Someone threw this 3D printer in the garbage...
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- Опубліковано 16 лис 2022
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Honestly, I love the idea of making a printer from hardware store stuff. I would definitely watch that series.
That's how most of us did it back in the day. I still go to HW store from time to time to buy standard 5mm threaded rods for my Z rails xd
Pretty much just a Mendel lol
Thats the whole point of the RepRap initiative (RepRap is about making self-replicating machines), but as time passed and outofthebox solutions became cheaper, less and less people build their own printers.
Please, Angus.
Same. Seeing a ground-up budget build with a RAMPS board or something like it would be really cool.
My vote: Keep this as a museum piece and build a new one from hardware store parts. Would be interesting to see what is possible with today's knowledge and your experience in 3d printing.
This. It's an interesting specimen from the past of 3D printing that shows the limitations and problems from a decade ago, and how far we've come through the perseverance of makers and innovations of printer manufacturers. But I think your time would be better spent on things that show what's possible today rather than trying to reinvigorate a relic.
I remember friends trying to build 3D printers like these 8-10 years ago. It makes you appreciate how far the 3D printing community has advanced.
Indeed. I ordered a $60 open box ender 3 pro the other day and received something that appeared brand new. Works perfectly.
@@povertygames right???
Fixing old gear like this makes one really appreciate modern day printers. Great vid Angus!
and even the modern ones have so much room for improvement still. Like what if precision robot arms get affordable sometime soon, and people start going more into the multi planar printing direction. Even with regular designs, you could somewhat easily mount a motor to the extruder to tilt it for 4 axe printing (if that is a thing)
I want to see you get this printing reliably well, then keep this as a museum piece, and bring it back in a video 10 years from now. Lets see this thing in a head to head printoff against the latest budget model in 2033
Exactly, don't turf it, give it to a electronics museum. Love to see it go head to head with a printer from the future.
Head to head with a budget version? The budget version of today would completely destroy that thing. I have an Anycubic Kobra and it WILL annihilate it... and I haven't really done any real kind of tuning yet.
@@david78212Are you one of those who don't see the point of anything historical ? The point of a head to head is to see how we have and or have not changed and evolved. Won't appeal to everyone but the point isn't to see "annihilation".
I have an ancient Anet that can beat this thing, mostly because it has microstepping and because its direct drive setup can retract a little bit. (But trying to pull the filament all the way out will always cause it to jam)
This is reliably printing well. People forget how flimsy and fragile these expensive kit printers were. You would pay over a grand for something made of laser cut wood and cheap parts. The prints he did with this were the best you would have gotten back in the day.
I'd be down to see a hardware store 3d printer, DIY printers are always interesting.
That used to be called a RepStrap! There are a few on the reprap wiki.
Several times I've thought I'd like to see Angus do a scratch build.
That's pretty much what this is
You should donate this to a museum. These are becoming increasingly rare, and one in working condition and with a nice video story of yours would be a great showpiece in just ten years from now.
It's not worth it. They were overpriced and garbage when they were originally sold. If you want something to put in a museum that actually changed 3d printing, get an ender 3.
@@cheapskateaquatics7103Anet a8 should be in a museum. The ender 3 was the successor but the anet was the first cheap high volume 3d printer
You seem to have picked up the printer that I disposed of 5 years ago. But since you're in Oz and I'm in the Old Country it's not likely. Besides mine was still working when I upgraded to a Creality Ender 3. The frame did have a lot of issues with warping and so on which is why I ditched it; but it did get me started with 3D printing and I loved it!
Keep up the good work, and fix the printer!
This was fascinating! And I want you to pursue both paths but I'll happily watch either:
- Piece-by-piece upgrade (with a test print after each stage) until you've basically replaced everything and turned this into the Printer of Theseus.
- Roll your own DIY model from scratch with as many non-printer-specific parts from Bunnings/Jaycar as you can possibly get away with. (Maybe one or both of them will sponsor the vid?)
What is Bunnings and what is a Jaycar - never heard of it - I am curious.
