Wanting to get into the 3D-action, I’ve gone and bought this elCheapo thing of asian origin. It’s a knock-off made roughly according to Josef Prusa’s design, which is admittedly opensource, but with him producing it as well, this one is a pale reflection of the quality found in the – somewhat more expensive – Prusa I3.
It came as a kit. Good. However, I had expected something semi-assembled and not 57 little plastic bags, packs of rods and strangely shaped plastic bits. The only things that were assembled were electronic-boards and the extruder.
Oh well. Three days after opening the cardboard box, the device made its first print. And I had learnt a lot, assembling all the pieces. That’s because I unintentionally got what I wanted – and then some.
I’m not spending my time here because I want the 3D-printed objects. I’m doing it because
- I want to know if and how the ability to generate my own bits and bobs will affect my life. Will I ever need to visit a proper hardware store again? Will I discover a hitherto unexplored ore of raw CAD-talent? Will I end up thinking “I’ll just make that” in the right places or will it never catch on for me?
- It’s great fun to fiddle with all this mechanical stuff – which is so tightly linked to the software controlling it. What’s not to like.
For now, the printed objects are considered a nice by-product.
Subsections for this page exist to keep things a bit organised:
Also, my endeavours into 3D-territory will be documented in the blog.