Definitely make a Tantillus! I’m really curious to see how the fishing line works, and also if you could scale it up. I know scaling it up is the opposite of “tiny” but still, I’m curious.
@@barrag3463 some Parts are a bit Tricky to source if you are not in Europe And it was a pain to get the Linear Rails drilled 3 Broken Drillbits and a DIY EDM Machine later it works and I regret nothing Barely any heatup time Powerup to Print start is about 30 Sek It runs a Pi3, if there is no 'Known Wifi' it acts as its own Accespoint, i can Upload the Gcode with my Phone/Tablet/Notebook I had it Printing for 2 Hours while taking the highspeed Train through germany Since the Power outlets are rated for 90W its just within the Margin
A friend of mine still has a sugar mixture based printer in his collection. It was used primarily to make the removable parts of a casting mold... and edible sugar crystals on occasion.
WAIT.... WAIT WHAT?....... that's one of the single best ideas for making rough metal parts on the cheap I'v heard of. Print it in sugar, bury it in sand/clay mix, and incinerate the sugar out by lost mold casting with molten aluminum or the like. No more styrofoam or wax..... that's seriously smart, you just have to refine and file the parts a bit after casting.
@@theLuigiFan0007Productions Pla works just as well. Pla actually makes really good for making molds like that. If you wanna do metal casting at home, using pla and casting recycled aluminum is the easiest way to start.
@@lobsterbark So it can burn away quick enough? I presume with a super slow infill percentage so it's basically a hollow shell. But that's interesting to know.
@@theLuigiFan0007Productions yeah, you can make the print insanely thin and hollow inside very easily. You can also add channels to let gas out or anything else you might want for a better casting much more easily than you could with most other methods of mold making.
I love the "what if"/"why isn't there a..." mentality that 3D printing thrives on. I've personally had so many projects, successful and not, start out like that, and I love the physicality of printing something, holding it in your hands and contemplating if and how I could improve it. From simple things like fixtures to "larger" (for my still-kinda-amateurish standards) projects, 3D printing has allowed me to (attempt to) solve problems that would've otherwise stayed errant thoughts. A toast to the makers who started it, to the ones driving it forward, and the ones to come in a hopefully prosperous, just as curiosity-fueled future 🍻
I personally worked on a 3D printer startup as the head 3D artist and it was extremely exciting. I saw my whole future in the company then it went tits up. Not because of technical issues or a lack of interest, but due to frigging embezzlement by the treasurer! I will not say which company it was because it falling still legitimately hurts and even when things were trucking along a lot of our early investors were bizarrely hostile and tech-illiterate. Expecting a 100% finished product to ship on day 1 despite our transparency on the progress of the printer. They were out for blood when the company went under but ultimately did nothing. It is all a distant memory now yet I still cannot help but think "what if" to this very day.
I remember back when I first read about RepRap and the Darwin I was really excited, to the point I almost started a project to make one. But at the time I realised I didn't really have the tools or experience to pull it off, especialy as the software at the time was in its infancy. I then kind of forgot about it, occasionally observing from the sidelines the arrival of the MakerBot and the Stratasys controversy, but it wasn't until the last couple of years when 3D printers became so affordable I finally took the step and bought one. It's amazing how far they have come in what is only a few years - makes me wonder what the next 20 years will bring!
Same here. Was going to make a larger version of the Darwin using linear bearings (still have them laying around somewhere). But the realization of the missing skills needed plus the death of a friend that was going to work with me on it ended that plan. Been watching developments over the last few years. May be time to dip a toe into the pool again.
These last few years the progress seems to have basically stopped, at least in terms of FDM printers. The Prusa i3 is still the best design overall, and printers that specialize in specific things haven't really improved at all since about 2016-2018. Most of the progress has been in the availability, price, and quality of parts. Like for instance cheap filaments are now almost all really good, the various manufacturers seem to have mostly standardized on what to add to improve the quality, stepper drivers have all gotten cheap, you don't have to solder anything anymore to build a printer, if you buy a 3d printer part from a sketchy cheap source it will usually still work. All the progress is now in UV resin printers.
Pros: Usually can print at faster speeds assuming the injector can keep up Less parts, so cheaper to buy/maintain. Cons: Usually a smaller print volume due to the nature of the angles involved with the axis drives.
@@stephendowdle5537 I have several delta printers - and everyone of thems absolutely dimensional accurate. If it's a well versed firmware you're using, it's more a myth then a thing. Deltas had these problems in the very early days, back when they were driven by 8 bit micros. But nowadays with 32 bit microcontrollers it's entirely a thing of the past. My anycubic Kossel Plus/Pros wipe the floor with any cheap I3 design. Printspeeds well in the 300mm and absolute accuracy paired with easy maintenance make them the most loved childs of all my 9 printers family. Also you could make them in any z-height you want, just by changing the aluminium extrusions, belts and linear rails. My only con would be the bowden-extruder you need to achieve high movement speeds. printing flexibles just isn't a thing. But that's my A-net A3's job anyway ;)
My first 3d printer was a delta printer and I still have a fondness for the design, some pros and cons: Cons: 1. Difficult to access the print head to clear jams, change nozzle etc 2. Related to (1), difficult to add direct extruder, so generally limited to Bowden (personally I like Bowden) 3. Frame is not inherently rigid, and because of shape is difficult to reinforce to make rigid 4. Difficult to fully enclose print area 5. Relatively tall for a given print volume Pros 1. Fixed print bed 2. Light print head so can be fast 3. Probably the best design if you want a *really* large printer
Thanks for mentioning the tantillus 3d printer I have one laser cut version and plan on making it all in metal and try to print in peek. As of now only the frame is in laser cut aluminum planing to cast the plastic parts in aluminum and add water cooling and insulation to make it better for peek printing for use in dentistry.