Australian hardware store and electrical store
@@zebarzebra Jaycar is kind of like what RadioShack used to be except still in business, an electronics/maker enthusiast targeting chain store that sells electronics parts, DIY kits, and these days some 3D printing stuff as well
Bunnings is like Home Depot.
That was my first printer. I wouldn't tolerate that level of frustration today, but back then it was like magic to my eyes. It's sill sitting in a corner of my workshop, and I've been planing to restore it to its original glory as a "show piece". I'm sure kids in the future will look at it and wonder at how far we have come.
The best upgrade for this era printers is ditching the A4988 stepper drivers. Just about any printer's quality will improve with the TMC2208 drivers.
Well said guys. 😊🌎❤️
My first one as well! Fond memories
Its like habing a model t in your garage.
I would love to see you do a "retro upgrade" series on this machine.
- Obviously, the part cooling is the first upgrade anyone back in the day would have made.
- The RAMPS 1.5 should be able to take Marlin 2.0, so make your life a hair easier and put in the firmware work.
- After that, a new hot end assembly, and a newer style extruder (keeping the bowden).
- Then just tune, tune, tune
This would a good demonstration on the survivability of older printers. (I say as I'm converting my DIY Sells to a DIY I3)
When I first got into 3D printing, roughly 7 years ago, with my Anet A8 kit I almost lost any and all enthusiasm for 3D printing after buying a $5 V6 hotend from Aliexpress. I was so excited for it when it got there, I printed out a great mount and part cooling fan duct (on the stock setup), installed everything, and couldn't even get it to BEGIN a test cube/benchy. Your videos and guides (the first video of yours I watched was ripping assets from video games and printing them) are what kept me going and motivated. Ever since then it's been my hobby, and my joy, and I've gotten others into 3D printing after recommending your videos. Thank you for the reminder of where a lot of us came from, it's great to see where we started and where we are today.
Sailed that boat myself, glad you stuck around!
Same. My Anet A8's frame even cracked, I got someone to print a replacement frame part, but then the extruder was poorly manufactured and gave loads of issues, so I sold it for nearly nothing
I absolutely loved this video…it was an absolute banger
Please do more like this, find some more ditched printers and fix them…this was wonderful..please do continue to upgrade and modernize this relic…it’s so ugly it’s beautiful
Thanks! It was a lot of fun, i'll keep an eye out.
@@MakersMuse it really was a fantastic video 🙏 🍻
As ancient as this is compared to recent printers, I just upgraded to an Ender 3 S1 Pro a few months ago, and my original Anet A8 with a 1.0 board was in service until that point, and is still sitting next to the S1 Pro. Ready to print models are great, but if you're not afraid of some trial and error, DIY kits teaches a lot of lessons that are a great foundation to build upon.
I completely agree about the DIY kits. I've learned more (out of necessity!) from my experiences with my A8 than I could have ever learned otherwise.
I still use that Anet A8 v1.0. I bought it brand new as a kit when I was in college. My roommates and I played with it, upgraded it, and eventually we moved. I had it in storage for about 4 years and recently unearthed it to discover that I only needed to replace the hotend on it. Thing's a beast!
My printer is from this era, but I've just kept on upgrading components and improving the frame with reinforcements, and it prints ok and pretty quickly. Anyhow, these problems were considered normal just a few years ago and you could've made yours work by tweaking it a little more until it actually prints ok, and perhaps then upgrading a part at a time up to modern equivalent.
Hey, I have a makerfarm printer! They were a local company here, and I paid about $700 for my kit 8 years ago. Other than some nasty resonance that was fixable it was a great kit for the time.
I'm surprised to see that one of these ended up in Australia. I enjoyed seeing you try and restore it.
Same. Mine is printing right now. Ive upgraded it to the moon. I definitely fought with it alot but its been a great little machine and the fighting taught me a lot. I paid the same as you and at the time it was a great price. It was decent out of the box but I was able to realy soup it up and I think it still holds up pretty damn well.
Me too... I bought their Makerfarm Mendel Air2 kit, bought his version of the Printrboard, cut my own rods, and printed exclusively in 3mm ABS. (Something I regretted once I built my first Rep Rap Wallace) They were all horrible choices (Sorry Brook, I could never program the darn Printrboard in Linux) plus I had to print tethered because the flash space in the printrboard wouldn't allow for SD cards and LCD.
