Digital Designs and Scientific Hardware - Open-Source Lab: How to Build Your Own Hardware and Reduce Research Costs - page 183

Table 6.1
Material and Energy Costs Associated with Open-Source Optics Component Fabrication
Compared to Commercial Prices and Percent Savings

∗

The price of 3 mm ABS filament is $0.038/g. Source: 3D printer stuff. Available from: http://www.3dprinterstuff.com/
shop/page/4?shop_param= [accessed 19.10.12].
§ The national average cost of electricity is 11.53 cents/kWh. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration.
Source: Available from http://www.eia.gov/beta/enerdat/#/topic/
7?agg=0,1&geo=g&endsec=vg&freq=A&start=2008&end=2011&charted=1 [accessed 19.10.12]. The electricity cost
derived from multimeter is 0.006925 kWh/g (using 3 mm ABS) assuming a Prusa RepRap 3-D printer.
¶ Commercial prices were derived from website data from various vendors including Edmund Optics, Thorlabs,
McMaster-Carr, AutoMate Scientific, and Pasco.

As can be seen in Table 6.1 , cost reductions over 95% are common with some components
representing only 1% of the current commercial investment. Even if the RepRap build dis-
cussed in Chapter 5 represents too steep of a learning curve or time commitment (∼24 h build
time for one person, or 8 h for two) than your laboratory or school can invest, dozens of small
companies offer kits or prebuilt open-source 3-D printers, which are easily found on the In-
ternet. With even assembled RepRap printers costing around US$1000 [ 8 ] , printing a relat-
ively simple optics setup or even a single filter wheel easily recoups the investment. The il-
ament is also available on the web from dozens of suppliers (in various colors and polymer
types) and our recent work has investigated the use of recycled polymer extruders (called “re-
cyclebots”), 31 which decreases the cost of the material for the components by another order of
magnitude [ 9 , 10 ] .
The ability to custom manufacture optics equipment to specifications within a university,
government, or industrial laboratory not only ensures that the components are exactly what
you as the researcher need, but it also saves time. For example, it is much faster to print a
predesigned component than to go to a lab supply store if there is one in the area or even or-