200 Dollar 3D Printer Club

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200 Dollar 3D Printer Club


Would you like to have a nice little 3D printer for just $200? Thanks to open source hardware/software and Chinese manufacturing you can have one. This is a kit based printer. It takes on the order of 10 hours to build, few if any tools not in the kit are required for the build.

This “club” will bring together a group of us to buy, build, and operate this sort of printer. It will be based on my experience building just such a printer. We can build together, or work at home and just meet to share the experience ( or a mix of the two ). I cannot guarantee your success, but you can see my printer ( which has been working really well for me ) and follow in my footsteps to the degree you wish.

Sign up here https://www.meetup.com/South-Coast-Innovator-Labs/events/243780020/ on meetup to participate. Please have a method to communicate with the group, at least allow messages through meetup, better send me a real email address, and note if I can share it with other member of the group.

The plan so far ( re-plan as we meet )

Meeting One, the First[edit]

( last update oct 28 )

I am not going to give a real date to the meeting until I have a reasonable group ( say 3 - 4 ) who want to attend. So I will keep pushing out the date until then.

The meeting place will be a my house in South Dartmouth, but we can also use Google groups for those who would like to make their attendance virtual.

For info on my printers see: Russ's 3D Printers

Organizational meeting[edit]

  • will include more details about 3d printing and the printer
  • work out procedures for the group.
  • order the kits.
  • introduction to the wiki

Build meetings ( as many as needed )[edit]

  • Will include building for those who wish to bring their printers.
  • Problem solving for builds.
  • Enhancing the printer.

First Print meetings[edit]

  • Get your first print working.
  • Debugging the printer
  • Calibrating the printer
  • Running the software.

Finally[edit]

Follow on up to the group.... whatever we want to continue with, or nothing.

Some info on the printer[edit]

  • The kit is based on the Prussa I3, but is a clone. This saves $500 dollars over the real thing, albeit with a decrease in both quality and features. I think this is a good trade off ( and also leads me to the plan of getting the real thing soon ).
  • Prints with PLA and ABS
  • Has heated bed and auto leveling.

200 Dollar Printer Kits

Software[edit]

  • All software needed is either open source or free. You will need a computer but any operating system will do.


Wiki[edit]

This is it!

Sign up to be member of the wiki so you can contribute to it. Any problems; just contact me.