In this post I want to go over standard designs of 3d printers I have seen popular in the community to show what’s favored out there and what may lend itself to my design.
I’ve been spending an incredible amount of time watching 3d printer review, build logs, content, etc, as a way of familiarizing myself with common builds and just in general see what designs seem to work. The printers I will be showing here show some of the different styles of kinematics and mechanics that are used. Each has its own benefits and drawbacks as I will be detailing in the next couple of posts.
I don’t go over any here, but there is also a plethora of open source designs for not only 3d printers, but all types of builds at OpenBuilds. This place is great to scroll through and pick up ideas. I will more than likely be citing designs from here in the future for specific ideas or mechanics.
As I was looking for 3d printers for beginners, two printer kits seemed to continually come up. The Ender 3 and the Prusa i3 Mk 3 (third editions get it I guess).
The Prusa is like the poster child of 3d printing, accurate, high quality, you can buy it in a kit, it’s super maker friendly, and the list goes on. It’s designed by the highly revered Josef Prusa, one of the original leaders of the Reprap movement, so he’s pretty much an OG in the world of 3d printing. The Ender 3 is another kit printer that is friendly to makers on a budget looking to upgrade in the future, running from around $200-$250. I think people get this kit because it’s an easy way into 3d printing and it’s a bit of a project. There are plenty of things to upgrade and tweak so it’s an ongoing experience.
Next up, one of my biggest inspirations thus far is the HyperCube by Tech2C .
A custom built printer with its own incredible build log series, Tech2C is a fantastic youtuber and maker. He posts, to my knowledge, all of his designed parts to Thingiverse for people to use, print, and tweak as they need. A fantastic member of the community.
” 3D Printing, FPV RC and everything in between. ”
– Tech2C About Page
His build series really details the process that is making a 3d printer as he goes over individual mechanics, designs custom parts needed, and discusses his satisfaction and regrets in his design. Best part about this printer and series is that he made the entire parts list is available along as all of his custom designed parts. This build log spawned a ton of HyperCube spin offs by the community and is practically a household name for a 3d printing maker.
These printers are great, but there are definitely more designs out there. The coolest looking movement in my opinion goes to delta style printers. In this case, the Iverntech D1 Delta Kossel.
Admittedly, I know basically nothing about the Iverntech D1 Delta specifically, but it’s a design worth going over. These printers are so cool and are really mesmerizing to watch printing. Instead of motors driving the X, Y, and Z axes, they all run in the Z direction and are tethered together. Through their precise combined efforts, they can move the print head in constrained directions. Cool looking, awesome innovation, but with significant drawbacks that I’ll get into later.
Lastly let’s enjoy the clever Polar 3d.
Smart design as it only needs 2 motors to reach all 3 dimensions it needs. These are not so common as I have seen, but may hold their own place as a cheap printer that does work. Because of their weird kinematics and design, there isn’t as much support from the community as other styles of printers.
Some awesome designs for printers are out in the community. There are TONS of open source designs out there too. Like I said at the top, OpenBuilds is a great time to scroll through for all types of builds from 3d Printers, to CNC, to Laser Cutters, to custom projects.
Next post I will be going into core kinematics and mechanics for these machines, detailing what designs will work best for me.
