Our 3dStuffMaker desk-top printer – takes computer drawings of objects (CAD) and reduces them to little bits, all-the-while recording the position of these bits in 3 dimensional (xyz) space, xyz bits are then deposited at exact xyz locations by the printer, in the form of a continuous 0.2 to 0.8mm sized sausage of hot plastic.

Print your Imagination

Much like the goo coming out of a hot glue gun – only much smoother and accurately placed in three dimensional space. Little-by-little, these small plastic deposits build real things…(much like a Star Trek replicator… hence they are generically called reprap’s).

3D printed objects are of useful quality and can be sanded and painted, much like a bronze cast object, except the material is easy to file, sand and paint plastic.

A Perfect 3D Print

3D printed objects are of useful quality and can be sanded and painted, much like a bronze cast object, except the material is easy to file, sand and paint plastic.

The quality of the 3d printed objects varies with the experience of the reprap kit maker, the quality of the 3D printer parts and the technical skills and patience of the end-user…and therein lies the catch,not everyone will be able to build a 3d printer from a kit and not every kit available on the internet has well engineered parts. We let fly many howls of frustration as we tried building them.

However, it was a very educationally challenging experience as we embarked on a refresher / crash-course in :

• Engineering / building mechanical stuff aligned to fine tolerances.
• Advanced eectronics – connecting wires – building up heated printer heads – and debugging wiring faults and many software issues.
• Programming- if you are game, you can change the software (open source) and tinker… ’til you drop…
• CAD – or digital drawing design know-how… not much off the shelf is is available at the moment, so you may have to design much of your “stuff” from scratch.
• XYZ printing or routing machine know-how is desirable in order to drive a printer to give you a good print.

All in all, you need some awesome skills to build one, even from the best kits, instant satisfaction is often days, weeks or months away, depending on your skills. However, a bright computer-savy techo will have endless fun building and debugging one. It is a truly a challenging, rewarding and fantastic educational learning experience, using cutting /bleeding edge technology… and after building a 3D printer from a kit, you will be educated enough to build almost any machine as long as your patience lasts the distance.

On the other hand, if you just want to have instant fun designing and printing your “stuff”, then it is better to buy a ready built, fully tested and functional 3D printer and this is where 3dStuffMaker shines!

3D stuffmaker can ship fully built and tested 3D printers in a variety of designs to suit everyone. · 3D stuffmaker also offers a CAD design assistance service- should your imagination not yet match your CAD skills. · … and if you must have a 3D printer in kit form… 3D stuffmaker offers a flat-pack educational kit… and our best wishes to you and your tool-kit. Building one from a good kit – is definitely a time consuming experience, but importantly it is very satisfying in the educational sense.. providing you have an inquisitive mind and endless patience… However, if you do get stuck, 3D stuffmaker have an optional Skype video help facility- where our technicians can give your sick kit-building project- one-to-one technical resuscitation