I'm a relative latecomer to the 3d printing scene, and this glimpse of the history and origins was really interesting! Especially the Darwin, which clearly follows the same sort of arc as commercial jet aircraft or self-loading rifles: massively complicated and over-engineered at first, and then steadily getting simpler and more efficient. Very cool! So yes, I'd love a similar video exploring delta printers. :)
Oh man, the printrbot... I took charge of maintaining about a dozen of the Printrbot Simple Metals for my school district's makerspace, because I was able to figure it all out myself. I was an intern there in high school, and I really enjoyed learning how it all worked. That's what actually got me a job with a local 3D printer manufacturer that focused on 100% American made components, that unfortunately couldn't keep up with the lower and lower price points. Great memories, though.
Thanks for that trip down memory lane! I remember well marveling over the candyfab, and Nick Seward's designs are still some of the most original thinking in the whole 3d printer universe.
I will always love my Simple Metal. It was the first 3D printer I've ever had. Modded the crap out of it and also fixed almost every part of it. Still have it and still works. Will always have a special place.
I think, considering the Chinese market, we should include the Anet A8 printer. As far as I know, it's no longer available for purchase, but at the time of it releasing, it was ground braking. Yes, it was a Prusa i3 clone, but for around $200 you got a very nice quality 3D printer with a reasonable (220x220x240 mm) build volume, and also with heated bed. Of course for $200 corners had to be cut, so there was no auto bed leveling (Z homing was made possible by a momentary switch) and the frame was made of laser-cut acrylic (which made the printer somewhat wobbly), but it was very affordable even for us, living in the Mordor side of Europe (East to the former Iron Fence).
I definitely think the A8 deserves recognition, but perhaps in a list of market disruptors rather than historical forgotten machines. For a few years they were unavoidable, but they most definitely had some serious safety concerns. I feel like they only really fell out of fashion because other machines came in and replaced it at its price point. Whether that's a good or bad thing is up to the individual I suppose, but I do find it's led to quite a bit of same-ness in the 3d printer space for the last couple years. Most definitely a good one to remember, though! Thanks for sharing.
I have a sintron i3 - a very similar printer to the A8, but doesn't seem to have quite the fiery reputation/popularity. It arrived in kit form and the instructions consisted of a couple of photos and rough diagrams, so assembling it, then getting marlin set up and the printer working properly taught me a lot about 3D printing in general and significantly more about the actual process than if it had just been working out of the box. Then once you have it working, the cycle of break, crack or melt something, bodge it back together and print a better designed replacement part starts :). Who in their right mind thought an acrylic panel directly under the heated bed with as much material as possible removed wouldn't warp and cause a loss of leveling? :). Probably shouldn't say it, but I haven't updated marlin since as I think I have probably lost the config files and don't want to set it up again or recalibrate from scratch :).
@@jg374 My Anet A6 came with a faulty acrylic part in 2017. A friend told me to send it back under warranty (yeah right lol). I ended up using some gaffa tape to hold it together to print a replacement part. It's since been a Theseus' ship of replaced parts, although I still have the original frame, heatbead and power supply (and the screen which I reverse engineered the connections for). My Marlin is still from 2018 when I did most of my upgrades since I don't want to reconfigure new Marlin versions every few months, even when I added an new SD card reader and recently a filament runout switch. I have written down all the config settings and store them with my spare parts to speed it up in future.
Thank you, Angus, for another interesting video. I discovered 3D printing and cad modelling while in hospital 15 months ago. I have since purchased a Prusa printer and can identify many of pioneering techniques of the early printers.
You always make great and interesting content that isn't a rehash of someone else's.. I really appreciate your channel and enjoy the videos, keep up the awesome work! BTW, I would love to see a build of the Tantillus.
Really cool deep dive into some of the early days of printing. The Printrbot was the first printer I seriously considered buying, but was jobless high schooler at the time.
I wrote my Masters dissertation on building a 3D Chocolate printer last year. I really enjoyed researching the history of 3D printers and discovering some of these awesome machines. Brilliant video again.
Oh Zcorp. I still have a few of them! We made so many amazing things with them, from movie props used in film to models of Snoop Dogg and skulls for The Smithsonian! Great rundown! We had a business model for that sugar printer too LOL, still salty about it!
Powder-based printing is such a great approach to printing and it's really baffling to me that there's been so little development in the open hardware space. I'll have to keep an eye on the Brill.
I had the pleasure of sitting next to Nicholas Seward at the Second MRRF. His mind works in mysterious ways indeed. Mad scientist is a perfect description. Not only is he incredibly brilliant but he is unbelievably humble about that brilliance. And I love that for a lot of his designs there's no software to support it so he would write translation scripts to take normal gcode and post process it so his innovative designs could even function. Truly an amazing individual.
Absolutely revive the tantillus, as someone who moves a lot, having a portable 3D printer like this that I can easily carry around would be an absolute bliss... Heck discovering it now I'm already considering building one myself ! XD
I love the Tantillus! When it was originally released I even went so far as to print out a few very warped chassis/frame pieces on my Sells/Prusa Mendel hybrid. Just the other day I rediscovered the design and I’ve been debating printing the frame in one piece on my sidewinder.
I have built a RapRap Tantillus, I still have it, If you have any questions about it feel free to ask me, I can't promise I can answer every question but I would be happy to share what I learned from my experience.
Super interesting concepts explored here. I'd love to see you review or compare printers that are larger than 350mm. I feel like there aren't too many options at this size and the videos I've seen in UA-cam are either old or are revising older machines.
My first printer was a Cupcake by Makerbot. Cost about $800 USD at the time. Now using a CR10s Pro, cost $850 CAD, a far better printer for a lower price, showing how things have changed. I haven't been here for a while and, Wow! Almost a million subscribers! Way to go, Angus.
Angus, speaking of making a Tantillus - you should be making all kinds of printers at this point. Create your own printer design, you obviously have the CAD skills and surely the skills to handle designing a ckt around an MCU (it's not hard, just follow the spec sheet!) and make a series about it. Angus' foray into designing and building a 3d printer from scratch!... and have seasons where each one is a new machine.
I love dives into history. Not just "This existed" but details about what was around it at the time and stuff. :) Please do a video on the open-source history of delta printers. Sounds very informative!
Yes yes and yes. Angus you make such engaging 3D printing videos and I would love to not only see you make a Tantalus but also please make that video about deltas, so interesting.
