Cheapest Full Mendel Kit

So, a friend was asking how much a RepRap kit costs this Christmas, and I told him they come from various sources at various prices, and we got to wondering, what's the cheapest full kit out there?

The cheapest one I can find is $499 for a Huxley:
[botmill.com]

And $799 for a Mendel:
[techzonecom.com]


Anybody find anything cheaper out there? If I can find a Mendel for < $500 I just might be looking at getting someone a Christmas gift that will make them VERY happy.

Quote
Botmill Huxley
This is a RepRap Mini Mendel "Huxley" Unassembled 3D Printer Kit based off the BOM list from RepRap. This includes all except for the plastic parts.

You'd still need someone to make you the plastic parts.

It is generally cheaper to make one yourself. Based on my estimates, my Mendel will cost around $640 ($160 less than the Techzone repstrap) when completed.

I don't much like the idea of paying someone else for labor you could do yourself.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/24/2010 05:17PM by An Original Name.

I missed the part about no plastic... thanks...

But there are several reasons I can think of why you might pay someone else for labor you can't conveniently do yourself... and one of the main ones is that you can *EASILY* spend 10x that in tools and still end up with a far inferior product if you don't own any tools when you start. This is one of those things that you can get a real cost savings on if you already own a shop, and will become a bottomless pit into which you pour all your money if you don't.

At < 500 USD I think you have no chance unless you can buy something second-hand. I'm building a repstrap at the moment, and although I want to keep the budget for parts I can't re-use below 50 euro's, the total build (including electronics & motors) will cost about 500 euro's. Still cheaper (and a lot more fun and learning experience) than getting a complete package.
For complete packages, these are about the cheapest I know:
makerbot
mendel-parts

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regards,
Tom

Cheapest/ way into the hobby right now if you don't have specialized skills is the Makerbot basic kit at $650. Next step up would be Mendelparts at $950.

hard to beat the Makerbot kit unless you can get the plastic free.

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repraplogphase.blogspot.com

IWorkInPixels Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I missed the part about no plastic... thanks...
>
> But there are several reasons I can think of why
> you might pay someone else for labor you can't
> conveniently do yourself... and one of the main
> ones is that you can *EASILY* spend 10x that in
> tools and still end up with a far inferior product
> if you don't own any tools when you start. This
> is one of those things that you can get a real
> cost savings on if you already own a shop, and
> will become a bottomless pit into which you pour
> all your money if you don't.


Well, there are different levels of labor you can put into it. For example, I *could* machine my own extruder nozzle but I decided to buy a prebuilt nozzle. I just don't like the idea of all-in-one kits that much. It seems that all the ones I find are a lot more expensive than had I purchased the pieces separately. Maybe that's just me though--I'm sure a lot of people would be willing to get a CupcakeCNC or a kit from mendel-parts, etc. I guess it just depends on the individual.

Actually the cheapest possible printer is probably the Mantis 9. It is under $100. Look it up on google. It has the parts list and where to get them, and it is pretty easy to build. They have full video instructions on how to assemble it. I think they might sell kits but I'm not sure. It is actually a CNC mill, but it can be easily converted to printing. You would just need to attach an extruder and an Arduino to drive the steppers, rather than attach a spindle like the video shows. It really depends on how much experience you have, and what tools you have access to.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/25/2010 04:34AM by galaxyman7.

It's not that simple, can you show me all the videos of successful screw drive printers?

But I agree to a point, there is a simple 3d printer in that design, it just needs some love.

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repraplogphase.blogspot.com

Do you think it just isn't fast enough or what? I am pretty sure it can hit the speeds that a mendel can, because it has commercial lead screws rather than threaded rod. This means less friction and therefore quicker acceleration. Also, lead screws give much higher accuracy than belt drive. I really don't know why no one has done this.

I have sourced my printer parts myself and I think that sourcing a kit from a single source would be less stress and potentially cheaper...

This is because I missed out a number of parts from the BOM and some places have minimum orders or you end up paying a whack for shipping... Also ordering wrong parts - such as the smooth rod. I got BMS rod from rs components and these had this nasty spiral grooving around them... After cutting them and spending hours sanding them the carraiges still would hang up on the light scratches that remained. I had to get another delivery, this time of silver steel rods which not only cost me the charge of the rods but also the damned delivery charge.

Then ordering 3 stepper motors rather than 4. doh! 4'th mootor delivery was the same as the previous 3... another 6 quid or so wasted. And so it goes on.

Then also sourcing motors, rods, electronics, plastic, vitamins, thick sheet without screwing up on the parts list gives you 5 or 6 seperate delivery charges.... In the UK you could probably average at about £5 per delivery if not more...

So a kit certainly has the benefit of providing all you need in one comfortable package. *provided* it is from a trusted and proved source.

But you pays your money and you takes your choice....

ps. may sound like I am complaining but in fact I am loving this journey. Learning loads doing it.

It's not the speed, it's the speed at which it can change direction. With Belt drive you can go 60mm/s north, then in 1 tick go 50mm/s south, a 10cm per second direction change in total, all in less than a second. This is because the weight of the drive system is so little. With a screw drive they just don't do that.

Of couse, you welcome to try, I just want you to get a printing printer as fast as possble

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repraplogphase.blogspot.com

Check out [futureshapes.net] from 1st Jan.
They offered me a great deal and am prepared to wait a month or so.

I'm going to buy original full kit of Mendel, where I can do this?
+37066000066 Arnas