Mar. 26, 2015 | By Simon
Although MakerBot has managed to position themselves among the more famous in 3D printers, the Fused Deposition Modeling method that their machines use leave many wanting to have higher resolutions and increased material flexibilities such as those offered by FormLabs in the form of the Form 1+. However, for those not ready to spend over $3,000 on a new 3D printer and costly resins, getting SLS or SLA parts made can prove to be a difficulty. For one motivated 3D printing enthusiast, he took matters into his own hands and crafted his own SLA 3D printer using little more than some borrowed parts, an Arduino Uno and less than $10 in supplies.
Build Vat and Linear Drive - About 5CM Z
buildyourownsla web forum user ‘mystamo’ wanted to quickly put a printer together to test out SLA 3D printing in general while also seeing if his sourced projector (an ACER 5360 720P) would work for curing resin without any modification. Although he had to remove the focus screw so that he could pull out the focus wheel more to focus on the build plate, no other modifications were needed.
Stepper controller with connectors
Arduino With Connectors
After some initial testing, mystamo concluded that the printer had a 50mm x 37mm x 40mm build envelope and set about creating his first 3D prints.
Everything Connected Together
Since the printer doesn’t have any Z-axis limits, he set the build plate slightly above the resin surface with some resin protruding through the perforated board holes. In order to create the layers, mystamo exposed the first 3 years with 8-second exposures to help build a sturdy foundation. For all other layers, a 2.5-second exposure was used with a resolution of .05mm per layer.
My Setup with projector and Servo Shutter (I also had an old servo kicking around)
The sourced parts - aside from the borrowed projector - all cost mystamo less than $10. These parts included an Arduino Uno that he purchased from Ebay for $5 for running code, an A4988 stepper driver from Ebay for $2, a rectangular glass vat from Dollerama for $2 to house the uncured resin, a DVD drive laser rail from Ebay for $1 and finally, a 12 AWG wire and perforated board that he already had on-hand for the build plate.
For his first print, mystamo chose to manufacture a Terminator skull that’s roughly the size of a golf ball. As far as the pictures can reveal, the print looks surprisingly well-done considering the machine that it came off of.
While mystamo hasn’t revealed the instructions for the build in-full yet, at least we now know that it’s possible to build an SLA 3D printer that typically costs thousands of dollars for roughly the price of lunch and a few spare parts laying around the house.
Posted in 3D Printers
Maybe you also like:
- Voltera V-One prints circuit board prototypes in minutes, launches on Kickstarter
- New Matter raises $6.5M to launch affordable MOD-t 3D printer in 2015
- Suspected 3D printed plastic gun parts and knuckle duster found in Gold Coast drug raid
- ZYYX updates their 3D printer with Filament Monitor and Failed Print Detection
- DeltaBots launches 3D PotterBot Clay 3D printer with constant flow RAM extruder
- Moment is the first 3D printer brand to enter into Brunei market
- Israel-based something3D releases full-color desktop 3D printer
- Dutch supermarket Giant Albert Heijn debuts a chocolate 3D printer
RESPECT!
Brian wrote at 4/23/2015 10:56:37 PM:
as soon as I can find a projector i'm all over this, thanks!
Mo Bina wrote at 3/27/2015 11:58:29 AM:
Ces't Moi! Thanks for sharing.. I'm really excited that people have become excited by what I have built. Any questions, just refer to the forum. Regards, Mo
Ben wrote at 3/26/2015 7:33:18 PM:
I really never understood how people are charging so much for this type of printer. They're simpler in many ways than FDM. It's the Resin that is the $$$
Steve wrote at 3/26/2015 6:14:15 PM:
It's not a 'phpBB user'. Its from the www.buildyourownsla.com web forum.
wow wrote at 3/26/2015 2:23:10 PM:
Wow... just... wooow
3Ders.org provides the latest news about 3D printing technology and 3D printers. We are now seven years old and have around 1.5 million unique visitors per month.