I actually have a modified laser cut Tantillus beside me while watching this. I never managed to get it to print, but it is now a PCB CNC driller, which works very poorly, but I haven't yet had the opportunity to make it a bit more rigid.
@@MaxNippard that would certainly be possible and also visually quite interesting. You could have not only the wires, but the whole control board on one of the walls
Evil mad scientist's sugar printer was my introduction to 3d printing too. And i was thrilled that all the printers you covered were things that shaped my experience with 3d printers too.
With everybody drooling over closed source it's almost refreshing seeing the primordial ooze the movement came out of. Angus, please make more of these history videos, they are amazing. Don't feel the need to shorten or condense them either, I watched this three times already.
5:29 Awesome! I got to run a Zcorp Spectrum Z510 somewhere around 2003 or 2004 at an aerospace company (I was the point of contact/owner so I was pretty familiar with it back then). Having only recently learned about SLS and SLM at the time I was pretty happy to dig into that particular task. I still have a few little test print/trinkets from that z510 on the bench near my ender, lol. Running that machine was kind of a nightmare...especially because they chose to put ours in the already too small plotter room. Space issues aside, loading the powder bin was dusty, as was extracting parts from the build tank (as you can see, it just wipes a fresh layer of powder over the last so you end up with a build volume full of unbound powder that the part is resting in). The powder in general was the worst issue I guess, its so very fine and so very light. Another lesser issue was the binder itself wasn't all that strong so part extraction was done like an archaeologist, with brushes and lots of time, patience and care. Coating the fragile printed part in cyanoacrylate was usually all we needed to do with our prints...again, my test prints are still stout and colorful as can be almost 20 years later.
My dream 3D printer project has yet to be tried. When 3D printing exploded one of the parallel dreams was potentially using recycled plastic, like HDPE. It was completely abandoned because filament was difficult to make and then 3D printers moved in the direction of speed and accuracy. But what about a printer that was designed to use large terrible filament? What if our slicing software compensated for HDPE's high level of warping? Why is desktop injection molding under $200 being pioneered by ONE guy? (Shoutout to Buster Beagle) Why is spring loaded press molding something that only I've thought of? (Plug for my channel, InventTory) Why is the potential of using garbage plastics not one of our primary goals?!
It's impossible to find your channel because when you search, youtube just assumes you misspelled "inventory". It would be easier if you featured it on the Tory Evans channel
Love the video. As some others have stated, I got into 3D printing late, this is the first time I've seen the Tantillus. I, for one, would love to see you print that in the original multiple parts pieced together version. Though small printers are cheap, I'd like to see if it's worth the effort, since I only have my original printer without a heated bed, that can barely print 175mm cubed.
YES THE GOOD OLD TIMES I got first SLA in 1984 and have participated in all development steps in FDM. Have designed and built 18 FDM printers so far and I am still thrilled YES please make more videos
When I first heard about rep tap it really caught my interest, I was really into welding at the time so I immediately wanted to modify a Darwin or even a prusa 3d printer with a mig welder instead of a plastic extruder. It never came about because I was straight broke and managing my finances was never something that interested me at the time. Fast forward a solid decade and change and I've got my life together and also picked up an ender 3, I think my goals are still viable and I'll end up making it happen eventually..
I recommend looking up the channel "Cranktown City" - he has a couple videos on his work trying out a similar project. Might help give you ideas / awareness of possible issues.
Thanks- I think retrospectives are valuable. 1994 was my first exposure to a tabletop 3d resin on powder printer at a product fair in the employee cafeteria at a large InkJet, LaserJet and now industrial 3d printer manufacturer. Sadly I don’t recall the company demonstrating the technology and many of us were hugely disappointed our company didn’t enter the market. I’ve since retired but my former company now manufactures industrial 3d printers with a very high percentage of components 3d printed.
I am restoring a Printrbot LC. It worked well to print some of its own replacement parts, which had cracked with age. I switched to a GT2 belt on the Y axis with a metal pulley, replaced many LM8UU's, am moving the controller out from under the machine to manage heat, and will install a Micro Swiss nozzle to keep the original hot end functioning. Since the original Ubis hot end is very oozy, prints have to be done at a constant speed to maintain extruder pressure.
Ah, Angus. You are taking me on a nostalgia trip. I also thought the Sugar Lab would be a must buy, but I wonder if Stratasys canceled it because they realized they couldn't chip powdered sugar. Also, that Tantalus. Here's an idea: Scale it up. Tantalus Maximus.
I am endlessly astonished learning about these early printers and how exponentially more primitive and expensive they are than the little Creality Ender V2 I ordered for $270 (plus 2kg filament!)
what's really amazing is how many of the people who worked with the reprap team that went on to further improve on the technology. the two most noteworthy of them being joseph and sanjay
Yes please make a delta history video! Loved this one but are more into the delta. They are just more fun to watch print and easy to run without that build plate moving around. Thanks Angus!
I volunteered in a MakerSpace during highschool as an elective credit! We would host field trips for all the local elementary and middle schools! I remember the 10 or so PrinterBot Simple metals we had like it was yesterday! We also had a very large "gorilla maker" dual extrusion 3d printer! This wouldve been in early 2016 and here I am now with 4 printers of my own! Its a shame the owner of gorilla maker passed. They made awesome machines and were local to my area! Met the guy many times and it was devastating to hear the news
There were quite a few unique vapourware printers too - the buccaneer, the peachy, the olo. They were all fairly unique but sadly never came to be. Maybe you could do a video on those... Looking forward that tantillus build!
The Bits from Bytes printer was the one that got me into the hobby. Did some work on testing different plastics to build the case from with the guy that owned the company (who knew Adrian Bowyer well)
The Tantillus was the first 3D printer I wanted at the time. I'm always interested in compact designs so I would really like to see you build one just to see how the design holds up compared to more modern tiny 3D printers.
I was so happy to see the BfB RapMan get a mention. It was my introduction to 3D printing, and as much of a pain in the neck it was to run, I learned so much from it. It started my passion for 3D printing, as well as finding creative ways to repair and modify things. That machine rests in pieces now, but its years of service will always stick with me.
