New budget 3D printer

There are all new 3D printers in the family RepRap . Printrbot was designed to make the printer cheap, as simple as possible to assemble, and therefore accessible to wide circles. The project motto is " Printrbot - your first 3D printer." Looking ahead - the planned price for the base model is $ 549.

The project aroused keen interest on the kickstarter and 50% of the required $ 25,000 was raised in less than a day and a half. By the end of the month, by the end of the month, 830 thousand projects were collected. $ (3 323%)

This is followed by translations of selected sites from the project site and from published videos on behalf of the printer’s creator Brook Drumm, which clarify the details of the project and the current status.

“I designed Printrbot as the simplest printer. There are many great self-build kits - Makerbot, Ultimaker, Prusa Mendel and others, but none of them are as simple and miniature as Printrbot . They not only require many hours to assemble, but also contain hundreds of parts and are more expensive. My design also eliminates many calibrations that other 3D printers suffer from. Even a child can collect it. We assemble the electronics, the print head, install the connectors on all the components - no soldering is required during the assembly. ”
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“This printer I assemble in 45 minutes. Following the video instructions you will assemble the printer in an hour. And after a couple of hours, after you connect the electronics, download the software available for free on the Internet, you can print your first 3D part. ”

“In January 2011, I assembled my first Makerbot Cupcake 3D printer. On February 3rd I printed my first object. By August 13, I designed, printed and built the first prototype of Printrbot . After a few months of testing and improvements, on the 17th of November, I launched a project on kickstarter. During this very long month a huge interest was shown to the project. ”

- “This is not a third-party side job in free time, but the beginning of a new business. I have a small trusted team that deals with individual components.

There is a local supplier of the printhead assembly.

There is an engineer who communicates and makes decisions on the production of electronics. It will be fully assembled by the manufacturer - not a complete assembly kit, but a fully assembled one. Components for surface mounting are mainly used, so they can be assembled by robots. So, the bigger the order, the better.

Motors: I talked to a local supplier and he already offered to place a large order in production. I will not engage in direct negotiations with manufacturers in China - this is not my specialty. Leave it to the professionals. I was assured that there would be no problems with any amount. For safety net, if necessary, I will break the order into parts so as not to keep all the eggs in one basket.

Details will be printed on the bot farm we create. This will be the largest printing bots farm I've heard of. And certainly the densest — my little Printrbot takes so little space. ”

- "... The printhead is one of the components that will be manufactured on site. We have taken a partner as a gentleman, who has spent many years managing the HP failure analysis laboratory. He knows how to do things, how to test them under serious pressure, how to find Weaknesses and bug fixes. We love our printheads and they will be supplied as an assembly, saving you from working with the most problematic part of the set. "

9 days after launch on kickstart:
“Now we are planning to make 500 sets, but, if necessary, we will increase or decrease this number. The more we sell printers, the better the price will be in the future. Already, we should be close to the price of $ 500 per set. Thanks to all the participants. ”

13 days - collected 1000%:
- “Tomorrow we will look for production premises, since we have outgrown the possibilities of my garage, when the number of required kits exceeded 200 units.”

1000+ participants make the printer better:
“At the start of the project, my goal was 50 sets assembled in my garage. But after a couple of days we surpassed our dreams ... Printrbot became even better than originally planned ... In the initial design, I reduced the number of bearings to save a little. But thanks to the large volume of the order, I agreed on a great price and now we have 12 linear bearings - 4 for each axle. In addition to 12mm 8mm linear bearings, we supplied hardened, machined rods in all axes. Steamed with excellent bearings, the movement along all axes is smooth as in silk.

Our engine supplier has dozens of models to choose from. For the X / Y axes, we chose the most powerful Nema 17 motors with a force of 4.2 kgs. Mendel according to the specification has motors 1.4 kgcm. Why do we need so much? Because we want to give you the best possible. Who knows, you might want to upgrade and install a larger platform and you will need this power. Again, the order turned out to be big and it gives us the opportunity to choose the best. ”



“We announced a new option - a set of Printrbot + costing $ 649. This is an improved version of laser cut out plywood. The size of the working area increased to 20h20h20sm. It is tougher and more accurate than a smaller brother. I hope it will help those who want a bigger printer. ”

“We have arrived at a final pricing decision for international customers.”
$ 89 only printed parts without iron ($ 75 + $ 14 shipping)
$ 231 parts set without motors, electronics and printhead ($ 199 + $ 32 shipping)
$ 469 set of "repraper" - all except printed parts ($ 424 + $ 45 shipping)
$ 544 full set ($ 499 + $ 45 shipping)
$ 694 full printrbot + (plus) set ($ 649 + $ 45 shipping)
$ 900 assembled printrbot ($ 750 + $ 150 shipping)
$ 1149 assembled printrbot in a painted plywood box ($ 999 + $ 150 shipping) »

- “New option !!! I know, I know what you want to say, but we can do nothing about it. The laser cut version of birch plywood is just super. She's so tough and just looks a lot better. And for the same money! "
The differences.
base printrbot :
- you can easily increase - just change the iron rods and increase the size of the printing platform
Printrbot LC (laser cut):
- looks better
- faster to make
- the design is harder, which improves printing accuracy
For the rest, both models are exactly the same.

- " Printrbot will be sold on printrbot.com for $ 549, estimated to be delivered starting in May ... We are working on prices for all models, upgrades and special prices for schools. We will also offer discounts on wholesale orders - 10, 50, etc. sets "

- from questions and answers:
“When will the source files be available to the RepRap community?”
“The GPL requires the release of source files along with the product, and not before. So they will be available when the first printers ship. ”

For the most patient set of links on the topic:

Project home page (later there will be a shop) - printrbot.com
Project on kickstarter (already closed) - printrbot-your-first-3d-printer
RepRap Wiki Page - reprap.org/wiki/Printrbot
YouTube videos - youtube.com/user/printrbot
Video clips on vimeo - vimeo.com/printrbot
Video and photo on flickr - flickr

Shl. Watch the video on the kickstarter site. Unfortunately, it is not possible to insert it here.