Arduino 3d Printer

[Martin Naef]

>> Joost and me talked a bit about 3d Printers, I m curious what you guys think about the Arduino ? :P
>> http://store.arduino.cc/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_code=3DP0002

> Interesting to see these prebuilt ones… this one is at a good price point too :) but not so sure about PLA 3D-printing in general…
> Gonna get a Carvey probably once they’re out :) https://www.inventables.com/technologies/carvey

I'm lusting for a full rig along those lines:
https://www.stepcraft-systems.com/

Particularly the second generation system (the 840) looks great.
With a nice 500W spindle one can do some decent CNC carving. The other 
tools are handy as well: cutter, hotcutter, and even a 3D printing head.

The Carvey is nice with its full enclosure, but the working area is way 
too small for my taste, and the spindle a bit on the slow side.

The problem with all these tools: At this price range, they are still a 
good deal away from the professional machining tools. They're great for 
cutting wood, some plastics and composite material, but they usually 
fail once you're dealing with metals (other than soft aluminum and thin 
sheets). It's probably a lot cheaper in the mid-term if you find a 
service provider instead of owning the machines yourself. Of course, 
that's only half the fun... ;-)

Then there is the problem of content creation: Even if you're familiar 
with the CAD/CAM tool chain and how to run it with the machines you 
have, it takes a lot of time. I've recently visited a fellow airplane 
model builder with a nice CNC rig (probably around 4 times as expensive 
as the Stepcraft I mentioned). It's amazing the results he is getting 
from his tools, but he is also investing an awful lot of energy into his 
hobby.

So yes, it's great to have such machines at home. It's even better if 
you have friends with machines at home... ;-)

Martin