Why?????

I keep getting asked "Why build it, why not just buy one?" Several reasons:

1. I modeled mine off of the Ultimaker printer which is a $2200 dollar printer and most of my parts are identical to that one so I can get as good if not better prints for $600 that I was able to get a part here and a part there instead of coming up with all at once, and which I could have brought down by making it smaller, getting all chinese parts etc but I wanted it to be a rock solid tank when done.

2. I will in the end have a built a printer with a bigger build platform and height than most desktop printers without to huge of a bigger footprint, it is about 1.5 times bigger wide and deep and 2x taller than the Ultimaker.

3. It was built my way, the way I thought it should be with the latest design in the XY carriage (corexy) and anything that went not right since I was designing it could easily be modified.

4. One of the biggest reasons is the learning experience, if I bought one I would be just trying to figure out how to get the best print out of what I have, instead I was able to think more of "How can I physically get the best prints that I possibly can?" and once that was done then I could push it even further by then sitting down and pushing the envelope by tweaking all the settings and software to get it above and beyond what I already managed physically.

    Not to toot my own horn but Chris and I were both amazed at how my out of the box, not tuned, no parts replaced so just my wire ties and hot glue was turning out better prints than a lot of things we were seeing on Thingiverse, we both are excited to see what it can do decked/tweaked out.

5. Goes with the above reason, I am not trying to figure out how something works that I bought, I have learned by creating it, I know every screw, bolt, rivet, belt, pulley, gear, etc. on my printer, I now know what it does, how I could make it better, how it interacts, I know the software settings in and out (especially after doing the auto bed leveling and wasting seven hours to fix in a tweak that others said was nothing and didn't work... it worked, changed that tweak and fixed in seconds what I spent seven hours trying to tweak/configure to get it to work.) I know the sounds, clicks, clunks it makes and know just by listening when something is not right because I was the one that did it, not someone else.

6. And the MOST IMPORTANT reason, the one reason to rule them all....... 

BECAUSE I CAN!!!!!!!