Rostock or Prusa i3

Hello all,

I'm the proud owner of a (mostly) working Techzone Huxley, and I really want to use it to print parts for a superior printer. Trouble is, I can't really decide what would be better for my next project; I've been considering making a delta printer (Rostock or Kossel), or a Prusa i3. Looking at kits hasn't really given me a very clear picture of cost, time invested, and other factors. I'm hoping to avoid buying a kit, but that's mostly because my experience with a kit has been a nightmare. I am thinking about the Prusa i3 because it seems like a very simple, reliable build, but I have to admit I find the Rostock/Kossel deltas to look very graceful (albeit maybe a little harder to calibrate)

So for anyone who's built a Rostock or a Prusa i3: what has been your experience? How much did everything cost? How much time did you invest in building, calibrating and troubleshooting? Were the problems surprising?

Between the Rostock and Prusa i3: Are the electronics available similar to each other? Or is one set considerably more complex/specialized? I don't care to use an LCD screen or an SD card or anything fancy.

Thank you for your time!

EDIT: Meant "Rostock", not "Kossel"

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2014 10:51AM by KD0SKH.

The electronics are similar I guess. The difference is firmware I assume.

I had a self-sourced Prusa i2 for about a year before I used it to make parts for an i3, which I also upgraded from 12 to 24 volts. The experience of the i2 made construction of the i3 easy and obvious, but not as easy as it could have been.

I paid $79 for an untapped 6mm aluminum sheet cut to form. I did the tapping myself, and I can't recommend that anyone pay more than $10 for tapping given how easy that was. McMaster provided the rods and nuts I didn't already have. Most of the rest of my expenses were related to the voltage upgrade (new RAMPS, new bed, new fan, 20ohm heater resistor, new power supply.)

Calibrating and troubleshooting is so much easier on an i3 than an i2. Belt tightening, in particular, is very easy to do. No parts require too much disassembly to get to. There are fewer nuts that can loosen up. Bed leveling is easier as well, since I can do it with M3 screws into the tapped holes. No springs, no warping wood, aggravation is dropped by an order of magnitude.

There are a couple of issues I've encountered with the i3 that are worth looking out for. Be warned that in some cases we're entering the personal opinion zone. And I tend to jump into things without knowing that there exists a better way. Dissent welcome.

1) There isn't any truly great repository of the perfect set of parts for the i3. To get the features I wanted, (e.g., a greg's wade extruder, flat-side-out oriented x-ends, belt-tightening via screw, M10 crossbars) I had to assemble parts from maybe six different places, and then I modified some scad files to combine some of the best features into a single part. I did a fair amount of rapid prototyping the i3 on my i2. That was all part of the fun.
1b) For those of us with endstops on the old makerbot boards, there still isn't any great set of endstop holders, particularly for X and Z.

2) I never had any issue with z-wobble with my i2, but it popped up for the first time on my i3. Part of the reason was, ironically, the switch to the M5 rod from M8. Be very careful with your M5 rod. If you get a one meter length, it will bend slightly under its own weight while you hold it. I suspect that through repeated use, my rods are straightening. If I had it to do over, I'd buy shorter lengths.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2014 06:30PM by Karmavore.

There are way cheapers ways to buy the Prusa i3 alu frames cut to size. I recommend looking for premade versions instead of buying the plate yourself and then having a company CNC it or lasercut it for you.

Not sure if this is the best/cheapest, but it's pretty doable!
[www.emakershop.com]

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/14/2014 06:40PM by Ohmarinus.