Background

Why Build a 3D printer?

I am a student

Being an engineering student gives me a good excuse to waste months building stuff that I could easily buy online. I fully admit that buying a Prusa mk3 would have been a far better option than building a printer. This will not stop me from going on and justifying it anyway.

As an engineering student, attempting personal projects is beneficial as I gain experience in the process. This means that I often attempt to build things rather than just buying them. Another advantage of being a student is the long holidays we get. I have the time to waste on designing and building a printer that is almost an exact copy of an existing printer.

It was cheaper

It was going to be fairly expensive to import a Prusa Mk3 into Australia. At the time of building it was going to cost around 1400AUD. The printer I built (minus enclosure) cost around 700AUD or there abouts.

My previous design was getting old

The previous printer I built and designed was getting old and ugly. It was time for an upgrade. In my spare time I offer a printing service on Gumtree. This old printer was starting to frustrate me and give me problems. This made it hard to continue my small business.

Previous Printer

It is clear from the list of pros and cons that my old printer was limited. The only reason I kept it for so long was that it did give pretty good results. It was a good first attempt a building a 3D printer. The lack of accuracy and loud operation killed it in the end. It was time for a new model.

Pros

• RGB (Can't argue with that)
• It worked (Mostly)
• Sturdy
• First printer
• Cheap

Cons

• Horribly loud (Have a listen below)
• Wooden
• Not even square
• Old and ugly