There is nothing complicated in the construction of a cheap 3d printer. Electronics is simple as well. We could already make them easily in the late 80s. Why?
Patents and especially lack os accessible 3D CAD software.
What would you print in the 80ies without 3D CAD?
How would you model a 3D shape?
What about the STL format - there was not enough computing power to generate STL meshes. Note that the best computers for CAD in the 90ies were Silicon Graphics. The cheapest Indy was hardly affordable for hobby use.
Much of the math used in current kernals like Parasolid are fairly recent developments.
Regards,
Vitor
Right.
Even with the mechanicals and supply chain for the materials solved, how are you going to design the thing, or modify it in the '80's? The simple tool stand shown requires to be generated generated over 275,000 lines of G code for the machine just to make it. What computer is going to do the calculations in a reasonable time back then even if you had all the software solved? My platform I run my software on is a Ryzen 7 and it generates the G code in mere seconds for very complex models. In the 1980's? Who knows how many hours or days (or weeks) it would take (even if the software existed).
It's funny, I was asking a similar question to some friends just a while back. I asked them if I could transport back in time my 3D printer --> WITHOUT ANY SOFTWARE <-- could any group on engineers in the 1960's make any use of it at all? Without the software development and the hardware to run the CAD and slicer, I am not so sure. In the 1980's? Probably not much use either for any but the very simplest items.
Like "Oh wow after much research look! We have made use of the machine sent via time-travel to make a square on the print bed! We are geniuses!"