Server for 3D Printer and Repetier Host?

An RPi is a good idea.

However, I'm trying to find a free way to do this since most of us have an old computer laying around the house.

I am using dropbox to sync up the files... works like a charm.

exactly! and your laptop has a built in UPS!

BTW, a UPS is also a good idea for the solidoodle as well. I found that out when I had a 5 second power interruption 24 hours into a 39 hour print... grr...

elmoret - Yes, Remote Desktop would work but I was kind of looking for a dedicated solution without a lot of button clicking. I'm very lazy.

Briggs - you are exactly right but its not the screen that I'm looking for.

The use case is this:

a.) I design something cool on my computer.
b.) I hit the print button.
c.) the design is send to my 3D printer over the network and printed.

Of course, there are two issues.

1.) Soliddodle does not have network access (like Cube or stratasys uPrint)
2.) You probably want to orient or maybe changes some setting (hi rez/low rez, fill type, etc.)

For 1 above, I can use an old laptop connected to the SD to provide the network connection. I could also write a small program that looks for any new STL files and fires up Repetier host. The first issue is the slicing might be slow if you use an old laptop or a Raspberry PI for this.  The second is what I said above... what if you want to orient or change print options.

-or-

I could send just the gcode to the "server". the slicing and orientation would have been done on the client side where I created the STL in the first place. The means the server doesn't have to be all that powerful but it also means you would need special software (another copy of "Repetier host?") on every client machine that would want to print to the printer.

For 2, I haven't figured that out yet.

There is also Octoprint and Repetier Host Server (sorry, cannot post links yet, but Google works). 

I use the former (which is actively developed) on a RasPi, but it could run on any machine (simple install, needs Python + a few packages from PyPI).  There is a REST API in the devel branch, but not yet in the master branch -- could conceivably use that to write a simple script to, say, upload composition.gcode from the RH output dir of your main laptop.

Actually, Octoprint REST API is in a pull request, not yet devel branch. It seems it might go in after user authentication is added? Anyway, project moves really fast, so hopefully shouldn't be long!

Would also be nice if RH could be extended via plugins for different printing back ends..

Edit: I should probably add BotQueue (ungooglable if you don't remember name, took me a while to find again, sorry -- site is just botqueue com) by a former Makerbot founder.  The project's goals are far more ambitious (running a distributed farm of 3D printers, with a cluster for distributed slicing etc), but it should run in standalone mode too.  If anyone tries it in a simple set up, I'd be interested to hear.