Alternatives to the Printrbot Simple - 3D Printing: Build your Own 3D Printer and Print your own 3D Objects - page 183

these features and capabilities that your current 3D printer lacks, and you'll want
to upgrade or purchase a new 3D printer.
Fortunately, there's always going to be a bigger, better 3D printer available. Un-
fortunately, that bigger, better 3D printer isn't always in your price range. Or in
stock. Or even available in your country (shipping costs for 3D printers overseas
can sometimes nearly equal the value of the actual printer itself).
So here's a suggestion: build your own . Yes, I'm referring to building your own
3D printer from the ground up—picking the motors, the hot end, the extruder(s),
the electronics, and even the frame components. I know it may sound a little in-
timidating, but if you've made it this far into the topic, I hope you have a good
idea of just how few parts are required to get a 3D printer working.
A great place to start is with some of the many online forums that cover 3D print-
ing. The grand-daddy 3D printer of them all, the Rep Rap (shown in Figure 10.1 ),
has one of the largest fan bases around, and I can pretty much guarantee that any
question you may have has already been asked and answered on the official Rep
Rap forum at http://forums.reprap.org . There you'll find thousands of Rep Rap
users who have built their own 3D printers along with photos, detailed component
lists, and instructions for duplicating their work. You'll also want to take a look at
the official wiki page, http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page .