Beginners Questions - Prusa i3

Hi

Beginner here and I have a few questions!

Been buying bits for the Prusa i3 rework - for the last few months to spread the cost. So far I have the electronics, stepper motors, bearing and the majority of the bolts etc. So I have the following things left to buy.

Power Supply – Amazon 12V 30A PSU - browsed a few posts here and i think this should be ok (hopefully)

Bit torn on the frame , should I save some money and get the the mdf frame (ebay) – or the aluminium frame eBay

Is it ok to buy the hotend off eBay
or better to buy from a known supplier?

Once it's the printer is built it will be living in the garage as the wife approval factor for it coming to the house in nil, I live in Yorkshire, UK and the weather here is temperamental to say the least! Should I build an enclosure to try and stabilise the print temperature, if so can be box made of perspex sheets?

Cheers


Kentish

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/18/2015 05:05PM by Kentish.

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Kentish

Starting out with the first build of a Prusa i3, Work in progress ... slowly....

for a hotend, best to get it from a nkown supplier, for the chamber? is your garage drafty? does the temperature flactuate by 5 or so degrees over the space of a few hours? It's most likely going to be fine, get the printer running and then decide if you need a chamber or not

Thank you

The garage is cold but it stays cold. So I'll wait and see.

Although by the time i got the final bits the weather should be warmer. I hope

Hello and welcome from another beginner. I am also working on putting together an I3 Rework 3d printer.

I went the same route as you and started purchasing my parts over the last month or so (still waiting on the smooth and threaded rods). I haven't purchased a hotend, heated bed or end stops yet - wanted to get most of the mechanical end done first.

The power supply looks like the one I got as well - 12V 30Amp (360 Watt).

I went and purchased a white melanine frame for around $40 - I'm hoping the rods will stiffen it up a bit when it's all put together. Here's a picture of it:

[www.ebay.com]

As you've probably already noticed there are a few different versions of the I3 Rework and the diagrams or printed parts may be different from the one you're building. The one I'm building is a Baja I3 Rework as shown here:

[roaddoglabs.com]

Also, the thing to look at is the type of extruder your printer will be using - the Baja printer I am putting together uses a Wade extruder.

I found out after the fact that the extruder also has to be the correct size for the type of filament you will be using. It turned out that my extruder was made for 1.75mm filament - can't run 3mm filament through a 1.75mm hole. Which is fine for me, because I wanted to start off with 1.75mm filament anyway.

The hot end also has to match the size of filament you're going to be using. I haven't bought my hot end yet, but I will probably be getting this one:

[www.hotends.com]

There's a bit of a learning curve and everyone has their own preferences when it comes to printer, hotend, filament, etc. You're on the right track by following this forum and not having to re-invent the wheel by yourself.

I'll be watching and reading your posts and the replies as well so I can learn as much as I can!

Hi psneddon

Glad I'm not the only one on a slow crawl to 3D printing. Thanks for the info, Think I'll get the MDF frame and see how it performs. Didn't notice the different rework builds as only been looking a the link above!, I'll bookmark that page for reading after work (cough). Here some of the bits I bought so far.

My threaded rods came from two suppliers in the M10 - Screwfix and M5 - ebay. Still trying to find a UK supplier for the smooth rods, ideally i'd like to buy enough length to provide enough for two machines, plus it provides a buffer if I mess up the cutting!

My endstops came from eBay

Oh found the You Tube video really informative by engineglue as provided a good overview IMHO of the build. I've since gone off and bought a crimper, housings and crimp female pins to hopefully make the build easier - never enough tools.

Purchased the Heatbed and Glass last month along with the Kapton tape

I was also looking at 1.75 filament and the wade extruder, so happy to share as much as (or little) as I know as we seem to be on the same page. Considering this shop for both - eMaker but will compare against your links.. Think the printed parts will be the last thing I buy then it's build time and calibration which I understand is a whole new ball game!

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Kentish

Starting out with the first build of a Prusa i3, Work in progress ... slowly....

Thanks for the video link(s)!

I checked out the eMaker site and this is the style of printed parts I have:

[www.emakershop.com]

I'll probably go with a mechanical end stop myself instead of the optical. The heated bed is like the one I plan on getting - the MK-2.

