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Rick Jenkins is a volunteer with The Working Centre’s Computer Recycling Project. Besides being a good computer technician he’s also a very skilled artist, 3D modeller and all around tinkerer.
Rick’s passion for tinkering has in the past led him to create a number of cosplay props ranging from a full length steampunk jacket to a steampunk gun that featured a light-by-light power-up effect and full sound effects. He’s also a long time open source user who started out with an early release of Red Hat Linux. Currently Rick uses Arch Linux on his home system, but he chose to install Ubuntu on the computer for his latest project: the Vaster Mini3 3D printer outlined on Instructables.com: http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-3D-Printer-Under-299/
Ubuntu made sense for the computer running the 3D printer because there were already packages for the makerbot software. Rick uses Slic3r, which does the same as the makerbot software, and Blender to build the models.
3D printers have been available for a few years now and Rick predicts that within 5 years there’ll be models cheap enough that most people will have at least one 3D printer in their home. Part of the impetus for building (over buying) the 3D printer came from the availability of local resources. In Kitchener, Ontario, the local maker group, Kwartzlab, has a large laser cutter and several 3D printers. The local library also has several 3D printers. The other itch to build (over buy) came from Rick’s tinkerer nature.
The design for the printer came from instructables.com which has links to some of the sources for the hardware, the motors and the Arduino. The nuts and bolts were bought at Spaenaur and the metal rods and some of the additional components were recovered from old inkjet printers from the Computer Recycling Project.
The greatest challenge building the printer was collecting all the information to build it. The initial research before cutting out the first part with the laser cutter was significant. Knowing why he needed to use each part was important to ensure proper operation: making sure the stepper motors are moving the right distance, making sure there’s no print slide (instead of getting a cube, getting a parallelogram - misalignment).
Rick chose to build the Vaster Mini3 over other instructable designs, partly because of the way it looked and partly because it was described as an under $300 make your own 3D printer. In fact the costs actually ended up around $140. The most expensive parts were the Arduino control kit and the nema 17 motors. Rick had extracted several motors from inkjet printers, but because of where the mounting holes were on the design, it required the nema 17 motors.
printer_front.pngThe structure of the 3D printer is mostly complete after 1 ½ months invested. Part of the time investment was due to limited access to the laser cutter, sourcing local shops, and waiting for ordered components to arrive. All that’s left now is waiting for the motors to arrive. Once parts are in it should only take a couple of days to do the initial complete assembly, do the initial test prints and recalibration.
With the structure assembled, a good part of the 3D printer is built, but there are still several things that could go wrong. The Arduino may not take the initial flashing of its BIOS to tell it that it’s a 3d printer. The Slic3r software may provide standardized gcode that the Arduino may not interpret correctly. One of the Nema 17 motors may not work right. The extruder assembly could jam and malfunction. The motor feeder may feed at the wrong speed compared to the heater head. The thermistor might misinterpret the temperature. This is why Rick spent so much time on initial research.
On the computer side of things Rick started with an old Pentium 4, but found that Blender choked too much. The Computer Recycling Project had recently had several generous donors so he ended up reclaiming an AMD Quad Core A6-3620 APU system with 8GB RAM, a 1TB hard drive and the onboard Radeon HD6530D graphics. It handles pretty much any Blender design Rick throws at it.
For anyone thinking about building a 3D printer, Rick suggests connecting to a source of information, such as 3d printing groups, so you can talk to other people who have gone through the process of either buying or building a 3d printer. It’s the best resource. Online resources are great but they don’t always tell the full story. In person you get immediate responses. Online there can be a lot of time wasted trying to get the right answer. Also in person, if you have the machine in hand, someone who has built a machine can look at it and point out anything wrong with it.
Rick plans to print replacement components for computers and laptops as well as special personal projects like a lightsabre, and other costume accessories.
People can contact Rick on Googleplus: gaelfling@gmail.com
Kwartzlab: http://www.kwartzlab.ca/ Vaster Mini3 printer: http://www.instructables.com/id/Building-a-3D-Printer-Under-299/ Ewaste $60 printer: http://www.instructables.com/id/eWaste-60-3DPrinter/step2/Step-2-Preparing-Motors/ Slic3r: http://slic3r.org/ Blender: http://www.blender.org/