It seems as though there’s a new digital light processing 3D printer being released almost every week! They’re capable of creating high-resolution prints relatively quickly by reflecting light from a projector onto UV-curable resin — but usually cost much in excess of $2000 for desktop machines.
The LittleDLPer is a DLP 3D printer that has a super low projected price tag of $500. The machine’s creator, Brad Hill, is currently in the process of launching his Kickstarter campaign, at which point he’ll be selling the printer at various reward levels in order to obtain bulk pricing on the parts to build it.
The LittleDLPer is open source, so backers will have the opportunity to build their own from scratch. Hill has said that he originally used a $95 projector from eBay, but upgraded to a $310 unit, so, if you build your own, you may be able to do so for a couple hundred less than the $500 kit price he’ll be offering on Kickstarter. If you want your own DLP 3D printer, but lack the technical skill or free time to build your own, Hill will also be offering the printer at $1000 in preassembled form.
Hill’s DLP machine is quite little, with a build volume of 60 by 40 by 100mm. According to the project’s site, it takes about 2 minutes to print 1mm with a layer height of .05mm. So, a 40mm tall object would take approximately 80 minutes to complete. The prints coming off the LittleDLPer are quite impressive, though….
