Building a 3d printer with piper1

I have been striving to get more hands on of engineering projects so that i can eventually land a good paying job. Since schools do not offer hardly any hands on, i have had to take matters into my own hands.

I decided one of the best things to learn to do is build your own 3d printer. There are 2 different ways to do this; First, buy a 3d printer diy kit from amazon or folgertech.com. They range from $160 for the Anet a8, which prints just good enough to print upgrade parts. Or for $273, purchase an american made kit from folgertech. Bothe the kits i mention are based on the reprap, or self replicating 3d printer, prusa i3 printer.

The second is to build your own reprap printer from sourced parts. Its literally the same as the kits above, BUT your finding ALL of the parts on your own from a bill of materials and web directions. Its far more frustrating because parts can be all over the web. HOWEVER, the BEST build your own printer i have seen comes from www.piper3dprinters.com. The picture above is a piper 3d printer. It is also based off of the prusa i3, BUT instead of using linear rods or bulky frames, it uses electrical conduit as its frame and for the rails as well. There is a simple upgrade where you can replace the bed and extruder rails with high performance linear rods, which i suggest at least to replace the x axis with the rods. It will produce better prints. The printer can go as big as 500mmx500mmx500mm for version 1, piper 2 can go as big as you want.

Ok, so what is reprap... It basically means a self replicating machine. So a 3d printer that prints other 3d printers by 3d printing a majority of its parts, excluding the electronics and frame. Check out https://reprap.org/wiki/RepRap for more info.

The piper project is a reprap project and, in my opinion, the best one. It has a full list of parts to print, buy and how to assemble. You can also join the Facebook group and with in minutes i had answers to my questions.

Granted, i started this project about a month ago. I have printed all the parts, and put the frame together. It is now time for the elctronics, which is the more expensive part. It is a goal to be done in 6 months with this. The piper1 i am building is a 300mmx300mmx300mm large format printer without a heated bed. This printer will be PLA only and for mostly learning how to build one.

Below are the current pics i have of the build:

CGI of finished frame www.piper3dprinters.com

What it SHOULD look like when finished