robuster 3d printer

hey guys.

i spotted this printer giving demo's at the gadget show live this week in birmingham.

i'm curious to know how much experience anyone has with these things...

my biggest issue with what i saw was the quality of each piece was very grainy and i wondered if this is something that can be refined at all? ie go slower, smaller nozzle ect??

also is a machine like this something that can be self built? the biggest issue i see is getting the nozzle. the rest of it looks like a really cheaply made cnc machine.

Robuster - RPTechWorks

link for anyone who doesnt know what i'm on about

Have a look in the printers section over on cnczone, to see what others have acheived.

Extruders do give quite a grainy finish, but it can be tweaked.
You also get optical type printers (which I can't remember the correct name for!), which do acheive a far higher quality finish, but are quite a bit more complicated.

Wilfy, like most things there are forums for people who build there own machines much like this one. The quality of the parts is down to a number of things but some produce very good parts, sorry don't know enough to go into a lot more detail.
Don't believe that building your own would be as simple as building a cnc machine but there are certainly a lot of people doing it.

I'd say building your own printer is a lot easier than building your own router, as there are more 'packaged' control options available, and several build your own kits available.

If you're interested have a search for "RepRap printer" and you should get a good few sites to point you in the right direction.

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Originally Posted by m_c

I'd say building your own printer is a lot easier than building your own router, as there are more 'packaged' control options available, and several build your own kits available.

If you're interested have a search for "RepRap printer" and you should get a good few sites to point you in the right direction.

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That's interesting to know, the reason I thought it would be more difficult was because I had read quite a bit on people having problems with things like speed, feed, temperature that all related to the building of components with the filament.
I know there are complete kits with everything contained but most of them seem to be quite an expensive way of doing things & not really building your own machine, then again that may have all changed as I haven't looked at it for quite some time.

Have a look at HydraRaptor: Mendel90 - Seems to be one of the nicest designs at the moment

I've got one of these - Mono Mendel - RepRapPro which is similar in principle but uses a different frame design.

They're good fun and you can make shapes you couldn't mill but the surface finish isn't fantastic and they do need a bit of getting used to

The ones that use light to set a resin get better resolution but are several times the cost - see B9Creator

I have built several 3D printers 2 prusas and 2 mendel90 I like the Mendel90 the best it was designed by a guy on the reprap forum under then name of nophead he also sells (and they are very good) all the plastic parts for both types.

Wify The M90 frame is mdf I have a spare one if you want it and can collect you can have it free... Clive

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Originally Posted by martin54

That's interesting to know, the reason I thought it would be more difficult was because I had read quite a bit on people having problems with things like speed, feed, temperature that all related to the building of components with the filament.
I know there are complete kits with everything contained but most of them seem to be quite an expensive way of doing things & not really building your own machine, then again that may have all changed as I haven't looked at it for quite some time.

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From what I read a few months ago, you do still have to experiment a bit for your own exact set-up to get the best results, but it's not quite as big an unknown as what it used to be. The basic machine is easy enough to build, especially if you go for one of the kits, and there are also a few kit options for the electronic side.
Although they do work out to be a reasonable amount of money once you factor everything in to build one.

firstly thanks guys for all the replies, i posted this more to create discussion more than gather info to make my own.. my heart is still set on a cnc machine and i will be making one soon even with all my troubles.

i just wanted to pick up on this point though martin

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Originally Posted by martin54

Wilfy, like most things there are forums for people who build there own machines much like this one. The quality of the parts is down to a number of things but some produce very good parts, sorry don't know enough to go into a lot more detail.
Don't believe that building your own would be as simple as building a cnc machine but there are certainly a lot of people doing it.

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my current feelings towards cnc are that you have to put a lot of effort in towards design and a fair chunk of cost towards parts mainly rails and screws.

from what i saw of the machine i linked.. it sits on 12mm unsupported rails at most, has quite small steppers and uses a nozzle to feed molten plastic on to a heated bed.. they really dont look that complicated tbh. the hardest thing looks like getting the feed speeds right so that your plastic is melted and that it doesnt just fall in a blob due to it staying too hot.