Fabbster 3D printer

Draft

The Fabbster is a low cost 3D printer kit that can be assembled in about 4 hours.

Soon - Daniel K. Schneider 14:11, 24 April 2012 (CEST)

The fabbster kit

Getting it The kit is sold through retailers and costs about 1500 € (incl. VAT., e.g. here). I got ours for 500 € through their (March 2012) pilot program.

Software

• A basic slicer program (STL to machine code configurator/translator) from Netfabb is included in the price.
• The printer comes with an electronic box that can print either through a connected PC or via an USB stick.
• Driver software for Windows XP/VISTA/7 can be downloaded from the wiki.

Materials

• Custom made ABS sticks or 3mm ABS rolls
• PLA sticks or rolls

The parts

Unlike the RapMan, the fabbster is based on very few different kinds of parts:

• Most of the structure uses so-called "cassettes", i.e. good for most everything 8.5x7.6cm plastic parts
• Most screws and bolts have the same size.

The assembly manual

• Assembly is described in a bilingual German/English assembly handbook (Version 1.10 is a color PDF file in A4 portrait format and includes 57 pages and about 42 for the assembly process itself.
• Steps are explained on sheets that included the following information:
  • Parts (prepare them first)
  • A graphic explaining the assembly step
  • Some detail views
  • A global progress view

Other documentation

• Wiki
• support forums

Assembly

Below, we shall not describe the whole assembly since there is a good manual. We just will write down some tips and problems we found.

Manual

Step 1 - p. 10

• The icon of the B4 screw should be changed, it's really small and black. Although it's ok in the detailed picture.
• To keep the two big nuts in place, use some light tape. This allows to put the motor on the table and the plastic on top and you then can add the 4 screws and push in the orange part. Pull out the tape before you enter the screw (do the other 3 first).
• The orange pulley is hard to push onto the motor shaft. Don't push it too far since it is difficult to pull it out again.

Preparation

• Open the box. Ideally you should have a fairly big table at your disposal during assembly.
• Make inventory of the parts (I skipped that). The manual includes a part list

Tools needed

• Most tools needed come with the kit: a hammer, 2 allen keys and cutting pliers (clippers)
• Additional tools needed: A ruler, plastic tape
• It's probably a good idea to use an electric screwdriver, but use minimal force

Links

Official

• Fabbster Home
• Fabbster forums]
• Fabbster wiki (Includes all the documentation). Sometimes, a wiki page just links to a file, e.g.
  • assembly handbook
  • drivers and software