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Topic: How much does it cost to build a room sized 3D printer?

How much does it cost to build your own 3D Printer? I want to use an entire room for printing... well, at least most of it. Here are the measurements for the 3D printer I want to build: 10' x 10' x 8'

The only thing that should move is the printer head though because the size of the printer just about takes up the size of the room.

I also have it in my head to recycle the scrap left behind from printing and use it again for the next print job, provided this is possible. Can someone help me?

Let me make myself perfect clear however:

I want to know the cost to set this up before I do anything. A rough estimate is good enough so long as the cost is not too low.

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Re: How much does it cost to build a room sized 3D printer?

Do you want to print plastic?

If so, what nozzle diameter where you thinking of?

Printing anything of size with a tiny nozzle like on any 3D printer would take a very very long time.

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Re: How much does it cost to build a room sized 3D printer?

You might want to look up the KamerMaker, that's the largest 3d printer I know of. No idea what the specifics are of it, just that it's massive.

The heating and extrusion breaks down the polymer chains so you can't just melt it back into filament and reuse it again. Sorry to be a buzzkill there.

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Re: How much does it cost to build a room sized 3D printer?

One thing you did not mention is resolution and speed... this can make a huge difference in the costs of building a large format printer. If say you only need a resolution of maybe an eigth inch and repeatability of same and a printhead that only moves at 25 IPM well then you could probably make something in the sub 1000 dollar range... however if you want it twice as fast and accurate then the costs would go up five to six times...

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Re: How much does it cost to build a room sized 3D printer?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvRTHynk9KA

just do what this guy did, get an old auto factory robot, build a screw extruder on the end of the arm, fill with shredded plastic and your off to the races.

i think you can get second hand industrial robots for $30-40k US. probably less if they need some work. lol

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Re: How much does it cost to build a room sized 3D printer?

I found this article that talks about how much 3d printing costs:

inkpal.com/ink-news/how-much-does-a-3d-printer-cost/

How much money do you have? Building a 3D printer the size of a room is going to cost thousands of dollars...

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Re: How much does it cost to build a room sized 3D printer?

Having owned several "industrial " robots (Adept), I don't think I'd recommend that route.   

I think you could do this with Open Rail, standard extrusions and regular hotends fairly inexpensively.  The problem, as mentioned, will be how many months to you want to wait to for a large print with a 3mm nozzle?

Better plan on a big Filastruder too.

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Re: How much does it cost to build a room sized 3D printer?

I had a similar idea, although it was to deposit concrete to build up buildings one layer at a time. Also I though it would be easier to build a self contained movable unit rather then a huge carriage.

I edit my posts a lot.

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Re: How much does it cost to build a room sized 3D printer?

Slipforming on a Giant wall-sized scale ? wink

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Re: How much does it cost to build a room sized 3D printer?

Yeah that lol

I edit my posts a lot.

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Re: How much does it cost to build a room sized 3D printer?

I think the giant 3D concrete printers I've heard of use powder depositing. It's slightly more suitable for this application, I think (easier to lay down a huge layer of sand [little precision] and move your binding agent [high precision] than the swing around the weight of your obelisk in small piecies.)