Using a 3D Printer Pen to Draw the Necessary components to make the 3D printer Frame

[nzhu]

One problem I'm facing is the lack of materials I need.
I'm hours away from my house, taking the metro to work.
I only have access to ebay and MAYBE homedept but that's still a walk.

Buying a prebuilt frame for 500-700 dollars is a ripoff in my opinion since they only give you the plastic frame.

I was wondering if it would be a good idea to buy a 50 dollar 3D printing Pen and a bunch of ABS. Using the pen, then I drawout my own frame, and then insert the remaining components (motor, rails, etc) into my drawn frame.
The only big downside I see is that the drawn plastic frames won't be as smooth as the 3D printed ones.

[taskman]

If you want to try this maybe you can use the concepts of the Cyclone PCB factory to build a 3D printer for yourself

The old frames where made out of wood, you could always download the old plans and get the frame cut out of wood using laser or maybe you can cut it out by hand. Remember there are pros/cons to everything. You might end up spending so much time trying to get the thing to work correctly, but maybe you enjoy tinkering and it can be a hobby playing with the machine

http://reprap.org/wiki/Cyclone_PCB_Factory
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!fo...ne-pcb-factory

Looking at Printrbot you can get a full printer for the price you are talking about
http://printrbot.com/product-categor.../simple-metal/

[awerby]

I don't see that working too well. No plastic frame will be very stiff, but just about any plastic frame will be stiffer than something you squirt out of one of those guns. Get some pieces of aluminum or steel angle stock and bolt them together - that will make a much better frame and won't cost as much as that toy extruder and all that plastic filament.

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

[truly_bent]

With a 3D pen? The parts being not as smooth isn't likely your biggest problem. How do you propose to create parts with any accuracy? Rails have to be parallel and axes have to be perpendicular. I can't imagine trying to build anything like a printer with a pen. Maybe it's possible, but i wouldn't try it.

You'd be better off trying to find somebody over on reprap.org who will print you a set of parts for a reasonable rate. They have big hearts over there.