<p>I think this depends on what you are trying to accomplish with the 3D printer.</p>

<p>I have seen people online build metal 3D printers from a robot arm and a welder this would probably be the simplest design and build but robot arms that can weld are expensive.</p>

<p>I have also seen that someone at MIT build a glass 3D printer by building a small kiln with a hole at the bottom and moving it around like a normal extrusion printer. This method might work for a metal printer as well if you could get the temperatures right. This might be cheap enough a hobbyist could do it as well because you just need the same parts as a normal FDM 3d printer just able to more more weight. 
But with the same parts you could also do lost pla casting and that would be a simpler approach with a better end product.    </p>

<p>But probably what you would be really interested in building would be a laser sintering 3D printer. Where a layer of powder is put down and then a laser melts part of the powered to join it to the model. For this the main thing you need would be the laser. I don't know a lot about how these printer work but the laser would need to be able to melt metal so I would think it would need to be very powerful and that would make it very expensive.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-11-25T01:59:25.433Z
2016-11-25T01:59:25.433Z
user802599
<p>I have a hypothetical question. From which parts can I build a metal-based 3D printer and can I buy those parts somewhere?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-11-25T07:47:23.257Z
Hi, Bartosz, and welcome to 3D printing SE! I have put your question *on hold* for being *too broad*. This is because your question currently is too general, making it impossible to give a *specific, correct* answer. (For instance, someone might think you want to build a 3D printer out of metal, while others might suggest that you automate a furnace - two spectacularly different answers.) Please have a look at [our help page](http://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/help) for more information on how to ask here at SE. Good luck!
Tormod Haugene
<printer-building><metal-printing>
How to build a metal-based 3D printer?
Bartosz Królak
# How to build a metal-based 3D printer?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-11-24)

I have a hypothetical question. From which parts can I build a metal-based 3D printer and can I buy those parts somewhere?

**Tags:** printer-building, metal-printing

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Hi, username_0, and welcome to 3D printing SE! I have put your question *on hold* for being *too broad*. This is because your question currently is too general, making it impossible to give a *specific, correct* answer. (For instance, someone might think you want to build a 3D printer out of metal, while others might suggest that you automate a furnace - two spectacularly different answers.) Please have a look at [our help page](http://3dprinting.stackexchange.com/help) for more information on how to ask here at SE. Good luck!  

---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2016-11-25. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

I think this depends on what you are trying to accomplish with the 3D printer.

I have seen people online build metal 3D printers from a robot arm and a welder this would probably be the simplest design and build but robot arms that can weld are expensive.

I have also seen that someone at MIT build a glass 3D printer by building a small kiln with a hole at the bottom and moving it around like a normal extrusion printer. This method might work for a metal printer as well if you could get the temperatures right. This might be cheap enough a hobbyist could do it as well because you just need the same parts as a normal FDM 3d printer just able to more more weight.
But with the same parts you could also do lost pla casting and that would be a simpler approach with a better end product.

But probably what you would be really interested in building would be a laser sintering 3D printer. Where a layer of powder is put down and then a laser melts part of the powered to join it to the model. For this the main thing you need would be the laser. I don't know a lot about how these printer work but the laser would need to be able to melt metal so I would think it would need to be very powerful and that would make it very expensive.


---