However, I modded it like crazy, even designing bowden adapter and printing fan ducts to retrofit e3dv6 (both heatsink and print cooler) under the x-carriage.
I took it apart and planned to put a new board on it and etc because I had so much 3mm ABS (and ninjaflex!) to burn through. But it's still sitting in my office in pieces. I forgot what thermistor was used, so I don't know which thermistor table to use and etc... but I hope to resurrect my Makerfarm Air2 soon...
Awww, what a brave little printer! You are a good person for saving this abandoned cutie
It would be really cool to see you make a 3D printer out of parts from the hardware store
This was a fun one, I can relate to it because I spend a lot of my time fixing stuff from the dump that other people might think is just trash and then I run it in my workshop for years; in fact, if I didn't restore tools and machines I probably wouldn't have half the tools I own! Fixing old junk is pretty much the basis for my channel and it's fun watching other people take it on.
Everything I fix has to end up useful, so I say, give it the upgrades it needs to be a useful, modern printer, and try to keep the old fashioned aesthetic; reinforce it, but keep it subtle!
Okay, this was the motivation I needed to get my printer operational again. Really cool to see a printer return to basically as functional as it ever was from such a degraded state.
Thank you so much for another great video, and I appreciated the sad dashie at the start/in the thumbnail too. Seemed appropriate for a 2013-era printer haha
Wow! That felt a documentary on my first ventures into 3D printing lol. I had a version of that exact printer with all the same components and issues. Of course, I spent far more time problem solving than printing, but it was all worth it.
I honestly don't think you should upgrade much on this machine now apart from the hotend. It is such a snapshot into hobbyist machines in the earlier days of 3d printing
The era where they shoved a glass bead thermistor in the hot end and retained it with a screw.... Just like an ender 3 pro modern day :)
I like the printer just as it is. These sorts of amazing finds from history for me. I fix them up as you have and retire them to a personal museum. Maybe tinker with them more from time to time to replace oem parts if available. More of a functional art project approach. Nice video cheers.
I have been trying to actively seek out videos of making dilapidated printers up and running. So far this is the only video I’ve found. I would absolutely watch a restoration channel about fixing up 3d printers. Im really hoping you find another. Maybe make a 3d printer museum to showcase the progression of printer technology
And it's probably a good idea to start now, while they're still considered "dilapidated" instead of "retro".
Now I understand why my restored Prusa i3 didn't work. I had the same issue with a cheap hotend. The prints started good but, after a few layers it would fail. It only started to work after I bought a more expensive E3D V6. It print fine now. Fortunately mine came with a metal frame instead of a wooden one. Thanks for this video, you solved the mystery for me!
Please find the original owner lol. We need the back story on this printer. And we need to know what they are using now.
As that machine had probably never been in a fully functional state the original owner may well have just given up on 3D printing.
My first printer was an early wood printrbot kit and I was only ever able to get one print out of it in the few years I had it. All the complaints you talked about were so real and I remember there wasn't the level of resources that we have today. I completely gave up on printing until a few years ago when I ended up getting a ender clone. It crazy how much the tech has changed in a decade and how much easier it is to get reliable prints.
hello, fellow veteran who got out of the hobby for a few years because getting the printer to work back then was hell! I'm also recently back in the space and can confirm... it's WILD how much things have become more accessible! Congrats on getting back into 3D printing!😁
Angus, what a great video. I love that you took this thrown out printer and resurrected it for at least a few prints. Wonderful content.
I have one of these!!!
I built it in a weekend workshop in 2012... a few years later I bought exactly the same replacement extruder you said it shouldn´t exist!! I still have it and it´s not destroyed like this, so I´m transforming in a draw bot with my niece for Christmas.
This videos was made for me (from the past), I struggled (and also learned) so much to print with it in the past! It's touching for me to see you restore it. Thanks a lot!!
The4933 Drivers used are supporting microstepping. You can configure it via jumper under the driver board on the Arduino Shield.
well yeah but the 4933 drivers are just bad in general. The 2208 drivers are a completely different level of good.
