Help support a High School RepRap club

Hello! We are trying to start a Reprap: 3D printing and Industrial Design club at Balboa High School ins San Francisco. Our club will spread the RepRap project to youth and hopefully interest them in the DIY world and careers in STEM. We will be learning about industrial design and its relationship to 3D printing. However, we need your help to make this project a success. We want to buy a Makerbot Thing-o-matic to start as our first 3D printer. As our club begins to grow and our experience increases we plan to print RepRaps to spread the project. We have a fundraising site, Indiegogo If you can help us spread our project around that would be great.
Thanks,
Kendall Lui

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/17/2011 10:14PM by thekendall.

For mor info view our indiegogo website here Indiegogo Any funding is greatly appreciated

Good luck with your project.

Just a thought - have you considered building a RepRap such as a Prusa from scratch, rather than buying a ready-made kit machine? You would need less money to start (or could build more machines with the same initial capital), and the participants would get so much knowledge and experience out of the process of building it themselves!

---

Follow my Mendel Prusa build here: [julianh72.blogspot.com]

yes, we have thought about making a prusa. The only reason we are going with the makerbot is due to reliability. Its almost like buying a MAc rather than a PC. Pc's are cheaper but macs have a different OS. We do plan on making Prusas afterwards with the makerbot. We are also trying to get money from our PTSA so its easier to tell them that we are getting a specific item rather than telling them all of the parts. The main reason is because it comes as a kit that is reliable from a single supplier. We are still getting the KIt.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2011 04:30AM by thekendall.

Building vs buying is *not* like buying a Mac vs a PC; more like building a PC vs buying a PC. If you want the Mac of 3D printers, you're looking at an Up! or maybe an Ultimaker or a Makergear Mosaic (if you're still willing to build it).

I agree if your going to create a RepRap group, building actual RepRap would be the logical start.

It might take slightly longer to get started (depending on your luck with suppliers), but the knowledge you learn will help a lot in the long run.

I'm also a bit curious on why your buying the assembled kit as opposed to the unassembled kit at half the price?

---

My Reprap blog

jds-reprap.blogspot.com

A Reprap club that starts by buying a Makerbot doesn't make sense to me.

Also, how did you conclude that a Makerbot is more reliable than a Mendel (all variants included)?

Having started with a makerbot myself, and then built a prusa self sourced, I would say that it is a much faster way to get started than self sourcing and building from scratch. And if you can get the funds to buy a pre assembled printer that's even better for an inexperienced group. But building from a kit is not very hard and would teach you many things you need to know to continue with your club goals. Most of the challenges from self sourcing components come when researching what parts to buy and building with parts that don't quite work together. So I would say that if you can get the funding for the thingomatic, go for it. That will get you up and running the fastest. If not maybe consider the new emaker huxley at RepRapPro.

[forums.reprap.org]

Or one of the other kits.

Failing that you might try croudsourcing the parts. I'll bet you could get a prusa put together pretty cheap ( < $100) if you asked for part donations rather than money donations. There was a frankenprusa project that did just that and got all the printed parts from different people. But you could likely get donations of older electronics that people have used and replaced as well, and maybe even motors. (If you go this route, look me up)

Or you might try a funding campaign in which donors promise to match your own funds. So for every $10 you spend on parts someone donates $10.

Most importantly don't give up. This is a great hobby and well worth the effort.

Bryan

I also started with a Makerbot and find building a Prusa challenging enough even with building the Makerbot first.

Mainly the challenge is that there are so many options for a Prusa. Different electronics (RAMPS, Gen6/7, Sangwhatever), Different plastics for different bushing/bearing types (LM8UUs, Brass Bushings, PLA Bushings) different hot ends, different cold ends, different types of hobbed bolts, etc.

I was able to get my makerbot together in 4 evenings after work simply because all of those decisions were made for me. It was purely follow the directions, cross your fingers, and hope it prints.

I've used the makerbot to print all the parts I could for my Prusa, and I'm getting close to where I'll start testing the motors, etc. But it's taken considerably more time in research, ordering parts from multi vendors, etc. Now I could have shortened that by buying a full kit like the ones from MakerGear, etc, but I chose to do the Prusa mostly self sourced since I built the Makerbot in full kit form.

My only suggestion is that I would not buy the Makerbot Assembled. I learned so much from putting it together that fixing any issues that occurred in the several months I've had it have been trivial. You'll miss out on all of that and likely have more trouble fixing what inevitably will need tweaking or fixing. Save the Money, get the Makerbot Kit, assemble it over several nights or a weekend with your club, and then start building personal prusa's for the members on it.

I actually read the project on the website and see that you are assembling the Makerbot in your club, not purchasing it assembled. Good for you.

I misunderstood what others were commenting on I guess.

There seems to be a little confusion,
We are buying a makerbot Unassembled kit.
The reason why we are starting with a Makerbot instead of a RepRAp is because we are inexperienced. Makerbot kits are more uniform than RepRap kits and we feel that we will have a better chance of getting it up and running. We understand that a Prusa would be cheaper, but it is more challenging to build. Also, we do realize that building a reprap first would give us a good experience but the way our club is currently set up it will be a pain if we cannot get a single printer to work. Again, we plan to print repraps afterwards.

