3D printing has a very long history. Fused deposition modeling (FDM) was first officially envisaged in the 1940s, and stereolithography (SLA) in the 1970s. Until the advent of RepRap‘s open-sourced fused filament fabrication (FFF) in 2004, various issues, from funding to patents to skepticism, have kept it out of the hands of tinkerers and inventors.
Since then, it has seen an explosion in applications and technological improvements. Most of these have started with someone trying to do something different with their machine.
There are nearly 100 years of tinkering to catch up on, and maybe your crazy mod will spur the next evolution of 3D printing. Or maybe, it will just make you or those in your life smile. Which, if you ask us, is equally important.
Whichever your goal is, hopefully, these five mods inspire you to do something just a little (or a lot) adventurous to your 3D printer!
Moving Portal
Adding an enclosure to any printer can improve print results and allow you to print with a much wider range of materials. Having said that, a bed slinger, especially a large one, will need a much larger enclosure than another motion system because of the movement of the bed.
Rather than eat up a disproportionate amount of space, Jón Schone decided to re-engineer the motion system on his Creality CR-10 S5. This came with other benefits, such as enabling a solidly mounted bed, which keeps the build level when printing larger, heavier objects.
Moving the Y-axis from the bed to the Z gantry proved to be much easier than first thought, and while the resulting printer does suffer from some wobble near the top, this could easily be remedied with a slower speed near the top, or perhaps you might try Klipper’s Input Shaping to fine tune those movements.
- Who designed it: Jón Schone
- Which printers will it work with: CR-10S, though you could apply the same idea to any bed slinger!
- Modification type: Mechanical (motion system)
- Difficulty: Moderate
- Where to get it/find out more: YouTube, Proper Printing
Bulbasaur Mini
So the bed no longer moves, but maybe your 3D printer still lacks character. If so, maybe you should consider a little printer cosplay. This set of 3D printed attachments by neil3dprints can turn your Prusa Mini into a Bulbasaur Pokémon!
The design is purely aesthetic and requires no modification of the motion system or electronics. It’s also fully reversible, just in case Professor Oak or Officer Jenny come looking for unauthorized cybernetic Pokémon modifications.
But perhaps you don’t have a Prusa Mini, or maybe you prefer Charizard? The designer encourages remixing the design to suit your needs. Sure, it may be a little extra work, but the results will be truly unique!
- Who designed it: neil3dprints
- Which printers will it work with: Prusa Mini
- Modification type: Aesthetic
- Difficulty: Easy – though a lot of work to get it just right!
- Where to get it/find out more: Printables
Syringe Pump Hot End Replacement
Is that pistachio green filament making you want an edible Bulbasaur?
Well, if you replace your hot end with a syringe pump as these academics did, you could print in royal icing, marzipan, cookie dough, or any other paste. Come to think of it, this opens up ceramics and gels as well. Welcome to Liquid Deposition Modeling! Of course, if you just want to print food or ceramics, you could opt for a food 3D printer or a ceramic 3D printer. But if you’re keen to build your own, read on!
This modification involves removing the stock hot end from your machine and replacing it with a syringe pump. While the authors of the modification designed their own syringe pump, off-the-shelf versions are available.
Then it’s simply a matter of mounting the pump, wiring it in, and modifying your firmware to support it. Don’t forget, if you’re going to print food, you will need to ensure that everything your printing materials touch is clean, hygienic, and food safe! You’ll also likely need to post-process ceramics or food in an oven or kiln.
Of course, if you want to simplify your life, you could just print pancakes.
- Who designed it: Saumil Sudhir Vadodaria, Eleanor Warner, Ian Norton, and Tom B. Mills
- Which printers will it work with: Originally designed for HICTOP Prusa Mk3i
- Modification type: Hot end
- Difficulty: Ceramics: challenging; food: very challenging
- Find out more: Science Direct (academic paper), The Conversation (article)
Resin FDM Printer
Maybe, though, 3D printed pancakes aren’t challenging enough for you. Perhaps you want to get down to the fundamental chemistry of how material comes out of your printer. You may aspire to print real carbon fiber layups or an actual fiberglass part. If you happen to be a mad scientist, this modification may be for you.
Replacing the printer’s extruder with a peristaltic pump and then replacing the part cooling fans with high power UV lamps will net you a resin FDM printer. Of course, you’ll need to write your own software and design your own resin (or ask Jón Schone to share his work).
- Who designed it: Jón Schone
- Which printers will it work with: Creality printers
- Modification type: Hot end
- Difficulty: Insane
- Where to get it/find out more: YouTube, Proper Printing
Phone Games
But who has time for developing brand new technologies when there are mobile games to be finished? Chase Madison certainly doesn’t – in fact, he doesn’t even have time to play those mobile games! Which is why he taught his printer to finish them for him.
More accurately, the modification involves programming a Raspberry Pi to interpret a phone screen using a camera and then issue commands to a printer with a stylus attached to it. While the original aim is to use this to enter responses to spelling games, you can also use it to play quiz games with some tweaking. All that said, you may need a Voron to be successful at Fruit Ninja.
- Who designed it: Chase Madison
- Which printers will it work with: Anything that will accept direct computer control
- Modification type: Pi add-on
- Difficulty: Moderate
- Find out more: YouTube, GitHub (Python code)
License: The text of "The 5 Craziest 3D Printer Mods & Upgrades to Go Nuts" by All3DP is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.