Build your own 3d printer cheap

Kit 3D printer kings Tronxy showed humility and dedication to improve the X5SA Pro, fixing a number of small issues that affected the original. The X5SA Pro addresses the X-axis issues and has made it more stable, and upgraded the materials forming the printer kit’s structure. Now on the X5SA Pro, most of the printer is made from aluminum and is heavier and more stable, reducing vibrations and generally improving print performance.

As for the X5SA’s specs, it’s a large 3D printer DIY kit with similar printing sizes to the Creality CR-10, and boasts a 330 x 330 x 400 build volume. It claims increased precision vs the original Tronxy X5SA, and has a maximum accuracy of 125 microns. It’s impressive, reliable and one of the best cheap 3D printers you can get with such a large size — so those with big 3D printing ideas will enjoy both this and the Creality CR-10.

It’ll probably take you around four hours to build this printer kit, but it’ll be worth it once you start printing!

Big 3D Printer Kit

TRONXY X5SA PRO 3D Printer with Glass Bed Upgrade

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7. Anycubic Vyper

• Price: $429 — Available on Anycubic store here / Available on Amazon here
• Build volume: 245 x 245 x 245 mm

A key feature on the Anycubic Vyper missing from many printers in this price range is that the Vyper self-levels. This is a huge relief for busy makers who would rather not re-level their printer every few prints, and who just want to get to the fun part — printing! The 16-point bed leveling process accounts for differences between the nozzle and bed and can be done in just one click.

The 32-bit motherboard is beefed up compared to previous Anycubic 3D printer kits, offering silent printing and improved stability. We tested the Anycubic Vyper and found it to be consistent in printing, easy to operate with the 4.3-inch touchscreen, and it was incredibly easy to assemble — we built it in 10-15 minutes.

The new PEI spring steel magnetic print bed can be lifted off the platform easily for easy removal of your finished parts, and is designed to be scratch and heat resistant and to work well with standard filaments such as PLA, ABS, PETG, and TPU.

The Vyper also features an innovative new two-fan dual cooling system, cooling down parts quicker and enabling faster printing without causing errors — the Vyper can comfortably print at 100mm/s.

Great Ender 3 Alternative

8. Creality CR-10 / V3

• Price: $369 / $459 — Available on Amazon here / Available on Creality Store here
• Print volume: 300 x 300 x 400 mm

The Creality CR-10 has a passionate group of supporters who hail it as the best DIY 3D printer kit in its price range. Manufactured by Creality, the CR-10 is a fantastic 3D printer build kit that can be built within 45 minutes.

The Creality CR-10 has an accuracy and print volume which is competitive with printers 5 times more expensive. With it’s minimum layer thickness of 0.05mm and fantastic 300 x 300 x 400 mm build volume, the Creality CR-10 is a great printer for just $370. It’s easy to use, making it the perfect 3D printer for beginners.

9. Prusa i3 MK3S — best 3D printer kit

• Price: $749 as a kit — Available on the Prusa store here / $999 fully assembled — Available on the Prusa store here
• Build volume: 250 x 210 x 210 mm

The Prusa i3 is known as the undeniable king of DIY 3D printer kits. These RepRap kits are fantastic, sporting an impressive print volume of 250 x 210 x 210 mm, and being able to print at speeds up to 200mm/s! It’s also accurate, durable and a complete workhorse, with layer heights from 0. 05 mm and a bendable print surface to make removing finished prints as easy as possible.

Accessible via USB stick or by SD card, the Prusa i3 MK3 kits are designed to be simple to use as well as effective. With layer resolutions up to 50 microns, the Prusa i3 homemade 3D printer is so effective that it outperforms far more expensive 3D printers. It can print tougher filaments than more expensive printers too, with a Bondtech extruder that can reach temperatures of up to 300C, making printing Polycarbonate, ABS, Nylon, and other difficult filaments no problem.

Additionally, you can print up to 5 colors simultaneously with your Prusa if you purchase their multi-material upgrade kit, costing $300. This makes colorful model printing a breeze, and opens up for far more extravagant printing projects.

• With a Multi Material Upgrade kit, it can also print multiple colors. We explain more in our color 3D printer buyer’s guide.
• You can buy the Multi Material Upgrade Kit 2.0 here.

You can choose to either assemble the kit yourself or buy the printer pre-assembled, though this costs a few hundred dollars more. Overall, the Prusa remains the undisputed king of DIY 3D printer kits, with its competitors needing to do a lot of catching up to dethrone it.

