Hey chaps. Anyone out there tried building a 3d printer on the cheep? Iv'e seen lots of very expensive machines, doing something that in theory is quite simple. There must be a better way to make your own modding parts.....
Both the reprap and the makebot are fairly cheap and do a decent job. The quality of the printed material isn't amazing but it's still pretty good considering how little the hardware costs.
Milling machines are generally superior for projects. 3D printers have an advantage in that it is more difficult to create certain shapes with hidden surfaces with millers but this is a small benefit to the numerous downsides. materials: 3d printers are essentially limited to plastics with certain thermal properties, usually not very strong too, millers can work from everything from plastic to steel speed: millers are usually faster because there is no cooling time for the substance to set. accuracy: millers have an order of magnitude percission among consumer level hardware, .1mm accuracy to something near or better than .01mm, this means no blockyness which is rapidly becoming a trademark of 3d printing.
3d printers are a fantastic invention, with newer materials and methodologies being innovated upon everyday. Its purely dependant on how much you want to spend, the accuracy issues you have also depend on how your going to finish your model really,its generally used like wood as its an isometric material (grain of the material flowing one way) so you have to really design your model so it works with the grain (flat for compression, edge on for tension) so it doesn't split. There are metal additive material processes coming in but are in general very expensive as they require very specialist care and love to keep going. The cheaper polymer ones like makerbot are fantastic as you can load them with any thermoplastic and do some really cool things with composite material. The world is your oyster really
