I am elderly, have few manual skills but I am captivated by 3-D printing. 

3D Printing
, , ,
1

I am elderly, have few manual skills but I am captivated by 3-D printing. Could anyone suggest appropriate books, websites, etc . forf a person to get started buiding or buying a low-cost printer or otherwise gaining knowledge about this very exciting subject. Thanks to any and all replies. Bob

2

I’d start by suggesting all the links in the “about this community” box at the top. :wink:

3

Define ‘elderly’ ! This group was a big help to me getting started. RepRap.org has a lot of info. Lurk and read every post, ask questions and much will become apparent. It can’t be rocket science because this old fart got into after 30 days.

4

Low cost printers generally come in kit form and can be tricky to assemble due to poor documentation or similar. If you just want to print stuff, the Up! Plus 2 printers are easy to set up and give great results.
http://www.pp3dp.com

5

Sorry @Brigham_Valdez but that is bad advice for a beginner, http://openbuilds.com projects documentation ranges from good to terrible and any build will likely have a limited community of people that have also built the same design and hence, support could be limited. Corexy.com only explains the theory behind one particular realisation of Cartesian mechanics, it’s not going to be much help as a starting point.
@bob_winborn if you’d like to build a printer, on a budget, I’d recommend the printrbot simple; it’s cheap, has, a large community of users and is very well support by the US based manufacturer. http://printrbot.com/shop/printrbot-simple/

6

http://www.mypearsonstore.com/bookstore/3d-printing-build-your-own-3d-printer-and-print-your-9780789752352

Our Printrbot simple kit is not a bad place to start. The 2014 kit is $349 but the kit covered in the book is available at $299. We have assembled too.

Even if you don’t get a Simple, the book is great and covers the whole tool chain and touches on other printer options.

Good luck!
Brook
Printrbot

7

The company I work for, WhiteClouds, has a lot of tutorials, an index of terms, and an article about 3D printing books: https://www.whiteclouds.com/3dpedia-index/books

Plus we’re a 3D printing service to print your designs etc. http://whiteclouds.com/

8

I also recommend the Cube 3D printer by 3D Systems. It’s easy to use and walks you through the process of printing.

9

I actually agree that assembled is the way to go for you. Cube, Afinia or MakerBot may be a good option for you. Printrbot is open source and brings with it a spirit of do it yourself and requires a steeper learning curve of how all the parts work.
Best of luck!
Brook