Such a pain in the neck! I lost count of how many hours I spent sanding parts and regluing them when they broke, or tightening all the million bolts... and then it rusted! Cleaned it up, got it going again, and then pigeons crapped on it (don't ask) and it rusted again! It also barely printed anything, about the only worthwhile print managed was a replacement Wade's extruder.
@@JamesChurchill The million billion bolts and grub screws is something I absolutely don't miss. Those acrylic sandwiches on the corners were an absolute nightmare too! My machine even walked itself off of my workbench while printing, twice! Shattered a ton of parts, including the extruder. Even bent one of the leadscrews. I did manage to repair it the first time, and got it to print semi-decently for two years, until the second time it fell. Then I decided to throw the remains in a box and just buy a CR-10 Mini.
I still have my old Rep Rap Mendel based clone! Actually got it printing pretty good! Reqires constant tweeking to get to perform. I would love to see you reproduce the Tantillus! :)
The sugar one makes me wonder about a glue gun based sand/dirt 3d printer. Simply using the hot glue gun as a binder for the dirt/sand with extremely cheap material pricing & vast material accessibility.
Haha, glad to see the RigidBot get flashed up on screen, even under the 'over promised - under delivered' section. That was my first 3D printer, and it NEVER worked that well! But putting it together and constantly fixing/adjusting the beast taught me so much. When I got an Ender 3 Pro a few years back, it was such a night and day. I am forever grateful for a machine that works, but sometimes I miss my first kit project.
Ah, Eventorbot. I was probably one of the few people who actually got it shipped to them. It had promise but suffered from the early Kickstarter overinflation of what was possible to ship. Then once I got it, some time after it was supposed to arrive, it had a lot of issues due to the choice of using regular threaded rod instead of acme. It looks nice, but is hard to maintain and often would seize while moving. I got it about 70% assembled before boxing it up and using the electronics in other projects.
@@MakersMuse I think I got it because I was lucky enough to be in the same U.S. state as the person running the Kickstarter. Shipping all that steel must have been hugely expensive. IMHO, adding in the folded steel frame without upping the cost for shipping was their biggest mistake.
I'm quite enamoured with the Steward designs :3 I wonder what it takes to rework the one with 3 legs into something that actually can print in any direction. :D
Yay BFB Rapman got a mention!!! I started with one of those back in 2010 and designed a replacement corner set for it, been printed about a dozen times from thingiverse. Good times
That was excellent. Some of these designs particularly the last one could have macro size potential. I have said for many years when looking at a building site with a crane over it. That is a 3D printer, it just needs a positioning system!! Thanks again for the interesting and thoughtful commentary.
The nothing but arms delta thing at the end looks super space efficient. Rather than have a frame around a track around a print area. Love the thinking
I've got a metal simple :D wonderful machine. On the topic of "portable" 3D printers, you could buy a metal handle to mount on top of the z-axis rods of the Metal Simple, and carry it around like that!
Fantastic walk at memory lane Great video as always 👍😀 I would love any of the videos that you mentioned!!!! Thanks for sharing your experience with all of us 👍😀
Definitely make a Tantillus! I’m really curious to see how the fishing line works, and also if you could scale it up. I know scaling it up is the opposite of “tiny” but still, I’m curious.
I made a 'Tantillus R' 2 Years ago
It works, I use it as much as my Prusa MK2.5
I have a few leftover components from upgrades that I'd love to make into a printer one day; a tantillus might be a good project to use them in
@@barrag3463 some Parts are a bit Tricky to source if you are not in Europe
And it was a pain to get the Linear Rails drilled
3 Broken Drillbits and a DIY EDM Machine later it works and I regret nothing
Barely any heatup time
Powerup to Print start is about 30 Sek
It runs a Pi3, if there is no 'Known Wifi' it acts as its own Accespoint, i can Upload the Gcode with my Phone/Tablet/Notebook
I had it Printing for 2 Hours while taking the highspeed Train through germany
Since the Power outlets are rated for 90W its just within the Margin
Check out Voron 0.1 , no fishing line but same size
yeah! It would be so awesome!
A friend of mine still has a sugar mixture based printer in his collection. It was used primarily to make the removable parts of a casting mold... and edible sugar crystals on occasion.
thats a rad idea
WAIT.... WAIT WHAT?....... that's one of the single best ideas for making rough metal parts on the cheap I'v heard of. Print it in sugar, bury it in sand/clay mix, and incinerate the sugar out by lost mold casting with molten aluminum or the like. No more styrofoam or wax..... that's seriously smart, you just have to refine and file the parts a bit after casting.
@@theLuigiFan0007Productions Pla works just as well. Pla actually makes really good for making molds like that. If you wanna do metal casting at home, using pla and casting recycled aluminum is the easiest way to start.
@@lobsterbark So it can burn away quick enough? I presume with a super slow infill percentage so it's basically a hollow shell. But that's interesting to know.
@@theLuigiFan0007Productions yeah, you can make the print insanely thin and hollow inside very easily. You can also add channels to let gas out or anything else you might want for a better casting much more easily than you could with most other methods of mold making.
I love the "what if"/"why isn't there a..." mentality that 3D printing thrives on. I've personally had so many projects, successful and not, start out like that, and I love the physicality of printing something, holding it in your hands and contemplating if and how I could improve it. From simple things like fixtures to "larger" (for my still-kinda-amateurish standards) projects, 3D printing has allowed me to (attempt to) solve problems that would've otherwise stayed errant thoughts.
A toast to the makers who started it, to the ones driving it forward, and the ones to come in a hopefully prosperous, just as curiosity-fueled future 🍻
I personally worked on a 3D printer startup as the head 3D artist and it was extremely exciting. I saw my whole future in the company then it went tits up. Not because of technical issues or a lack of interest, but due to frigging embezzlement by the treasurer!
