You could try a RepRap machine.

http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page

Obviously, you have to be a bit of a do it yourself guy, but to me, none of it looks hard.

Nice prints!

It's changing in the 3d printing area..

Stl printers for under 1300$, don't know of the output quality though...
http://www.bitsfrombytes.com/content/rapman

It seems to print around 8x8x10 inches
They are selling materials around 37-70$ a kilo

There's also kits like makerbot and reprap as Steve mentioned.

Marc

> Any pointers on making a MoI file for Shapeway?

Michael,

Another thing you'll want to do is keep your model in positive xyz space. Most machines don't like STL to be in the minus direction of any axis.

I certainly can't afford a 3D printer, but I do play around with a CNC router. Many of the same things apply!

Mike...

That $10 isn`t much. I think they print a lot`s of part so they can dump prises so low :)
What is the volume of your part you printed out?

d3

>>You could try a RepRap machine.
>>
>>http://reprap.org/wiki/Main_Page
>>
>>Obviously, you have to be a bit of a do it yourself guy, but to me, none of it looks hard.
>>


Incredibly LOW resolution. More of a toy for tinkerers than a useful tool at this point. Maybe someday. Prices keep dropping. I fully expect to see state of the art on your desktop for under $5k within 2 years.

C.

The RepRap can go to quite fine resolutions but is slow. The problem with printed parts is overhangs. Shapeways quote a minimum feature size of 2mm which is worse than the RepRap.

I think to get really high resolution with overhangs, unsupported melted plastic is not the way to go. Better is the layered powder with sprayed binder method.