One 13-year-old Maker just designed and built his own 3D printer for under $200.
Truth be told, a number of 3D printers still remain out of reach for many everyday consumers not looking to shell out thousands of dollars on a device. This leaves countless Makers dying to get their hands on a machine to do one of two things: either spend their savings account or create their own. We don’t know what you were doing at age 13, but chances are you weren’t constructing your own easy-to-use, inexpensive 3D printer.
Meet Zach Sousa, who recently unveiled plans for the second iteration of his DIY 3D printer that he devised, built and uploaded to Instructables — all by himself. The gadget, which he calls The Edge 2.0, is roughly the size of the Printrbot Simple with a slightly larger 6″ x 5.5″ x 4″ build envelope. The device weighs just over five pounds, and can be made from materials costing no more than $200. While he is still testing the final print resolution, 3DPrint.com reveals that he has managed to print successfully down to 200 microns!
The idea for an updated model of the Edge came about following its tremendous popularity, having garnered well over 125,000 views and thousands of likes online. Similar to its predecessor, v2.0 is controlled by an Arduino Mega (ATmega2560) and RAMPS 1.4 board, as well as driven by five NEMA 17 stepper motors.
The Maker crafted each of the machine’s parts using a combination of laser cutting and 3D printing, along with a little soldering and wiring to round out the Edge 2.0’s design. In order to complete the project, Sousa calls for a computer with Arduino IDE, running Pronterface and a slicer program like Cura or Slic3r.
Interested? Head over to its official Instructables page for a step-by-step breakdown of the project.
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