I will not say which company it was because it falling still legitimately hurts and even when things were trucking along a lot of our early investors were bizarrely hostile and tech-illiterate. Expecting a 100% finished product to ship on day 1 despite our transparency on the progress of the printer. They were out for blood when the company went under but ultimately did nothing.
It is all a distant memory now yet I still cannot help but think "what if" to this very day.
@@ultraindigo That's just Peachy.....
Awesome 3D printer history! I got into 3D printing very late and haven't heard about many of those printers.
I remember back when I first read about RepRap and the Darwin I was really excited, to the point I almost started a project to make one. But at the time I realised I didn't really have the tools or experience to pull it off, especialy as the software at the time was in its infancy. I then kind of forgot about it, occasionally observing from the sidelines the arrival of the MakerBot and the Stratasys controversy, but it wasn't until the last couple of years when 3D printers became so affordable I finally took the step and bought one. It's amazing how far they have come in what is only a few years - makes me wonder what the next 20 years will bring!
Same here. Was going to make a larger version of the Darwin using linear bearings (still have them laying around somewhere). But the realization of the missing skills needed plus the death of a friend that was going to work with me on it ended that plan. Been watching developments over the last few years. May be time to dip a toe into the pool again.
Same
These last few years the progress seems to have basically stopped, at least in terms of FDM printers. The Prusa i3 is still the best design overall, and printers that specialize in specific things haven't really improved at all since about 2016-2018. Most of the progress has been in the availability, price, and quality of parts.
Like for instance cheap filaments are now almost all really good, the various manufacturers seem to have mostly standardized on what to add to improve the quality, stepper drivers have all gotten cheap, you don't have to solder anything anymore to build a printer, if you buy a 3d printer part from a sketchy cheap source it will usually still work.
All the progress is now in UV resin printers.
@@lobsterbark I suppose that cheap printers - like the really cheap ones
A Delta timeline history video would be really good - could also side-track on to the related experimental motion ideas
I second this great idea.
I've always wondered if the delta printers had an advantage over cartesian ones? Could you make a video on that? From a long french viewer...
Pros:
Usually can print at faster speeds assuming the injector can keep up
Less parts, so cheaper to buy/maintain.
Cons:
Usually a smaller print volume due to the nature of the angles involved with the axis drives.
Con: Dimentional accuracy
@@stephendowdle5537 I have several delta printers - and everyone of thems absolutely dimensional accurate. If it's a well versed firmware you're using, it's more a myth then a thing. Deltas had these problems in the very early days, back when they were driven by 8 bit micros. But nowadays with 32 bit microcontrollers it's entirely a thing of the past. My anycubic Kossel Plus/Pros wipe the floor with any cheap I3 design. Printspeeds well in the 300mm and absolute accuracy paired with easy maintenance make them the most loved childs of all my 9 printers family. Also you could make them in any z-height you want, just by changing the aluminium extrusions, belts and linear rails. My only con would be the bowden-extruder you need to achieve high movement speeds. printing flexibles just isn't a thing. But that's my A-net A3's job anyway ;)
I can name one disadvantage I've heard about. Delta printers have better quality in the middle and less good around the sides.
My first 3d printer was a delta printer and I still have a fondness for the design, some pros and cons:
Cons:
1. Difficult to access the print head to clear jams, change nozzle etc
2. Related to (1), difficult to add direct extruder, so generally limited to Bowden (personally I like Bowden)
3. Frame is not inherently rigid, and because of shape is difficult to reinforce to make rigid
4. Difficult to fully enclose print area
5. Relatively tall for a given print volume
Pros
1. Fixed print bed
2. Light print head so can be fast
3. Probably the best design if you want a *really* large printer
Thanks for mentioning the tantillus 3d printer I have one laser cut version and plan on making it all in metal and try to print in peek. As of now only the frame is in laser cut aluminum planing to cast the plastic parts in aluminum and add water cooling and insulation to make it better for peek printing for use in dentistry.
I'm a relative latecomer to the 3d printing scene, and this glimpse of the history and origins was really interesting! Especially the Darwin, which clearly follows the same sort of arc as commercial jet aircraft or self-loading rifles: massively complicated and over-engineered at first, and then steadily getting simpler and more efficient. Very cool!
So yes, I'd love a similar video exploring delta printers. :)
Love to find out about the weird and obscure printers!
There are more stranger printers. Like cut layer by layer in paper sheets of clear tape.
@@artcraft2893 there's also photopolymerization based printing, which was a nightmare to use
I would love to see you make one of those tantillus printers. It's cute
Yeah. Now i kinda want one
Voron 0.1 gets you pretty close.
And if you want a crossed gantry, the Annex Engineering K3 cuts the mustard.
Oh man, the printrbot... I took charge of maintaining about a dozen of the Printrbot Simple Metals for my school district's makerspace, because I was able to figure it all out myself. I was an intern there in high school, and I really enjoyed learning how it all worked. That's what actually got me a job with a local 3D printer manufacturer that focused on 100% American made components, that unfortunately couldn't keep up with the lower and lower price points. Great memories, though.
Printing with sugar is pretty sweet……..
get out
ahahaha
😂😂😂😂
Thanks for that trip down memory lane! I remember well marveling over the candyfab, and Nick Seward's designs are still some of the most original thinking in the whole 3d printer universe.
I will always love my Simple Metal. It was the first 3D printer I've ever had. Modded the crap out of it and also fixed almost every part of it. Still have it and still works. Will always have a special place.
Nick Seward is my hero, tbh. He brings so many unique printers to MRRF all the time and they're always so inspiring.
I would love to see a 2021 Tantilus for the maker community!
I think, considering the Chinese market, we should include the Anet A8 printer. As far as I know, it's no longer available for purchase, but at the time of it releasing, it was ground braking. Yes, it was a Prusa i3 clone, but for around $200 you got a very nice quality 3D printer with a reasonable (220x220x240 mm) build volume, and also with heated bed. Of course for $200 corners had to be cut, so there was no auto bed leveling (Z homing was made possible by a momentary switch) and the frame was made of laser-cut acrylic (which made the printer somewhat wobbly), but it was very affordable even for us, living in the Mordor side of Europe (East to the former Iron Fence).