I would love to see how we could reused part of an old 3d printer to make a dremel/cnc or a plotter or another machine .
Thanks MakerMuse for the quality of your content.
I saw a video doing just that not too long ago. They just swaped the extruder with a mount for a dremel
That was my first 3D printer. You accidentally avoided its biggest flaw when you replaced the bed. The heat from the PCB heater caused the MDO bed to move. On my printer, I could level it, but then the left front and rear corners would rise almost half a millimeter during the first few layers of the print, with predictable results. Later versions of the printer had V-slot extrusions with four wheels on the bed, and this largely fixed the issue. They sold a frame upgrade kit, but it didn't include the electronics, so what you have there isn't a cast-off from an upgrade. The newer versions of the frame had an additional triangular brace for the Y motor as well.
Aww that's so sweet, Angus is taking home & caring for strays :)
😂
That printer is so similar to what I’m using now. Folgertech i3 2020. It works pretty well.
I got it in 2016 or so. Never assembled it until COVID lockdowns started.
It works pretty well for me and got me to finally learn to use Fusion 360.
Would love to see you update the firmware on that unit. The process of figuring out all the variables would be useful.
That Folgertech i3, if similar to the pics I see with a metal frame, is a huge step up from my Anet A8, also an i3.
Be sure to use M503 to dump save the EEROM contents before hacking away at the Marlin configuration files. Saves some time.
I’m not gonna lie, but I’d love to see both of those ideas. I didn’t get into 3d printing until the ender3 was released. But I felt the same way at first.
Now I’m at the point where I’m building my own 3d printer.
Hey Angus, so glad you did this I was really looking forward to seeing it running. 😊 The old prints brings back many memories. I Think you have done this machine justice and is now destined for the pool room as Daryl would say. Love the idea of seeing what you could do to make a printer from the hardware. I remember early on many viewers (including myself 😊) used to comment requesting you to make your own machine. I think the time has finally come 😮😁. Cheers Karl.
I recently saved 2 from the recycling yard, got the bigger one of the two functional again yesterday. What a great feeling!
I would love to see a printer made from hardware store parts, especially the enclosure / framework.
To change the microstepping on the ramps 1.4 there are some jumpers under the stepper drivers
Nice, i'd forgotten about that! Will investigate.
Well done, Angus. Your energy and presentation style is highly engaging. This project reminds me of those “Will it start?” vintage car find videos. All the best, from Melbourne.
A build from scratch would be pretty awesome ☺️. But would also like to see this guy working with a better hot end and a cooling fan
Love the concept of this video. I would definitely watch more videos on fixing, making and improvising printer builds and repairs,
Awesome content - I love anything related to vintage 3d printing. Whichever route you pick to move on with this project will be a must watch
Awesome video. I used to have 8" model and I did a lot of upgrades on it and at the end it was printing quite well it even had autobed leveling and all. I even build an ecloser for it. But at the end I wanted some more reliable printer and switched to prusa mk3s+. The old printer I gave to a friend. It still works and still prints.
The path forward is pretty clear. You've already invested this much effort so might as well get it printing reliably. But ALSO make a hardware store printer for it to go up against once you DO get it printing. Then compare and contrast. Also, I literally LOL'ed when you brought up the SD card & very professionally stepped around divulging the contents. I would have absolutely said, "Waifus. This nerd was trying to 3D print anime waifus."
The zombie printer is great! If you wanted to squeeze some more content out of it you could have a video showing us how things have changed since the start of hobby 3d printing. For example all the hacks and little things that people would do.
A video on making something from absolute scratch would be interesting. A fun gimmick would be something like a tech tree. For example to make a hotend you need to make a version of your own and show why its so hard to make them and to get an official one you need to print something like a cube or your maker coin. "So we made our own hotend however they are really dangerous and should never be done. Here's the print I made with it so lets change it out for an E3d one."
