Building a 3D Printer Vs. Buying a 3D Printer

[Rainday21]

Just wondering what your opinions are on whether you think it is better to build a 3d printer or buy one. I know there are a lot of arguments going both ways, but I'm trying to get feedback on this.

Of course buying is more expensive, less time consuming, and easier. Building is more fun (if you like that sort of thing), more customizable, and cheaper. What are the other aspects of each that I am missing?

Have you bought or built yours?

[3dkarma]

One of the drawbacks of buying, at least for some printers, is lock-in. Some vendors attempt to lock you in to buying filament only from themselves in a similar fashion to inkjet printer manufacturers. I would steer well clear of them.

I've built a few. The major drawcard to me is the ability to tune, tweak and rebuild to get the printer I want rather than the printer someone wants to sell me. That and the upgrade path is again my choice, rather than the vendor's.

[DrLuigi]

Personaly i would buy a Kit if your new,
Just so you know everything what it takes to make one, you learn alot when its your first time, Makerfarm is a great example.

But if you have more money and can buy a Ultimaker/Zotrax etc, Well go for it :P
But i personaly wouldnt buy a solidoodle, since Ultimaker 1 is pretty cheap atm, i believe 950 euros (+ free 3doodle, atleast that was it a few weeks ago) But it is a kit, But still a great printer ^^

Its all up to you and if its more like a hobby printer or if you realy wanna invest money in it, and what you want from it, example a classic 8x8x8 build volume, or a Delta printer.

[ShaneH]

I chose to make my very first printer (a Mendel90) from scratch, using nopheads plans but sourcing all the parts myself. I was in no rush to have one so didn't have a need to buy the kit, but you get intimately acquainted with how one works when you do the scratch build. I have learned quite a bit about how they do their magic, all the little idiosyncrasies of different hardware and software, and what tweaks affect the end product (good and bad ones!) I'm at the stage where I I'm printing direct to the glass (PLA prints), no glue/tape/juice/hairspray..or any other menagerie of methods for making prints stick..I simply scrape the glass with a boxcutter blade, maybe wipe the glass with a bit of tissue and isopropyl if I can see it needs it, load the g-code and click 'print'. These are techniques you learn and develop through doing things the hard(er) way vs simply unpack, plug in and click play.

In saying that, I did have some practice by designing and engineering a conversion of an A3 inject printer into a CNC machine..so I wasn't totally in the dark when I built the printer.