Mendel or Huxley, Which improvements?

hi all, I am good to go on my McWire printer + Wades geared NEMA17 extruder. I definitely want to build a reprap printer with it but I've been getting lost in all of the options.

I want to take my time with it, build the best one I can, and give it all the bells and whistles + some.

hoping to start with the best of breed that exists and is least likely to be quickly abandoned.

I've been noticing a lot of activity on the Mini Mendel / Huxley, I hope that doesn;t mean that activity will drop off on the Mendel.

There are sooooo many variation parts on the Mendel, it's hard to figure out which set of mods and parts are best and for what reason. My goal is to do the best 3d plastic printing possible on a DIY system, heated bed+chamber etc. mutliple heads when available.

I've even been having a hard time finding good comparisons of all the extruders, is a makerbot Mk5 any better than my Wades geared NEMA 17 extruder?

so, Mendel or Huxley? Which mods? Which extruder?

thanks,
-Anthong

My vote is for Mendel with Wade's geared extruder.
The extruder head is where there is lot's of variation.
You can't go wrong using one of nopheads designs.

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Bob Morrison
Wörth am Rhein, Germany
"Luke, use the source!"
BLOG - PHOTOS - Thingiverse

I would build a mendel or wait for PRUSADJS slimmed down mendel version to come out. It seems a lot easier to build and is about 1/2 the volume of the Mendel.

For extruders, I would stick with the wades. Having a stepper motor over a dc motor gives you better results in the long run.

Anthong are you located in Atlanta?

Yes I'm in Woodstock, North of Atlanta.

Guess I'll just start Printing Mendel parts... I'll probably try out a list of things on it like all the alternate brackets, wobble arresters etc.

Ya I was thinking it was you. I meet you at Freeside a couple of weeks ago. I did not have my medel with me but I did have the new reprap electronics. Shoot me an email if you need ay help. My medel will be up and running by the end of this week.

Robotguy At Bellsouth dot net

Mark F