YOU CAN 3D PRINT THE 1,277-DOLLAR LAB ROLLER FOR UNDER 160 DOLLARS
A lab roller that sells for 1,277 dollars can be 3D printed for under 160 dollars, with every part documented in a peer-reviewed paper.
by Maryam Mottaghi, Yuntian Bai, Apoorv Kulkarni, Joshua M. Pearce
ScienceOpen-hardware
Built with3D printing
- difficulty
- ●●●○○
- time
- a weekend
- license
- license not specified
- repo
- repo 0 stars
●●●○○ · a weekend · license not specified · 0 stars · repo
WHAT YOU’LL NEED
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COMPAREE VERDICT
This is a functional lab instrument published in a peer-reviewed journal, not a weekend curiosity that mimics one. The design replaces rollers costing roughly 1,100 to 2,460 dollars with about 160 dollars of printed parts, cut PVC pipe and a single motor. The honesty here is that this is equipment for people who need a bottle roller and know what one does — it rotates sample bottles slowly and continuously so contents stay mixed without any stirrer touching the liquid. If you are not running cell cultures or chemistry preps that require this specific motion, you do not need this machine. The build itself is straightforward: print the parts, cut PVC pipe to length, wire a 12 V motor to a PWM controller. The paper walks through every assembly step with figures and shows the roller running twelve full bottles for 48 hours, including a day in a 50 °C oven. The thing most likely to go wrong is underestimating the print job — about a kilogram of PETG for walls, plates, gears and roller mounts, plus TPU belts. The payoff is that the institutional need is unambiguous and the paper puts the saving at 86 percent against the cheapest commercial roller.
IN THE REPO
GOOD TO KNOW
- —CAD files, bill of materials, assembly photographs and validation data published in HardwareX journal article
- —All files hosted on Open Science Framework at osf.io/ps57u
- —Documentation licensed GPL-3.0, hardware under CERN OHL-S v2
- —OSHWA certified (UID CA000027), both licences permit commercial use
- —No firmware required: speed control is a generic 12 V PWM controller
- —Paper contains 32 figures: renders of every printed part plus step-by-step assembly figures and the wiring diagram
Parts to buy
7 itemsFrom our check of the build. Exact quantities and part numbers are in the creator’s BOM.
Can I build this?
Build at your own risk. Projects involve tools, electronics and sometimes mains voltage — follow the creator’s safety notes.
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Start here
Navigation into the creator’s own docs — we don’t rewrite the guide, we route you to the source.
- 1.Read the full HardwareX article (Contains complete assembly instructions, BOM and validation data — this is the documentation)
- 2.Download CAD and design files from Open Science Framework (All STLs, drawings and source files)
- 3.Review the bill of materials in Table 3 of the paper(Lists every purchased part with price and shop; the exact motor and controller models are in the linked references)
- 4.Plan print queue — enclosure and roller mounts are the largest parts(Check bed size and estimate filament before starting)
KNOWN ISSUES
- This is a large print job — the enclosure, bearing housings and roller mounts add up to substantial bed time. Budget a full weekend of printing before assembly.
- The rollers are cut PVC pipe, not printed. You need a saw and five sections cut to the lengths in Fig. 17 — the paper notes the cut does not need to be highly precise.
- This is lab equipment, not a general-purpose maker project. If you do not already know why you need a bottle roller, you probably do not need one.
- The paper is open access but some figures are low resolution in the HTML view — download the PDF for clearer assembly photos.
- The PWM controller is generic but you need to verify it matches the motor voltage and current. The BOM gives model numbers but confirm compatibility.
- No comparison testing against other open hardware roller designs — this is the published version, not a shootout.
Can this handle different bottle sizes?
The design uses cut PVC pipe as rollers, so you can size them for your bottles. The paper shows standard lab bottles; larger or smaller diameters require cutting new rollers and possibly adjusting the spacing of the printed mounts.
How does it compare to the commercial Thermo Scientific roller?
The paper did not run a side-by-side test, but it validated the roller carrying twelve 100 mL bottles at 80 RPM for 48 hours, including a day inside a 50 °C oven. The commercial unit is 1,277 dollars; this one is under 160 dollars. The trade is a weekend of building instead of plugging in a finished machine.
Do I need a specific 3D printer?
No firmware or special toolhead. Any FDM printer that handles PETG and flexible TPU will do — the authors print the frame in PETG and the belts in TPU, with settings listed in Table 4 of the paper (0.18 mm layers, 20 % infill).
Can I use this in a professional lab?
The licences permit commercial use. Whether your lab accepts DIY equipment depends on your institution — the paper provides validation data but does not claim regulatory certification for GMP or clinical use.
Is there a kit or pre-cut version?
No. This is a published design with files you source and build yourself. There is no official kit distributor.
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Discussion1
FROM THE COMPAREE TEAM
The paper prices the commercial Thermo Scientific roller at about 1,277 US dollars and puts this open version under 160 dollars. If you are running a lab or a maker space with biology projects, what would tip you toward building this instead of buying the commercial unit?
Maryam Mottaghi, Yuntian Bai, Apoorv Kulkarni, Joshua M. Pearce
Researchers at Western University in London, Ontario, in Joshua Pearce's Free Appropriate Sustainability Technology (FAST) group, designed it to make bottle rollers far cheaper and higher-capacity through open hardware and 3D printing.
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DISCLAIMER
- Comparee is not the author of the projects featured here. All rights to each project belong to its creator — every page links to the original source, and we never host creators’ files.
- Information is provided without warranty and may become outdated as projects evolve. Prices are indicative bands only — always check the creator’s parts list for current costs.
- Building and operating any project is at your own responsibility. Protective equipment, safe workshop practice and compliance with local regulations are the builder’s responsibility.
CompareeTEAM19d agoedited
Practical notes from verification: this is one of the clearest academic hardware publications we have catalogued — 32 figures, roughly half of them CAD renders of each printed part and the rest covering the assembly, plus two supplementary videos on OSF showing the roller running. The OSF repository holds all the design files and the bill of materials is in the paper itself, along with print settings (PETG for the frame, TPU for the printed belts), so there is no hunting across repositories. The detail that surprised us is how simple the electronics are: a 12 V DC motor and an off-the-shelf PWM speed controller, no microcontroller. The controller's screen shows motor power percentage rather than RPM, so there are no programmable cycles unless you add that yourself. Validation was a 48-hour run with twelve full 100 mL bottles at 80 RPM, including time inside a 50 °C oven. Correction (4 October 2026): we re-checked this page line by line against the project's own repository, documentation and videos, and fixed errors in earlier versions.