A hacker built a working 3D printer from LEGO bricks, using LEGO parts even for its motion system. The project is open source.
Adam Turaj, the builder behind the Studprint, has gone further than most hobbyists who use LEGO bricks in their projects. LEGO pieces make up much of the frame and the print bed, and the printer's axes are driven by LEGO leadscrews. The machine is not meant to impress with size or speed. Its bed is not especially large, and its speeds are not remarkable. The appeal lies in the novelty of building a printer out of LEGO.
The project is fully open source and includes CAD files for the few non-LEGO components needed to mount the electronics, stepper motors and other hardware. Because the bed is unheated and made of ABS bricks, filament options are limited. Even so, Turaj has printed a Benchy, the standard test model.
The design uses a conventional filament and extruder setup. That differs from an earlier LEGO printer from 2013, which relied on hot glue. Printed LEGO parts have appeared before, and this is not the first printer to use LEGO bricks, but the Studprint stands out for how much of the machine is made from the bricks themselves.
Source: Hackaday
