Recommended 3d printer kit for beginners

Greetings all. I've become increasingly interested in 3d printing, over the past several months I've done some prints on a 3d printer my university has (a Makerbot). So far I would say my experience level is upper-novice (software wise), I'm familiar with converting 3d models into STL files and cleaning them up using netfabb/meshlab and putting it into ReplicatorG for Gcode generation and printing. Now I'm at a point where I think I could possibly build and takecare of my own 3d printer. Ultimately I'd like an 8x8x8" build area without spending over 800 bucks. Anyway, I have to admit my hardware proficiency is a little dated, I use to build computers several years ago, but I've never done anything like soldering wires together, which I understand is required for rigging up the heatplate, powersupply, and motors. If I were to decide to build a 3d printer from the bottom up, is there any kits that you could recommend? I've been looking at a RepRapPro Mendel (http://reprappro.com/Mendel) or Makergears Prusa model as far as building my own printer. For pre-built kits I have no idea where to start, though my eyes have been on Deezsmakers Buko Bot and PrintrBot. Does anyone have suggestions on what would be a good method of approach to getting this off the ground?

thanks!

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/12/2012 11:20PM by VDrom.

i went with a printrbot because i could get decent usable parts for a prusa, be carefull of some of those parts they peddle on ebay are rubbish, some of them are printed in pla and they have this tendancy to use the lowest infill percentages they can, the parts often are a mish mash of selected parts off thingiverse to suit them,

for $800 you could probably get an already built one

Both The RepRapPro Mendel (Prusa) and Makergear Prusa is sold by honest members of the RepRap community, and the Prusa is a solid design used by thousands of people as their main printer. Can't go wrong with that, if you can afford the little higher price tag on a complete kit versus self sourcing.

Don't go with a prebuilt kit, you'll never learn how to calibrate, upgrade and fix your bot properly unless you put it together yourself.

The soldering required is not difficult at all.

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-Nudel
Blog with RepRap Comic

@ thejollygrimreaper , yes printrbots seems to be a decent pre-built kit, though they're always sold out! Thank you for the reassurance however!

@Nudel, Good to know I'm looking in the right places so far. What sort of soldering equipment would you recommend to get the job done appropriately?

Hello,

If you have any questions about our Mendel kits, send us through an email and I will see if I can answer them - [reprappro.com]

Best wishes
Sally

VDrom Wrote:
> @Nudel, Good to know I'm looking in the right
> places so far. What sort of soldering equipment
> would you recommend to get the job done
> appropriately?

I don't know how much soldering is required on the various sets so you have to ask the vendors about that. But generally with pre-soldered electronics, it's often only a few easy spots to solder, and for that you can get by with the cheapest off the shelf iron.

But soldering is a valuable skill to have, so I suggest you go one step up and buy a good quality iron, which will make the job much easier and more fun.

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-Nudel
Blog with RepRap Comic

I bought the Makergear prusa kit version as my first printer, i had 0 knowledge about 3d printing other than what i had read and basic common knowledge. And by kit version i mean a real do it yourself, the ramps board was only about 50% put together, i had to get on the net and figure out where all the rest of the chips and such were suposed to be soldered onto the board. My advice is, dont buy a kit, if you can afford it go for the most assembled printer you can. It was a nightmare putting my kit together with instructions that were scattered all over the internet and very vague for a beginner and mostly out of date. I bought a kit version as i wanted to learn as much as possible, i really didnt learn anything i couldnt have learned by buying a pre built machine and just playing with it.

PS im not bashing MakerGear by any means. The quality of my machine is top notch.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2012 08:17PM by GITRDUN.

Hey all,

@Nudel - Yes if I were to get a soldering kit I would make sure it's a decent brand that is for detailed circutry / electronics work.

@Sally- I e-mailed RepRapro the other day about your kits (I think you had actually replied to me about the soldering details?) Does your kit come with a detailed construction manual on how to build the printer? Or would I have to read the instructions online?

@ GITRDUN - Sorry to hear about your issues with putting together your kit. Did MakerGear send you printed literature/instructions on how to build your kit t? Or was everything online and hard-to-follow, out of date et al? I'm only assuming that these their instructions are out of date because the parts list changes frequently as certain pieces are upgraded as they sell their kit. Anyway, were you able to get your Prusa Mendel up and running?

Thanks all!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/14/2012 09:39AM by VDrom.

Yep, that was me :-)

We don't send out instructions with the kits. The instructions are all online so that we can edit easily if necessary. We are currently looking into version tracking for our different batches of kits so that when improvements are implemented in the kits and someone has an older version, they will be able to get the correct instructions for them.

Sally

I didn't buy the complete kit, but I bought my extruder, Jhead, filament and electronics from makerfarm.com. Excellent quality and service, he typically answers emails within minutes.

Yes i got it running fine and i am more than satisfied with the quality of the kit, especially the extruder and hot end. I print regularly at 120mm/sec and im sure i could go faster but im a bit worried about the amount of inertia being generated when you get to fast.

Ya the instructions for the MakerGear were online, im sure most are as its much easier to make a master copy and upload it than it is to print out a pile of instructions for every kit sold. I understand the reasoning behind putting them online and yes im sure the parts change all the time. But when i pay $800 for a pile of parts i expect to get some detailed instructions on how to put it all together and make it work. They were sort of broken down into seperate parts such as one set for putting together the frame, somehwere else completely seperate were instructions on how to assemble the hot end, then i had to find instructions on how to assemble the ramps board. Then try and figure out how the electronics work. The only instructions that were up to date were for the hot end, everything else was outdated and very hard to follow for a beginner, whoever wrote them seemed to have in mind that an expereinced 3d printer user was putting it together.

@Sally - Thanks for the details concerning the online instructions. If I were to order a printer from RepRapPro would the all of the parts including circuit boards, stepper motors, nozzle, vitamins, etc in the kit be the latest versions? Are the assembly instructions online relative to newer/updated parts in the RepRapPro kits being sold? Outside of soldering equipment, "toolbox" tools, etc, are there any other construction items I should have put together a kit?

Looking forward to getting something started soon, I just want to be sure that I'll be adequately prepared before building.

@GITRDUN : I hope whatever kit I plan on getting will have a solid-set of instructions available online as well. I'm afraid of having to cross-reference a smorgasbord of different assembly manuals online due to the nature of changing parts. I'm assuming the Wiki article(s) are the best one's to stick to when building, and then coming here to the forums to inquire about help if needed. ::crosses-fingers::

Update:

Well my patience has held out and Diego of Bukobot has listed pre-orders for his pseudo-reprap-style printer kit; so - I decided to order a kit from his site and put one together myself. I've looked around here on the forums to see if there was any additional info on Bukobot, though I didn't find much about his project. I know I could of probably gotten something else for extensively cheaper, however I'm putting some trust in his design, and the learning curve required to build his printer. I think it will be an interesting first 3d printer project for me and once I've gotten comfortable with the all the ropes I'll probably print-out the parts to build a Prusa Mendel. I've e-mailed Diego a few times, and he kindly replies answering any questions I have within a day or two, so no customer service issues yet. I'll definitely post some updates about the Bukobot as I make progress during the construction and test printing.