prusa i3's going for $200 on ebay? question for those who own 1

Hey everyone! i'm looking for some help, I've been looking at and studying 3d printers for the past 3 years now but never actually owned one. i never really had the the money before to buy one due to schooling, bills, etc... etc.. but now i have an excellent job, i'm debt free and can definitely afford one. I want to start off cheap/ small just to kind of get my feet wet and make sure that i'm definitely going to use it as much as i think i am. I've been looking at the prusa i3's that you see on eBay going for $200 and $300. i know its NOT a plug and play printer and theirs a whole lot of extra work involved when using it. And i'm fine with that. I believe it would be a great learning experience to own one like the prusa to understand better how it works, best ways to setup the printer for different prints, and so on and so forth. what I would basically like to know though is for those of you who do own these printers, what are the up/s and downs, is it a good idea or a bad idea to buy this chinese printer (i've read a lot of bad comments on how bad parts for printers from china are). how do you like yours? and if theirs any suggestions for upgrades, what you would do differently when building it, any parts you would or did swap out, etc... etc...
again i'm looking to start out cheap because i'm afraid of dumping a few grand into something and then it just sitting their collecting dust. i'm also not afraid to get my hands dirty or getting involved with the extra work involved with the use of this machine. thanks in advanced, shawn

Hi

I started off with an acrylic sunhokey I3 - to be honest it was fine.
Within 3 months, changed hot end, added inductive sensor for z height, printed supports to clamp the printer to my worktop, printed new x carriage.

I got decent prints from it, but decided I needed something more robust.

After 9 months, I built an own design vslot extrusion printer - based on I3. Quality of prints is much better, but like you I didn't want to spend a fortune and then have it sit idle. I still use the control board and stepper motors from the original build.

You get what you pay for, but you can make incremental changes to improve the printing.

I bought from reprapguru, prusa i3 acrylic frame for 280 on ebay. It works well, but I upgraded to lead screws for the z axis and an aluminum bed and y carriage. I say, if you want to learn how they work and you like to tinker, the cheap ones are a good starting point,.

Thought many put down Prusa I3 units, there are a lot of very good ones. The cheap ones like my CTC Euroway which was made with a wooden frame, tend to be very flimsy, which leads to z-axis wobble and other artifacts. I highly suggest one that has a metal frame such as a Geeetech Aluminum Prusa I3 3D Printer kit. If you are not put off by building one yourself from a kit, I say go for it. That is how you learn how one works mechanically. Make sure your kit has GOOD assembly instructions. The Geeetech products has good manuals you can download and assembly instructional videos. This particular unit goes for $298 at www.Geeetech.com but at times you may find it a few bucks cheaper on eBay.

Stuart

I also have a RepRapGuru Prusa i3. I was getting really good results with the stock kit and they have really good email and phone support. I've since upgraded to E3D, new idlers, and just added lead screws. I'd say my print quality is pretty great and now I understand how these printers work, which is really what it is all about.

I have seen a lot of advice to just buy the high quality kits and I can afford them but I sure didn't feel comfortable spending a ton of money and having no idea what i was doing. $300 was a comfortable expense for me even if it turned into total failure which it didn't.

Here's a link to my blog on my reprapguru prusa i3 project.

[www.hagensieker.com]

if you want a prusa i3 i would advice you this one, you would definitely regret buying the acrylic sooner or later. (377 us dollars) : [www.ebay.com]

It's full metal, much more stable and it has no printed parts, which is a good thing trust me.
And other then that , it just looks better

To make it work quite well you will have to change some thing's, like a different hot-end ( e3d v6 or v6 lite), quite possible the extruder (or new drive gear in any case).

After that i would definitely buy new controller's, because you are on a budget i suggest : Arduino mega + Ramps 1.4 + drv8825, (33 us dollars total) [www.ebay.com]

As for the manual, this printer should be more straightforward to assemble than the original one, take a manual from some "random" prusa i3 seller and some pictures of you's assembled, and you should be fine.

Govahnator:

Your links are not working, please try again.

Stuart