RepRaptar: Building a 3D Printer

Join my summer journey to piece together a low-end 3D printer from a mail-order kit. It was supposed to be easy… but it ended up taking most of the summer. However, throughout the experience, I learned valuable lessons about soldering, screw sorting, and reading online help forums when the accompanying PDF does a horrible job explaining the software involved.

Many parts were involved. Sorting screws was a full day’s work in itself!

The machine is operational, but the models coming out are low quality. Patrick (and Terry, the stuffed pterodactyl featured in some of the pictures for size comparison) have a lot to learn about tuning the extruder settings to produce detailed models!

Before any of the electronics or motors are added, the printer needs a strong frame! Terry performs durability tests, bringing his favorite hex wrench for extra weight.

This machine is a RepRap in design (hence the name RepRaptar given to the printer). The philosophy behind the RepRap designs is to develop “humanity’s first self-replicating machine”. Unfortunately, nobody has figured out how to cheaply 3D print a motor yet, so the goal isn’t going to be realized anytime soon. But several of the pieces (most of the black ones on this device) can be printed using another, already existing 3D printer.

After the circuits are wired and the firmware is installed, I send print instructions from my laptop. The slicer is a program on my computer that translates 3D image files into simple machine instructions that the Arduino (the brains of the printer) can relay to the motors.

Though I kept the 3D printer throughout college, occasionally attempting to fine-tune settings to improve the printer’s functionality, I had to leave it behind in a university lab after moving to an apartment with inadequate storage space. The printer has since been tossed in a routine lab cleaning.

This is my first print! Prints were messy due to an uneven printing surface, unoptimized extruder (that’s the motor that pushes plastic through the nozzle to print) speed, and heat control complexities in the firmware code. Prints got better as I made adjustments over the next year, but never were perfect. (In my defense, the design for this printed man didn’t even give him a head in the first place.)

Click here to see the full set of pictures from the build! Fair warning: there are a lot.