Thursday 6 April 2017

How did the RD4 Printer come about?

How did the RD4 get invented? It started with my need for a 3D printer, after all, necessity is the mother of invention. In my search, I purchased the cheapest printer I could find a CTC 3D Printer. The idea behind this was essentially to build a bigger printer with better components, if and when my cheap purchase broke. The printer still works to this day, perhaps just as well as an Ultimaker or Makerbot it’s a copy of .


That was the first step, and by far the easiest. I then 2 years later proceeded to book a stand at the Maker Fair, with just the idea, no design and very little spare time I found myself unsure of what to do next. That was until I was in a bad news good news situation, an ending contract at work meant I was now on sabbatical. I saw this opportunity as the perfect time to make a plan.


On an early and cold UK morning, temperature had reached -10° C. It was the coldest it had been in 5 years, I for some reason, chose to experiment with bio diesel at this particular point in time, which caused my perfectly good, deisel powered Rayburn hot water system to break. Which I had only just got working in time for winter.


Nevertheless, I stayed in my bedroom. It was 6am, with no TV or books I had no distractions. Using my mum's laptop as my PC was infested with viruses due to my failed attempt to set-up Bitcoin-mine.com, I began with the sketch of the RD4. It starts of well, download all the CAD part files, find solutions to the problems, parts to are source, plus a little side tracking, after 6 days it was there, the main design was done.


It felt like a miracle. It worked, the CAD worked as excpted. With the parts to build the prototype ordered all was left was to wait and see. It was almost ready to start building the tech.