Engineer who couldn't afford 3D printer makes one out of LEGO bricks

A lack of funds has led an engineering student to build a 3D printer made out of—you guessed it—LEGO bricks.

Matthew Krueger pulled off the feat after realizing he lacked funds for a Makerbot printer and had only an old box of Legos available, CNET's Crave Australia reported.

The result? Legobot, a contraption based on the first Makerbot Replicator introduced in January 2012 that printed with hot glue instead of 3D printing plastics.

"While it does print, I would call this more of a prototype than a finished project," he said of his project.

Since the machine uses hot glue instead of plastics, CNET said the printer "doesn't print nearly as well as a Makerbot."

It said the glue "is not rigid, and has few practical applications, at best suitable for window stickers."

Also, it said the extruder had to be turned on and off manually.

Making up the heart of the Legobot is a Lego Mindstorms NXT brick with four separate power supplies.

These include 3 volts for the extruder motor made out of a repurposed lens adjustment motor from an old VHS camera; 7.2 volts for the NXT brick; 12 volts for the fan and 115 volts for the hot glue gun.

A friend 3D-printed the gear racks, while coins were used to balance the weight of the motor. — VC, GMA News