Idk it would be interesting to me.
when I first built my RepRap Prusa Mendel (over a decade ago), we would take a nozzle, wrap it in nichrome wire, a thermistor, and some Kapton tape, then seal all that up using some fire cement. It was so goddamn janky that I never made it past PID tuning... 😅
@@DJBillyQ A perfect example of why not to make your own. But the spirit to try anyway.
I thoroughly enjoyed this video. It reminded me of one of those car videos where they find a junker and see if they can get it to run. I'd love to see you take this to the next step - what here is worth saving, scrap the rest, and modify it to today's standard. As someone who would like to tinker with a yard sale find like this, please show me what it would take (and if it's even possible).
I absolutely love that you did this. I hate seeing tools that people would otherwise have loved be disrespected.
I did not expect Rainbow Dash to be chilling in the thumbnail. I guess 3D printers are 20% cooler than regular printers...
You can never have too much of MLP
/)
I searched for "sad face" and it came up. Can never have enough rainbow dash.
The cringiest reference known to man
@@killgriffinnow oh yes you can. Especially with how it’s fanbase turned out.
That brony bait works on me
Me too /)
/)
What you are describing are most of the issues I got with my first printer, an Anet A8 about 6 years ago. But at that time I never found a video like this one to make me understand what to fix. 😅
Glad I switched to a Prusa I3 not long after and never looked back.
Just purchased a 3D printer back in August of this year, took me about a month putting it together. Turned 65 in July, 2022. Almost bought one, few years back glad I waited.
pony
This was my first printer, and it was a beast. Those tall, loud, angry motors. The beast of a 3mm Wade's extruder used the same big, tall, overpowered steppers. The only thing I miss from those days is how much stiffer 3mm TPU is.
There is one incident I had with that printer that I will never, ever forget. I was printing something with a slightly tangled spool of 3mm glow-in-the-dark ABS. I was sitting across the room playing video games with my headphones on when I heard the loudest bang you have ever heard from a printer.
The tangled spool stopped unwinding. That stupidly powerful Wade's setup didn't slip, and it kept pulling that filament tighter and tighter. My spool was hanging off the top of the printer, and I can only assume that the extruder was putting more and more tension into the wooden frame as it refused to slip on the filament.
Until the 3mm ABS filament snapped clean in half. It was loud, and the printer physically moved a couple of inches when all that tension was released. I am surprised a little bit of poop didn't come out. This was by far the scariest noise I have ever heard from my desk.
Gheghe, I love this. Takes me back to the time of my first printer. The misery finding out on what material to print. The el-cheapo hot-ends. The electronic fuses on the RAMPS board. The amount of cables that hat to come together in an enclosure way to small. The m6 dual z-axis. ;D Courageous that you restored this Dinosaur and lovely to watch!
Love your Work Sir!!
I picked Up In July 2022 a CTCi3 and an ANET A8, Both Projects, for Restoration!!!
Had a similar i3 clone with an acrylic frame several years ago. Honestly, I spent so much more time troubleshooting weird issues with it than actually printing that I ended up giving it away and waiting a few more years for the printers to get better overall. These things were plagued with issues back then. Respect for pushing through on one this bad.
Id watch all of the video options you stated. This was the first 3d printing video i have watched in years. I got really into it all about 5 years ago. Great video
Cheers! It looks like I need to make a trip to the hardware store.
I have 2 Makerfarm Prusas in my attic. They were amazing first printers back in 2014,and what got me started in the hobby. A great look back down memory lane.
i had a similar printer back in 2016/2017 from GEETECH made with laser cut acrylics with T shaped joints.
it was very frustrating to use, but i managed to print a little lithophany i still have today. I'm very glad I later bought an original Prusa
My first printer was the MakerFarm Pegasus 12. Very much like a Voron kit, just a box of parts and aluminum extrusions. So cool to see an older one brought back to life! I resurrected it for the start of the pandemic. It cranked out over 3500 ear savers 24/7 for front line workers and health care workers. I still have the printer, just deciding what to do with it. I started upgrading to Marlin 2 and testing (it was originally setup with 1.1(?) and RAMPS 1.4). Definitely go with the hardware store, would love to see what you come up with to improve the frame and printing :)
I have a 2016 CTC i3 pro B, it's still working, but as you say the stepper drivers are original, I did change the main board to a Geeetech GT2560 and added a bed leveling probe. I also put the same V6 clone hotend on, but using direct drive. It prints reasonable, but I am now in the process of building a very big core XY, which will have closed loop drivers on the XY motors and a 32 bit main board.