Best 3D Printer Kit Overall

Original Prusa i3 MK3S+ kit

The best 3D printer kit of all time. If you have $1,000, this is some of the best value you can get.

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10. Peopoly Moai SLA Kit — Homemade resin 3D printer kit

• Price: $1,295 — Available on Matterhackers here
• Build volume: 130 x 130 x 180 mm

The only resin 3D printer featured in our 3D printer kit guide, the Peopoly Moai is an incredible feat of engineering. It’s huge, offers incredible accuracy and precision, and best of all, you can build your own 3D printer at home from scratch.

For those looking for an effective SLA 3D printer, and who do not want to pay full price, the Moai kit could be the perfect printer for you. It is so accurate that it can mechanically print up to an astonishing 5-micron layer height, according to Peopoly, though you’ll likely never reach this accuracy because you won’t need to, nor would most resins or models accommodate this.

Featuring a 70-micron laser spot size, once you’ve built this homemade 3D printer you’ll be ready to create resin molds for 3D printed jewelry, dental models, engineering pieces, as well as prototypes for rapid prototyping or fun characters if you use the Moai as a 3D printer for miniatures.

The Peopoly Moai is open to use third-party resins, for those who want to save money on lower-cost resins and are fine with the slight quality drop-off. The printer itself however does not come with any resin, so you’ll need to purchase that with the kit. It is only to be expected that the Moai will take some time to assemble, as resin 3D printers are more complex than their FDM 3D printer counterparts, but most makers will be able to build their own 3D printer within 4 hours.

Best DIY Resin Printer

Creality Ender 3 3D Printer sale

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Why Most People Choose Ender 3 3D Printer

From 2018 till now, the Ender-3 model has remained in the "Best Selling". Although we are launching new Ender-3V2, Ender-3S1. So why do many choose Ender 3?

1. In terms of price:  the price is lower than 200, stable printing quality and 220*220 printing size, supports different filament materials
2. In terms of performance: support resume printing, 5mins rapid heating, reliable power supply
3. Upgrade convenience:  ender 3 direct drive, cr touch auto leveling kit, touch screen , tempered glass bed and more. There's do much you can do with it
4. Who chose him: News for 3d printing, 3d printing enthusiast; for DIY makers, for education... Customer 

Ender 3' S FAQ:

Filament did not stick on the hotbed?
For newcomers, this is the most common problem. Do not worry, you can solve it easily. Generally,the distance between the nozzle and platform is too far or near. So rotary the knob under the platform to adjust the distance between the nozzle and platform again,at a piece of A4 paper distance or less).
Creality Ender 3 Bed Leveling – All You Need to Know
Any structure needs a strong foundation. The same is true for 3D-printed objects. Leveling the bed on your Creality Ender 3 will ensure that that all-important first layer is solid...

How to level Creality Creality Ender 3?
Move the nozzle so that it’s positioned over the left corner of the bed. A half-inch or so from both sides is a good location.
Slide the paper between the nozzle and the bed. If it doesn’t fit, drop the corner until it does.
Once the paper is able to slide under the nozzle, very slowly raise the corner with the adjuster. Remember: Clockwise moves the bed up. As you do this, gently slide the paper back and forth. The moment you feel even the slightest resistance to your moving the paper, stop turning the knob. That corner is (almost) ready to go.
Do the same for the other three corners of the build plate. Always advance the hot end to a new corner slowly. This will prevent damage to the build plate in case the nozzle starts to drag. If this occurs, simply lower the next corner (before starting the leveling process) to make some room.
After you’ve adjusted each corner once, go back and check the four corners again. You may have to do further adjustments to get all four correct.
Article: Creality Ender 3 Bed Leveling – All You Need to Know.

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Building a home 3D printer with your own hands: recommendations from personal experience

3D printing and assembly of 3D printers is my hobby and passion. Here I will not share detailed diagrams and drawings, there are more than enough of them on specialized resources. The main goal of this material is to tell you where to start, where to dig and how to avoid mistakes in the process of assembling a home 3D printer. Perhaps one of the readers will be inspired by applied engineering achievements.

Why do you need a 3D printer? Use cases

I first came across the idea of ​​3D printing back in the 90s when I was watching the Star Trek series. I remember how impressed I was by the moment when the heroes of the cult series printed the things they needed during their journey right on board their starship. They printed anything: from shoes to tools. I thought it would be great someday to have such a thing too. Then it all seemed something incredible. Outside the window are the gloomy 90s, and the Nokia with a monochrome screen was the pinnacle of progress, accessible only to a select few.

