To build a 3D printer, you will need :

Bill of Material

1. Mechanical parts like linear rods, bearings, belts and pullies etc. The benefit with old DMP (Dot Matrix Printer) is that they are heavily built and are suitable for sturdy and rigid frame construction. For 3 axis you need 3 printers. Since, DMPs are heavy, I prefer inkjet for Z axis.

2. Electronics like controller, motors etc. - I opted for Arduino Mega and RAMPS for controller, ordered online but, still awaiting 3 weeks after order. So, once again, borrowed from friend for time being. Motors along with drive assembly was already there in DMP.

First step: went out to all my friends and my computer suppliers to collect old Dot Matrix printers. Could arrange 2 Dot matrix printers and 1 inkjet printer, in addition to my own stock of 1 DMP (Dot matrix printer) and few inkjet and laser printers, from my friends only. The computers sellers were asking ridiculous amount for old useless printers, for that amount, I would have got new parts for my project!

Here are the pix of all the junk that I collected