We took a look at Velleman’s new Vertex 3D printer kit.
The 45-year old Velleman company, if you don’t know, is a DIY kit maker. They produce hundreds of DIY electronic kits for all manner of functions, but one they’re recently been dabbling with 3D printer kits. Two years ago they introduced their first 3D printer kit and were surprised to find they sold 12,000 of them in the first six months.
Now they’ve developed a new machine, the Vertex, that will also be sold in DIY kit form.
The entirely open source Vertex sports dual bowden-style extruders and is priced at USD$900. Printing as fine as 0.05mm, the Vertex is compatible with ABS and PLA plastics – however, it does not include a heated bed. They instead offer a BuildTak surface that can help reduce ABS warping, however. The Vertex’s build volume is a healthy 180 x 200 x 190mm.
The results are pretty decent. Here we see a multi-color sample printed with a Vertex having the optional second extruder.
For those of you up to the challenge of building a 3D printer, this might be one for you. The Vertex can apparently be built in only five hours! Velleman provides website videos to assist and simplify the process, so almost anyone could give the Vertex a try.
Via Velleman
