While I’m pretty slow on doing things, as in all the random stuff I get all excited about for a moment of my life at a time, I feel like I’m making progress. A lot of my challenges come from my stinginess. While I know what I need to do something, I then get focused on how to minimize the initial investment, and maximize what I get. Then comes where I decide what I really need, and then reengineer everything. I could build all the parts myself, thereby I spend a little less (maybe) but have something that’s all mine.
The thing is, it’d be a lot easier to do a lot of things with a cheap 3d printer. Is it ideal? Does it matter? A good cheap printer would be a printer I could then make a little better just by printing new parts. This is a violation of my belief in only buying raw ingredients when possible (I loathe that most baked beans recipes require baked beans). On the other hand, it means that if I want to go full reprap, I could. Now to figure out what and where to buy. I don’t need to worry about ABS out the gate as the Wif’s asthma would make PLA be a better plastic for most purposes. Build size needs to be big enough for connective hardware for future builds. I’m not going to worry about final build sizes as I have specific needs which would be best meet with custom gear. A shoe sole is going to be long, narrow, and short. An arm is going to be long, narrow, and short. Since most printers are built for cubic builds, my needs aren’t exactly typical.
As much as I want a CNC, a CNC is going to be loud. It’s going to produce a load of dust in a room with crap all for dust abatement. It’s going to increase the initial build cost without a dramatic return. While I think a CNC is going to be where I’d want to go someday, it’s a bad place to start. Maybe I’ll build a mill for circuit boards, but that’s where I should end my CNC dreams for my work area. Maybe a laser cutter, but that’s a different price range.
So now it’s just honing in on the final, what to buy. And squirrelling away the money. And pulling that trigger.