James Floyd Kelly - 3D Printing: Build Your Own 3D Printer and Print Your Own 3D Objects

The information in this appendix is by no means complete. Thousands of websites are dedicated to 3D printing, along with hundreds of books and magazines and enough software companies to fill a dozen pages. What Ive done here is pull out some of the ones that were most useful to me during the writing of this book, as well as resources that I believe will help point you in many more directions and expand your own research.

Official Printrbot ForumPrintrbot has its own Help site where users can post questions and get help. If youve got a question about your Printrbot, this is definitely the place to start: http://help.printrbot.com/.

Unofficial Printrbottalk.com ForumThe Printrbottalk.com Forum started when Printrbot was raising funds via its Kickstarter program, and it has continued to be a great place for fans of Printrbot to gather and post photos, ask questions, and more. Theres a dedicated area just for the Printrbot Simple, too: http://bit.ly/1c2XuyV.

Fine-Tuning Your Printrbot SimpleA great forum discussion from printrbottalk.com that offers some additional configuration for the Repetier software, some slightly different than the official Printrbot documentation suggests: http://bit.ly/15J7Gb7.

Additional 3D ForumsHere are links to some additional 3D forums:

Soliforumwww.soliforum.com

3Dprinting-Forumswww.3dprinting-forums.com

Make magazine 3DP Forumhttp://bit.ly/1bNvXmE

RepRap Forumhttp://forums.reprap.org

ShapewaysOne of the larger online 3D printing services that will ship your printed model to you. You can even set up a shop and sell items youve designed: www.shapeways.com.

SculpteoAnother great online 3D printing service that will take your uploaded model, print it, and ship it to you. Also supports selling your creations: www.sculpteo.com.

PonokoHeres one more excellent online 3D printing service for you to investigate. Prints and ships your uploaded models and has a sellers area as well: https://www.ponoko.com.

ThingiverseQuite possibly the largest collection of digital files suitable for 3D printing, Thingiverse can keep you busy browsing for hours. Download and print items you find, and upload your own: www.thingiverse.com.

3Ders.orgGet prices on 3D printers, read articles, and stay up to date with the latest 3D printing news. Includes some great videos of different types of 3D printing technology: http://www.3ders.org.

3D CAD with Autodesk 123D, by Jesse Harrington AuCovers the entire 123D family of software. ISBN: 1449343015.

Getting Started with RepRap, by Josef PrusaA beginners guide to the DIY RepRap 3D printer. ISBN: 1457182963.

Design & Modeling for 3D Printing, by Matthew GriffinDiscussion and activities to improve your modeling skills. ISBN: 1449359175.

Make: Ultimate Guide to 3D PrintingAn annually updated collection of 3D printer reviews, how-to articles, and more. ISBN: 1449357377 (2012 edition).

Below youll find links to the developers of applications that can be used to create 3D models to print with your 3D printer. Im not including prices because they change, but be aware that many of the applications are not free.

Autodesk

Blenderwww.blender.org

Solidworkswww.solidworks.com

GrabCadhttp://grabcad.com

Rhino3Dwww.rhino3d.com

3Dtinwww.3dtin.com/

FreeCadhttp://sourceforge.net/projects/free-cad/

LibreCadhttp://librecad.org/cms/home.html

SketchUpwww.sketchup.com

Art of Illusionwww.artofillusion.org

Sculptrishttp://pixologic.com/sculptris/

Wings3Dwww.wings3d.com

OpenSCADhttp://www.openscad.org

for more details.

The number of 3D printing companies seems to be growing almost daily. Its impossible to list all the sellers and their most current prices, but I have found that the 3ders.org website does a great job of keeping up (as best it can) with the latest 3D printers and their prices. Point your web browser to the following address for a long list of sellers and prices:

http://www.3ders.org/pricecompare/3dprinters/

Amazon.comyes, Amazon.comhas an entire 3D printer supply category that includes not just printers but also replacement parts, filament, and more, which is especially useful if youre considering building your own 3DP: http://amzn.to/11rnXOX.

UltimachineThey sell printers, but theyre also a good one-stop shop for supplies: https://ultimachine.com.

eBayFamous for online auctions, eBay also offers 3D printing sellers a place to offer their wares: http://bit.ly/12jenUn.

Id like to welcome you to the world of 3D printing. If youre already familiar with 3D printers, how they work, and what you can do with themwell, feel free to skip ahead. I wont mind.

3D printing is exactly what it sounds likeprinting something that can be picked up, held in your hands, and played with. Its 3D, meaning its not flat like a piece of paper. Its printing because the 3D object doesnt just magically appear; it must be printed by a special device called a 3D printer.

All of this and much more is explained in . Again, I wont mind.

You probably want to know a bit more about 3D printing. Maybe youre a little nervous that it sounds a bit too technical, or too difficult. Youll be happy to learn that there are kids doing this 3D printing thing. Young kids. How young? My oldest boy is six, and hes learning much of what youll learn in this book and hes having a blast. Ive even heard of much younger kids designing and printing out fun little objects with a 3D printer.

What kinds of objects can 3D printer owners print? Ive seen a range of objects from the simple to the advanced. Buttons, game tokens, and money clips are easy to design and print and are great examples of small, simple objects that can be made in plastic. But on the advanced side, Ive seen a 2 tall Eiffel Tower, a life-size human skull, a set of working gears that were inserted into a robot to make it go faster, and even a camera shell that holds film and takes real pictures. (If you just cant wait to see what people are printing with 3D printers, point your web browser to www.thingiverse.com and spend a few minutes browsing around this library of free object files that users can download and print on their 3D printers.)

Theres really no need to be intimidated by 3D printing. Yes, this is a technology book, but I promise that Ive written it for a nontechnical audience.

As you get a few more chapters deeper into the book, youll discover that Ive pulled back the complicated and strange workings of this thing called 3D printing. I even picked a special 3D printer to use with this book. Its called The Simple. How cool is that? Its a small 3D printer that you can build from an inexpensive kit. But you dont have to buy it or any other 3D printer right now. Read the book to see whats involved; read my notes on building a 3D printer from a kit and testing it, and see how I created my own 3D bobbles for printing. When youre done with the book, I hope youll find that the 3D printing hobby isnt scary or intimidating. As a matter of fact, I hope youll be looking at 3D printers, comparing them and trying to figure out which model will work best for your needs.

So turn the page, start learning a bit more about what 3D printing is, how it is done, and what hardware and software is involved. If you decide that you want to give 3D printing a try, I can make you one more promiseyou are going to have so much fun.

See you in !

I dont know if youve heard of the term 3D printer, but Id be surprised if the majority of readers didnt at least have an idea about the subject. But Im going to start from scratch here. Im going to assume that you know nothing...zero...nada...zilch. Im going on the assumption that you are reading this book and scratching your head and saying Nope...no idea.