I definitely think the A8 deserves recognition, but perhaps in a list of market disruptors rather than historical forgotten machines. For a few years they were unavoidable, but they most definitely had some serious safety concerns. I feel like they only really fell out of fashion because other machines came in and replaced it at its price point. Whether that's a good or bad thing is up to the individual I suppose, but I do find it's led to quite a bit of same-ness in the 3d printer space for the last couple years. Most definitely a good one to remember, though! Thanks for sharing.
I have a sintron i3 - a very similar printer to the A8, but doesn't seem to have quite the fiery reputation/popularity. It arrived in kit form and the instructions consisted of a couple of photos and rough diagrams, so assembling it, then getting marlin set up and the printer working properly taught me a lot about 3D printing in general and significantly more about the actual process than if it had just been working out of the box. Then once you have it working, the cycle of break, crack or melt something, bodge it back together and print a better designed replacement part starts :). Who in their right mind thought an acrylic panel directly under the heated bed with as much material as possible removed wouldn't warp and cause a loss of leveling? :).
Probably shouldn't say it, but I haven't updated marlin since as I think I have probably lost the config files and don't want to set it up again or recalibrate from scratch :).
@@jg374 My Anet A6 came with a faulty acrylic part in 2017. A friend told me to send it back under warranty (yeah right lol). I ended up using some gaffa tape to hold it together to print a replacement part. It's since been a Theseus' ship of replaced parts, although I still have the original frame, heatbead and power supply (and the screen which I reverse engineered the connections for). My Marlin is still from 2018 when I did most of my upgrades since I don't want to reconfigure new Marlin versions every few months, even when I added an new SD card reader and recently a filament runout switch. I have written down all the config settings and store them with my spare parts to speed it up in future.
Definitely would love to watch a Tantillus build!
Tantillus.. Tantalising Us with Tantillus... You have to build one! I'm sold!
Thank you, Angus, for another interesting video. I discovered 3D printing and cad modelling while in hospital 15 months ago. I have since purchased a Prusa printer and can identify many of pioneering techniques of the early printers.
Yes Angus, resurrect the Tantillus, love small printers, thanks for the history lesson👍😎
Voron V0.1 is the new Tantillus
@@angeljoy5234 NOT ... not at all!
There is a 'Remake'
the Tantillus R
I made one 3 years ago and I use it as much as my Prusa MK2.5
@@angeljoy5234 In size perhaps, but not in cost.
You always make great and interesting content that isn't a rehash of someone else's.. I really appreciate your channel and enjoy the videos, keep up the awesome work! BTW, I would love to see a build of the Tantillus.
Really cool deep dive into some of the early days of printing. The Printrbot was the first printer I seriously considered buying, but was jobless high schooler at the time.
I wrote my Masters dissertation on building a 3D Chocolate printer last year. I really enjoyed researching the history of 3D printers and discovering some of these awesome machines. Brilliant video again.
Please do more videos of early printers! I love seeing how far we have come.
Oh Zcorp. I still have a few of them! We made so many amazing things with them, from movie props used in film to models of Snoop Dogg and skulls for The Smithsonian! Great rundown! We had a business model for that sugar printer too LOL, still salty about it!
would love to see you build a tantilus. This video is easily my favorite so far. To my knowledge, best history presented to date. Thanks
Powder-based printing is such a great approach to printing and it's really baffling to me that there's been so little development in the open hardware space. I'll have to keep an eye on the Brill.
I had the pleasure of sitting next to Nicholas Seward at the Second MRRF. His mind works in mysterious ways indeed. Mad scientist is a perfect description. Not only is he incredibly brilliant but he is unbelievably humble about that brilliance. And I love that for a lot of his designs there's no software to support it so he would write translation scripts to take normal gcode and post process it so his innovative designs could even function. Truly an amazing individual.
Absolutely revive the tantillus, as someone who moves a lot, having a portable 3D printer like this that I can easily carry around would be an absolute bliss... Heck discovering it now I'm already considering building one myself ! XD
I love the Tantillus! When it was originally released I even went so far as to print out a few very warped chassis/frame pieces on my Sells/Prusa Mendel hybrid. Just the other day I rediscovered the design and I’ve been debating printing the frame in one piece on my sidewinder.
I'd love to see your take on a Tantillus!
I have built a RapRap Tantillus, I still have it, If you have any questions about it feel free to ask me, I can't promise I can answer every question but I would be happy to share what I learned from my experience.
I would love to see your experiences making the Tantillus! Seems like a fun and worthwhile project!
Super interesting concepts explored here. I'd love to see you review or compare printers that are larger than 350mm. I feel like there aren't too many options at this size and the videos I've seen in UA-cam are either old or are revising older machines.
I still have my Printrbot simple metal, but its running on a different motherboard now as my old printrboard rev F died
Make the tantillus and challenge the community to make their own and show it off!
Tantillus video please, we’d love to see some vintage machines made on modern ones.
That last design looks super cool! I imagine it's great for steep overhangs.
Open Source Delta are really interesting! I would imagine in the future these could possibly do more...
I second this, and basically all the "Should I Make a Video on This" ideas!
If you're interested in Deltas look at Archie MK4 Robot it has crazy designs by enthusiasts
Also look up the “Delta X” robots, they are Open Source as well, granted more pick and place oriented than FDM 3D Printing if i remember correctly.
It was great to see the evolution and ingenuity behind today's 3D Printers. Thanks for this Angus
My first printer was a Cupcake by Makerbot. Cost about $800 USD at the time. Now using a CR10s Pro, cost $850 CAD, a far better printer for a lower price, showing how things have changed.
I haven't been here for a while and, Wow! Almost a million subscribers! Way to go, Angus.
I would love to see a Tantillus! Please make this happen! :)
A Tantillus would be awesome. Now I kinda want to try and build one too =)
Angus, speaking of making a Tantillus - you should be making all kinds of printers at this point. Create your own printer design, you obviously have the CAD skills and surely the skills to handle designing a ckt around an MCU (it's not hard, just follow the spec sheet!) and make a series about it. Angus' foray into designing and building a 3d printer from scratch!... and have seasons where each one is a new machine.
