A2A Printer Reviews??

Hey, I am new to the 3D printing world and I am currently building a Prusa i2. Is A2A printing company a reliable source when it comes to buying parts. I am looking to get M8 threaded rods but want to make sure I get a nicely machined rod.

There's no such thing as a "nicely machined" threaded rod. Their all just rolled threads which doesn't produce a straight rod nor produce a particularly accurate thread. You can get lucky and get nearly straight rods.

A2A will be sourcing their rod and from a supplier and not making it themselves. Your best bet is to get more than you need and find the least warped rods you can.

Use a smaller threaded rod, M5 or so and you won't have as many issues.

Edit: Sorry, I was thinking you were talking about the Z drive rods, not the entire printer.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2014 12:57PM by tjb1.

I swaped the 8mm for 5/16" for the threaded rods.. for the frame, there is no difference for the i2.

for the double Z-axis, there is a bit of a wobble because the nuts are a bit smaller than the 8mm ones.

the thing a did is tapped 8mm nuts to accomodate 5/16" threadings.. way not standard but works great.

using 5/16 threaded rod for the z-axis drive rods is a bad idea. You want to slice your models at full step heights. There are very few full step height options with a 5/16 rod. See the reprap magazine issue 1 or 2, I can't remember.