No post today due to the holiday, so I'm still waiting on my rods. Looks like you have a good selection of rods there. About all the rods I was looking at were from India or Lithuania. I'm still looking for a local vendor for the smooth rods for next time.

Yes, the actual calibrations and configurations are going to be a bit challenging to say the least, but I'm determined to make it through this!

These are a few pics of what I have going right now. The LCD lights up and I can get to the second menu screen, but the scroll knob doesn't work. So, I'll be setting that aside for now until I have everything else worked out.

I spent the bucks and got an e3dv6. Took me 2 months to source the parts. Don't buy cheap stepper drivers, order some higher amp mosfets if you're heating the bed, made sure you have d1 and 2 diodes. I fried a mosfet and replaced with a higher one (also fried the ams1117 regulator which new ones r on the way) and added a heatsink to it and an electronics fan. A print fan tremendously helps with pla. I could have bought a decent already made printer with money I spent. But it's fine and most the time if something goes wrong and you can't find how to fix the community here is great

Do you mean make sure the D1 and D2 diodes are on the RAMPS board? What if they aren't there?

on the note of threaded rods,
for your Z axis it may be worth looking at stainless rather than galvinated, the stainless ones dont cost much more.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/2015 12:01AM by Zerker.

Zerker - Thanks, as I've already got these I'll see how it goes and use galvanised on the refit/upgrade

My 5x5 coupler and 624 bearings arrived this morning, ordered the frame last night so things are coming together!! Hopefully I'll have some money left for the power supply this month but it maybe unlikely as apparently the family weekly food shop comes first and that'll be a lot more than a psu!!

This leaves the smooth rods, printed parts, psu and the extruder which doesn't seem too much, not forgetting the filament! On the subject of filament do people stick to one type either PLA or ABS or swap between them depending on what type of thing they are printing.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/20/2015 02:45PM by Kentish.

I'm a newcomer like yourself and from most of the posts I've read on the subject, most of the people seem to start off with PLA and then advance(?) to ABS. Since you haven't ordered your printed parts yet (extruder) make sure you specify what size filament you plan on using - 1.75mm or 3mm.

Both of the PLA and ABS filaments are sold in those two sizes - 1.75mm and 3mm

From my understanding, you need to make sure the extruder matches the filament and hot end. The printed extruder I purchased is a 1.75mm so I won't be able to run 3mm filament. Thus, my hot end needs to be a 1.75mm hot end as well.

If my extruder had been made for 3mm filament, then my hot end would also need to be a 3mm size. Again from my understanding, you could run 1.75mm filament through a 3mm extruder and 3mm hot end (or even a 1.75mm hot end), but the filament would double up on itself in the hot end and could lead to clogging.

I'm sure if I'm wrong, the veterans out there will correct me.

I would use an enclosure otherwise drafts can cause warping and your heatbed could take a while to heat up.
I made mine from dibond and acylic with styrofoam under the printer but used a cardboard enclosure for test when I had problems in October last year with warps when the temperature was around 10C outside.

Hi! One more begginer here!
I also started to order my first printer part by part. I know it is not wise in long term, but I want my first printer (like the first car ) be cheap. I want to get as much as possible parts here (I am living in Latvia), but I find out, that for most of parts, ordering from China is cheaper.
So, to find all the things I need, I used this Wiki
My frame is laser cut here in Latvia from Sgraber drawings. It is transparent 6mm plastic frame.
Screws and threaded rods I get in local store (the salesman almost get crazy, when I start asking for 40pcs of small washers and screws )
Smooth rods and ball bearings I get from other local store. Like threaded rods it was sold in 1meter pieces and I cut them myself.
Printed parts and hobbed bolt I ordered from ebay (from Lithuania, it is not so far and I hope to get them tomorow)
Motors came from China - price included shipping with DHL
Electronics - Arudino and RAMPS - also from China
Line bearings LM8UU also from China - locally 2pcs cost the same as 12 from China
Hotend for 1,75mm fillament with 0,4mm nozzle
GT2 belts and pulleys also from eBay
MK3 hotbed and thermistor for it, endstop switches, power supply and Heat resistan tape - also from ebay

Filament (PLA) get locally, find the advertising, someone selling out leftovers.

So, whole machine is planned to cost under 250EUR. If you want links for other mentioned parts, just ask.

And - do not forget to put the pictures, when your machines will be ready!

If you haven't bought the hotend yet, check out the E3D lite6.