This video made me realise just how old my printer is.
I love to see you try to get this old printer as good as high end modern printer and while keeping as many original parts as possible.
wow after an year trying to understand why my printer wasn't working after retraction i finally understand why (which was also my final though). Always very informative and nice videos!
7:53 in the future, a thread chaser is a way better choice for chasing threads compared to a die. a chaser is designed to push the metal back into shape whereas the die will cut the bent threads making them weaker and shorter
Never heard of them, look useful! Bit pricy to buy just for this little project though.
Nice way of showing how 3d printing envoled the past few years. Your knowledge Made this "repair" possible. Nice Video, finally Something Different :)
I bought an Anet A8 in like 2015 or 2016 and still use it today. Last year I ran into a bunch of problems with the acrylic frame... everything I printed was skewed and no matter how many times I took it apart of ran the skew tests and flashed the marlin changes it didn't fix it.. after upgrading the frame to 2040 aluminum, adding tl smoothers, pei sheet, new power supply, and a biqu h2 it prints great.
Brings back memories of building one of these back in the day and spending time printing spares and upgrades for itself.
This was a trip through memory lane! I actually bought one of those hotend clones for my old Anet A8 and now I'm really glad I never got around to "upgrading" it 😅 I think it'd be cool to see you build the modern equivalent of these hacker printers. One of my favourite videos of yours is the fallout "fabricator", I really learned a lot about modelling for printing from your process there.
Brings me back to my first printer. Pre ramps, pre prusa, so many home Depot trips!
I gave away one of my old Ender 3s to a friend that likes to tinker. It was in literally 40 pieces and he not only managed to get it all back together but is printing quite well with it.
That reminds me a bit of an Anet A8 I had for years. I’ve been through a couple but now have a Neptune 3 that I picked up second hand - I know I’m old, but modern Budget machines and slicers are like magic!!!
The A8 was a struggle every single print, the Neptune has been working all weekend with barely a second thought lol
Very similar to my first! I still have it down in the workshop partially disassembled, and heavily modified. I wonder if I should try revive it for another purpose at some point.
I have similar style 3D printer, this video helped me to recognize some issues I have. Thanks.
I was fully expecting you to test the printer with a pony like your older videos
This was my first printer, although mine was the v-slot version! I still have it, although it's not operational currently. it certainly was a great way to learn and understand how 3D printers actually work! My version had a self designed extruder with twin E3D V6 nozzles, although it does feel very antiquated when it's compared to my Bambu lab P1P!!
I have one Prusa i3 clone printer made of plywood and some plastic mounts from few years back. This model has been in good storage. No corrosion and minimal dust. It's still under repair for probe mount and endstops for X and Y. RAMPS 1.4 was changed to Duet 2 WiFi.
I'm glad that you've put as much time as you have into this project, but I can't imagine putting any more time or effort into it would be worth it.
time ... and money
looking at this early model of 3d printer .makes me thankfull for my ender /how far we ve come
Love the Old School Stuff!!! Great Video!!
The issue at 13:34 where it makes the buzzing with prusa slicer might actually be fixable. I had a similar issue a while back when they introduced a new feature that inserts your machine limits into the gcode. Look at Printer Settings > Machine Limits > How to apply limits, and set this to anything but Emit to G-code. Alternatively, update the limits on this page to what your printer limits are. When this impacted me, it was buzzing like crazy because I had left the default machine limit set up which ended up being something super slow.
That's a familiar looking printer. Can't quite remember if we had one at our maker space back then, but I definitely remember those mendels and their wacky Wade extruders.
That was awesome. My first printer was much fancier then that but the sound and "why did it just stop printing" and all that is still quite familiar.
