I've always contemplated designing my own printer but I didn't know how to until I learned CAD, was quite the journey and I learned a lot (still a lot to learn) but I had a lot of fun designing it!
this post was submitted on 26 Jul 2023
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Ahhh that takes me back to 2012, back when I was too poor to afford a $1000 Prusa Mendel 3D printer kit. So instead I tried to build my own printer from scratch using plans for an alternative RepRap printer ("Ecksbot") and used a work's Makerbot Replicator to 3D print parts for the printer.
Phew was that a mistake - I printed everything in ABS and the parts were extremely weak due to my poor skills at 3D printing at the time (RepetierG didn't have the best slicing software lol). It was such a mess - the printer couldn't really print correctly, the carriage for the extruder was loose. And it took me forever to figure out how to calibrate esteps because I was completely new to all of it and documentation was extremely limited back then.
After that failure I tried to build another kit printer (SeeMeCNC Rostock Max Delta 3D printer) only to give up calibrating the printer (dang injection-molded push rods had seams that needed to be precisely sanded down for smooth movements and a bunch of other headaches).
Ultimately I decided that unlike you, I loathe tinkering with 3D printers. I just want to design models and print them without any concern "will they print correctly". So I splurged on a factory assembled Prusa MK3s and haven't looked back.