What is Desktop 3D Printing?
Imagine a robot that sits on your desk, and builds anything you tell it to from a spool of bioplastic.
Imagine that it makes these things by heating up the plastic then squeezing it out like toothpaste from a tube. Imagine it smells faintly of caramelizing sugar.
Imagine that the designs for the printer, the software that runs it, the software that designs things to be printed, and almost infinite quantities of pre-made designs, are all free.
And imagine that if you are smart, you can buy the parts to build the printer for $500. Or if you are smarter, you can buy a kit of guaranteed compatible parts for $825.
I don't have to imagine any of that, I've got it sitting on my desk right now.
Tags I use
3D architecture assembly ATX bronze bruthead building crimps Dalek Dragon electronics extruder extrusion filament firmware Heated Build Platform kit Lego Magic MakerGear Marlin Mendel Mendel Prusa model Netfabb OpenSCAD PLA plastruder Pronterface Prusa RAMPS Raygun RepRap retraction sculpture settings Skimbal Slic3r Spanner Sprinter TARDIS Thingiverse Troubleshooting warping WrenchPages
Post Categories
- 3d printing (47)
- Assembly (17)
- Objects (12)
- Science (1)
- Software (15)
- Uncategorized (1)
-
Most recent posts
Top Posts & Pages
- Retraction solution with Marlin, Pronterface and Slic3r
- How to assemble a Heated Build Platform
- ATX power supply 5V load resistor for better 12V regulation
- Teaching Slic3r to remember your settings
- RAMPS v1.4 connection photographs
- My Mendel Prusa is ready for printing
- RepRap 3D printers, PLA, and moisture problems
- Retraction, Huh! What is it good for?
- Getting your motors moving on a MakerGear Mendel Prusa
- My Slic3r config file
Filament
IRC channels
Machines
MakerGear
Models
Post Processing
Setup advice
Software
Calendar
May 2013 M T W T F S S « Jun 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 Archives
- June 2012 (2)
- March 2012 (3)
- February 2012 (3)
- January 2012 (5)
- December 2011 (24)
- November 2011 (11)
- October 2011 (2)
RSS Links
Tag Archives: Sprinter
Retraction, Huh! What is it good for?
Retraction is the technique of sucking molten plastic back up into the heated extrusion nozzle of a 3D printer. Like squeezing the edges of a toothpaste tube to suck back in some of the toothpaste you accidentally squeezed out. The … Continue reading
Posted in 3d printing, Software
Tagged extrusion, Lego, MakerGear, Marlin, Mendel, minifigs, ooze, Prusa, retraction, skeinforge, Slic3r, Sprinter
4 Comments
Getting your motors moving on a MakerGear Mendel Prusa
Here’s a quick and dirty guide to getting your motors working on a MakerGear Mendel Prusa 3D printer kit. I assume you: installed your arduino software installed the Pronterface printer control software installed your copy of MakerGear|Rick’s version of Sprinter, … Continue reading
Posted in 3d printing, Assembly, Software
Tagged configuration, MakerGear, Mendel, motors, Prusa, Sprinter, stepper
11 Comments
Marlin is Alive!
At last I have Marlin running successfully on my RAMPS v1.4 hardware on my Mendel Prusa. Marlin is a firmware 3D printer control program which lives on the microcontroller in the printer itself. Pronterface on my laptop talks to Marlin … Continue reading
Posted in 3d printing, Software
Tagged firmware, Marlin, Mendel, Prusa, RAMPS, Sprinter
Leave a comment
