Thanks to all! - My Mendel 2 project

My RepRap project summary.

I thought I would share my experience in building my Prusa Mendel 2

First, thanks to all who contribute to this forum. Without the discussions here I would have had more difficulty and not as good of a result.

The project began as a Christmas gift December 2013. Actually the purchase of components began nearly a year ago, leading up to Christmas having all components available. I figured with the weather I could be done by March. Well March came and went. Soon summer was here so my time for the project was limited. Got back the the project in Late August. Actually the build was almost done, just didn’t have time.

I had decided to build the all metric version, which cause some difficulty in sourcing some components. I live in Ohio, USA

I bought my initial plastic parts kit in ABS off of E bay.
I chose a J-Head Mk V-BV hot end with a 0.40 orifice.
Probably the most frustrating was the hardened 8mm rods needed for the bearing rails. Eventually I was able to source from Aliexpress, a china site, 2 at 800mm and 2 at 500mm. $42.00 delivered. I cut with motor tool, like Dremel. I am very happy that I did not skimp on the rods.
The motors were 5 pcs NEMA17 78 Oz-in, also from Aliexpress, for $82 delivered.
RAMPS 1.4 electronics + SD RAMPS and cables from e-bay. I forget the price.
A red heated Bed, aluminum pulleys, power supply much of from E-bay.
Fasteners some web site, ordered all at once.

I know I am forgetting parts, but this is not meant to be components source thread.

Assembly generally went well. The biggest problem I have had, and still have was the bed material. Initially I started with thin rigid plywood as my heated bed support. I added screw stand off’s and some balsa supports at various locations. This heated nicely, glass with Kapton and bull dog clips, but could not get a uniform level. The heated bed had a curl to it, and I think the curl was stronger then the bed.

I replaced this plywood with an aluminum honeycomb board, which is working, but really pulls heat down even with some insulation. I have stand offs at various locations to keep the heated bed flat. This has proven to be satisfactory.

My glass is simply from a picture frame at the dollar store. $1.00 each frame. The glass is coated with 2.5” Kapton tape for the build surface. I used the dilute soap method.

Tool chain is Sli3r, and Pronterface. NetFabb studio to repair, import and orient the STL files. I use SolidWorks for my 3D stl files. RAMPS Marlin.

One problem I had was a reversed Y axis. Found that when I created a text test. So to reverse simply rotate the motor plug 180 and tell the software to use high limit for home right… Didn’t work for me, so I changed the lower bed stop, rerouted the switch and now homes low, all fixed. So right about when I got done, I realized I probably only needed to change the limit input on the RAMPS board. Ok, 2 hours gone..

So after a much calibration, I am up and printing, I love this thing.

I added a couple images of projects..

So one project is 3D Printed Model Rockets.. Image of a partially finished model atached.
Linked here is the whole project. [www.instructables.com]

Another is some casting core parts. The parts were welded together with acetone, and sanded.

Again, a great big thanks to all who contribute here.

Richard