Klipper on a Thing-O-Matic? ‘This Old 3D Printer’ Modernizes the Classics
Printer restoration and upgrade project This Old 3D Printer is posting a print every day this year using old and iconic 3D printing hardware.
Think of “vintage” hardware from another tech space and it’s easy to conjure up visions of what it might mean. The automobile? Ford Model T; easy. Mobile telephones? The Nokia 3310 maybe? Too recent? Something like the Motorola DynaTAC, then.
But in 3D printing what do you picture?
My experience with 3D printing started slightly after the commercialization of things picked up – less laser-cut wooden frames, more stamped metal and aluminum extrusions. But if I were asked what I think a “vintage” 3D printer would look like, I imagine exactly what the This Old 3D Printer’s 48-printer strong collections shows.
Over on Reddit and other platforms, the project has taken up the mantle of showing what “vintage” 3D printing hardware is and is still capable of, regularly posting videos and photographs of a collection of old 3D printing hardware.
“I started This Old 3D Printer to invite people to collaborate on a project where we put current Marlin and Klipper firmware on old printers.” Says project founder Jeff, better known online under the moniker RainMotorsports. “Recently, I put Klipper on the MakerBot Thing-O-Matic which is the rare case where I may have been the first to do so.”
Due to show at 3DPrintopia later this year, This Old 3D Printer presents an eclectic mix of machines with a clear self-set boundary on how recent it will go, though ”the project has no hard cut-off for helping people” refurb their machines.
“We like 8 bit, threaded rod, and plywood. The current end definition for what is and isn’t part of my “collection” is the E3D BigBox which Kickstarted in 2015 with the base model being plywood. We are looking to add a few RepRap builds this year such as the Darwin and Mendel.”
Pressed on which of the collection is a personal favorite, he explains “If I had to pick a printer to have started with, the 2011 Ultimaker I think is the best printer of its day. I know some people will disagree with me on the Ultimaker but it’s a space efficient design; it’s a very good printer for its time and I think it is very repairable. The hotend used heater cartridges like most printers until recently have, the nozzles can be swapped out with alternatives. The originals board is a Ramps style Arduino hat that’s easy to repair and it runs Marlin stock. The cross gantry design is also well known for high acceleration. I run my Original on Klipper with input shaping at 10k acceleration.”
Space is at a premium already, so the focus is on collaboration in the future rather than necessarily centralizing the collection, though in the process of discussing the project for this article, a Makergear Mosaic snuck its way into the lineup. “Oh I have no regrets about buying it. I wasn’t going to make it to RMRRF unfortunately so I spent the gas money I saved up on it.”
Maintaining and updating the hardware to run contemporary firmware is the goal, along with awareness of the machines and what’s possible still with them. You can follow along on YouTube, TikTok and Reddit for the daily “printing on vintage hardware” posts, and jump over to the This Old 3D Printer website to contact and collaborate.
Do you have a “vintage” printer gathering dust at home? Show-and-tell time down in the comments.
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