Lego Hot Glue Printer

3D Printing & Imaging
Lego Hot Glue Printer
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Instructables user Matthew Kreuger built this Lego 3D printer that prints using hot glue.

Ever since I saw the first makerbot, I have been obsessed with 3D printing, but I am an engineering student so I don’t have an extra $800-$2500, and have been doing my best to create one out of what I have on hand. I tried arduino with easy drivers, and parallel port, but neither one gave results, I always needed a tool or part that I couldn’t get. So I pulled out my old box of legos and started building.

This is a project I have been working on for the past year, it prints in hot glue and made almost completely out of legos. Based roughly on the first version of the makerbot, while it does print, I would call this more of a prototype than a finished project. I am using 4 power supplies (3v extruder, 7.2v for nxt, 12v fan, and 115 for hot glue gun) and having to manually turn the extruder on and off, (although i am working on that one) . Unfortunately, due to my lack of computer programming skills, every move has to be manually programmed from the NXT programming software, I have yet to find a g-code interpreter for the NXT.

[via Inhabitat]

8 thoughts on “Lego Hot Glue Printer

  1. Jacob Alexander MacDonald says:

    I had the exact same idea! this rocks! it would be cool if it only used a single nxt kit (probably almost impossible) one motor that spinning one direction pushes glue and the other moves up with a Manuel reset… I hope to hear more about this and maybe build my own in the future!
    Good Luck

  2. Scott Sullivan says:

    This is really cool and all, but given the price of legos, how can this be cheaper than buying a rep-rap kit??

    1. Devin Frioud says:

      Did you not read the entire article?
      “So I pulled out my old box of legos and started building.”

  3. Lindsey says:

    What parts were needed for an arduino that you could not find? Would a couple of servos not be adequate in place of the nxt motors?

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My interests include writing, electronics, RPGs, scifi, hackers & hackerspaces, 3D printing, building sets & toys. @johnbaichtal nerdage.net

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