekhttp://readinghackspace.or
g.uk

Already using 'plastic' 3D printer. part designed in one location.
files shipped to detailer in another location. final versions ok'd and
sent to another location where the part was 'printed' then picked up
at the printer's and taken over to replace broken part. all within the
same day. Very happy customer.


This is the one I'm most familiar with as a 'sprayer' onto plaster of
paris type, but now they make other styles.

Sales, Northern California, and Nevada
Peak Solutions LLC
900 Cherry Av, Suite 300
San Bruno, CA 94066
Phone 415-846-7839
http://www.peak-solutions-llc.com
http://www.zcorp.com

ZCorp
Z Corporation
32 Second Avenue
Burlington, MA 01803 USA
tel: +1 781 852 5005
Fax: +1 781 852 5100
http://www.zcorp.com

You can get kits to build your own. Check out:

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/...your-first-3d-
printer

http://www.makerbot.com/

http://www.rapmanusa.com/


One of the UK electronics hobby magazines did a project, maybe half a year
ago - AFAIK they made arrangement with a supplier to make kits available.


Do you remember which mag that was Ian ? I have been considering building
one for a while now. At the end of last year, Elektor hinted that they were
going to be doing one as a major project in the mag this year, but nothing
so far. There are plenty of examples of them working and building DIY ones
on YouTube, and the results are surprisingly good. One DIY one is quite
famous. I can't for the life of me remember its name right now, but there is
quite a community around it, and it is fundamentally self replicating in
that a number of people are selling gears and other parts that are required
to make one, which have themselves been made on one.

I have a specific purpose in mind for one, so I'd be quite interested in
anybody's experiences of a DIY one.

I've handled the output of several of the kit ones that melt strips of
plastic together into a part.


There's the novelty in you can make goofy parts on some wooden machine.

The quality of the outputted parts is fairly low though. they all seem to
have a really rough texture, like thy're made of shredded wheat- a type of
breakfast cereal.

The commercial machines that use the powder and spray produce much much
better surface finishes.

For modelling stuff, it probably doesn't matter, but with how slow those
kit machines are as well, you're not going to be churning out tons of
useful parts for anything.