Years passed, everything changed. Around 2010, the first working models of 3D printers began to appear on sale. Yesterday's fantasy has become a reality. However, the cost of such solutions, to put it mildly, discouraged. But the IT industry would not be itself without an inquisitive community, where there is an active exchange of knowledge and experience and who just let them dig into the brains and giblets of new hardware and software. So, drawings and diagrams of printers began to surface more and more often on the Web. Today, the most informative and voluminous resource on the topic of assembling 3D printers is RepRap - this is a huge knowledge base that contains detailed guides for creating a wide variety of models of these machines.

I assembled the first printer about five years ago. My personal motivation to build my own device is quite prosaic and based on several factors. Firstly, there was an opportunity to try to realize the old dream of having your own device, inspired by a fantasy series. The second factor is that sometimes it was necessary to repair some household items (for example, a baby stroller, car elements, household appliances and other small things), but the necessary parts could not be found. Well, the third aspect of the application is "near-working". On the printer, I make cases for various IoT devices that I assemble at home.

Agree, it is better to place your device based on Raspberry Pi or Arduino in an aesthetically pleasing "body", which is not a shame to put in an apartment or take to the office, than to organize components, for example, in a plastic bowl for food. And yes, you can print parts to build other printers :)

There are a lot of scenarios for using 3D printers. I think everyone can find something of their own.

A complex part in terms of drawing that I printed on my printer. Yes, it's just a figurine, but it has many small elements

Ready solution vs custom assembly

When a technology has been tested, its value in the market decreases markedly. The same thing happened in the world of 3D printers. If earlier a ready-made solution cost simply sky-high money, then today acquiring such a machine is more humane for the wallet, but nevertheless not the most affordable for an enthusiast. There are a number of solutions already assembled and ready for home use on the market, their price range ranges from $500-700 (not the best options) to infinity (adequate solutions start from a price tag of about $1000). Yes, there are options for $150, but we, for understandable, I hope, reasons, will not dwell on them.

In short, there are three cases to consider a finished assembly:

• when you plan to print not much and rarely;
• when print accuracy is critical;
• you need to print molds for mass production of parts.

There are several obvious advantages to self-assembly. The first and most important is cost. Buying all the necessary components will cost you a maximum of a couple of hundred dollars. In return, you will receive a complete 3D printing solution with the quality of manufactured products acceptable for domestic needs. The second advantage is that by assembling the printer yourself, you will understand the principles of its design and operation. Believe me, this knowledge will be useful to you during the operation of even an expensive ready-made solution - any 3D printer needs to be serviced regularly, and it can be difficult to do this without understanding the basics.

The main disadvantage of assembly is the need for a large amount of time. I spent about 150 hours on my first build.

What you need to assemble the printer yourself

The most important thing here is the presence of desire. As for any special skills, then, by and large, in order to assemble your first printer, the ability to solder or write code is not critical. Of course, understanding the basics of radio electronics and basic skills in the field of mechanics (that is, "straight hands") will greatly simplify the task and reduce the amount of time that needs to be spent on assembly.

Also, to start we need a mandatory set of parts:

• Extruder is the element that is directly responsible for printing, the print head. There are many options on the market, but for a budget build, I recommend the MK8. Of the minuses: it will not be possible to print with plastics that require high temperatures, there is noticeable overheating during intensive work, which can damage the element. If the budget allows, then you can look at MK10 - all the minuses are taken into account there.
• Processor board. The familiar Arduino Mega is well suited. I didn't notice any downsides to this solution, but you can spend a couple of dollars more and get something more powerful, with a reserve for the future.
• Control board. I'm using RAMPS 1.4 which works great with the Arduino Mega. A more expensive but more reliable board is Shield, which already combines a processor board and a control board. In modern realities, I recommend paying attention to it. In addition to it, you need to purchase at least 5 microstep stepper motor controllers, for example - A4988. And it's better to have a couple of these in stock for replacement.
• Heated table. This is the part where the printed element will be located. Heating is necessary due to the fact that most plastics will not adhere to a cold surface. For example, for printing with PLA plastic, the required surface temperature of the table is 60-80°C, for ABS - 110-130°C, and for polycarbonate it will be even higher
  There are also two options for choosing a table - cheaper and more expensive. Cheaper options are essentially printed circuit boards with preheated wiring. To operate on this type of table, you will need to put borosilicate glass, which will scratch and crack during operation. Therefore, the best solution is an aluminum table.
• Stepper motors. Most models, including the i2 and i3, use NEMA 17 size motors, two for the Z axis and one each for the X and Y axes. Finished extruders usually come with their own stepper motor. It is better to take powerful motors with a current in the motor winding of 1A or more, so that there is enough power to lift the extruder and print without skipping steps at high speed.
• Basic set of plastic fasteners.
• Belt and gears to drive it.

