Just got my Christmas present from my family a bit early this year! (It's not even December this time)
They got me an Anet A8 DIY printer (My brother assembled it, which has me thoroughly impressed.)
All the complicated stuff was done for me! So from here, it's just calibration.



I'm going to start off by printing some recommended upgrades to the printer, then I will likely move on toward other things, such as this raspberry Pi 3 board that I plan to use for an arcade machine.



It needs to be fine-tuned, obviously. but I think I'm going to have some fun with this bad-boy!


I'll let you guys know how things go with this thing!

Nite and 3-D printers sound like a glorious combination! I'm really, really looking forward to seeing what you do with this.

And thanks to various technical tricks.... and a $6.00 USB adapter that lets me connect an Xbox360 Kinect to my computer... I now have a 3-d scanner.... and proof that my lab is a %@#king dump...

how much does a 3D printer like what you've got cost? i kind of want one so i can build stuff, but i fear it's prohibitively expensive.

that said, the 3D scanned image you uploaded of your desk looks really cool. it's awesome to be able to see what my buddy nite's workbench looks like, even if it isn't the most organized one out there haha

The one I have isn't too bad, price wise.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/Anet-A8-3D-Printer-High-Precision-Reprap-i3-DIY-Kit-LCD2004-8G-SD-CARD/302387247742?hash=item4667af3a7e:g:r1oAAOSwX3NZbgxt:rk:3:pf:0
The assembly was already handled by my brother when it was given to me, so all I had was fine tuning to do.
Once I printed out some belt tighteners and got them installed, it was finally making accurate printouts.

I've been using it for various things, but am still in the experimenting phase of things.

I know this might sound mundane, but it is fully capable of printing functioning nut and bolt items. This tells me that precision parts are indeed doable.

I'm rather impressed that the 3-D printer is good at making "mundane but precise" things.

Also, you're going to have a lot of fun with that Kinect adapter.
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Edited by: Bibby, Jan 9th, 2019 @ 2:29 am