Custom-built 3D Printer

Over 6 months, I designed and built my own 3D printer using materials I had around the house, including Jenga planks, miscellaneous Lego parts, and more. The printer was functional and included a novel pre-extrusion motor to minimize unexpected filament breaks. This allowed me to design some parts for my projects (and to make keychains for my family).

Technical Details

This is an FDM printer running off of the Reprap framework, which is being hosted on an Arduino Mega. I integrated this circuit with the hardware of the printer, which consists of a cube-shaped wooden frame (built at a local carpenter's store), with M8 threaded rods holding the extruder. The nozzle was repurposed from a low-cost 3D pen and modified to remove excess weight and with a removed extruder. Moreover, I noted that the main print extruder did not exert enough torque to automatically turn the spool, so I designed an ad-hoc pre-extruder system to minimize filament tension. This allowed the printer to run effectively for long durations without human intervention. Some initial 3D printed parts were later added for support, with Jenga blocks used to make the nozzle mount and Lego for the belt and pulley system.