If anyone has any questions feel free to contact us at balboareprap@gmail.com too

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/18/2011 08:39PM by thekendall.

why not get a huxley emaker. then a reprap can build a reprap, unless you rename the group.

If you can come up with $300, I will hand-deliver a Printrbot kit and stick around while you assemble it. I am delivering one to a Berkeley school Dec. 8th.... I am keen to get them into schools, so I am offering them to schools at cost for a while. Let me know if you are interested - brook@printrbot.com

May I ask why everyone seems to dislike makerbots here? I understand the main goal of the RepRap project but couldn't a makerbot be considered a kind of Repstrap?

Nothing anything against Makerbot. But if it's a Reprap club, then why go through a Makerbot when they can go straight to a Prusa. It's much cheaper than a Thingomatic and there are plenty of documentation on the web like Gary's illustrated assembly manual to get them started. And of course, the Reprap community is here to help them. I'm sure that there would be plenty of people who would be willing to print parts for them to get them started.

thekendall Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> May I ask why everyone seems to dislike makerbots
> here? I understand the main goal of the RepRap
> project but couldn't a makerbot be considered a
> kind of Repstrap?

It's like when your little brother beats you at something. You have to feel happy for him but you're a bit upset you're not number one.

---

Chris Sketch
Ann Arbor, MI
blog.chrissketch.com

We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise why else even be here?
—Steve Jobs

Quote
chrissketch
It's like when your little brother beats you at something. You have to feel happy for him but you're a bit upset you're not number one.

?????

To say it in a less confusing way. I don't think people are completely sincere when they say they're happy for Makerbot. From reading threads it seems like people feel that Makerbot stole a bit of RepRap's thunder.

---

Chris Sketch
Ann Arbor, MI
blog.chrissketch.com

We’re here to put a dent in the universe. Otherwise why else even be here?
—Steve Jobs

I was looking to get into RepRap myself. I did some research and found out about the PrintrBot. They won't be starting production until sometime in late Dec/early Jan, but maybe it's worth your time to look at this thread about their project and also the “Printrbot Goes to School” program where verified schools can get a kit for $300.
[forums.reprap.org]
Oh snap, I didn't even realize that Brook had already posted about this further up in the thread. I didn't even catch that on my first readthrough.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/2011 12:37AM by karmacappa.

I think the whole pre-assembled thing was down to me

I saw the $2000 target and presumed you'd raised ~$500 for the project already.

---

My Reprap blog

jds-reprap.blogspot.com

JoeDaStudd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think the whole pre-assembled thing was down to
> me
>
> I saw the $2000 target and presumed you'd raised
> ~$500 for the project already.

We are not planning to buy a pre-assembled kit. The only reason that we are purchasing from makerbot is because buying a kit from a single supplier. ALso, our school has some weird policy. If anyone could help out with the project that would be great.

If you need to by a kit from a single supplier, have you considered an Ultimaker? To me, it seems like a better design.

If you have a Reprap club, and you're strapped for crash, then it makes the most sense to build a Prusa Mendel. It can be put together for less than $500. Plus, you might be able to appeal to people on this forum to send you hard to get/make vitamins or printed parts and old electronics. And you'll also learn a lot in this way.

The most time-consuming part of building a reprap yourself is researching and setting up your supply chain, assuming you don't buy a kit. As you intend to build repraps for other people, you will need to do this as you will want to self-source parts to get the best deal and reduce the build cost for the group, rather than have everyone buy a complete kit. Buying a makerbot will only fulfill one small part of this puzzle - the printed parts. It takes a while to source all the other parts, like rods, nuts and bolts, hot end, etc. You will learn an awful lot building your first Prusa, but to some extent buying a makerbot rather than Prusa printed parts first puts you behind time-wise; however, it does mean you can quickly demonstrate FDM technology to people to increase interest in the project, at quite some additional expense. It's a tricky compromise.

I had the same conflict myself; mainly because I didn't want to run to the expense of a Makerbot, and wanted to source everything locally, I chose to build a 1X2 repstrap, learning so much along the way, then used it to build a Prusa. I'm now printing parts for a user group of 20, as well as a second Prusa for myself, with all the refinements that I have learned from building others. But this has been over the course of pretty much the whole year - much of it waiting for non-printed parts to arrive!

PS the makerbot build platform is 1/4 of the size of Prusa's! This makes a massive difference when going into 'production'.

The RepRap community has spoken! Our club is looking into getting a printrbot! It seems more like the reprap project and is way more affordable. We will have a meeting this week to discuss the team's decision. But, we will still need help funding our project. Our goal has been set at $2000 but I am hopeful to get $1000. This again will pay for the printer and materials needed to supply it. Thank you all for your support! indiegogo.com/balboareprap If anyone can help us reach our goal we would greatly appreciate it. Thanks!

Update

Our campaign is coming to a close and though we have not met our goal we are searching other avenues to help us get a 3D printer. We may get a printrbot though we are still not sure. Our club has been meeting weekly and we have been talking about Industrial design and why its important. If there is anyway to help our current campaign out whether it be emailing it to friends or donating we would greatly appreciate it. indiegogo.com/balboareprap
Sincerely,
Kendall

I think part of the issue is the fact none of the options have any real pay back as such.

If you did say $200 gets you a full set of plastics for a prusa or even a few sets of brushings for a few $ you'd get some backers

---

My Reprap blog

jds-reprap.blogspot.com