Examples of elements appearance: 1) MK8 extruder; 2) Arduino processor board; 3) RAMPS control board; 4) motor controllers; 5) aluminum heated table; 6) NEMA 17 stepper motor; 7) a set of plastic fasteners; 8) drive gears; 9) drive belt

This is a list of items to be purchased. Hardcore users can assemble some of them themselves, but for beginners, I strongly recommend purchasing ready-made solutions.

Yes, you will also need various small things (studs, bearings, nuts, bolts, washers ...) to assemble the case. In practice, it turned out that using a standard m8 stud leads to low printing accuracy on the Z axis. I would recommend immediately replacing it with a trapezoid of the same size.

M8 trapezoid stud for Z axis, which will save you a lot of time and nerves. Available for order on all major online platforms

You also need to purchase customized plastic parts for the X axis, such as these from the MendelMax retrofit kit.

Most parts available at your local hardware store. On RepRap you can find a complete list of necessary little things with all sizes and patterns. The kit you need will depend on the choice of platform (we'll talk about platforms later).

What's the price

Before delving into some aspects of the assembly, let's figure out how much such entertainment will cost for your wallet. Below is a list of parts required for purchase with an average price.

Platform selection

The community has already developed a number of different platforms for assembling printers - the most optimal case designs and the location of the main elements, so you do not have to reinvent the wheel.

i2 and i3 are key platforms for self-assembly printer enclosures. There are also many modifications of them with various improvements, but for beginners, these two classic platforms should be considered, since they do not require special skills and fine-tuning.

Actually, illustration of platforms: 1) i2 platform; 2) i3 platform

On the plus side of i2: it has a more reliable and stable design, although it is a little more difficult to assemble; more opportunities for further customization.

The i3 variant requires more special plastic parts to be purchased separately and has a slow print speed. However, it is easier to assemble and maintain, and has a more aesthetically pleasing appearance. You will have to pay for simplicity with the quality of printed parts - the body has less stability than i2, which can affect print accuracy.

Personally, I started my experiments in assembling printers from the i2 platform. She will be discussed further.

Assembly steps, challenges and improvements

In this block, I will only touch on the key assembly steps using the i2 platform as an example. Full step by step instructions can be found here.

The general scheme of all the main components looks something like this. There is nothing particularly complicated here:

I also recommend adding a display to your design. Yes, you can easily do without this element when performing operations on a PC, but it will be much more convenient to work with the printer this way.

Understanding how all components will be connected, let's move on to the mechanical part, where we have two main elements - a frame and a coordinate machine.

Assembling the frame

Detailed frame assembly instructions are available on RepRap. Of the important nuances - you will need a set of plastic parts (I already talked about this above, but I'd better repeat it), which you can either purchase separately or ask your comrades who already have a 3D printer to print.

The frame of the i2 is quite stable thanks to its trapezoid shape.

This is how the frame looks like with parts already partially installed. For greater rigidity, I reinforced the structure with plywood sheets

Coordinate machine

An extruder is attached to this part. The stepper motors shown in the diagram above are responsible for its movement. After installation, calibration is required along all major axes.

Important - you will need to purchase (or make your own) a carriage for moving the extruder and a mount for the drive belt. Drive belt I recommend GT2.

The carriage printed by the printer from the previous picture after it has been assembled. The part already has LM8UU bearings for guides and belt mount (top)

Calibration and adjustment

So, we completed the assembly process (as I said, it took me 150 hours) - the frame was assembled, the machine was installed. Now another important step is the calibration of this very machine and extruder. Here, too, there are small subtleties.

Setting up the machine

I recommend calibrating the machine with an electronic caliper. Do not be stingy with its purchase - you will save a lot of time and nerves in the process.

The screenshot below shows the correct constants for the Marlin firmware, which must be selected in order to set the correct number of steps per unit of measure. We calculate the coefficient, multiply it, substitute it into the firmware, and then upload it to the board.

Marlin 9 firmware constants0022