I have been playing with my ultimaker for a while now and have been very happy with it. However it costs an arm and a leg and costruction is quite demanding (my kit with dual extruder and ulticontroller was 1299€).
I decided to try to push a working 3D printer price as low as possible with the following design goals
o as cheap as possible – cut every corner =)
o price under $199
o 0.1mm resolution
o DIY – easy
o 3mm filament
o bowden extruder
o heated bed
o stand alone printing
o 20x20x20 cm build volume
o all non-metal parts 3D printable
It will be built on top of RepRap Mendel with some modifications to keep costs low.
More to follow…