I would be very much interested in that, especially a folds-into-a-briefcase model.
Didn't he already make his own printer? It was a fall out one
@@toddclark419 Straight up. Top points for a long term viewer!!!
I love dives into history. Not just "This existed" but details about what was around it at the time and stuff. :) Please do a video on the open-source history of delta printers. Sounds very informative!
Yes yes and yes. Angus you make such engaging 3D printing videos and I would love to not only see you make a Tantalus but also please make that video about deltas, so interesting.
I actually have a modified laser cut Tantillus beside me while watching this. I never managed to get it to print, but it is now a PCB CNC driller, which works very poorly, but I haven't yet had the opportunity to make it a bit more rigid.
Your mention of PCB's made me think of making a Tantillus frame from Custom PCB's with a bunch of the wiring routed via the walls.
@@MaxNippard that would certainly be possible and also visually quite interesting. You could have not only the wires, but the whole control board on one of the walls
Evil mad scientist's sugar printer was my introduction to 3d printing too. And i was thrilled that all the printers you covered were things that shaped my experience with 3d printers too.
With everybody drooling over closed source it's almost refreshing seeing the primordial ooze the movement came out of. Angus, please make more of these history videos, they are amazing. Don't feel the need to shorten or condense them either, I watched this three times already.
5:29 Awesome! I got to run a Zcorp Spectrum Z510 somewhere around 2003 or 2004 at an aerospace company (I was the point of contact/owner so I was pretty familiar with it back then). Having only recently learned about SLS and SLM at the time I was pretty happy to dig into that particular task. I still have a few little test print/trinkets from that z510 on the bench near my ender, lol. Running that machine was kind of a nightmare...especially because they chose to put ours in the already too small plotter room. Space issues aside, loading the powder bin was dusty, as was extracting parts from the build tank (as you can see, it just wipes a fresh layer of powder over the last so you end up with a build volume full of unbound powder that the part is resting in). The powder in general was the worst issue I guess, its so very fine and so very light. Another lesser issue was the binder itself wasn't all that strong so part extraction was done like an archaeologist, with brushes and lots of time, patience and care. Coating the fragile printed part in cyanoacrylate was usually all we needed to do with our prints...again, my test prints are still stout and colorful as can be almost 20 years later.
I would def love to see a tantalus build as well as a dive into delta printers good sir ! Ty for your work sir angus
Yes to delta history and the tantilus project!
My dream 3D printer project has yet to be tried. When 3D printing exploded one of the parallel dreams was potentially using recycled plastic, like HDPE. It was completely abandoned because filament was difficult to make and then 3D printers moved in the direction of speed and accuracy.
But what about a printer that was designed to use large terrible filament? What if our slicing software compensated for HDPE's high level of warping? Why is desktop injection molding under $200 being pioneered by ONE guy? (Shoutout to Buster Beagle) Why is spring loaded press molding something that only I've thought of? (Plug for my channel, InventTory) Why is the potential of using garbage plastics not one of our primary goals?!
It's impossible to find your channel because when you search, youtube just assumes you misspelled "inventory". It would be easier if you featured it on the Tory Evans channel
@@eekee6034 Noted
Love the video. As some others have stated, I got into 3D printing late, this is the first time I've seen the Tantillus. I, for one, would love to see you print that in the original multiple parts pieced together version. Though small printers are cheap, I'd like to see if it's worth the effort, since I only have my original printer without a heated bed, that can barely print 175mm cubed.
Thanks this was great. I did not know most of these stories and it was nice to have that knowledge filled in.
YES THE GOOD OLD TIMES I got first SLA in 1984 and have participated in all development steps in FDM. Have designed and built 18 FDM printers so far and I am still thrilled
YES please make more videos
When I first heard about rep tap it really caught my interest, I was really into welding at the time so I immediately wanted to modify a Darwin or even a prusa 3d printer with a mig welder instead of a plastic extruder. It never came about because I was straight broke and managing my finances was never something that interested me at the time. Fast forward a solid decade and change and I've got my life together and also picked up an ender 3, I think my goals are still viable and I'll end up making it happen eventually..
I recommend looking up the channel "Cranktown City" - he has a couple videos on his work trying out a similar project. Might help give you ideas / awareness of possible issues.
Loved this vid. More like this please... or even a where are they now of some of the 3d print pioneers. Great vid.
Thanks- I think retrospectives are valuable. 1994 was my first exposure to a tabletop 3d resin on powder printer at a product fair in the employee cafeteria at a large InkJet, LaserJet and now industrial 3d printer manufacturer. Sadly I don’t recall the company demonstrating the technology and many of us were hugely disappointed our company didn’t enter the market. I’ve since retired but my former company now manufactures industrial 3d printers with a very high percentage of components 3d printed.
I am restoring a Printrbot LC. It worked well to print some of its own replacement parts, which had cracked with age. I switched to a GT2 belt on the Y axis with a metal pulley, replaced many LM8UU's, am moving the controller out from under the machine to manage heat, and will install a Micro Swiss nozzle to keep the original hot end functioning. Since the original Ubis hot end is very oozy, prints have to be done at a constant speed to maintain extruder pressure.
Ah, Angus. You are taking me on a nostalgia trip. I also thought the Sugar Lab would be a must buy, but I wonder if Stratasys canceled it because they realized they couldn't chip powdered sugar.
Also, that Tantalus. Here's an idea: Scale it up. Tantalus Maximus.
I am endlessly astonished learning about these early printers and how exponentially more primitive and expensive they are than the little Creality Ender V2 I ordered for $270 (plus 2kg filament!)
Thanks!
what's really amazing is how many of the people who worked with the reprap team that went on to further improve on the technology.
the two most noteworthy of them being joseph and sanjay
Now you need an infamous printers video. I'll start. Peachy! :). Yes for the Tantillus build
I want to see what a Tantillus can do today with updated electronics. bmg, v6 style or mosquito, klipper
Yes please make a delta history video! Loved this one but are more into the delta. They are just more fun to watch print and easy to run without that build plate moving around. Thanks Angus!
