My Journey Building a Rep Rap 3-D printer

Hello there all you beautiful human beings!

Ever wanted to make stuff you imagined in your brain pan?

Enter the 3-d printer! The democratization of technology is here :)

RepRap is an open source 3-d printer project that has drastically reduced the price of owning your own desktop 3-d printer. I would highly recommend saving up and buying one.

I have searched for some time looking for my ideal printer for multiple applications and found a company RepRapGuru that produces kits that may be self assembled. I chose to purchase the kit for the Prusa I3 for around 320 USD total. The kit comes with an acrylic frame which allows for easy shipping.

The RepRapGuru Kit has instructional youtube videos to assemble the entire deal. I advise watching these on a large screen preferably a larger tablet or computer monitor as the details of how to assemble need magnification to pick up on some of the smaller components assemblies.

The assembly takes some time and will require a few tools. I recommend having the following:

Philips head screwdriver
Folding Hex key set- you can find these at an auto parts store for super cheap
Needle nose pliers
14mm open end wrench
Digital Calipers

By far the largest amount of time you will spend is the assembly of the y-axis bed. It is important that the bed is square on the frame and the bed is leveled before printing.

I had a few frustrations mainly with the y-axis end stop, cable management, and wiring the Ramps control board incorrectly. I had to do a little troubleshooting with a multimeter to finally determine some of my issues. Here's the final product printing a desktop catapult for medieval sieges on co-workers :)

All in all I am pleased with the printer and am currently learning the ins and outs of 3-d printing. I have been using the software recommended by RepRapGuru @ https://reprapguru.com/resources/. They collected everything you need for instructions and software for the Prusa I3 on this page making it easily accessible in one location.

During the same time I purchased this printer I told a friend about how affordable and cool it was. He did some research and found a solution that he preferred: Monoprice Select Plus

https://www.monoprice.com/productc_id=107&cp_id=10724&cs_id=1072403&p_id=15711&seq=1&format=2

This has similar specs to the Prusa I3, but is more of a turn key solution for around 80 USD more. For the total beginner that would like to get started immediately, with little assembly, I highly recommend this option. If you are a lifelong mess arounder like me go for the RepRapGuru Prusa I3 DIY kit and you'll learn a lot in the process of the build and save some cash.

I was presented the software recommended by my friend who uses the following: Cura https://ultimaker.com/en/products/cura-software for slicing/control
Fusion 360 https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/free-trial as a free modeling software.

I was impressed with the user interface of both these software and plan to start using them as well.

Make sure to bookmark https://www.thingiverse.com/ which provides open source .stl files from other 3-d printing creators.

I learned much with the assembly of the 3-d printer and feel capable to build other platforms based on the arduino/ramps control platform for stepper motors.

I see a future when these machines will become as common as paper printers empowering us to become local producers instead of consumers.

I find much joy in creating and hope I can translate that to others. I think creating is an integral way we are wired as humans. Don't be afraid to take a chance to learn a new skill and fail in the process.

Get out there and tinker!