I had an old acrylic Prusa i3 clone, man was that thing a tinkerer's dream, it would always print just good enough to justify its existence but never good enough to leave it alone. Would love to see you modernize the printer, by switching as many old components for today's top-spec ones, don't know if there is a real point to that, but it would be cool to see just how far we've come. Also, the hardware store 3d printer is an absolute must.
This was my first printer (6 inch variant). I loved it and I stayed in the maker farm ecosystem for years there after ending up with a modified Pegasus 12. The v slot models that they ended up producing were a bit revolutionary for the time.
The classic problem with those hotends is that they come with a METALLIC barrel. It does not have Teflon inside and they are not bimetallic.
Change it and it will solve all your problems. I built something similar (although much nicer) with a hotend just like that and it works PERFECT. In fact I use it every day.
Almost bought one of these years ago. ended up buying a wooden maker bot clone of the one you showed at the end, a flashforge creator. converted it to bowden with double drive extruder , auto bed leveling , a mks main board and a e3d hot end. Been using it for 9 1/2 years. its fast and prints great.
I am still running a PrintrBot Metal PLUS from 2015. I have changed the hot end and control board, but other than that it is stock. The only stock part that actually failed was a stepper. That thing is a TANK! This "dump printer" was on the other end of the spectrum. I think building a hardware store printer would be awesome.
I found a Ultimaker Original on its way to the trash at work. I took it home and rebuilt it. Great way to learn all about 3D printing. It's still running.
God this made me nostalgic! One of these was my first printer and it was about as bad as you said. PLEASE make this a video series where bit by bit you modernise this relic, I would love to see what path you take!
Crazy to think what I forget is becoming an old tech; can now be found where REALLY old stuff is usually found
The hot end and assembly that shipped with that kit was solid. You should’ve just printed one up. This was my first printer, and it was a delight to see you find one and restore it. :)
I only just recently "upgraded" to an ender 3 v2 from a 10yo printer I built from that era. Same RAMPS, same hotend, same cheap extruder kit. But it printed pretty well. Some upgraded stepper drivers, some lead screws instead of threaded rod, part cooling fan and it printed great for years.
I am still in the process of reviving an old Protos V3 kit printer. Its running Klipper now (on the original RAMPS), and has a Voron Stealthburner Toolhead with a knockoff V6 in it.
There is some bed adhesion issues (due to the original solution being tape on bare aluminium) which i am trying to fix with G10 at the moment, but it is printing ABS just fine and its dimensionally accurate.
There is more work to be done, and i had kinda put it aside, but this video motivated me to go back at it.
I still have my plywood printer which was my second machine, brought during lockdown in 2020 to see whether it was possible to 'polish a turd'. After a lot of incremental improvements and tweaks, such as printing new parts for itself and screwing the frame onto a sheet of thick ply for stability it's not too bad and good as a backup printer where my main Ender 3 clone is busy with other stuff.
Update a year later: Still got this printer, now has an SKR mini because I was getting sick of stepper motor noise. It's now getting more use than the Ender 3 clone (mostly because its closer to my desk).
there is something immensely satisfying about repairing old junk and making it work. great video, very entertaining :).
I remember getting my Prusa mk1 1.75. Tons of threaded rods and printed parts that weren't as well designed and sturdy as the stuff we're used to today. At least it had a metal upright haha.
Really impressive how you got the correct assessments to repair it until it finished its first print job. I own a printer and I'm just glad that it prints fairly okay. If anything brakes, I'm screwed.
I would call this project a success. If you go any further than this you might have just built a whole printer from scratch.
Maybe this printer is still good as a first printer for some young enthusiast joining the community.
Remember having this printer on my shelf while I slept. My first printer who got me into 3D printing and luckily everything have gotten better since!
Think I still have the files of the old firmware if needed.
It came stock with a cooling fan. I still have this printer bought it new from the guy who sold them originally here in SLC, UT
Mine still works perfect, but it did have a cooling fan. I mainly used mine for 3mm ABS printing.
I still have a CTC Bizer Replicator clone in the basement. Bought one, got two, one smashed to bits during shipping. The working one was a nightmare in terms of reliability, no matter how much time and money / new parts you'd dump into it. I'm glad people new to the hobby don't have to deal with those anymore.