An introduction and some questions

Greetings,

I'm Justin, and I'm 16 years old. I have been intersted in technology and science all my life and I am wanting to get into 3d printing. I have a limited amount of experience with electronics and mechanical building, but my dad has quite a bit of experience, so I don't think that building the printer should be that big of a problem.

My biggest issue is finding the right printer for me. I have been looking at the prusa i3 or the mendel90 as my first printer. Both seem relatively easy to build. To me there doesn't seem to be much of a difference between the two, so I ask you for your opinion.

1. Is this idea realistic for someone like me?
2. Prusa i3 or Mendel90 or something else?


Thanks for the help,
Justin


EDIT: Budget for this is between $700-$900 up front, not including filament

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/13/2013 12:13PM by jmandell.

Hi Justin,

Welcome to the community.

This is absolutely realistic for you.

Either of those would be totally doable. I would guess it will take you about 20 hours for your first printer build - so plan on a weekend to get it done. It'll probably take you another 5-10 hours of experimenting with prints to understand what is needed to get it calibrated for your first "good" print.

For that budget, you could also consider a Delta style printer like the Rostock Max. You'd get a much bigger build envelope than the mendel or prusa. Just a thought if you're still exploring options.

Don't be afraid to ask questions. Everyone here is happy to help, and there are no stupid questions.

Good luck!

cope413 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hi Justin,
>
> Welcome to the community.
>
> This is absolutely realistic for you.
>
> Either of those would be totally doable. I would
> guess it will take you about 20 hours for your
> first printer build - so plan on a weekend to get
> it done. It'll probably take you another 5-10
> hours of experimenting with prints to understand
> what is needed to get it calibrated for your first
> "good" print.
>
> For that budget, you could also consider a Delta
> style printer like the Rostock Max. You'd get a
> much bigger build envelope than the mendel or
> prusa. Just a thought if you're still exploring
> options.
>
> Don't be afraid to ask questions. Everyone here is
> happy to help, and there are no stupid questions.
>
> Good luck!


Thanks for the reply. Those delta printers look very cool. I hadn't found those before and those are now definitely on my list!

Go for the Mendel90 (What I decided to get) as the instructions and support from Chris are top notch. And your first print will look like it is supposed to.

RyanMark Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Go for the Mendel90 (What I decided to get) as the
> instructions and support from Chris are top notch.
> And your first print will look like it is supposed
> to.


Was there anything particular that made you choose the Mendel90 over the others (besides the instructions and support)?

i would recommend going with the mendel90 as well, ive heard and seen nothing but great things from first prints in the mendel90 subforum. I recently finished building a mendelmax 1.5 and regret not going for a mendel90 instead

I got the mendel90 as I didn't hear anything bad about it, the creator and seller of the kit was very responsive, the kit was responably priced and the printer looks good.

If you have been around this forum, you will see that lots of people have problems getting their printers to print properly and assemblying their printer but with the mendel90 it prints correctly and everything is more or less calibrated if you follow the clear instructions. The first prints from the mendel90 look quite good.

Thanks for your help! I'm going to order a Mendel90 in a couple weeks! I'm looking forward to diving into this project.

Justin