A 12-year-old has built a working 3D printer by using just a LEGO Mindstorms EV3 kit and an inexpensive 3D printing pen.

Too young to sign up, amoghp’s mother had to create his Instructables account so that he could share his working printer.

The impressive Lego 3D printer works by using an extruding 3D printing pen which then relies on motors that move it around an x/y/z space – just like a printhead.

The inspiration behind creating this printer was the current 3D printing contest on Instructables, which amoghp has entered in the youth category.

His mother wrote on his page: “Amogh is a U.S. citizen, moved back to India 2 years ago and will be living in India for few years until he goes back to the US for college.”

How was the Lego 3D Printer Built?

If you’re interested in creating your own Lego 3D printer, you’ll find that on amoghp’s Instructables page, there are instructions as well as a demo video – which you can see below.

Although you may find that some of the instructions leave a lot up to interpretation, with the pictures and videos supplied, you shouldn’t have too many problems, if you have some experience in building.

Amoghp uses just six steps to build the printer, and the process is made to sound, perhaps, a lot easier than it is. To create the frame, he says: “Create four pillars which are at a reasonable height such that a 3D Pen can be mounted in upright position, and a moving base can fit in as well.”

After he had created the frame, he used cardboard to create his print board and rubber bands to hold the printing pen in place. But, we have to say, we’re impressed by this stroke of ingenuity.

To use the 3D printer, the software chosen was Mindstorms EV3 Home Edition which controls all three of the motors and on which you can write your program.

If you’re impressed, make sure to check out the Instructables competition and vote for amoghp by clicking on the orange “vote” button on the left hand side of his page.