3D Printing For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 12

Assembling Structural Elements

IN THIS CHAPTER

Locating materials to build your printer

Acquiring parts

Building the frame

Putting together the axis

This chapter discusses where to locate suitable materials or buy a 3D-printer kit. We look at building up the frames of both delta- and Cartesian-style 3D printers. We show you how the machine motion and sensing operations work, and prepare you for wiring and incorporating the electronics discussed in Chapter 13.

Although this chapter covers a lot of ground, it shouldn’t be considered to be a full build guide for a specific printer. Instead, it should further assist you in selecting the most suitable machine to build for yourself.

Locating Materials

For a new user, two of the most daunting things about RepRap are collecting the raw materials required to build the 3D printer and then trying to identify whether what you’ve found is suitable to use.

As we discuss earlier in this book, building up your own 3D printer is well worth the effort. Buying one that’s already assembled may sound like a good idea, but in reality, you ...