The first step I took in building my Core Bot was printing out all the parts for the machine. I was fortunate that my friend was traveling for 3 weeks and lent me his Makerbot Replicator 1 so that I could start print all the pieces I needed to build the printer. My family was mesmerized by the new machine and loved watching it print out new pieces day after day.

I’ve been dabbling in 3d printing at work for the past year and now I’m addicted. I have two friends who own 3d printers and I’m constantly impressed with the many different creative projects they create with them, everything from bird houses to artistic sculptures to belt buckles! You can see much of this work at my friend Eric Pavey’s blog . I began researching 3d printers to buy based on my experience using a Makerbot Replicator 2x. I wanted a printer with a cubic foot build volume, heated bed, dual extrusion capability and a light weight print head to prevent “ringing” artifacts on my prints. I found a printer that met these criteria in the Fusion F306 printer but I wasn’t prepared to spend the $3900 price. While searching for an alternative I came across Carl Feniak’s C-bot project which had all the features I wanted for around $1000, the only catch was that I had to build it myself! Thus my Journey began building what I like to call “Core Bot”. I will document the process I went through building the printer so that others can benefit from my experience.