This was enlightning! I would love to see more deepdives into 3D printing history.
I volunteered in a MakerSpace during highschool as an elective credit! We would host field trips for all the local elementary and middle schools! I remember the 10 or so PrinterBot Simple metals we had like it was yesterday! We also had a very large "gorilla maker" dual extrusion 3d printer! This wouldve been in early 2016 and here I am now with 4 printers of my own! Its a shame the owner of gorilla maker passed. They made awesome machines and were local to my area! Met the guy many times and it was devastating to hear the news
There were quite a few unique vapourware printers too - the buccaneer, the peachy, the olo. They were all fairly unique but sadly never came to be. Maybe you could do a video on those...
Looking forward that tantillus build!
I’d love to see more videos about how the hobbyist 3D printers came to be!
The Bits from Bytes printer was the one that got me into the hobby. Did some work on testing different plastics to build the case from with the guy that owned the company (who knew Adrian Bowyer well)
The second I saw the Tantillus, I thought "You could print the entire thing in one go!!" I would love to see you do that.
The Tantillus was the first 3D printer I wanted at the time. I'm always interested in compact designs so I would really like to see you build one just to see how the design holds up compared to more modern tiny 3D printers.
I had forgotten about some of these! Awesome video!
I was so happy to see the BfB RapMan get a mention. It was my introduction to 3D printing, and as much of a pain in the neck it was to run, I learned so much from it. It started my passion for 3D printing, as well as finding creative ways to repair and modify things. That machine rests in pieces now, but its years of service will always stick with me.
Such a pain in the neck! I lost count of how many hours I spent sanding parts and regluing them when they broke, or tightening all the million bolts... and then it rusted! Cleaned it up, got it going again, and then pigeons crapped on it (don't ask) and it rusted again! It also barely printed anything, about the only worthwhile print managed was a replacement Wade's extruder.
@@JamesChurchill The million billion bolts and grub screws is something I absolutely don't miss. Those acrylic sandwiches on the corners were an absolute nightmare too! My machine even walked itself off of my workbench while printing, twice! Shattered a ton of parts, including the extruder. Even bent one of the leadscrews. I did manage to repair it the first time, and got it to print semi-decently for two years, until the second time it fell. Then I decided to throw the remains in a box and just buy a CR-10 Mini.
I still have my old Rep Rap Mendel based clone! Actually got it printing pretty good! Reqires constant tweeking to get to perform. I would love to see you reproduce the Tantillus! :)
I'd love to see a video diving into Delta printers. They're hard to find these days, but I was always fascinated with the mechanism of action.
The FLSUN v400 is neat
The sugar one makes me wonder about a glue gun based sand/dirt 3d printer. Simply using the hot glue gun as a binder for the dirt/sand with extremely cheap material pricing & vast material accessibility.
Or melting of glass powder
Glad to see the Rigidbot pop as an example from the kickstarter era.
Still rocking my Rigidbot Big as my main printer 😊
They were a sad loss but just couldn't compete with the price point of i3s
My DIY build of the Prusa i3 Rework is still running today. It's been fun learning and upgrading it over the years with newer technology.
Haha, glad to see the RigidBot get flashed up on screen, even under the 'over promised - under delivered' section. That was my first 3D printer, and it NEVER worked that well! But putting it together and constantly fixing/adjusting the beast taught me so much. When I got an Ender 3 Pro a few years back, it was such a night and day. I am forever grateful for a machine that works, but sometimes I miss my first kit project.
"Oasis 3DP" is another Jet Binding Printer, and it's Open Source, so pretty neat.
Ah, Eventorbot. I was probably one of the few people who actually got it shipped to them.
It had promise but suffered from the early Kickstarter overinflation of what was possible to ship. Then once I got it, some time after it was supposed to arrive, it had a lot of issues due to the choice of using regular threaded rod instead of acme. It looks nice, but is hard to maintain and often would seize while moving. I got it about 70% assembled before boxing it up and using the electronics in other projects.
Yeah, it looked so good but they had no idea how to deliver it as a real product. Like many kickstarters I guess. At least you got it though!
@@MakersMuse I think I got it because I was lucky enough to be in the same U.S. state as the person running the Kickstarter. Shipping all that steel must have been hugely expensive. IMHO, adding in the folded steel frame without upping the cost for shipping was their biggest mistake.
I'm quite enamoured with the Steward designs :3
I wonder what it takes to rework the one with 3 legs into something that actually can print in any direction.
:D
Yes Delta history video please!
Yay BFB Rapman got a mention!!! I started with one of those back in 2010 and designed a replacement corner set for it, been printed about a dozen times from thingiverse. Good times
Tantillus! Definitely!
That was excellent. Some of these designs particularly the last one could have macro size potential. I have said for many years when looking at a building site with a crane over it. That is a 3D printer, it just needs a positioning system!! Thanks again for the interesting and thoughtful commentary.
Dude please make this a short series i would love to learn more about the history of 3d printers
The nothing but arms delta thing at the end looks super space efficient. Rather than have a frame around a track around a print area. Love the thinking
I've got a metal simple :D wonderful machine. On the topic of "portable" 3D printers, you could buy a metal handle to mount on top of the z-axis rods of the Metal Simple, and carry it around like that!
Great video. I would definitely be interested in the history of Delta's. The printer you were showing at the end was incredible.
Cool recap of the RepRap community! Well done Angus ;-)
I'd also like to see a Tantillus come alive and maybe make one myself
Cheers
i'd love to see you build a tantillus, or maybe the more modern revisions of it if they exist. the compact, fully printed design brief is really cool.
RIP Printrbot. My first 3D printer and what continued to foster my CAD skills and love of engineering. The legacy shall live on!
Fantastic walk at memory lane
Great video as always 👍😀
I would love any of the videos that you mentioned!!!!
Thanks for sharing your experience with all of us 👍😀
This was a trip down memory lane! I followed the 3d printing scene back in the day but couldn't afford the time or cost until creality came along.